You have many

choices about the way you live

and work and change and survive.

Say you fall into an ocean. You may give up

and sink, or you may try to swim to

shore. Salvation is your

decision.

Bahauddin

Your pride in

yourself and your wanting,

these steal your energy

along the road.

If you can

kill these robbers and

become the servant of everyone,

you’ll meet the Lord in meditation and see

what you used to protect as just

a pile of ashes.

Lalla

The work of learning

the Way requires greater intimacy

with each passing day, greater intimacy with

each passing hour. Eventually you develop

spontaneous familiarity and

unite with the Way.

The Cultivator of Realization

Yantou said,

“Abandoning things is superior,

pursuing things is inferior.” If your own state

is empty and tranquil, perfectly illuminated and silently

shining, then you will be able to confront whatever circumstances

impinge on you with the indestructible sword of wisdom and cut

everything off — everything from the myriad entangling objects

to the verbal teachings of the past and present. Then your

awesome, chilling spirit cuts off everything, and

everything retreats of itself without having

to be pushed away. Isn’t this what it

means to be well endowed and

have plenty to spare?

…The Ultimate Path is

simple and easy — it is just a matter of

whether you abandon things or pursue them.

Those who would experience the Path

should think deeply

on this.

Yuanwu

augustin frison-roche

To study the Way

is to study the self. To study the

self is to forget the self. To forget the

self is to be enlightened

by all things.

Dogen