31st May

The truth is to be lived, not just mouthed.
Hui-neng.
No comment needed.

30th May

The student who felt he had achieved emptiness of mind
boasted to his master, "Now I have no idea."
The master replied, "Why stagger about under the weight
of this concept ' no idea'?"
No comment needed.

29th May

Master Chu-hung was once writing a book
on the good deeds of Zen monks when a student asked him,
"What is the use of writing such a book when in Zen there
is nothing good or not good?"
The master slapped him on the face.
The furious monk was about to leave when the master
smiled and said, "You are not the real thing yet.
Why don't you wipe the dirt off your own face?"
For the monk to be slapped on the face was not good, in his opinion, hence the indignation. Therefore his attachment was revealed.

28th May

Student. "I am very discouraged.
What should I do?"
Soen Nakagwa "Encourage others."

To be anything is to centre on the small self. Let go
Into the greater Self reflected in those around you.

27th May

Master Seung Sahn taught that
"Zen mind is not Zen mind." He encouraged
his students to abandon narrow ideas
of Zen and hang on only to the question
"What is the best way of helping other people?"
For this master questions as to what Zen is, is merely
Fodder for the mind. To express the nature of Zen is to spontaneously help others without thought.

26th May

My detractors are actually good friends,
because if I am equanimous and accepting
the power of love and humility,
which is born of the Unborn,
grows within me.
Yung-chai Ta-Shin.
The master recognizes that there are no enemies,
Only people who are doorways into the power
Of love and humility which is your essential Self.

25th May

Look at that rainbow.
It is only when the sky cries
that you see the colors
in the light.
T'ao-shan.
The zen masters always saw nature as the great teacher.

24th May

We should find perfect existence through
imperfect existence.
Shunryu Suzuki.
All of existence is trying to come into balance. Attention is
created by imbalance, it causes us to notice that which is
out of balance and to focus on it. When balance is achieved
our attention settles into stillness, into peace.
Therefore wellcome those points of conflict in your life for they
will ultimately lead you into perfect existence, eternal stillness,
your essential Self.

23rd May

All life is changing, all the forms of it, and we flow with
the river or we refuse. If we happily flow we see, as science
sees, that things are really events in time and space, that
events are major and minor whirlpools on the river of time.
If we flow with the river, the ceaseless flow of our karma,
we can digest it, as it were, as we flow, and feel no suffering.
Accept it and we are one with it, resist it and we are hurt.
Christmas Humphreys.
No comment needed.

22nd May

Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life. Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality.
No comment needed.

21st May

Ikkyu visited a dying student and
asked if he required his help. The man replied,
"I don't need anything. I am just going to the changeless."
"If you think you are a something that can go anywhere,
you still need my teachings," replied Ikkyu.
No comment needed.

20th May

Here it is - right now.
Start thinking about it and you miss it.
Huang-po.
The mind is right here, right now. Start thinking
about it and it becomes conditioned not
conditionless.

19th May

If you want to achieve a certain thing
you have to change into a certain person,
but then you won't care about doing that certain thing.
Dogen.
To be identified with a thing, you have to be identified
as a person who wants to achieve that thing.
For example: If I wanted to win the lottery
I would have to become a person who needed money.
Once I created this identity, it would become irrelevant
if I won the lottery or not. It is the creation of identity
to define who we believe ourselves to be which is
the true attachment.

18th May

The only way to Buddhahood
is freeing your mind to be itself.
Tao-hsin.
In Buddhist doctrine the mind is the Great Ocean
of consciousness without thought. This is
the definition of mind as itself.

17th May

Look for Buddha outside your own mind,
and Buddha becomes the devil.
In our reality the devil is the great deceiver.
In the Zen tradition looking for Buddha outside
your own mind is the same.

16th May

There have never been any Buddha's, nor is there any holy
teachings. Bodhidharma never came to the East, nor did he
ever transmit any secret doctrine through the mind.
Not understanding what this means, worldly people look
for the truth outside of themselves. It is ironic that what
they so desperately seek is under their own feet!
Yuan-wu.
This passage indicates our need to look beyond our self
to define the truth of who we are. Whereas the truth of who we are
resides within the Self.

15th May

The Buddha is not the great goal
of those that follow the Way. Personally,
I see him as a privy hole and regard
the Bodhisattva's as jailers.
Lin –chi.
This master is showing us that the person who was known as the Buddha is not Buddha nature, nor the group of disciples that followed after. Human nature always tries to personify cosmic force but then locks up that force in a fleeting shadow.

14th May

When one person tells a lie, countless others tell it as a truth.
Zen proverb.
No comment needed.

13th May

Student: "The light of the Buddha's wisdom illuminates the whole world."
Master: "You are quoting scriptures aren't you?"
Student: "Yes."
Master: "You are lost. A greedy fish opens his mouth when he sees the hook."
A student, who is greedy for wisdom, will swallow anything.

12th May

If your eyes are even slightly blurred,
all you see is hallucinations.
Zen saying.
To use the eyes as a means of identifying the real is to walk in the world of the unreal.

11th May

Master Hogen asked a monk, "Look at this big old stone.
Do you think it is inside or outside of your mind?"
The monk replied, "According to Buddhist teachings,
everything is a projection of the mind, so I conclude
that it is inside my mind." Hogen commented, "Don't you get tired carrying around such a heavy stone?"
This passage indicates that the mind and the stone are as heavy as each other.

10th May

Student: "I have nothing."
Master: "Then throw it away."
To say, "I have nothing," indicates a perception
that there is a you who is without something,
and there is a something seperate from the you
who is percieving.

9th May

When you try to stop doing to achieve being,
this very effort fills you with doing.
Seng - T'san.
See yesterdays quote.

8th May

Four Zen pupils who were studying meditation had promised to observe a rule of silence for seven days.
On the first day all were silent. Their meditation sessions
had begun well, but when night came and the oil lamps
were burning dimly, one of the pupils could not help himself
exclaiming, " Someone should fix those lamps." The second pupil was shocked to hear him speak and cautioned him, "We are not supposed to say a word." "You idiots," said the third. "Now you've both spoken." "I am the only one who has not talked," proclaimed the fourth.
Please see the quote for tomorrow, to explain this quote today.

7th May

"Where are you going?" Asked Tung-shan of a student
who was sitting still with eyes shut. The student replied,
"I am entering meditation." Tung-shan said, " Meditation
has no gate. How can you enter into it?"
This quote indicates the misperception that one can do meditation,
that it is something one can drop in and out of.
Meditation is a state of being that exists eternally;
indeed, you are in it now as you read these words.

6th May

From a well-worn path we step into fog wherin
lies precipices, quagmires, and howling wilderness.
We must learn to walk on, through nonsense to a noble
Non-sense, from the tram lines of a settled mind, through
the trackless desert of no meaning, to the freedom of
"a mind that alights nowhere," and is based forever on
No-thought, No-purpose, and No-difference of any kind.
Christmas Humphreys.
No Comment needed.

5th May

A man asked, "How can one always be with Buddha?"
The master replied, " Keep your mind still. Treat the outside world with serene acceptance. Remain absolutely empty and calm. This is the way to be with Buddha."
No comment needed.

4th May

The person who dallies on the edge of the stream, wondering how best to take the plunge, testing the water with his toes, and thinking about how it will feel when he is in, soon gets into the habit of putting off the issue. The Zen disciple must walk quietly to the edge and slip calmly into the water without further ado, without allowing himself time to conjure up fears and anxious speculations as to what it will be like, or to find elaborate reasons as to why he should not get in at once.
Alan Watts.
No explanation needed.

3rd May

Stop chasing after things. Let mildew form on your mouth. Have no resistance, like perfect silk. Only think of eternity. Be cold and lifeless as ashes from old incense in a deserted shrine.
Shih-Shuang.
This reveals the truth that if you put your mind on any subject with an opinion, it calls in the Cosmic Law of Attraction and Repulsion, action and reaction. Although your mind was created to function in this way, holding your focus on the balance between the two polarities will keep you centred in eternity.

2nd May

When you are practising zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer in five or at most ten minutes, your mind will be completely serene and calm.
Shinryu Suzuki.
No explanation needed.

1st May

One inch of meditation, one inch of Buddha;
so inch by inch, make the six-foot form of Buddha.
Zen saying
This indicates that through the constant practice of meditation your Buddha Nature, which is your True Self, will shine through the veils of the mind.