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#2695 - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nondual Highlights
I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can't you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write
--W.S. Merwin
If you want to be free,
get to know your real self.
It has no form, no appearance, no root,
No basis, no abode, but is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility, but its function
Cannot be located; when you look for it you become
Further from it. When you seek it
You turn away from it all the more.
--Rinzai (d.867?)
Calming the Mind
Too much knowledge
Leads to overactivity;
Better to calm the mind.
The more you consider,
The greater the loss;
Better to unify the mind.
--Shih Wang Ming (6th c.)
Time Is Not a Factor
Munindra-ji
used to say that in spiritual practice, time is not a factor.
Practice cannot be measured in time, so let go of the whole
notion
of when and how long. The practice is a process unfolding, and it
unfolds in its own time. It is like the flowers that grow in the
spring.
Do you pull them up to make them grow faster? I once tried to do
that with carrots in my first garden when I was eight years old.
It
does not work. We do not need any particular length of time for
this
process of letting things be.
--Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation
Trust has
nothing to do with moral courage. It occurs when we have
nowhere else to turn, when we reach the end of our need to
control.
--Rodney Smith, "Lessons from the Dying"
People deal too much with
the negative, with what is wrong...
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those
things and make them bloom?
--Thich Nhat Hanh
gill
www.allspirit.co.uk
From 'the
heart of the buddha's teaching'
Thich Nhat Hanh
Relatively speaking, there are right views and there
are wrong views. But if we look more deeply, we
see that all views are wrong views. No view can ever
be the truth. It is just from one point; that is why it is
called a "point of view." If we go to another point, we
will see things differently and realize that our first view
was not entirely right. Buddhism is not a collection of
views. It is a practice to help us eliminate wrong views.
The quality of our views can always be improved. From
the viewpoint of ultimate reality, Right View is the absence
of all views.
When we begin the practice, our view is a vague idea about
the teachings. But conceptual knowledge is never enough.
The seeds of Right View, the seed of Buddhahood, are in us,
but they are obscured by so many layers of ignorance, sorrow,
and disappointment. We have to put our views into practice.
In the process of learning, reflecting, and practicing, our view
becomes increasingly wise, based on our real experience.
When we practice Right Mindfulness, we see the seed of
Buddhahood in everyone, including ourselves. This is Right
View. Sometimes it is described as the Mother of All Buddhas
(prajna paramita), the energy of love and understanding that
has the power to free us. When we practice mindful living, our
Right View will blossom, and all the other elements of the path
in us will flower, also.
gill
www.allspirit.co.uk