A man who is seeking for realization is not only going around searching for his spectacles without realizing that they are on his nose all the time, but also were he not actually looking through them he would not be able to see what he is looking for!
« πλ | 11 Oct 2006 »
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s there are few.
« πλ | 10 Jun 2006 »
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
« πλ | 2 Oct 2006 »
Remember those letters we used to write, about the meaning of life and shit? I thought I knew the meaning of life. It turned out I knew shit.
« πλ | 14 Oct 2006 »
If we seek the Buddha outside the mind, the Buddha changes into a devil.
If we seek Jesus outside the heart, Jesus changes into an idol.
« πλ | 1 Aug 2006 »
What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a masterpiece unfolding every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.
« πλ | 15 Nov 2006 »
I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it.
« πλ | 27 Jul 2006 »
Mindfulness works like an electron microscope. That is, it operates on so fine a level that one can actually see directly those realities which are at best theoretical constructs to the conscious thought process. Mindfulness actually sees the impermanent character of every perception. It sees the transitory and passing nature of everything that is perceived. It also sees the inherently unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned things. It sees that there is no sense grabbing onto any of these passing shows. Peace and happiness just cannot be found that way. And finally, Mindfulness sees the inherent selflessness of all phenomena. It sees the way we have arbitrarily selected a certain bundle of perceptions, chopped them off from the rest of the surging flow of experience and then conceptualized them as separate, enduring, entities. Mindfulness actually sees these things. It does not think about them, it sees them directly.
What the Buddhist calls mindfulness, a Christian might call the practice of the presence of the Divine in all things.
« πλ | 25 Oct 2006 »
It is my belief, that we should not be too sure of having found Christ in ourselves until we have found him also in that part of humanity that is most remote from our own.
« πλ | 11 Nov 2006 »
Mindfulness in a way is the opposite of grasping, or attachment, or identification. And it can go very, very deep when we allow ourselves, because what we start to see—if we slow down a little bit and pay attention—is how it is a kind of conditioned phenomenon, like a machine, the mind spins this stuff out in a very orderly way by habit - thoughts, fantasies and memories. The world works in certain conditioned patterns, and that’s it’s nature, and it’s all impermanent and quite ungraspable. Where is yesterday? What happened to your weekend? Where is it? What happened to 1984, your 20’s, or whatever it was—where did they go? They all disappeared, gone. Isn’t that an amazing thing?
It’s a very profound thing to start to be aware of life coming out of nothing and disappearing into nothing. A day appears for awhile, and then it’s gone. It can’t be grasped, it’s like a bird flying. You cannot hold time and fundamentally you can’t hold yourself.
« πλ | 7 Nov 2006 »
Those who dance are thought mad by those who don’t hear the music.
« πλ | 6 Nov 2006 »
To be enlightened is to know that heaven is not “coming.” Heaven is here.
« πλ | 12 Jul 2006 »
Human beings are very much like icebergs—we only see a small portion of them, and nothing of the hidden currents which drag them this way and that. I fancy that we would not sit and judge our neighbor so frequently as we do, did we but ponder well over the small amount of data we possess. We perceive only the external act, but nothing of the motive activating it.
« πλ | 12 Oct 2006 »
The process of practice is to see through, not to eliminate, anything to which we are attached. We could have great financial wealth and be unattached to it, or we might have nothing and be very attached to having nothing. Usually, if we have seen through the nature of attachment, we will tend to have fewer possessions, but not necessarily. Most practice gets caught in this area of fiddling with our environment or our minds. “My mind should be quiet.” Our mind doesn’t matter; what matters is nonattachment to the activities of the mind. And our emotions are harmless unless they dominate us (that is, if we are attached to them)—then they create disharmony for everyone. The first problem in practice is to see that we are attached. As we do consistent, patient zazen we begin to know that we are nothing but attachments: they rule our lives.
But we never lose an attachment by saying it has to go. Only as we gain awareness of its true nature does it quietly and imperceptibly wither away; like a sandcastle with waves rolling over, it just smoothes out and finally—where is it? What was it?
« πλ | 20 Jul 2006 »
May God’s love,
peace, and energy
touch you in faith.
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")