photo by Alan Larus, and more: http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/ants.htm
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#2159 - Monday, May 30, 2005 - Editor: Gloria Lee
If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,'
then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
- Vincent Van Gogh
From: www.beliefnet.com
photo by Alan Larus, and more: http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/ants.htm
The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"When you have understood that all
existence,in separation and
limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live
integrally,in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone
beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept and
example
and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not
have
and you don't have what you are not. You can only give what you
are -
and of that you can give limitlessly."
...
"But why worry so much about
causation? What do causes matter, when
things themselves are transient? Let come what comes and let go
what
goes - why catch hold of things and enquire about their
causes?"
...
"What happens to the body and the mind
may not be within your power to
change, but you can always put an end to your imagining yourself
to be
body and mind. Whatever happens, remind yourself that only your
body
and mind are affected, not yourself."
posted by Manuel to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANetofJewels
"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world
around us."
Socrates
photo by Helga Piatscheck
How You Treat Others
Spiritual people often want unconditional support and
understanding
from their friends, family, and mates, but all too often seem
blind
to their own shortcomings when it comes to the amount of
unconditional support and understanding that they give to others.
I
have seen many spiritual people become obsessed with how
unspiritual
others are and assume an arrogant and superior attitude while
completely missing the fact that they themselves are not nearly
as
spiritually enlightened as they would like to think that they
are.
Enlightenment can be measured by how compassionately and wisely
you
interact with others; with all others, not just those who support
you
in the way that you want. How you interact with those who do not
support you shows how enlightened you really are.
As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back you have
not
taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation
means
that you stand free of making demands on others and life to make
you
happy. When you discover yourself to be nothing but Freedom, you
stop
setting up conditions and requirements that need to be satisfied
in
order for you to be happy. It is in the absolute surrender of all
conditions and requirements that Liberation is discovered to be
who
and what you Are. Then the love and wisdom that flows out of you
has
a liberating effect on others.
The biggest challenge for most spiritual seekers is to surrender
their self importance, and see the emptiness of their own
personal
story. It is your personal story that you need to awaken from in
order to be free. To give up being either ignorant or enlightened
is
the mark of liberation and allows you to treat others as your
Self.
What I am describing is the birth of true Love.
- Adyashanti
posted by Alan Stoltz to http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/satsangdiarygroup/
"Who Is Your Teacher?"
by Kobun Chino
The real purpose of practice is to discover the wisdom which you
have always
been keeping with you. To discover yourself is to discover
wisdom; without
discovering yourself you can never communicate with anybody. In
everyday
life, we can pick up some glimpse of wisdom, like the polished
tool of the
carpenter expresses that there is wisdom in the arm of the
carpenter. It is
invisible, you cannot draw it and show it.
Wisdom doesn't come from anywhere; it is always there as the
exact
contents of awakening--it is always there and everywhere. What
you can do is
to uncover it, like going to the origin of a river, you take off
the fallen
leaves. Have you been to the source of a river? It is a very
mystic place.
You get dizzy when you stay for a while. An especially big river
has several
sources, and the real source, the farthest point which turns to
the major
stream, is moist and misty, with some kind of ancient smell, and
you feel
cold. You feel, "This isn't the place to go in." There
is no springing
water, so you don't know where the source is. Actually, such
place exists in
everyone; the center of us is like that. From this place, the
ancient call
appears, "Why don't you know me? Living so many years with
me, why can't you
call my real name?"
Unfortunately, we cannot travel into such place with this body
and mind, but
we feel there is such an origin, and from there everything
starts. From that
place you have come, actually, and whatever you do is returning
to that
spot. In one lifetime you can meet with other people, at least
one other
beside yourself. So, in other words, two of you discover. This is
why you
are continuing to live so hard.
The way to discover your origin is to listen to the one with whom
you feel,
"This is it!". It looks like you can do it by yourself,
without others, but
actually, by yourself alone you cannot discover that origin.
Reaching to
that point, you never believe, "This is it." But
pointing to another's
origin directly and saying, "That's my origin." at that
moment another
finger appears, pointing at you, and says, "No, that's my
origin." And you
get dizzy. "Wait a minute, are you my teacher or are you my
student?" And
both say, " No, it doesn't matter. I can be your student;
I'll be an ancient
Buddha for you." The student says this to the teacher.
Without throwing your
whole life and body into others you can never reach to your own
true nature.
The more your understanding of life becomes clearer, and more
exact, and
painfully joyful, the more you feel, "I'm so bad." The
one who appears and
says, "No, you are not bad at all, that is the way to
go." That is your
teacher. Don't misunderstand, this teacher is not always a
person. It can
embrace you like morning dew in a field, and you get a strange
feeling, "Oh,
this is it, my teacher is this field."
How to go with your true self is to deeply bow to yourself and
ask, "Please,
let me know about myself." Because we cannot do it alone, we
have to do it
with someone who is able to accept our vow. Letting such an
occasion occur
is what supreme awakening is. It is not your creation, you just
admire the
place where you are and be with it, and that place is the place
to meet with
your teacher. It doesn't need to be some special kind of place.
When you are
a little bit mindful about yourself you can create such an
opportunity . . .
between your children and yourself, between your parents and
yourself.
Kobun Chino Roshi
[Thanks to Barbara King for supplying text from Kobun Chino
Roshi's talks.
First published in "JIKOJI News", Spring 1997]
......................................
In 1966 Kobun Chino Otagawa Roshi came
to USA in assistance of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
at San Francisco Zen Center and Sokoji, a
Soto Zen Temple in San Francisco.
Kobun Chino Roshi was Abbot of Jikoji
(Los Gatos, CA), Hokoji (Taos, New Mexico)
and Kaikyoshi of the Soto School in the USA.
He died in 2002.
________________________
Kobun Chino's Trailer
By Reginald Ray
Reginald Ray writes a remembrance of Zen master and famed
calligrapher
Kobun Chino Roshi, who died tragically with his young daughter in
July, 2002.
On July 26, 2002, Kobun Chino Roshi drowned trying to save his
five-year-old daughter Maya, who had fallen into a pond. The
deaths of father and daughter were a terrible blow—first to
his wife and two small surviving children, then to his immediate
students, and beyond that to all who had come to know Kobun and
love him for his gentleness, his warmth and the profundity of his
realization.
continues at: http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Columnists/Ray/200211_reginald_ray.htm
posted by Mike to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E-zendo/