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
Month: May 2014
The many faces
A man came up to Jesus and complained about the hiddenness of God. ‘Rabbi, he said, ‘I am an old man. During my whole life, I have always kept the commandments. Every night of my life, I have not retired to my bed without first saying my prayers. But … I look at stars and sometimes the mountains – and wait, wait for God to come so that I might see him. I have waited for years and years, but in vain. Why? Why? Mine is a great grievance, Rabbi! Why doesn’t God show himself?’
Jesus smiled and responded gently: ‘Once upon a time there was a marble throne at the eastern gate of a great city. On this throne sat 3,000 kings. All of them called upon
God to appear so that they might see him, but all went to their graves with their wishes unfulfilled. ‘Then, when the kings had died, a pauper, barefooted and hungry, came and sat upon that throne. “God,” he whispered, “the eyes of a human being cannot look directly at the sun, for they would be blinded. How then can they look directly at you? Have pity, Lord, temper your strength, and turn down your splendour so that I, who am poor and afflicted, may see you!”
‘Then – listen, old man – God became a piece of bread, a cup of cool water, a warm tunic, a hut and, in front of the hut, a woman nursing an infant.’ ‘Thank you, Lord,’ he whispered. ‘You humbled yourself for my sake. You became the bread, water, a warm tunic, and a wife and a child in order that I might see you. And I did see you. I bow down and worship your beloved many-faced face.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Miracle is all around us
Faith does not spring out of nothing.
It comes with the discovery of the holy dimension of our existence.
Suddenly we become aware that our lips touch the veil
That hangs before the Holy of Holies.
Our faith is lit up for a time with the light from behind the veil.
Faith opens our hearts for the entrance of the holy.
This is how close we are to the holy.
When we open ourselves up to the possibility
That God can be there in any moment,
Miracle is all around us.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Suddenly we become Aware
Beyond good and bad
Our minds are continually splitting our experiences into “good” and “bad”, and coming to quick conclusions which can close down our openness to what is happening.
An extract from the visit of a small boy named Sin Hae to the temple of Hui Neng, the sixth and last Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, 638–713
Sin Hae stood up and bowed, saying, “Teach me.”
Hui Neng said, “You should not think of good and of bad; cut all thinking and all speech. Right now, what is it that teaches you?”
Sin Hae bowed, saying, “I don’t know.”
The Zen Master said, “Keep this ‘don’t know’ mind at all times, and you will understand what teaches you.”
The door
Consciously or unconsciously, we avoid facing things as they are in themselves
and so we want God to open a door for us which is beyond…
(but) to find life’s purpose we must go through the door of ourselves
Jiddu Krisnamurti
Travelling too fast
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us
photo joseph Mischyshyn
Mindfulbalance 