it matters not
March 1, 2010
As it says in The Way of the Bodhisattva, praise and a good reputation do nothing to increase our longevity or good health. Maybe if lots of people praised us we might get a bit richer! But apart from that, praise does not make us live longer or in better health or help us in any other way. If people criticize us, it does not make us sick or unhealthy and nor does it shorten our lives. It does not affect us in any substantial way at all.
If we really stop to think about praise and criticism, we will see they do not have the least importance. Whether we receive praise or criticism is of no account. The only important thing is that we have a pure motivation, and let the law of cause and effect be our witness. If we are really honest, we can see that it makes no difference whether we receive praise and acclaim.
– The Dalai Lama, “Bad Repuation” (Summer 2007)
clear perception
February 25, 2010
When a monk looks at the green mountain
Even a mote of dust must not obstruct his sight.
Clear vision penetrates the bones naturally.
So why are you still striving for nirvana?
– Jinkag Haesim (1178-1234)
the false idol of time
February 24, 2010
The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting and make the wars.
– Aldous Huxley, from “The Perennial Philosophy”
mountains and rivers
February 23, 2010
Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253) says that mountains and rivers at this very moment are a revelation of Truth. Mountains are conditioned, relative, and connecting Beings and are perfect exactly as they are. Mountains and rivers, in their relative and absolute nature, have no identity that is separate or distinct from anything else. Mountains express rivers and rivers express mountains. Mountains are hidden in rivers and rivers are hidden in mountains. Mountains and rivers are mandalas that have all qualities as potentials within them.
– Joan Halifax Roshi, from “The Fruitful Darkness”
be nice
February 21, 2010
It’s rather embarrassing to have given one’s entire life to pondering the human predicament and to find that in the end one has little more to say than, “try to be a little kinder.”
– Aldous Huxley, as quoted by Huston Smith
one and the same
February 18, 2010
While awakening from delusion is sudden, the transformation of an unenlightened person into an enlightened person is gradual. Sudden enlightenment means that although beings have been deluded from time without beginning, recognizing the four elements as their body and deluded thoughts as their mind and taking both together as constituting their self, when they meet a good friend who explains to them the meaning of the absolute and conditioned aspects of suchness, the nature and phenomenal appearance, the essence and its functioning, then they at once realize that their own marvelous awareness and vision is their true mind, that the mind, which is from the beginning empty and tranquil,boundless and formless, is the dharmakaya, that the nonduality of body and mind is their true self, and that they are no different from all Buddhas by even a hair.
– Tsung-mi
crooked cucumber
February 18, 2010
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.
– Shunryu Suzuki
live like there’s no tomorrow
February 15, 2010
Now I teach you to be like someone who has died the great death. If you truly can be like someone who has died the great death, then why should you spend time on intense effort, or on studying Ch’an and the Way, or on bowing and burning incense? It is a lot of wasted effort. I have been the abbot at five different monasteries, and what I have taught my followers at all of them does not go beyond this: be like someone who has died the great death.
– Ch’an-t’i Wei-chao (1084-1128)
faithful concentration
February 14, 2010
Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Jesus, from Matthew 17:20
A monk who is skilled in concentration can cut the Himalayas in two.
Buddha, from Anguttara Kikaya 6.24
go with the flow
February 7, 2010
Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.
– Lao Tzu
You Are IT 