the myriad things are peaceful

dream baby dream

 

Haven’t you

read the ancient worthy’s saying?

“The white clouds are clear and still, and the rivers

flow into the blue sea. The myriad things are

originally peaceful, but people

make trouble for

themselves.”

 

After all,

this statement is completely

accurate and true. If you know what it means

as soon as you hear it mentioned, you can use it to pass

through birth and death to freedom and no longer be obstructed

by the psycho-physical nexus. You will be like a bird getting

out of a cage — independent and free. With a single

stroke you put a stop to all other actions and

talk, and you no longer fall into

secondary views.

 

Yuanwu

 

practice without any gaining idea

the gate of suzuki

 

We say

to practice zazen

without any gaining idea,

without any purpose. Let things work

as they do, supporting everything as your own.

Real practice has orientation or direction, but it has

no purpose or gaining idea, so  it can include everything

that comes. Whether it is good or bad doesn’t matter.

If something bad comes: “Okay, you are a part

of me;” and if something good comes,

“Oh, okay.” Because we don’t have

any special goal or purpose

of practice, it doesn’t

matter what

comes.

 

Shunryu Suzuki

 

the world is a vessel for spirit

snow crows

 

If you try

to grab hold of the

world and do what you want

with it, you won’t

succeed.

 

The world

is a vessel for spirit,

and it wasn’t made to be manipulated.

Tamper with it and you’ll spoil it.

Hold it, and you’ll

lose it.

 

With tao,

sometimes you move ahead

and sometimes you stay back; sometimes

you work hard and sometimes you rest; sometimes

you’re strong and sometimes you’re weak;

sometimes you’re up; sometimes

you’re down.

 

The sage

remains alert, avoiding

extremes, avoiding extravagance,

avoiding excess.

 

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 29

 

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after we resume our original nature

papaji

 

When the water returns

to its original oneness with the river,

it no longer has any individual feeling to

it; it resumes its own nature, and finds

composure. How very glad the

water must be to come

back to the original

river!

 

If this is so,

what feeling will we have

when we die? I think we are like the water

in the dipper. We will have composure then, perfect

composure. It may be too perfect for us, just now, because

we are so much attached to our own feeling, to our

individual existence. For us, just now, we have

some fear of death, but after we resume

our true original nature,

there is Nirvana.

 

Shunryu Suzuki

zen mind, beginner’s mind