No Rehearsal

"Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed."

Dr. Wayne Dyer, PhD."

Mind That Is Not Moving

"If your mind is not moving, everything is beautiful, just as it is. If your mind is moving, however, then even if a beautiful picture, beautiful landscape, or other beautiful things appear in front of you, this view quickly changes in your mind, and it does not seem so beautiful."

Zen Master Seung Sahn
Excerpt | The Compass of Zen"

Faith In Yourself

"Do you know where the disease lies which keeps you learners from reaching [true understanding]? It lies where you have no faith in your Self. When faith in your Self is lacking you find yourselves hurried by others in every possible way. At every encounter you are no longer your master; you are driven about by others this way and that."


Rinzai Gigen Zenji Dai Osho
Trans. | Eido Shimano Roshi
Excerpt | Rinzai Roku

Sharing Mind at Peace

"Zazen practice is the practice of changing our attitude toward all things that confront us in our everyday lives. That is, to attain 'The Mind at peace' no matter what happens and to share it with others is exactly what Zazen practice is all about."

Eido Shimano Roshi
Excerpt | Golden Wind - Zen Talks

Taking New Action

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."

Anthony Robbins

I know this is about Zen but...

I received a letter from Verizon Wireless regarding my cell phone insurance. As I was reading the new contract, I saw some interesting things in there. There are some things that your phone is,not covered by:

A. Governmental authority (including seizures and destruction of property)
B. Nuclear hazard (including Nuclear reaction and radiation.
C. War (both declared and undeclared...Warlike action, insurrection, rebellion, revolution, usurped power or action taken by governmental authority.

Basically after you get through reading all the stuff, nothing is covered. But the above was very striking, given that I live in America with a highly stable (though crappy... Go Progressives!) government. I'd hate to seriously consider a time when something like that stuff could seriously happen here. Talk about impermanence.

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO.com

A Vast Mind

"Many people only live in a very, very small world, created by their opinions, their likes and dislikes. But the Buddha taught that we should keep our mind large and open and clear like space. Then we can always function compassionately for others. That is a very important point.

Seung Sahn, Zenji Dai Osho
Excerpt | The Compass of Zen

A Perfect Circle

"By the continuous practice of all Buddha's and ancestors, your practice is actualized and your great road opens up. By your continuous practice, the continuous practice of all the Buddha's is actualized and the great road of all the Buddha's opens up. Your continuous practice creates the circle of the Way."

Dogen Zenji Dai Osho

We Make A Difference

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Robert F. Kennedy

Please Don't Revise

"When someone disagrees with me, I do not have to immediately start revising what I just said. People don't want me to always agree with them. They can sense this is phony. They can sense I am trying to control them: I am agreeing with them to make them like me. They feel; I DON'T exist to like you."

Hugh Prather
Notes To Myself | My struggle to become a person

Purpose

"Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you."

Wayne Dyer PhD.

Dissolve This!

I think that the reason that it's important to resolve problems and conflicts they we are either having or have had in the past is that we can become anchored to them in a negative way. When we avoid resolving a problem, a memory of it is stored in our psyche. Later when something happens (that feels or seems) similar to the past problem, that memory surfaces and we filter this new experience through that past memory which can taint the present moment and the reality of the situation.

Maybe a good example is that you are driving down the road at fifty miles an hour and then you throw a 100 lb. anchor out the back window. The act of doing that is either going to slow you down or stop you all together.

It seems that is better to work towards finding a way to dissolve the conflicts as opposed to carry them. It is then that we have a greater potential for freedom within our mind, since it's not being dragged this way and that.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digialZENDO.com

Being Authentic

"When someone disagrees with me, I do not have to immediately start revising what I just said. People don't want me to always agree with them. They can sense this is phony. They can sense I am trying to control them: I am agreeing with them to make them like me. They feel; I don't want to exist to like you. I DON'T exist to like you."

Hugh Prather
Notes To Myself | My struggle to become a person

One Pointed Mind

"Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine."

Shunryu Suzuki, Zenji Dai Osho

Essential for Survival

"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival."

H.H. The Dalai Lama

Mysterious Relationship

"You students go through your lives, thinking very big ideas. I often call this bumpkin view. You might say "I choose this, I choose that". You think that you make "all" the decisions. I would say this. As much as you think that you choose your lives, life also chooses you. It is a mysterious relationship. If we don't understand this, we'll will make all sorts of trouble for ourselves. Our lives are a two way street! Remember this, the next time you are so-called picking something. Is that thing picking you as well?"

Eido Shimano Roshi

Hurt

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

- As Preformed by Johnny Cash

Today's Challenge

The last two weeks has been a really tough time for me. I have faced some serious challenges. The entire time I have consistently looked at my motivations and interactions to make sure I did not walk away from the Buddhistic principles that I have used to anchor my life. I've been seeking to understand others who are involved in this process and though many of the things that have happened to me are not fair, refused to give into anger. I'm powerless over other people and whether they decide to act dishonestly or not. I'm not powerless over my reactions.

I keep thinking, "what is the big lesson in all of this?" Maybe it's not to give up on my personal sense of integrity. Maybe my response is the answer. And maybe the answer is "Give yourself to the Dharma and the Dharma will give itself to you." The dust is still settling and I'll see how all this turns out after today but I sure as heck refuse to allow others to chose my emotions for me.

Paradox, Humor and Change

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO.com

One with Buddhism

"Reflect quietly on whether your mind and actions are one with Buddhism or not. If you do you will realize how shameful they are. The penetrating eyes of the Buddhas and Patriarchs are constantly illuminating the entire universe."

Dogen Zenji Dai Osho

Attention Means Attention

"Paying attention may seem like a very simple thing, but when we look at how our minds actually work, it becomes apparent that, in fact, we pay attention much less than we might think. 'For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices,' says Kapleau Roshi, bare attention is virtually impossible; his life is thus centered not on reality itself but in his ideas about it."

Rick Fields
Excerpt | Chop Wood Carry Water

Unified Mind

"A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe."

Wayne Dyer PhD.

Ceasing Delusion

"Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest."

Dogen Zenji Dai Osho

Commitment to Self

"You do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. The single relationship that is truly central and crucial in a life - is the relationship to the self. Of all the people you will know in a lifetime, you are the only one you will never lose."

Jo Coudert

What We See and Hear

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

Marcus Aurelius