http://poorgirleatswell.blogspot.com/
Lots of yummy pictures and great food ideas, not to mention a kick-butt Blog name. :)
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Non-being
When people see some things as beautiful
other things become ugly
When people see some things as good
other things become bad
Being and non-being create each other
Difficult and easy support each other
Long and short define each other
High and low depend on each other
Before and after follow each other
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything
Things arise and she lets them come
things disappear and she lets them go
She has but doesn't possess
acts but doesn't expect
When her work is done, she forgets it
That is why it lasts forever
other things become ugly
When people see some things as good
other things become bad
Being and non-being create each other
Difficult and easy support each other
Long and short define each other
High and low depend on each other
Before and after follow each other
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything
Things arise and she lets them come
things disappear and she lets them go
She has but doesn't possess
acts but doesn't expect
When her work is done, she forgets it
That is why it lasts forever
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Seeker
What manner of people were these who, like the carp in the Chinese fable that leapt up the waterfall in a mighty thrust to tecome a dragon, could rise to a higher level of consciousness, to a wholly new awareness of the indivisibility of all life and the basic emptiness of all things? Certainly none was gifted with extraordinary intellect, nor were any endowed with supranormal powers. Suffering they had each known, but it was no more than what is experienced in the lifetime of an ordinary person. If they were exceptional in any way it was simply in their courage to "go they knew not where by a road they knew not of," prompted by a faith in their real Self.
The seeker who does not find is still entrapped by his illusion of two worlds: one of perfection that lies beyond, of peace without struggle, of unending joy; the other the everyday meaningless world of pain and evil which is scarcely worth relating himself to. Secretly he longs for the former even as he openly despises the latter. Yet he hesitates to plunge into the teeming Void, into the abyss of his own Primal-nature, because in his deepest unconscious he fears abandoning his familiar world of duality for the unknown world of Oneness, the reality of which he still doubts. The finders, on the other hand, are restrained by neither fears nor doubts. Casting both aside, they leap because they can't do otherwise - they simply must and no longer know why - and so they triumph.
The seeker who does not find is still entrapped by his illusion of two worlds: one of perfection that lies beyond, of peace without struggle, of unending joy; the other the everyday meaningless world of pain and evil which is scarcely worth relating himself to. Secretly he longs for the former even as he openly despises the latter. Yet he hesitates to plunge into the teeming Void, into the abyss of his own Primal-nature, because in his deepest unconscious he fears abandoning his familiar world of duality for the unknown world of Oneness, the reality of which he still doubts. The finders, on the other hand, are restrained by neither fears nor doubts. Casting both aside, they leap because they can't do otherwise - they simply must and no longer know why - and so they triumph.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Robotic Zen
New Age Zen Master: Has a Robotic-Dog the Buddha-nature?
what?
ummm ... well ...
MU?!? ... But ....
Grrrr!
*sigh*
Monday, January 12, 2009
Looking Under the Lamp
"In an old Sufi story about the wise-fool Mullah Nasrudin, the Mulllah is seen searching for a key under a street lamp. Helpful passersby join in the search but to no avail. They ask the Mullah if he is sure about that he lost the key there. The Mullah replies that he lost it yards away under a tree but since its dark there he thought of looking under the street lamp."
The lesson? People don't want to do real work! Most of us just want to look like we are doing real inner work. Look busy so we feel better about where we are and going. We are trying to "Figure Out" the truth, read it in a book, or receive it from others!
Why? Because the light is brighter there! The work is, therefore, easier!
To find our way, towards enlightenment, we must do it alone, most of the time. It might seem dark initially, but as our eyes adjust, it becomes brighter. Eventually we will see everything. We learn to use our own light, our own language, and our own intelligence. What we find is a truth beyond what an individual can "figure out". We become greater than any self image, and wiser than any fixed dogma frozen in language. We discover a field of knowing, a bliss where all thinking ends, all separation ends, all suffering ends.
We can now see clearly that it has never been otherwise. The only difference is that now everything has its own meaning, and we don't have to carry anything again! Most of us pay a big price by looking under the street lamp! Most just read another book.
Be a lamp to yourself.
Be your own confidence.
Hold the truth within yourself, as to
the only truth. - Buddha
Bill Savoie - The Bridge to One
The lesson? People don't want to do real work! Most of us just want to look like we are doing real inner work. Look busy so we feel better about where we are and going. We are trying to "Figure Out" the truth, read it in a book, or receive it from others!
Why? Because the light is brighter there! The work is, therefore, easier!
To find our way, towards enlightenment, we must do it alone, most of the time. It might seem dark initially, but as our eyes adjust, it becomes brighter. Eventually we will see everything. We learn to use our own light, our own language, and our own intelligence. What we find is a truth beyond what an individual can "figure out". We become greater than any self image, and wiser than any fixed dogma frozen in language. We discover a field of knowing, a bliss where all thinking ends, all separation ends, all suffering ends.
We can now see clearly that it has never been otherwise. The only difference is that now everything has its own meaning, and we don't have to carry anything again! Most of us pay a big price by looking under the street lamp! Most just read another book.
Be a lamp to yourself.
Be your own confidence.
Hold the truth within yourself, as to
the only truth. - Buddha
Bill Savoie - The Bridge to One
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Attention
The importance of single-mindedness, of bare attention, is illustrated in the following anecdote:
One day a man of the people said to Zen Mater Ikkyu: "Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?"
Ikkyu immediately took his brush and wrote the word "Attention."
"Is that all?" asked the man. "Will you not add something more?"
Ikkyu then wrote twice running: "Attention. Attention."
"Well," remarked the man rater irritably, "I really don't see much depth or subtlety in what you have just written."
Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times running: "Attention. Attention. Attention."
Half-angered, the man demanded: "What does that word 'Attention' mean anyway?"
And Ikkyu answered gently: "Attention means attention."
For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible; his life is thus centered not in reality itself but in his ideas of it. By focusing the mind wholly on each object and every action, zazen strips it of extraneous thoughts and allows us to enter into a full rapport with life.
- The Three Pillars of ZEN
One day a man of the people said to Zen Mater Ikkyu: "Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?"
Ikkyu immediately took his brush and wrote the word "Attention."
"Is that all?" asked the man. "Will you not add something more?"
Ikkyu then wrote twice running: "Attention. Attention."
"Well," remarked the man rater irritably, "I really don't see much depth or subtlety in what you have just written."
Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times running: "Attention. Attention. Attention."
Half-angered, the man demanded: "What does that word 'Attention' mean anyway?"
And Ikkyu answered gently: "Attention means attention."
For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible; his life is thus centered not in reality itself but in his ideas of it. By focusing the mind wholly on each object and every action, zazen strips it of extraneous thoughts and allows us to enter into a full rapport with life.
- The Three Pillars of ZEN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
