Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Night Dharma



How restlessly the buddha sleeps
between my ears, dreaming his dreams
of emptiness, writing his verbless poems
(I almost rejected"green tree
white goat red sun blue sea.")
Verbs are time's illusion, he says.

In the stillness that surrounds us
we think we have to probe our wounds,
but with what? Mind caresses mind
not by saying no or yes but neither.

Turn your watch back to your birth
for a moment, then way ahead beyond
any expectation. There never was a coffin
worth a dime. These words emerge
from the skin as the sweat of gods
who drink only from the great mothers breasts.

Buddha sleeps on, disturbed when I disturb
him from his liquid dreams of blood and bone.
With out comment he sees the raven carrying
off the infant snake, the lovers' foggy
gasps, the lion's tongue that skins us.

One day we dozed against a white pine stump
in a world of dogwood and sugar plum blossoms.
An eye for an eye, he said, trading
a left for my right, the air green tea
in the sky's blue cup.

Jim Harrison (Saving Daylight)



What is called mind is a wondrous power existing in Self. It projects all thoughts. If we set aside all thoughts and see, there will be no such thing as mind remaining separate; therefore, thought itself is the form of the mind. Other than thoughts, there is no such thing as the world.

Ramana Maharshi

Monday, March 23, 2009

Teh


What is bestowed on us at birth
is called human nature.
The fulfillment of human nature
is called the Tao.
The cultivation of the Tao
is the deepest form of learning.

The Tao is the way things are,
which you can't depart from
even for one instant.
If you depart from it,
it wouldn't be the Tao.
Therefore the Master
looks into her own heart
and respects what is unseen and unheard.

Nothing is more manifest than the hidden;
nothing is more obvious than the unseen.
Therefore the Master
pays attention to what is happening
within her innermost self.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Both the man and the animal have disappeared ,no traces are left,
The bright moonlight is empty and shadowless with with all the ten thousand objects in it ;
If anyone should ask the meaning of this ,
Behold the lilies of the field and its fresh sweet-scented verdure .

On believing in Mind (Shinjin-no-Mei)

1. The perfect Way knows no difficulties
Except that it refuses to make preferences ;
Only when freed from hate and love ,
It reveals itself fully and without disguise .

A tenth of an inch's difference ,
And heaven and earth are set apart ;
If you wish to see it before your own eyes ,
Have no fixed thoughts for or against it .

2. To set up what you like against what you dislike-
This is the disease of the mind :
When the deep meaning (of the Way) is not understood
Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose .

3. (The Way is) perfect like unto vast space ,
With nothing wanting , nothing superfluous :
It is indeed due to making choice
That suchness is lost sight of .

4. Pursue not the outer entanglements ,
Dwell not in the inner void ;
Be serene in the oneness of things ,
and (dualism) vanishes by itself .

5. When you strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion ;
The quiescence thus gained is ever in motion ;
As long as you tarry in the dualism ,
How can you realize oneness ?

6. And when oneness is not thoroughly understood ,
In two ways loss is sustained :
The denying of reality is the asserting of it ,
And the asserting of emptiness is the denying of it .

7. Wordiness and intellection-
The more with them the further astray we go ;
Away therefore with wordiness and intellection ,
And there is no place where we cannot pass freely .

8. When we return to the root , we gain the meaning ;
When we pursue external objects , we lose the reason .
The moment we are enlightened within ,
We go beyond the voidness of a world confronting us .

9. Transformations going on in an empty world which confronts us
Appear real all because of ignorance :
Try not to seek after the true ,
Only cease to cherish opinions .

10. Abide not with dualism ,
Carefully avoid pursuing it ;
As soon as you have right and wrong ,
Confusion ensues , and the Mind is lost .

Manual of Zen Buddhism (D.T.Suzuki)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

night falls to return
soon the solar dance will come
fire burns to ash

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What the thunder said

After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

T . S . Eliot

Tuesday, March 17, 2009


To study the way is to study the self . To study the self is to forget the self . To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe . To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others . Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out , and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever .

Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)C.E.
http://www.rafa.com/graphics/ls24yoshikazu.jpg

beautiful

Stillness

Stillness of a gentle rain
city light reflecting the low belly of clouds
spaces between
waiting
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Posted by Picasa
What good is it to spend your life accumulating material things ? It isn't in keeping with the Tao. What benefit in conforming your behavior to some one's conventions ? It violates your nature and dissipates your energy . Why separate your spiritual life and your practical life ? To an integral being , there is no such distinction . Live Simply and Virtuously , true to your nature , drawing no line between what is spiritual and what is not . Ignore time .
Relinquish ideas and concepts . Embrace the Oneness . This is the integral Way. Brian Walker (Hua Hu Ching)