We are born
under circumstances that
would be favourable if we did not
abandon them. It was nature’s intention
that there should be no need of great equipment
for a good life: every individual can make himself happy.
External goods are of trivial importance and without much influence
in either direction: prosperity does not elevate the sage and
adversity does not depress him. For he has always made
the effort to rely as much as possible on himself
and to derive all delight from
himself.
As you
continue to practise,
please understand: there is
nothing to worry about. Establish
this feeling of being relaxed and unworried,
securely, in the mind. Once the mind is concentrated
and one-pointed, no mind-object will be able to penetrate
or disturb it, and you will be able to sit in the meditation
posture for as long as you want. You will also
be able to sustain concentration without
any feelings of pain and
discomfort.
Having
developed samadhi
to this level, you will be able
to enter or leave it at will. When you
leave it, it will be at your convenience.
You simply withdraw at your ease, rather
than because you are feeling lazy or tired.
You withdraw from samadhi because
it is the appropriate time to
withdraw from it, and you
come out of it at
your will.
You enter
and leave this samadhi
without any problems. The mind
and heart are at ease. If you genuinely have
samadhi like this, it means that sitting meditation
and entering samadhi for just thirty minutes or an hour
will enable you to remain cool and peaceful for many days
afterwards. Experiencing the effects of samadhi like this
for several days has a purifying effect on the mind.
Whatever you experience will become an object
for contemplation. This is where
the practice really begins. It is
the fruit which arises as
samadhi matures.
To live fully
is to be always in no-man’s-land,
to experience each moment as completely new
and fresh. To live is to be willing to die
over and over again.
At the party there were those sage souls
who swam along the bottom like those huge white
fish who live for hundreds of years but have no
fun. They are nearly blind and need the cold.
William was a stingray guarding his cave. Only
those prepared for mortal battle came close to
him. Closer to the surface the smaller fish
played, swimming in mixed patterns only a god
could decipher. They gossiped and fed and sparred
and consumed, and some no doubt even spawned.
It’s a life filled with agitation, thrills,
melodrama and twittery, but too soon it’s over.
And nothing’s revealed because it was never known.
This
reminds me of
another statement Dogen Zenji
made when he returned from China,
‘I have returned empty-handed, without the
smallest bit of Buddha Dharma.’ ‘Empty-handed.’
When you’ve got nothing in your hands, they are free
to be used in the best way. And, ‘without the smallest
bit of Buddha Dharma.’ In other words, everything
is the Buddha Dharma. It’s not a matter of
having it or not. This very life, as it is,
is nothing but the Buddha
Dharma itself.