Just look right here.
Don’t seek transcendent enlightenment.
Just observe and observe: suddenly
you’ll laugh aloud.
Posts Tagged → death
with each step, a flower blooms
A lot
of unimportant inner
litter and bits and pieces have
to be swept out first. Even a small head
can be piled high inside with irrelevant distractions.
True, there may be edifying emotions and thoughts, too, but
the clutter is ever present. So let this be the aim of the meditation:
to turn one’s innermost being into a vast empty plain, with none
of that treacherous undergrowth to impede the view. So that
something of “God” can enter you, and something of “Love,”
too. Not the kind of love-de-luxe that you can revel in
deliciously for half an hour, taking pride in
how sublime you feel, but the love
you can apply to small,
everyday things.
…
Looked
at Japanese prints
with Glassner this afternoon.
That’s how I want to write. With that much
space round a few words. They should simply emphasize
the silence. Just like that print with the sprig of blossom in the
lower corner. A few delicate brush strokes—but with what attention
to the smallest detail—and all around it space, not empty but inspired.
The few great things that matter in life can be said in a few words.
If I should ever write—but what?—I would like to brush in a
few words against a wordless background. To describe
the silence and the stillness and to inspire them.
What matters is the right relationship between
words and wordlessness, the wordlessness
in which much more happens than
in all the words one can
string together.
The mind
can go in a thousand
directions, but on this beautiful
path, I walk in peace. With each step,
the wind blows. With each step,
a flower blooms.
the wise person teaches by example
When people
find one thing beautiful,
another consequently becomes ugly.
When one man is held up as good,
another is judged
deficient.
Similarly, being and
non-being balance each other;
difficult and easy define each other;
long and short illustrate each other;
high and low rest upon each other;
voice and song meld into harmony;
what is to come follows upon
what has been.
The wise person
acts without effort and teaches
by quiet example. She accepts things as they
come, creates without possessing, nourishes without
demanding, accomplishes without taking credit.
Because she constantly forgets herself,
she is never forgotten.
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note to self: own your faults openly
This revelation:
Do not scold anyone for
a mistake you might have made.
Do not discipline children until you
have grown up. Do not taunt or find fault
or call people names. Turn those
judgements inward. Own your
faults openly.
the practice of repaying wrongs
What is the
practice of repaying wrongs?
When receiving suffering, a practitioner
who cultivates the Path should think to himself:
“During countless ages past I have abandoned the root
and pursued the branches, flowing into the various states
of being, and giving rise to much rancor and hatred—the
transgression, the harm done, has been limitless.
Though I do not transgress now, this suffering
is a disaster left over from former lives —
the results of evil deeds have ripened.
This suffering is not something
given by gods or
humans.”
You should willingly
endure the suffering without anger
or complaint. The sutra says: “Encountering
suffering, one is not concerned. Why? Because one
is conscious of the basic root.” When this attitude toward
suffering is born, you are in accord with inner truth,
and even as you experience wrongs, you advance
on the Path. Thus it is called “the practice
of repaying wrongs”.
Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka