Saturday, March 12, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 12, 2016
“The glass is neither half empty, nor half full. The glass is just a glass and it's content can perpetually change with your perception.”
~ Jennifer Sodini
Friday, March 11, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 11, 2016
“The son needs the father to have access to his source, and the father needs the son to have access to the future and the infinite.”
~ Hanh Nhat Thich from No Death, No Fear
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 10, 2016
“We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from the moon.”
~ Hanh Nhat Thich from No Death, No Fear
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 9, 2016
“What is personal death?
Asking this question and pausing to look inward - isn't personal death a concept? Isn't there a thought-and-picture series going on in the brain? These scenes of personal ending take place solely in the imagination, and yet they trigger great mental ad physical distress - thinking of one's cherished attachments an their sudden, irreversible termination.
Similarly, if there is 'pain when I let some of the beauty of life in' - isn't this pain the result of thinking, 'I won't be here any longer to enjoy this beauty?' Or, 'No one will be around and no beauty left to be enjoyed if there is total nuclear devastation.'
Apart from the horrendous tragedy of human warfare - why is there this fear of 'me' not continuing? Is it because I don't realize that all my fear and trembling is for an image? Because I really believe that this image is myself?
In the midst of this vast, unfathomable, ever-changing, dying, and renewing flow of life, the human brain is ceaselessly engaged in trying to fix for itself a state of permanency and certainty. Having the capacity to think and form pictures of ourselves, to remember them and become deeply attached to them, we take this world of pictures and ideas for real. We thoroughly believe in the reality of the picture story of our personal life. We are totally identified with it and want it to go on forever. The idea of "forever" is itself an invention of the human brain. Forever is a dream.
Questioning beyond all thoughts, images, memories, and beliefs, questioning profoundly into the utter darkness of not-knowing, the realization may suddenly dawn that one is nothing at all - nothing - that all one has been holding on to are pictures and dreams. Being nothing is being everything. It is wholeness. Compassion. It is the ending of separation, fear, and sorrow.
Is there pain when no one is there to hold on?
There is beauty where there is no "me".”
~ Toni Packer from The Work of This Moment
Asking this question and pausing to look inward - isn't personal death a concept? Isn't there a thought-and-picture series going on in the brain? These scenes of personal ending take place solely in the imagination, and yet they trigger great mental ad physical distress - thinking of one's cherished attachments an their sudden, irreversible termination.
Similarly, if there is 'pain when I let some of the beauty of life in' - isn't this pain the result of thinking, 'I won't be here any longer to enjoy this beauty?' Or, 'No one will be around and no beauty left to be enjoyed if there is total nuclear devastation.'
Apart from the horrendous tragedy of human warfare - why is there this fear of 'me' not continuing? Is it because I don't realize that all my fear and trembling is for an image? Because I really believe that this image is myself?
In the midst of this vast, unfathomable, ever-changing, dying, and renewing flow of life, the human brain is ceaselessly engaged in trying to fix for itself a state of permanency and certainty. Having the capacity to think and form pictures of ourselves, to remember them and become deeply attached to them, we take this world of pictures and ideas for real. We thoroughly believe in the reality of the picture story of our personal life. We are totally identified with it and want it to go on forever. The idea of "forever" is itself an invention of the human brain. Forever is a dream.
Questioning beyond all thoughts, images, memories, and beliefs, questioning profoundly into the utter darkness of not-knowing, the realization may suddenly dawn that one is nothing at all - nothing - that all one has been holding on to are pictures and dreams. Being nothing is being everything. It is wholeness. Compassion. It is the ending of separation, fear, and sorrow.
Is there pain when no one is there to hold on?
There is beauty where there is no "me".”
~ Toni Packer from The Work of This Moment
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 8, 2016
“When something comes from within, when it is a part of you, you have no choice but to live it, to express it.”
~ Kamal Ravikant from Live Your Truth
Monday, March 7, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 7, 2016
“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way”
~ Alan W. Watts from The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 6, 2016
“We will be entering the beautiful world of a Zen master's no-mind. Sosan is the third Zen Patriarch. Nothing much is known about him- this is as it should be, because history records only violence. History does not record silence- it cannot record it. All records are of disturbance. Whenever someone becomes really silent, he disappears from all records, he is no more a part of our madness. So it is as it should be.
Ch. 1: The Great Way Is Not Difficult”
~ Osho from Hsin Hsin Ming, the Book of Nothing: Discourses on the Faith Mind of Sosan
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 5, 2016
“What is personal death?
Asking this question and pausing to look inward - isn't personal death a concept? Isn't there a thought-and-picture series going on in the brain? These scenes of personal ending take place solely in the imagination, and yet they trigger great mental ad physical distress - thinking of one's cherished attachments an their sudden, irreversible termination.
Similarly, if there is 'pain when I let some of the beauty of life in' - isn't this pain the result of thinking, 'I won't be here any longer to enjoy this beauty?' Or, 'No one will be around and no beauty left to be enjoyed if there is total nuclear devastation.'
Apart from the horrendous tragedy of human warfare - why is there this fear of 'me' not continuing? Is it because I don't realize that all my fear and trembling is for an image? Because I really believe that this image is myself?
In the midst of this vast, unfathomable, ever-changing, dying, and renewing flow of life, the human brain is ceaselessly engaged in trying to fix for itself a state of permanency and certainty. Having the capacity to think and form pictures of ourselves, to remember them and become deeply attached to them, we take this world of pictures and ideas for real. We thoroughly believe in the reality of the picture story of our personal life. We are totally identified with it and want it to go on forever. The idea of "forever" is itself an invention of the human brain. Forever is a dream.
Questioning beyond all thoughts, images, memories, and beliefs, questioning profoundly into the utter darkness of not-knowing, the realization may suddenly dawn that one is nothing at all - nothing - that all one has been holding on to are pictures and dreams. Being nothing is being everything. It is wholeness. Compassion. It is the ending of separation, fear, and sorrow.
Is there pain when no one is there to hold on?
There is beauty where there is no "me".”
~ Toni Packer from The Work of This Moment
Friday, March 4, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 4, 2016
“When something comes from within, when it is a part of you, you have no choice but to live it, to express it.”
~ Kamal Ravikant from Live Your Truth
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 3, 2016
“Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each moment. We cannot even study Buddha’s words.”
-
“So we should be concentrated with our full mind and body on what we do; and we should be faithful, subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our feelings. Even when you do not feel so well, it is better to express how you feel without any particular attachment or intention. So you may say, “Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.”
~ Shunryu Suzuki from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 2, 2016
“See for yourself whether letting go when a part of you really wants to hold on doesn't bring a deeper satisfaction than clinging.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn from Wherever You Go, There You Are - Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Daily Zen Quote - March 1, 2016
“Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.”
~ Dōgen
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