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

hard copy

 

you are not so soft after all

7

 

Depending

on where you look,

what you touch, you are changing

all the time. The carbon inside you, accounting

for about 18 percent of your being, could have existed in any

number of creatures or natural disasters before finding

you. That particular atom residing somewhere

above your left eyebrow? It could well have

been a smooth, riverbed pebble

before deciding to call

you home.

 

You see,

you are not so soft after

all; you are rock and wave and

the peeling bark of trees, you are ladybirds

and the smell of a garden after the rain.

When you put your best foot forward,

you are taking the north side

of a mountain with

you.

 

Ella Frances Saunders

 

nothing to be born, nothing to perish

wim wenders

 

All Buddhas preach emptiness.

Why? Because they wish to crush the concrete ideas

of the students. If a student even clings to an idea of emptiness,

he betrays all Buddhas. One clings to life although there is nothing to be

called life; another clings to death although there is nothing to be

called death. In reality there is nothing to be born,

consequently, there is nothing

to perish.

 

Bodhidharma