Posts Tagged → peace

the art of peace begins with you

this is the only practice

 

The art of peace

begins with you.
Work on yourself

and your
 appointed task in the art of peace.


Everyone has a spirit that
 can be refined, a body

that
 can be trained in some manner,
 a suitable path

to follow.
 You are here for no other purpose than


to realize your inner divinity and
 manifest your

innate enlightenment.
 Foster peace in your 

own life and
 then apply the art to 

all that you encounter.


 

Morehei Ueshiba

 

many try to usurp the style of zen


 

Nowadays many have

lost the old way, and many try to

usurp the style of zen, setting up their

own sects, keeping to cliches, and concocting

standardized formulas and slogans. Since they

themselves are not out of the rut, when they try

to help other people, it is like a rat going into

a hollow horn that grows narrower

and narrower until the rat is

trapped in a total

impasse.

 

Yuanwu

zen letters

 

let it go in all directions

 

When you hold on to something,

don’t let the smallest hair show. When you let go of

something, let it go in all directions. Meeting in heavy mist,

we turn out to be at the top of a thousand peaks.

Starting at the top of a thousand peaks we

turn out to be in heavy mist.

 

Today I am at Fuyuan Temple

inaugurating this hall and preaching the Dharma.

Yesterday I was outside my hut at Sky Lake ploughing in the clouds.

Thus it is said that the Dharma has no fixed shape but adapts to conditions.

It stirs the wind of perfect stillness and makes effortless

transformation possible. But at this moment,

what is it like?

 

Only after ninety thousand

miles does the P’eng unfold its wings.

Only after a thousand miles does

the crane take flight.

 

Shih-wu, or Stonehouse

Red Pine’s “The Zen Works of Stonehouse”

hard copy @ amazon