Identifying With the Background

I had always identified with the foreground of life,
but now I was identifying with the background.

Brian Howlett

Silence is More Suitable

Silence is more suitable to Zen
than eloquence.

Old Saying

Advice to Poets

Learn about pines from the pines,
and about bamboo from the bamboo.

Matsuo Basho

What They Are

What if events don't have to be
anything other than what they are?

John Tarrant

Without Armor

Instead of wrestling toward
what you are convinced ought to be going on,
it might be refreshing to approach events without armor,
meeting their nakedness with your nakedness.
That might also be a kind approach, since it sets up
no conflict in your own heart.

John Tarrant

Not Difficult

 Zhaozhou often quoted this saying by Sengcan:
"The great way is not difficult
if you just don't pick and choose."

Working with the Koan

When you work with the koan,
what you are either with or without
is your map, your cherished beliefs,
your story about how your life
should be at the moment
in which you find yourself.

John Tarrant

Those Who Discriminate

Everything is suffering

for those who discriminate.

Patanjali (Yoga Sutras)

This Practice Continues Forever

When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.
That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
This practice continues forever.

Shunryu Suzuki

A Confidence

The path is founded in the deepening of your practice,
and in a confidence that's not confident that you've got
all the answers. It's a confidence in being on the path.

John Tarrant

No Difference

We are free when there is no difference
between ourselves and the universe.

John Tarrant

Highly Personal Business

Spirituality is a highly personal business.
It is a person's unique relationship with reality.

Yet, the moment it is taken out of the person

and objectified in the form of a system of thought

it is no longer a personal affair.

Shiv Sengupta

Nowhere You Can't Go

Step aside from all thinking,
and there is nowhere you can't go.

Seng-ts'an (Third Founding Teacher of Zen)

A Lover of What Is

The more clearly you understand yourself

and your emotions, the more you become

a lover of what is.

Baruch Spinoza

Disturbed by Our Thoughts

We are disturbed not by what happens to us,
but by our thoughts about what happens.

Epictetus

The Most Important Question

The most important question a person can ask is,
"Is the Universe a friendly place?"

Albert Einstein