Awakening washes away awakening.
Old Zen saying
Awakening washes away awakening.
Old Zen saying
The difference between what you want to do and what you don’t want to do dissolves until you are simply left with what happens.
The difference between what you want to do and what you don’t want to do dissolves until you are simply left with what happens.
Naked and alone
A Zen master's students arrive to find him disheveled, mud-spattered, and naked, sitting on the ground in front of his house, beating on an empty pot with a wooden spoon, and keening. Having known the master always as a person of utmost dignity in dress and bearing, at this spectacle, the students are shocked into a long silence. Finally, the most senior student is able to speak:
“Master, what has happened?”
The old man just keeps on beating the pot and singing his keen.
“Master, master,” the student says. “You have instructed us to sit peacefully, residing always in the calm center. Why are you carrying on like this?”
At last, the master stops beating on the pot and replies.
“Well,” he says. “Last night my wife died, and I find myself sitting here on the ground, naked, and alone, beating on a pot."
Naked and alone
A Zen master's students arrive to find him disheveled, mud-spattered, and naked, sitting on the ground in front of his house, beating on an empty pot with a wooden spoon, and keening. Having known the master always as a person of utmost dignity in dress and bearing, at this spectacle, the students are shocked into a long silence. Finally, the most senior student is able to speak:
“Master, what has happened?”
The old man just keeps on beating the pot and singing his keen.
“Master, master,” the student says. “You have instructed us to sit peacefully, residing always in the calm center. Why are you carrying on like this?”
At last, the master stops beating on the pot and replies.
“Well,” he says. “Last night my wife died, and I find myself sitting here on the ground, naked, and alone, beating on a pot."
The specific qualities of experience pale before the simple yet unfathomable recognition that there is anything happening at all.
The specific qualities of experience pale before the simple yet unfathomable recognition that there is anything happening at all.
We really don’t have to do anything to be fully and totally alive. We don’t live our lives, our lives live us spontaneously in every moment and with no effort whatsoever on our part.
We really don’t have to do anything to be fully and totally alive. We don’t live our lives, our lives live us spontaneously in every moment and with no effort whatsoever on our part.
You’re only free if you’re free to suffer as well as laugh.
You’re only free if you’re free to suffer as well as laugh.
A simple, open-ended curiosity with what is…
A simple, open-ended curiosity with what is…
It’s over, the “buddhas and patriarchs” disease
Daito (1282-1334)
That once gripped my chest.
Now I’m just an ordinary man
With a clean slate.
It’s over, the “buddhas and patriarchs” disease
Daito (1282-1334)
That once gripped my chest.
Now I’m just an ordinary man
With a clean slate.
We are always exactly where we need to be.
We are always exactly where we need to be.