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#2412 - Monday, March 6, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
I stroll along the stream
up to where it ends.
I sit down watching the clouds as they begin to rise.
---Wang Wei (699 AD)
A bird in a secluded grove sings like a flute.
Willows sway gracefully with their golden threads.
The mountain valley grows the quieter as the clouds return.
A breeze brings along the fragrance of the apricot flowers.
For a whole day I have sat here encompassed by peace,
Till my mind is cleansed in and out of all cares and idle
thoughts.
I wish to tell you how I feel, but words fail me.
If you come to this grove, we can compare notes.
---Ch'an master Fa-yen (Hõgen)
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Four-filer/konglun2003_1104_143940AA.jpg
You wish to know the
spirit of Yung-ming Zen?
Look at the lake in front of the gate.
When the sun shines, it radiates light and brightness,
When the wind comes, there arise ripples and waves.
---Yung-ming Yen-shou (904-975)
posted by Ben Hassine to Awakened Awareness
Neat site
offering lots of free resources.
http://www.sv.uit.no/student/dinteo/aaa.html#spiritbooks
Ed. note: This link is
really, really good! Very extensive collection of online reading.
Whole books or excerpts, from all different paths.
posted by Bob N. to Nonduality Salon
A reader's
contribution sent by Earl McHugh. Thank you, Earl!
Here are a few bits
from the books " You Are That " ( vol. 1 ) and "
The Diamond in Your Pocket " ( her latest ) These are the
only two I own.
Gangaji does not advocate a regular meditation practice because it tends, in her view, to establish images of the "Meditator" and "doing meditation" which can become traps. But meditation can be useful, at times, to calm the mind. When the mind is calm, " You are invited to step into the middle of the ocean. At that point all that is helpful is to let go of everything. Every preconceived idea of what will get you somewhere is based on the assumption that you are not already there. You are already there. You are already That."
"To immediately discover the truth let go of every technique to get to the truth. Whether it is peace of mind you want, or full, total realization of the truth of your being, let go of every concept that your are not truth. Let go of every concept of who you are, period, and see." ( (pp.32-33)
"Self forgetting is an apparent mental veiling that gives rise to the mental activity of searching. The experience of self forgetfulness is the source of all misery and there is great stress in attempting to remember who you truly are. How do we remember or know the Self? The truth ius you cannot remember the Self. The good news is that you also truly cannot forget the Self. Stop searching in your memory and recognize what has been here all the time." ( p.37 )
"Eternity is your refuge. Recognize eternity within yourself. Eternal presence is Buddha-mind. Eternal presence is not becoming Buddha-mind or attaining Buddha-mind. It is recognizing itself as eternal Buddha-mind now." (p.45)
"Awareness is not limited to any particular state. True openness is so open that it includes states of not feeling open. Not, I feel open and therefore I am open. Rather, I is openness, therefore everything is experienced." ( p.47 )
"Stop telling your story right now. Not later when the story gets better or worse, but right now. When you stop telling your story right now, you stop postponing the realization of the truth that is beyond any story. All effort, all difficulty, and all continued suffering are in the resistance to stopping. That resistance is fed by the hope that the story will give you what you are yearning for, the hope that if you can just fix the story, make the necessary changes, you will get what you want." ( p.56 Diamond )
"To know what you know in the core of your being without understanding is effortless. The effort arises in having to understand it so that you can mentally know it and remember it, so that it will be there for you if you get into trouble. I invite you to stop that search for understanding right now and meet the very force that has fueled your search. To not move toward either rejecting or grasping. To be still, regardless of the fear, anxieties, helplessness, hopelessness, despair, bliss, thrill, or explosion of realization. Is it possible to simply be here, not understanding a thing?" ( pp.85-86 Diamond )
The Cold
Clear Spring At Nanyang
by: Li Po
A pity it is evening, yet
I do love the water of this spring
seeing how clear it is, how clean;
rays of sunset gleam on it,
lighting up its ripples, making it
one with those who travel
the roads; I turn and face
the moon; sing it a song, then
listen to the sound of the wind
amongst the pines.
posted by Gill
to Allspirit
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/thread.htm
"The monkey is
reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness."
~Hakuin From
the book, "The Essential Teachings of Hankuin,"
published by Shambhala.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0877739722/angelinc
posted to Daily Dharma
I'd like to
add this observation by R.H.Blyth ...
speaking of a short poem by Robert Frost which
is also expressing the idea that real meaning is
found in/via our relationship(s) with 'others' ...
be they human or otherwise ...
in the sharing of experience ...
rather than in the experience itself.
self/humanity/nature ...
not separate.
-ts-
~~~~~
R.H. Blyth:
There is a short poem by Robert Frost that expresses
to me almost the whole meaning of human life ...
and with it the nature of haiku:
The
Pasture
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may);
I shan't be gone long ... You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young
It totters when she licks it with her toungue.
I shan't be gone long ... You come too.
-R.Frost-
~
We see these things, the pasture spring and the
water clearing, the cow and her wobbly calf,
and in them our life is fulfilled ... but not entirely;
you, the other person, humanity, must come too;
myself and Nature and man, the tender and strong
relationship between us.
~ R.H.Blyth in Haiku Vol 4 Autumn/Winter
posted by ts to Allspirit
A "new" (to me at least) find of a website mostly about Robert Adams, put together by a person who spent some years with him. And the story of his own journey with some well known Zen masters before he met Adams. http://itisnotreal.com/index.html
The Teachers:
Robert Adams, who was my living teacher; Maezumi Roshi, one of the founders of Zen in the United States and with whom I studied for 4 years, the most intellectual of all Zen masters; Thich Tien-An, my ordination teacher, a Vietnamese Zen master who brought Mahayana Buddhism to the states; Kozan Roshi, a very down to earth Rinzai master from Okinawa; the unforgettable Sasaki Roshi, whose concentration camp-like Mt. Baldy Zen Center was a source of great pain and great pleasure and whose antics are legend; Seung Sahn Soen Sa, a ball of energy who transformed American Zen; Philip Kapleau Roshi, one of the originators of Zen in America, my first Zen master, whom I would later consider a friend; Song Ryong Hearn, an American Zen master who later became a psychologist in West Los Angeles; Muktananda, who I knew only briefly, but whose Dharma son is my friend Swami Shankaranda; J. Krishnamurti, whose talks I attended for several years in the 70s at the Oak Grove in Ojai; the other Krishnamurti, U.G.; Bernadette Roberts, a catholic devote who spent her life trying to understand her very Advaita-like enlightenment experience and who was a neighbor of mine in Santa Monica for many years; Ramesh Balsekar, who led me to the irrepressible Nisargadatta Maharaj, whose wisdom became the guidepost of my searching; Jean Dunn, a very close Bhakta disciple of Nisargadatta and editor of the three best Nisargadatta books, who also became a good friend, guide and confidant. Isn't this a kick? Within a few square miles of Los Angeles, lived many of the most famous spiritual teachers of the late Twentieth Century.
