The Sixth Patriarch
heard someone recite the Diamond
Sutra phrase “arouse the mind without
placing it anywhere,” and
he awakened.
Posts Tagged → death
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.
working in the dark
I had
dokusan with Suzuki Roshi
during sesshin. I felt lost and far from home
at that point in my life, and I asked him
if big mind was lost in the
dark, too.
He said,
“No, not lost in the dark,
working in the dark!” and he moved
his arms about, demonstrating. He said it was like
the many-armed statue of Avaloki-teshvara,
and he made the statue come to life
for a moment.
To Shine One Corner of the World
you can touch nirvana right now
The wave can live her life as a wave, and at the same time she can live the life of water. She does not have to die in order to become water, because the wave is water already in the present moment.
Nirvana means the extinction of all notions and concepts, including the concepts of birth and death, being and nonbeing, coming and going, but it does not mean the extinction of life. Nirvana is the ultimate dimension of life, a state of coolness, peace, and joy.
It is not a state to be attained after you die. You can touch nirvana right now by breathing, walking, and drinking your tea in mindfulness. Everything and everyone are dwelling in nirvana. You have been “nirvanized” since the very non-beginning of time!
If we can live our daily life deeply, we’ll be able to touch nirvana right in the here and now.