Hello and welcome to another episode of Mindfulness Plus.

I'm your host Thomas McConkey.

Thank you for downloading us today.

If you're new to Mindfulness Plus, who are we, what are we?

Well, this show is about changing the way you pay attention to dramatically improve the quality of your life.

That's it.

The thing is, paying attention takes practice. That's what we do here. We practice paying

attention in a particular way. So keep listening and you'll get the hang of it. I'm going to jump right

in today to the episode, starting with a haiku that really, really rocked my world. I read this when I was a

teenager and it's one of the pieces of literature that really got me planted firmly on the path.

Here it is. The thief left it behind, the moon at my window.

I'll give you that again momentarily.

Let me give you a little background.

This is a haiku from the poet Rio Khan.

Ryo Khan lived in the late 18th, early 19th century, Japan.

He was a Zen master, a hermit.

He had a stint as a Roshi in a temple

or running a temple with a formal Zen practice,

but it didn't suit him. He was more free-spirited,

you could say. So he had a reputation as a poet. And also the villagers noticed that he just

absolutely loved to play with children. He would become intoxicated and full of laughter,

and he'd become so engrossed in the act that he would, you know, forget to go home.

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