Posts Tagged → wisdom

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

hard copy

 

when you search into it

binsar bakkara

 

Whether you are going

or staying or sitting or lying down,

the whole world is your own self.  You must find

out whether the mountains, rivers, grass,

and forests exist in your own mind

or exist outside it. 

 

Analyze the ten thousand things,

dissect them minutely, and when you take this

to the limit  you will come to the limitless, when you search

into it you come to the end of search, where thinking goes

no further and distinctions vanish. When you smash

the citadel of doubt, then the Buddha

is simply yourself.

 

Daikaku

 

you are not so soft after all

7

 

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.

 

Ella Frances Saunders