Posts Tagged → meditation

beginner’s mind, beginner’s heart


 

To achieve

what the zen buddhists

call “beginner’s mind,” you dispense

with all preconceptions and enter

each situation as if seeing it

for the first time.

 

“In the

beginner’s mind there

are many possibilities,” wrote

Shunryu Suzuki in his book Zen Mind,

Beginner’s Mind, “but in the

expert’s there are few.”

 

As much

as I love beginner’s

mind, though, I advocate an

additional discipline: cultivating a

beginner’s heart. That means approaching

every encounter imbued with a freshly

invoked wave of love that is as pure

as if you’re feeling it for

the first time.

 

Rob Brezsny

 

friendship among brothers and sisters

a buddha was born

 
Real friendship among brothers and sisters on the Sufi path includes the following eight responsibilities:

  1.  Material aid. Help your companions with food, or money, or other things they need for their own survival or development.
  2. Personal support. If they are sick, visit them; if they are busy, help them, if they have forgotten, remind them.
  3. Respect. Do not complain of their faults to them or to others. Do not give advice when you know it can not be acted upon.
  4. Praise and attention. Praise the good qualities of your companions, and let them know that you care for them.
  5. Forgiveness. Forgive your companions for their failings.
  6. Prayer. Pray for the well-being of your companions with the same fervor you pray for your own well-being.
  7. Loyalty. Be firm in your friendships so that you can be depended on by those who put their trust in you.
  8. Relief from discomfort. Do not create awkward or difficult situations that involve your companions. Do not be a burden to others.

 

al-Ghazali

stanford encyclopedia of philosophy

 

open, light, and transparent

bruno bisang

 

The

great truth of zen

is possessed by everybody.

Look into your own being and seek

it not through others. Your own mind is

above all forms; it is free and quiet and sufficient;

it eternally stamps itself in your six senses and four elements.

In its light all is absorbed. Hush the dualism of subject and object,

forget both, transcend the intellect, sever yourself from

the understanding, and directly penetrate deep

into the identity of the buddha-mind;

outside of this there are

no realities.

 

…Put your

simple faith in this,

discipline yourself accordingly;

let your body and mind be turned into

an inanimate object of nature like a stone or

a piece of wood; when a state of perfect motionlessness

and unawareness is obtained all the signs of life will depart and

also every trace of limitation will vanish. Not a single idea will disturb

your consciousness, when lo! All of a sudden you will come to realize

the light abounding in full gladness. It is like coming across the

light in thick darkness; it is like receiving treasure in poverty.

The four elements and the five aggregates are no more

felt as burdens; so light, so easy, so free you are.

Your very existence has been delivered

from all limitations; you have

become open, light, and

transparent.

 

Yuanwu

zen letters

 

their breath came from deep inside

beyond thought

 

The ancient Masters slept

without dreams and woke up without worries.

Their breath came from deep inside them. They didn’t cling

to life, weren’t anxious about death. They emerged without desire

and reentered without resistance. They came easily; they went easily.

They didn’t ask where they were from; they didn’t ask where

they were going. They took everything as it came,

gladly, and walked into death without fear.

They accepted life as a gift, and

they handed it back

gratefully.

 

Chuang Tzu

the essence of wisdom

 

if you rely on others

recognize

 

You eat to satisfy your hunger

and drink to quench your thirst. You wear clothes

to keep warm and go home to be with your families. You cultivate

the tao to reach the place even the buddhas can’t describe.

And you practice zen to find the place even

the patriarchs can’t enter.

 

But if you rely on the

doors and walls of others and you listen

to their instruction and accept their drivel,

you’ll never stand on your own. I put it like

this: Good medicine tastes bitter.

True words sound harsh.

 

Shih-wu, or Stonehouse

Red Pine’s “The Zen Works of Stonehouse”

hard copy @ amazon