Posts Tagged → nook

wait with a proper attitude

vinj

 

To wait with

a proper attitude invites

the assistance of the

Higher Power.

 

There is

a situation at hand that

cannot be corrected by force or

external effort. The Creative will provide

the solution to one who waits with a correct

attitude. This is a time for patience

and careful attention to

inner truth.

 

Do not

give in to doubt and

agitation now. You are not meant

to wait in a state of desperate longing but

in one of patient inner strength. Without certainty

in the power of the truth, success is impossible.

Attempts to force a change, rather than

allowing it to mature naturally,

will only cause

misfortune.

 

You would be

wise to strengthen and reaffirm

your reliance on the Creative. When you indulge in

fear and doubt, you flood the arena where the Higher Power

is attempting to work. Your principal responsibility in life

is to keep this arena—your own consciousness—

free of negative influences.

 

By accepting things

as they are and not making fruitless

comparisons to the situations of others or some

imagined ideal, one engages the power of the Creative.

If one remains balanced, modest, and

independent, good fortune will

come to hand.

 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 5, Hsü / Waiting

 
 

mountain bluebird

 

Maintaining

quiet awareness from

moment to moment, you’ll see

that your enlightenment is not separate

from the ordinary world but one with it.

It doesn’t come from some distance to

get to you and it doesn’t go away

when you stop attending to it.

Make awareness continuous,

though, and it will

surround

you.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 5

Paperback / Kindle here

iPad/iPhone

iBooks

 

brian browne walker taoist app bundle ios ipad iphone

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can now buy

Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a

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for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

 

you only have to set it down


 

You

don’t have to

straighten anything out 

in your mind. You only have

to set it down if it

isn’t good.

 

Your

enlightenment is

fully present at every moment

of your life. If you perceive something

between you and that, nothing more

need be done other than

to let go of it upon

observing

it.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 6

Paperback / Kindle here

iPad/iPhone

iBooks

 

brian browne walker taoist app bundle ios ipad iphone

You

can now buy

Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a

five-app bundle of Taoist classics 

for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

 

calmness & activity are not different

suzuki roshi

 

Dogen Zen-ji says,

“Even though it is midnight, dawn is here.

Even though dawn comes, it is nighttime.” This kind

of statement conveys the understanding transmitted from

Buddha to the Patriarchs, and from the Patriarchs to Dogen,

and to us. Nighttime and daytime are not different.

The same thing is sometimes called nighttime,

sometimes called daytime. Nighttime

and daytime are one thing.

 

Zazen practice and

everyday activity are one thing.

We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.

But usually we think, “Now zazen is over, and now we

will go about our everyday activity.” But this is not the

right understanding.  They are the same thing. We

have nowhere to escape. So in activity there

should be calmness, and in calmness

there should be activity. So

calmness and activity

are not different.

 

Shunryu Suzuki

 

tunneling into secret depths

the singular victo ngai

 
With greatest respect and reverence, I encourage all you superior seekers in the secret depths to devote yourselves to penetrating and clarifying the self as earnestly as you would put out a fire on the top of your head. I urge you to keep boring your way through as assiduously as you would seek a lost article of incalculable worth.

I enjoin you to regard the teachings left by the Buddha-patriarchs with the same spirit of hostility you would show toward a person who had murdered both your parents. Anyone who belongs to the school of Zen and does not engage in the doubting and introspection of koan must be considered a deadbeat rascal of the lowest kind, someone who would throw aside his greatest asset. As a teacher of the past said, “At the bottom of great doubt lies great enlightenment … From a full measure of doubt comes a full measure of enlightenment.”

Don’t think the commitments and pressing duties of secular life leave you no time to go about forming a ball of doubt. Don’t think your mind is so crowded with confused thoughts you are incapable of devoting yourself singlemindedly to Zen practice. Suppose a man was in a busy market place, pushing his way through the dense crowd, and some gold coins dropped out of his pocket into the dirt. Do you think he would just leave them there forget about them and continue on his way because of where he was?

Do you think someone would leave the gold pieces behind because he was in a crowded place or because the coins were lying in the dirt? Of course not. He would be down there frantically pushing and shoving with tears in his eyes trying to find them. His mind wouldn’t rest until he had recovered them. Yet what are a few pieces of gold when set against that priceless jewel found in the headdresses of kings — the way of inconceivable being that exists within your own mind? Could a jewel of such worth be attained easily, without effort?
 

Hakuin Ekaku

mas hakuin