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Leaves on the tree.
All existences are like Origin and end come Origin and end alike
Taisen Deshimaru
Sitting meditation.
Sitting meditation
Daikaku (1213-1279)
Instructions for meditation.
Practice regularly and patiently, without having too many expectations. You should understand that basically meditation is not a "method". In daily life observe your actions, communication, feelings and thoughts clearly and objectively, without attachment or resistance.
Tae Hye Sunim
Shoitsu's Zen.
Zen is not conception or perception; The way is beyond cultivated effects;
Shoitsu (1202-1280)
Kuei-feng's mind.
The mind: it is vacuous, empty, sublime, and exquisite; As it does not arise or cease,
Kuei-feng
The perception of sages.
The slightest entangling thought can cause hellish actions; Just end egocentric feelings, the perception of sages appears
Zen Master
Achieve enlightenment.
It is nonsense to insist Because wisdom is innate,
Hui-neng (638-713)
Simple and clear.
Life is short and fragile, why not cultivating kindness instead of committing acts which cause harm to living beings and to yourself?
The art of living.
Ryokan's teaching.
Where there is beauty, there is ugliness. Wanting to chuck out one and hold onto the other You must still deal with everything ever-changing,
Ryokan (1758-1831)
Acting without mind.
People of the way journey through the world Like clouds finally raining, they act without mind,
Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)
This mind is the Buddha.
This mind is the Buddha means that beyond this mind you'll never find another Buddha. Buddha is Sanskrit for what you call aware, miraculously aware. Seeing your nature is Ch'an. Unless you see your nature, it's not Ch'an.
Bodhidharma (440-528)
Cause and effect.
When a fish swims, the water becomes muddied; Just as an object is reflected in a polished mirror,
Chia-shan Yuan-wu
It is to be your awareness.
Question: What is beholding the luminosity of the Mind? Answer: If your mind is very quiet, you will see the very energy which is moving, which allows you to be an animate being. It is your awareness. It is to actually fold back into your awareness. Beholding the luminosity of your own mind is meditation.
Taken from unpublished transcripts
Sitting in meditation.
What is it in this teaching we call "Sitting in meditation?" In this teaching, "sitting" means without any obstruction anywhere.
Huineng
The power of Dharma
Although we know that a frozen pond is entirely water, When the pond has melted, the water flows freely.
Kuei-feng
Study the teachings
Study the teachings of the pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom. The pine is evergreen, firmly rooted, and venerable. Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, Always keep your body filled with light and heat.
Morihei Ueshiba
The realm of Buddhahood
If you want to know the realm of Buddhahood, Leave false thinking and all grasping far behind, The realm of Buddhahood is not some external world where there is a formal "Buddha."
Zen Master Ta-hui (1088-1163)
The flower of Being
Only break through the world of words Just become suddenly still, inside and out,
Ji Aoi Isshi
The pure light.
If you want to be no different from the buddhas and Zen masters, The pure light in a moment of awareness in your mind
Lin Chi
To practice the Tao.
To practice the Tao is like defending the forbidden Royal Palace under invasion: Behold, if the freezing cold has not yet penetrated to the core of your bones,
Huang Po
Wordless question
Nothing is equal to the power of a wordless question... a naked question mark whose primal energy is glowing within. The living question alone has the power, not to create this objective awareness, but rather to facilitate it by piercing through the wall of thought. Awaken to an awareness that is always here to be remembered.
Enlightening
The treasure house
My teacher said to me: "The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it.
Dazhu (487-593)
Two choices, one chance.
The Case: On being asked if a dog has the Buddha nature, Commentary: Two choices, one chance. Verse: When confronted by people, you can say yes or no. Teaching: A monk asked Chao Chou: "Does a dog have the nature of awakening?" "No", said the Master. Another time, another monk asked him the same question. Chao Chou answered: "Yes". Why two contradictory replies to the same question? Because of the difference of the mentality of the two questioners. The answers "yes" and "no" here are skillful means aimed at producing an effect on the minds of the practitioners. Each reply does not claim to be an objective truth. On the conceptual level, objective truth is on the side of the word "yes", because in Mahayana Buddhist circles it is said that every being has the nature of awakening. But in the world of ultimate reality, the word "yes" is no longer a concept that is opposed to the concept "no". The words "yes" and "no" act here on the practitioners in different ways. That is why their significance can only be received subjectively by each practitioner concerned. Life is more than concepts, do not understand "no" as nothingness; do not take it to be a concept of "non being" as opposed to "being". We lose our lives if we depart from living reality and dwell only in the world of conceptual phantoms. We will be a ghost, a being without flesh or bones.
Thich Nhat Hanh (Zen keys, Thorsons)
The practice of non-action
Those who would realize the practice of non action must arrive at the non-perception of the errors of people. This is non-moving nature. Deluded people simply stop the movement of their bodies, but as soon as they open their mouths they are talking about peoples' rights and wrongs, and contradicting the Way.
Huineng (638-713)
Mindless world
If you want to cut directly through, don't entertain doubts about Buddhas, or doubts about life and death; just always let go and make your heart empty and open. When things come up, deal with them according to the occasion. Be like the stillness of water, like the clarity of a mirror. Whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly approach, you don't make the slightest move to avoid them. Then you will truly know that the mindless world of spontaneity is inconceivable.
Ta Hui (1088-1163)
The Buddha-dharma
The Buddha-dharma is present in all your daily activities. It is present during your walking, standing, sitting, and reclining, while drinking tea and eating rice, during conversation and dialogue, in whatever you do and perform. To stir up your mind and set thoughts in motion is indeed far from being correct.
Wei-fu
One thought of purity.
If a person sits in stillness for one instant, it is better than building seven-jeweled stupas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Those jeweled stupas will finally be reduced to dust, but one thought of purity of mind produces right enlightenment.
An ancient text
Stable Faith.
If you want to study this path, you must have stable faith, so that your mind is unaffected whether it encounters favorable or adverse sensory objects. Then and only then will you go in the right direction. If you're half clear and half unclear, your mind will give rise to confusion and doubt.
Ta-hui Tsung-kao
The Practice of Meditation
Truth is perfect and complete in itself. It is not something newly discovered; it has always existed. Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, Since not one of your steps leads away from it.
Dogen
Words
Words cannot describe everything. The heart's message cannot be delivered in words. If one receives words literally, he will be lost. If he tries to explain with words, he will not attain enlightenment in this life.
Mu-mon
Awakening
The term awakening means that the mind-essence is free from thought. This detachment from thought is characterized as similar to space: it is universal.
from "The Awakening of Faith"
Optical delusion
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
Albert Einstein
As thought follows thought
Above all don't wish to become a future Buddha; your only concern should be, as thought follows thought, to avoid clinging to any of them.
Dogen
Let go
Do not try to seek the Truth, just don't cling to opinion and you won't linger in dualism. Let go, leave things as they are, obey the true nature of things and you're in harmony with the Way.
T'sen T'sang
Where do we seek?
Buddha is concealed within the sentient beings. If for one instant of thought we become impartial, then sentient beings are themselves Buddha. In our mind itself a Buddha exists, our own Buddha is the true Buddha. If we do not have in ourselves the Buddha mind, then where are we to seek Buddha?
Hui Neng
Beginner's mind (Shoshin)
This is the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Then we can really learn something. In the beginner's mind there is no thought, "I have attained something." If you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves.
Shunryu Suzuki.
What is this true meditation?
What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, actions, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan. Then rising or staying, moving or still, "at all times test to see whether you have lost the true meditation or have not lost it." This is the true practice of the sages of the past and of today. You must become aware that meditation is the thing that points out your own innate appearance. To carry on the real practice of seeing into your own nature by transcending the great matter of birth and death is by no means an easy thing to do. Placing the essential between the two states, the active and the passive, and being in a position to be able to move in any direction, with the true principle of pure, undiluted undistracted meditation before your eyes, attain a state of mind in which, even though surrounded by crowds of people, it is as if you were alone in a field extending tens of thousands of miles
Hakuin
We miss nothing
We all are endowed with wisdom and ability of Buddhas. We miss nothing. We all are gifted with this precious jewel which is the Buddha Nature. Through eternity radiating the purest brightness.
Hakuin
Hell and Paradise
When one realizes the truth, there are no delusions concerning personal desires or self-limited ideas. One then knows there is no ego entity existing within and sees clearly the voidness of all forms as merely shadow in relation to both subjective and objective elements. If you live in this Zen, you can leave hell in your dreams of yesterday, and make your own paradise wherever you stand.
Yoka Daishi (- 713)
Vital Question
Can we learn to look and question in such a way that thought negates itself within the depths of the vital unknown? To do so, thought must come to pose a living question unanswerable in words; in that questioning lies the reversal of the energy of the mind. Is there a way to ask such a question deeply with no reliance on words at all? This kind of vital questioning is somehow empowered to evoke an entirely new state, a creative state in which the habitual tendencies of the mind are curbed.
G. BlueStone
The three jewels of Bodhidharma
Question: What is Buddha-Mind? Answer: Your mind is it. When you see the self-same essence of it, you can call it suchness. When you see the changeless nature of it, you can call it Dharmakaya. It does not belong to anything; therefore, it is called Emancipation. It works easily and freely, being never disturbed by others; therefore, it is called the True Path. It was not born, and, therefore, it is not going to perish, so it is called Nirvana.
Question: What is Tathagata? Answer: One who knows that he comes from nowhere and goes nowhere.
Question: What is Buddha? Answer: One who realizes the truth, and holds nothing that is to be realized.
Question: What is Dharma? Answer: It was never produced, and will never be reduced; therefore, it is called Dharma, the norm of the Universe.
Question: What is Sangha? Answer: It is so named because of the beauty of its harmony.
Bodhidharma
The practice of the Bodhisattva
The mind is the key factor in the practice of the Bodhisattva. Realizing the "True Nature" or "True Mind" moment by moment is the Bodhisattva practice. The authentic spirit and the fundamental feature of the Bodhisattva action is to act with compassion without damaging any sentient being and helping them to develop and keep a clear mind of understanding. To criticize other people and celebrate themselves is a common behaviour for the most. Should people turn their mindfulness light inwards and stop criticizing outwards with a fragmented mind, it would be possible to create, starting from ourselves, a peace and harmony dimension, radiating towards families, society and countries. This practice is very important for the Bodhisattva who always should recognize its own defects, avoiding in this way, the possibility they grow so much, to be, then, unamendable, till they become an obstacle in helping other people to get free from theirs. One should never denigrate any aspect of the Dharma, i.e. despising as inadequate other school teachings.
Tae Hye Sunim
No Effort
Suchness is the ultimate reality. How can birth and death touch you? Awaken early to the pink dawn. Peace comes without effort.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditate means to be totally in the present moment, the mind undisturbed by the past or the future. Being totally in the present requires the complete acceptance of ourselves the way we are, including our whole past, together with all the events the result of which, is what we are now. This means to be in the center of our mind, in other words: completely opened. Then we say: we are at home, we have arrived.
Karl Riedl
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