Happy Accidents

"Truth is something you stumble into when you think you are going someplace else."

Jerry Garcia

The Person of Resolve

"You students, if you wish to achieve the perfection of correct training, you really must be a person of resolve. You are hopeless, if your will power is not strong enough to get rid of circumstantial influences; an earthenware container with a crack can't hold milk in it. A person must believe in themselves and mustn't be misled by others. If you can always be your own host wherever you go what you do will be necessarily right; never vacillate because of others."

Rinzai Gigen Zenji Dai Osho
Excerpt | Rinzai Roku (Sayings and Doings of Zen Master Rinzai)

Endless Transformation!

"Look about and contemplate life! Everything is transient and nothing endures. There is birth and death, growth and decay; there is combination and separation. The glory of the world is like a flower: it stands in full bloom in the morning and fades in the heat of the day.

Wherever you look, there is a rushing and a struggling, and an eager pursuit of pleasure. There is a panic flight from pain and death, and hot are the flames of burning desires. The world is Vanity Fair, full of changes and transformations. All is Samsara, the turning Wheel of Existence.

Is there nothing permanent in the world? Is there in the universal turmoil no resting-place where our troubled heart can find peace? Is there nothing everlasting? Oh, that we could have cessation of anxiety, that our burning desires would be extinguished! When shall the mind become tranquil and composed?"

Paul Carus, Translator
Excerpt | Gospel of Buddha

We Can Adapt To Our Circumstance

"Empty your mind,
Be formless, shapeless, like water.
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow, or it can crash,
Be water my friend."

Bruce Lee

Readiness of Mind

"In Japan we have the phrase, "Shoshin," which means "beginner's mind." Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few."

Shunryu Suzuki Zenji Dai Osho
Excerpt | Zen Mind -Beginners Mind

Straight to the Heart

"Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and of the world. It looks at things objectively. It does not falsely lull you into a fool's paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness."

Walpola Rahula
Excerpt | What the Buddha Taught

The Value of This Life

This morning I am writing my thoughts from an unfamiliar location. I'm in Pittsburgh, preparing to attend Ben's (my brother-in-law) funeral. My actual thoughts are from the evening gatha...

"Let me respectfully remind you,
Life and death are of supreme importance,
Time moves swiftly like an arrow,
and opportunity is lost,
Each of us should strive to awaken,
          Awaken!
Take heed. Do not squander your life."

True, true, true. As I move within my life, I am admonished to use and appreciate each moment as precious and in the end rare. How long will I or any of those that I know live. 70, 80, 90... a hundred years?

Yesterday while at Ben's Wake, my Uncle David, who is now very old said, "Is my memory accurate that you use to love skateboarding?" I said yes, I still do and and a matter of fact, I still love to do that with your niece. He laughed and said, "Every-time that I am watching TV and see one of those skateboard competitions, I always, always, always think of you and wonder how you are doing. I am getting old and my time is growing short. I know this. I just want you to hear from me that your father loved you very much and I deeply love you too. Remember that, despite the fact that we are family, we are also something that is even bigger than that." After that Uncle David hugged me and moved onward.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO.com

Realizing Interdependence

"The way to realize awakening is to realize the interdependence of each thing as it appears before you right now. Each and everything in the world can reveal the Dharma, if you give it your utmost respect. This is especially true of anything you have abandoned or rejected - those things that you do not think deserve your respect."

Reb Anderson, Tenshin Roshi
Excerpt - Being Upright"

Katsudo!

"If you want to realize your own Mind, you must first of all look into the source from which thoughts flow. Sleeping and working, standing and sitting, profoundly ask yourself, "What is my own Mind?" with an intense yearning to resolve this question. This is called ""training"" or "practice" or "desire for truth" or "thirst for realization." What is termed Zazen is no more than looking into one's own Mind."

Bassui Hogo Zenji Dai Osho
Trans. | Eido Shimano Roshi
Excerpt | Dharma Talk On One Mind

Passing Away

This morning at 5:30 I received a call from family members, letting me know that my Ben (my brother-in-law) passed away last night. It's painful for me because I have always regarded Ben as a kind of Bodhisattva. He was amazingly kind, funny - always enjoying a good joke, loved to fish and was a very good father to not only his children but myself as well. In all the years that I had been around him and my sister, not once did I ever see him raise his voice in anger or even present anger for that matter. I think the only path which he ever knew was that of generosity, ceaselessly giving.

In these last 7-8 months he had been struggling with cancer. It hardly seems fair, but he faced this challenge with great courage and dignity. There are times when I really do hate impermanence.

Shujo Mu Hen Seigan Do
Bo No Mu Jin Seigan Dan
Ho Mon Mu Ryo Seigan Gaku
Butsu Do Mu Jo Seigan Jo

Gassho,

Denshin Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalzendo.com

Centered 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.

Inside Out

"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

William James
Excerpt | The Variety of Religious Experiences

Light My Way

"Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people."

Mother Teresa

According to the Way

"To conduct one's life according to The Way,
is to conduct one's life without regrets;
to realize that potential within oneself
which is of benefit to all."

Excerpt: Tao To Ching

It Can Be A Small World

"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

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

Wake Up

"If not come to enlightenment in this lifetime, when will you?"

Bassui Hogo Zenji Dai Osho

Excerpt | Talk on One Mind"

In Sickness and Health

I and my oldest daughter ventured to the beach today, not to get out in the sun and lay on the beach but to see a movie. Crazy as it might seem we took time to go see "Sicko," by Michael Moore.

On the surface it's about our appalling health care system, there is a sub-story that is perhaps even more compelling, that I will discuss a little later. The movie starts with people it not really seeking to discuss. People without health care insurance. We see instances of people who have to figure out, "can I spend $60,000 to keep this finger or should I just spend $12,000 to keep the other one." In another brief instance we see examples of patients dumped out on the street; sick, disoriented and unable to pay. That inhumane behavior is almost too obvious and pathetic.

The heart of Sicko features people who like most of us who live under the illusion that we have access to the best health care system in the world, simply because we have "insurance." As it turns out that is not the case at all. As a matter of fact, we see innumerable instances where people have coverage but in not so dramatic fashion are denied services for any number of reasons and excuses. I won't deny that some of this is not justified, but strikingly clear examples where that person deserved the treatment but was refused for the sake of corporate gain and profits.

As Moore travels around the globe to countries similar to ourselves (e.g. Canada, Britain and France) we see universal health care systems that appear to work for their populations and far different than they are usually portrayed in our corporately controlled media environment. In one instance we see simple inhalers which cost $110.00 here in the USA and in Cuba (manufactured by the same company) they cost literally 5 cents. Yikes.

By the way, this is a good time to bring up that argument where politicians and people form the health care industry are always saying about universal health care. "You don't want the government telling you which doctor that you can see or which hospital that you can go to." Stop the tape right there. Your insurance company already does that. Ever heard of the term "out-of-network." I have Carefirst BC/BS. Though the doctor that I like very much is here close to my house in Delaware, I cannot use him, since he's not a Maryland doctor who is also a part of their network. I have to travel 30 minutes to see my Primary Care Physican (PCP), if something is wrong with me. My choice of doctor is absolutely controlled by a private company, not the government, so I wish that people would stop repeating that tired nonsense and wake up to the existing reality that we live under.

Whether it's in the streets of America or moving around the globe, each story is compelling. Some left me shaken, because I realized some of the issues presented could apply to my wife or children. This is especially true of the "preexisting condition" clause. Why? Because you can have a preexisting condition without actually being aware of it. Think about that for a second and what that implies. Staggering that you could be denied benefits for such a thing.

An despite the above, our friends in the UK, Canada and France never give such things a second thought. Shocking.

An this leads us to a larger and deeper message woven into Moore's storyline. It has to do with the question of "what do we serve?" There are moments that this film questions if we are actually "free." How's that? There's an interesting moment in the film, that honestly blew by me when it happened in real-time. (President) Bush was on stage with a woman, talking about working two jobs and getting ready to get a third one. Bush praises her saying, "isn't that great," implying that this was a good hard working American woman. In reality working three jobs leaves little time to feel human. It leaves little time to spend "quality time" with family, friends or the things which we care about. It's more important to feed the machine and become more distant and distracted from our true self. People are more than just widgets. When we live like widgets, we are not willing to "step-out-of-line," because doing so might jeopardizes what little that we do (think that we) have. And because of this fear we are actually "oppressed" without clearly recognizing that we are in a kind of trap or prison and actually involved in its maintenance. This became painfully clear when Moore was in The UK and France. I realized they enjoy greater levels of freedom than we enjoy here. And that I was not prepared for when I and my daughter where on our way to see Sicko.

I encourage you to go see Sicko. I'd be interested to know if you saw the same things. For myself, it has provided me a certain motivation to change some things in my life. But in order to make our lives better in the first place, we have to understand that we are genuinely sick, so that we can step out of our foggy delusion.

May You Live Well,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO.com

This Life is Real

"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.

Human Business

"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

A Special Comment

Given that it is Independence Day, I think that the perfect "Thought For the Day" comes from none other than Keith Olberman from MSNBC. Please check it out at MSNBC. Just click the "Launch" button to watch the video. It is amazing and eloquent.

In Fortitude,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Our Perspective

"Buddha said that the cause of stress and pain is that we don't have the proper perspective. Somehow we see things in an upside-down way.
What is the wrong perspective? My one perspective! We don't think of it as only one perspective.

How does this translate into our daily lives? Don't we often see others as wrong because they don't share our perspective? This causes constant clashes in relationships. The ego gets involved and we can't find our way out.

We become blind to everything but our own view. We can't see it's just one view. Why get so tied up with the?"

Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi
Excerpt | 24/7 Dharma - Impermanence No-Self Nirvana"

Interconnectedness

"Being connected (to Source) means that the need for conflict and confrontation is eliminated. Knowing that the same invisible force that flows through himself flows through all others allows the spiritual being to truly live the golden rule. The spiritual being thinks, "How I am treating others is essentially how I am treating myself, and vice versa." The meaning of "love thy neighbor as thyself" is clear to the spiritual being, while it is considered nonsense by the non-spiritual being. Negative judgment is not possible when one feels connected to all others. The spiritual being knows that he cannot define another by his judgments, that he only defines himself as a judgmental person."

Dr. Wayne Dyer PhD.