Posts Tagged → stillness

do not try to stop your thinking

zen is not something to get excited about

 
When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking.  Let it stop by itself.  It something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out.  It will not stay long.  When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it.  Do not be bothered by anything.  It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer.  In five or at most ten minutes, your mind will be completely serene and calm.  At that time your breathing will become quite slow, while your pulse will become a little faster.

It will take quite a long time before you find your calm, serene mind in your practice.  Many sensations come, many thoughts or images arise, but they are just waves of your own mind.  Nothing comes from outside your mind.  Usually we think of our mind as receiving impressions and experiences from outside, but that is not a true understanding of our mind.  The true understanding is that the mind includes everything; when you think something comes from outside it means only that something appears in your mind.  Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble.  You yourself make the waves in your mind.  If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.  This mind is called big mind.

 

Shunryu Suzuki

zen mind, beginner’s mind

 

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

 

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

 

with an ever-living heart

jae c. hong

 

Many seek protection

from all hurting influences by building

some wall around themselves. But the canopy over

the earth is so high that a wall cannot be built high enough,

and the only thing one can do is to live in the midst of all

inharmonious influences, to strengthen his will power

and to bear all things, yet keeping the fineness

of character and a nobleness of manner

together with an ever-living

heart.

 

To become cold with the coldness

of the world is weakness, and to become broken

by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world

and yet to keep above the world is like walking on the water. There are two

essential duties for the man of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love

in our nature ever increasing and expanding and to strengthen the

will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal

in life; man must be fine and yet strong, man must

be loving and yet powerful.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

the training of the ego