subtle wonder within mysterious darkness

eddie o’bryan

Tao is beyond words

and beyond understanding.

Words may be used to speak of

it, but they cannot

contain it.

Tao existed before

words and names, before heaven and earth,

before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited

father and mother of all limited things. Therefore, to see

beyond all boundaries to the subtle heart of things,

dispense with names, with concepts,

with expectations and ambitions

and differences.

Tao and its many manifestations

arise from the same source: subtle wonder

within mysterious darkness. This

is the beginning of all

understanding.

Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 1

🦋

This reality

cannot be covered by the skies

or held up by the earth. Space cannot contain it.

It abides within all sentient beings and is the support

on which all of them rest. It has always been

clean and naked. There is nowhere

it does not pervade.

Yuanwu

🐞

sieze the day gently

jim harirson dog river

drove her aqua

Ford convertible into the country

with a sack of red apples. It was a perfect day

with her sun-brown legs and we threw ourselves into

the future together seizing the day. Fifty years later we hold each

other looking out the windows at birds, making dinner, a life

to live day after day, a life of dogs and children and the

far wide country out by rivers, rumpled by

mountains. So far the days keep

coming. Seize the day gently

as if you loved

her.

Jim Harrison

dead man’s float

completely absorbed in your breathing

suzuki roshi

When you are completely

absorbed in your breathing, there is no self.

What is your breathing? That breathing is not you, nor air.

What is it? It is not self at all. When there is no self,

you have absolute freedom. Because you have

a silly idea of self, you have

a lot of problems.

Shunryu Suzuki

To Shine One Corner of the World

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

what is needed now is resoluteness

tjitske kamphuis

A breakthrough.

Do not be drawn back

into bad habits.

The arrival of the hexagram Kuai indicates that a long-awaited change is at hand. A difficulty that has oppressed you over a long period is now about to dissolve. It is important to respond in the proper way.

There is a temptation on obtaining relief to fall into the traps of the ego: pride at having dispersed the trouble, self-righteousness about having triumphed through correctness, anger at one who we think was the source of the problem, or a desire to remain free of all difficulty in the future. None of these responses is appropriate to the situation at hand.

What is needed now is resoluteness: a firm commitment to continuing the battle for good and to the self-examination that makes all good things possible. This is not a time to lapse back into negative mental habits and enjoy the “vacation” provided by the breakthrough. Do not rest on your laurels, but push forward, deepening your inner strength and your resistance to the influence of inferiors, both in yourself and others.

Strengthen those around you by setting an example of self-improvement and self-correction. Great progress and good fortune are available now to one who makes proper use of the opening.

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 43, Kuai / Breakthrough (Resoluteness)

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