Wednesday, June 25, 2008

15th June

I have no parents; I make heaven and earth my parents.
I have no divine power; I make honesty my power.
I have no means; I make submission my means.
I have no magic power; I make inward strength my magic.
I have neither life nor death; I make Eternity
my life and death.
I have no designs; I make opportunity my design.
I have no miracles; I make the Way my miracle.
I have no principles; I make adaptability
to all things my principle.
I have no friends; I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy; I make incautiousness my enemy.
I have no armour; I make goodwill and righteousness
my armour.
I have no castle; I made immovable Mind my castle.
Samurai’s Zen Creed
No comment needed

14th June

My compassion to all sentient beings
shall be like the limitless sky.
When released, Mind is freed from
clinging to worldly things.
Even though living in this world of illusion,
My meditations shall be like the Lotus flower,
Lovely and unstained, rising up from the mud.
With purified mind I offer my respects
to the Buddha - The Enlightened One.
No comment needed.

13th June

Master Seung Sahn taught his students that to let go of
their small self and discover their true self, they must make
a firm decision to attain enlightenment and help others.
To help them they had been given the Buddhist precepts,
but they should know when to keep them and went to
break them, when they are open and when they are closed.
To be the self is to be immersed in the self, seeing only what the
self projects. The true self is to recognise all outside of oneself is the Self.
The Buddhist precepts are unconditional and can have a different meaning
depending on which self is present.

12th June

Zuigan would greet himself each morning and
request of himself, "Today please try and wake up,"
to which he would answer, "Yes, indeed I will."
This master acknowledges the game we all play with our
minds. That there is something to do - constantly.

11th June

Is some sickness coming tonight?
Is death waiting for us tomorrow?
There is no greater folly than to be alive
but unconscious - not following the Buddha's way.
The Venerable Ching.
Projecting future events based on worry and judgement is to be alive but unconscious to the richness of life in the moment – the Buddha’s way.

10th June

If you don't let go of worldly worries about the future
and make a living, you'll regret it. Follow the way,
or all your days and nights will have been lived for nothing.
Dogen.
This quote shows how we can be so immersed in worries about our future that we fail to live life today, leading to a life of missed opportunity, of experiencing the richness of LIFE.

9th June

Zen is not a pastime,
but the most serious task in life.
D. T. Suzuki.
Zen is life.