Wherever and whenever
the mind is found attached to anything,
make haste to detach yourself from it. When you tarry
for any length of time it will turn again into
your old home town.
Posts Tagged → mind
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
when you are deluded and full of doubt
When you are deluded
and full of doubt, even a thousand
books of scripture are still not enough.
When you have realized understanding,
even one word is already too much.
Zen is communicated personally,
through mental recognition.
It is not handed on directly
by written words.
you are not so soft after all
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.
nothing to be born, nothing to perish
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.