It is always good to touch the heart, the source of all, especially when the world around us may appear overwhelming from time to time. Paring things down to its center, in all simplicity, is very helpful. In the above quote from The Heart Sutra emptiness and form complete and void each other in an eternal nonmovement—the very circle of existence.

During the summer of 1970, I found myself working on a Kibbutz in Southern Israel, about five kilometers from the Gaza Strip. After a grueling day (that began at 5:00 a.m.) of weeding acres of green pepper and hauling bails of hay, I often spent the evenings sitting alone on a mound of sand staring out into the desert dusk.

We are all familiar with the well-known maxim, “you are what you eat,” and we have all felt the ill effects of food not properly digested. Since the body-mind connection is an interdependent circle, supplying the body with simple, nourishing food makes life lighter and less encumbered; our attention is not diverted but focused and concentrated.