Live

Before death takes away

what you are given,

give away what there is to give.

~Rumi

Depth needs limited breadth

You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers and digest their words.

Source: Seneca's Letters - Vol 1

Poise

Face all things with gentle faces.

-Dogen Zengi

It is a means to the end

Skin, flesh, blood, bones, marrow and brains are things which are obviously gained by human beings. What is it then that causes the spark to light up in certain individuals?

The Courage To Wait

When you’re like a keg of dynamite about to go off, patience means just slowing down at that point—just pausing—instead of immediately acting on your usual, habitual response. You refrain from acting, you stop talking to yourself, and then you connect with the soft spot. But at the same time you are completely and totally honest with yourself about what you are feeling. You’re not suppressing anything; patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.

Source: Page 41 in the book Practicing Peace in Times of War, by Pema Chodron

When we give rise to delusory feelings, we alienate ourselves from Wisdom.

Source: Shobogenzo - On 'The One Bright Pearl', by Dogen Zengi

Bowing

Peace Sounds

May the kindness, that starts with you
Turn full circle, when it's due
And the flame, that burns your heart
Burn with love, and hold us now we part

'Cause true beauty grows with time
There's no need to hide the light
'Cause true glances reciprocate
Now is the moment worth a life times wait

With a gentle healing touch
Untwist this mind that one promised so much
With simplicity once more new
Recognise a place in worth-while things to do

And those we touch that we call friends
Feel the spirit that transcends
They steer through seasons to warden ends
Taming so sweet, so satisfied an end

So live each day as if your last
How sweet the smile, it comes on fast
Seldom first, more the less
Holding back for those with heavy tasks

So share a moment, hold a hand
Wipe the tears, understand
Life is borrowed we contour
Speed and light and bring your spirit home

May the kindness, that starts with you
Turn full circle, when it's due
And the flame, that warms your heart
Burn with love, and hold us now we part

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The names of the dwarfs are Dopey, Sneezy, Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Doc.

Is it possible?..........Yes.

He [the student] may then ask, “By leaving home life behind, monks are quickly separated from all their various ties so that they have no impediments to diligently practicing seated meditation. But how can those of us involved in the daily pressures of lay life turn to doing training and practice so that we may realize the Way of the Awakened Ones, which is unconcerned with worldly affairs?”

...

[Part of the teacher's response] It simply depends on whether you have the determination or not: it has nothing to do with being a householder or a monk. In addition, those who can deeply discern the difference between what is excellent and what is mediocre will naturally give rise to faith and trust. How much more evident it is that those who regard worldly affairs as an impediment to the Awakened Way are only inferring that the Awakened Way does not exist within the mundane world, and they do so because they have not yet recognized that, within Awakening, there are no ‘worldly ways’. 

...

Source: An excerpt from a discourse between a student and a teacher about spiritual practice; taken from the book Shobogenzo, by Dogen Zengi

One day your whole life will flash before your eyes...

I like to think backwards in order to aid living forwards; it puts things into perspective. :)

The leaves begin to go

...

And I pray to God
That there's more that we can do, yeah
And I pray to God
That there's more that we can show
More that we can do, yeah

Isn't It a Wonder
as a newborn baby cries
And isn't it a wonder
with the sweetness in my eyes
and isn't it a wonder
at the crossroads of my life
Isn't it a wonder?
Isn't it a wonder, to me?

Some life precepts

1. 如(Rú) 诸(zhū) 佛(Fó) 尽(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 杀(shā) 生(shēng)，我(Wǒ) 某(mŏu) 甲(jiǎ) 亦(yì) 盡(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 杀(shā) 生(shēng)

2. 如(Rú) 诸(zhū) 佛(Fó) 尽(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 偷(tōu) 盗(dào)，我(Wǒ) 某(mŏu) 甲(jiǎ) 亦(yì) 盡(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 偷(tōu) 盗(dào)

3. 如(Rú) 诸(zhū) 佛(Fó) 尽(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 淫(yín) 欲(yù), 我(Wǒ) 某(mŏu) 甲(jiǎ) 亦(yì) 盡(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 邪(xié) 淫(yín)

4. 如(Rú) 诸(zhū) 佛(Fó) 尽(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 妄(wàng) 语(yǔ), 我(Wǒ) 某(mŏu) 甲(jiǎ) 亦(yì) 盡(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 妄(wàng) 语(yǔ)

5. 如(Rú) 诸(zhū) 佛(Fó) 尽(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 饮(yǐn) 酒(jiǔ), 我(Wǒ) 某(mŏu) 甲(jiǎ) 亦(yì) 盡(jìn) 寿(shòu) 不(bù) 饮(yǐn) 酒(jiǔ)

Source: 5 Precepts

Stoicism

Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.

--Epictetus

To embody vastness

Whenever something comes up in our mind, which causes suffering, it is to look at it squarely and say "not just this" and then we expand, just a little bit. Make this a way of life and we keep expanding, a little bit at a time, and who knows where that might lead.

Interdependence

In Spirit

Behold, thou art fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

 

Love

Inspiration

My teacher Koun says, "Verify the spiritual practice for yourself, and if you are able to verify it, then have the courage to actualize it. Embody it. Develop a certain humility towards your life. Please, do your best."

This, to me, is a true example of a certain form of loving speech. Sure not all loving speech sounds as so. Sometimes, the word "no" can be the most loving thing one can offer a child.

Ah! there it is

Every grain and every piece of furniture in the building understand the purpose of the practice it holds; a monastery can be understood in this sense.

Can it be used as an analogy for the human body?

Realization is like a man sleeping and fumbling for his pillow; the shift which takes place on finding it is infinitesimal.

- Dogen

Golden words

 

Sorry: feeling sorrow, regret, or penitence 

 

Please: to have the kindness

 

Thank you: a polite expression of one's gratitude 

 

 

The coffee song

I can hear myself singing this song every morning. hahaha...< Big Smile! >

Expression

"Let's hit/strike the bell" is one way of saying it.

"Let's invite the bell to sound" is another.

Although the two expressions primarily mean the same thing, hearing the second one feels like music to the ears. This is to say that, in most cases, a secondary meaning piggybacks on the primary in our manner of expressing.

A child's ingenuity

Here are some stills from the movie "Zen." The movie is in Japanese, with English subtitles, and is based on the life of Japanese Zen Master Dogen Zengi (道元禅師); he was the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

In the 3 stills below, the teacher is guiding the little children in order to support their practice of sitting still. Now, for a child, the concept of enlightenment or essential spiritual self would sound so obscure, and hence the reference is made to the Buddha, the person who embodied enlightenment.

As the teacher examines the postures of the children, she notices a child holding her hands in a different way. So, as captured in the still below, the teacher shows the little girl how to hold her hands while sitting in meditation. 

The child takes a look at the teacher's hand formation, pauses for a moment, then faces ahead and replies:

And, off-course, the teacher smiles.

An erect posture

When the body is straight, the mind is not dull; instead the mind is forthright, the intention is true and mindfulness is present.

-Dogen

One of the best escapes from fulfilling the responsibilities in the now is half-sleep, and maintaining a posture which is not erect can be complimentary to the escape. This can be easily verified.

Moving at a snail's pace

The progress made in spiritual practice can be compared to the experience of getting wet in a fog; we get wet little by little, almost not noticeably. It is not as if getting wet in a shower; when we get wet in a shower, we know it. This isn't to say that spiritual practice isn't impactful. Consider how hard it is to dry ourselves from the wetness of a fog.

It is as It is

Enlightenment isn't like anything,

Just as an apple isn't like anything,

All things contain singularity of expression within themselves.

Student: Teacher, I would like to enter into spiritual practice and learn its ways from you.

Teacher: Great! go do a 100,000 prostrations and then we'll talk again.

Somewhere along the journey we find a pivotal moment where body and mind unite. This is the point where the expression becomes natural.

Logically speaking...

When the being is possible it has an essence or nature,
When the being is actual it has an existence.

A rose in the winter has essence,
And in the summer has existence.

What is possible for man is his essence,
What man actually is, is his existence.

God exists in his essence.

A very wonderful word

Excogitate

1. To think out; device; invent.

2. To study intently and carefully inorder to grasp or comprehend fully.

Excogitate is related to the word cogitate which means "to think." The prefix ex- typically means "out of", but in this case it means "thoroughly."

Source: Dictionary.com

Trivia

Ray: D'you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds?
Jerry Maguire: Did you know that Troy Aikman, in only six years, has passed for 16,303 yards?
Ray: D'you know that bees and dogs can smell fear?
Jerry Maguire: Did you know that the career record for hits is 4,256 by Pete Rose who is NOT in the Hall of Fame?
Ray: D'you know that my next door neighbor has three bunny rabbits?
Jerry Maguire: I... I can't compete with that! 

Source: From the movie "Jerry Maguire"

Now

Voice 1: What if this is all there is?

Wise Voice 2: Yes, this is all there is, in this moment.