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#1538 - Friday, August 29, 2003 - Editor: Gloria
Your Karma
is
your Dharma.
~ Ram Dass
Zen Master Huang-po
Many people are afraid to empty their minds
lest they plunge into the Void.
They do not know that their own Mind is the Void.
The ignorant eschew phenomena but not thought;
the wise eschew thought but not phenomena.
It is most urgent
that you seek real, true perception,
So you can be free in the world
And not confused by ordinary practitioners.
It is best to have no obsessions.
Just don’t be contrived.
Simply be normal.
You impulsively seek elsewhere,
Looking to others for your own hands and feet.
This is already mistaken.
- Linji
(d. 867)
Zen Saying
Heroes become Buddhas with 1 Thought,
but lazy people are given the 3 Collections of Scriptures (The
Tripitaka) to
work through.
Zen Proverb
If you have sentiments about Buddhist
teaching,
it becomes a worldly thing.
If you have no sentiments about worldly things,
they become Buddhist teaching.
from "Wen-tzu" trans Cleary:
99.
Wen-tzu asked: Can people speak of the subtle?
Lao-tzu said: Why not? But only if you know what words mean. Those
who know what words mean do not speak with words. Those who struggle for
fish get wet, those who chase animals run, it is not that they like
it. Therefore ultimate words depart from words, ultimate action departs
from action. What people of a shallow knowledge compete for is
trivial. Words have a source, events have a leader. It is because
contrivance has no knowledge that I do not claim to know.
| If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh |
The Chapter: "Bodhisattva Never Despise" from the Lotus Sutra (Bodhisattva Never Despise said the words to EVERYONE He met)
I deeply revere YOU.
I dare not slight and condemn you.
Wherefore?
Because you all walk in the Bodhisattva-way and are to become
Buddhas.
Along the Way
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Without going outside,
you may know the whole world.
Without looking
through the window, you may see the
ways of heaven.
The further you go,
the less you know.
Thus the sage knows
without traveling;
He sees without
looking;
He works without
doing.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
Steve Toth ~ Rumi-Hafiz T
HE MESSAGE OF THE TREES
The messages of the trees
is hard to talk about
because it doesn't come in words
but in endless variations
of unfolding action
It's one thing to declare the skies open
& another to provide
the wings necessary for flying
Poetry is both fight & flight
Simply unleashing the voice
of something incomprehensible
can be the source of its own unfolding
One way to shock people
is to give them a sense
of how beautiful they are
Another is to give them something to think about
Only the language of love is strong enough
to make it through all
the tangles of confusion that make
our lives so entwining
Let these words grow as the trees do
into the earth & sky at once
As long as there are trees growing
there's hope for the human race
We're wild enough to know that
Melton Lake more photos by the_summer_wind: http://www.livejournal.com/community/landscape/127414.html
Gill Eardley ~ Allspirit Inspiration
Chuang Tzu:
If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his
own skiff,
even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very
angry.
But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer
clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again,
and begin
cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet if the boat were empty, he would not be shouting, and not
angry.
If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world,
no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you....
Who can free himself from achievement, and from fame, descend and
be lost
amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen, he will go about like Life itself
with no
name and no home.
Simple is he, without distinction. To all appearances he is a
fool.
His steps leave no trace. He has no power. He achieves nothing,
has no
reputation.
Since he judges no one, no one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty.
Gill Eardley ~ Rumi-Hafiz
Abandon being loved by people and
practice loving God,
you who have such a high opinion of yourself.
You are really more silent than the night;
how long will you seek a buyer for your words?
Your hearers nod their heads in your presence,
but you waste your time in your passion to draw them near.
You say to me, "Don't be so envious,"
but how should I envy one who possesses nothing?
Instruction given to the worthless is like sketching in dust.
Instruct yourself in love of God and spiritual insight-
that endures like a pattern carved on solid stone.
Your own self is the only pupil ever really faithful to you.
All the others perish: where will you seek them, where?
While trying to make others erudite and eminent,
you are ruining yourself and draining what knowledge you have.
But when your heart is one with Reality,
you may speak, and not be afraid of becoming empty.
And so the Divine command, "Recite!" came to the
Prophet,
saying, "O righteous one, this will not fail: it is an
infinite ocean."
~Rumi, Masnavi V:3189-3198
'Jewels of Remembrance'
Selected and Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski
-----------------
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
Tony O'Clery ~ Million Paths
Daily Words of the Buddha
August 29, 2003
Whose mind is like rock, steady, unmoved,
dispassionate for things that spark passion,
unangered by things that spark anger:
When one's mind is developed like this,
from where can there come suffering & stress?
Udana IV, 4
Viorica Weissman ~ Million Paths
Before leaving South India, Mr. Wright and I made a pilgrimage to the holy hill of Arunachala near Tiruvannamalai to meet Sri Ramana Maharshi . At his ashram the sage welcomed us affectionately and pointed to a nearby stack of East-West magazines. During the hours that we spent with him and his disciples, he was mostly silent, his gentle face radiating divine love and wisdom.
To help suffering humanity regain its forgotten state of perfection, Sri Ramana teaches that one should constantly ask himself "Who am I?" - the Great Inquiry indeed. By stern rejection of all other thoughts the devotee soon finds himself going deeper and deeper into the true Self, and the sidetracking bewilderments of other thoughts cease to arise. The illumined rishi of South India has written :
Dualities and trinities on
something do hang,
Supportless they never appear;
That support searched for, they loosen and fall.
There is the Truth. Who sees that never wavers.
taken from
Autobiography of a Yogi
Paramahansa Yogananda