If you return to the Truth,
To the emptiness of delusion,
You’ll know that Buddha and people
Are not different.
Delusion is a butterfly
Plunging into the fire,
Enlightenment, a crane flying
From its cage.
Posts Tagged → death
with an ever-living heart
Many seek protection
from all hurting influences by building
some wall around themselves. But the canopy over
the earth is so high that a wall cannot be built high enough,
and the only thing one can do is to live in the midst of all
inharmonious influences, to strengthen his will power
and to bear all things, yet keeping the fineness
of character and a nobleness of manner
together with an ever-living
heart.
To become cold with the coldness
of the world is weakness, and to become broken
by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world
and yet to keep above the world is like walking on the water. There are two
essential duties for the man of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love
in our nature ever increasing and expanding and to strengthen the
will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal
in life; man must be fine and yet strong, man must
be loving and yet powerful.
now do this and that
The Sixth Patriarch
heard someone recite the Diamond
Sutra phrase “arouse the mind without
placing it anywhere,” and
he awakened.
open your hands and walk
Let go of hundreds
of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocently.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,
are only to free you from
obstructions.
life has some possibility left
If you suddenly
and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are
plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed
or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some
possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happened better than all the riches or power in the world.
It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made
to be a crumb.