The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are,
to observe things as they are,
and to let everything go as it goes…
Shunryu Suzuki roshi, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
As it goes
Month: February 2024
Sunday Quote: Attention
What you look hard at
seems to look hard at you.
Gerald Manley Hopkins
Welcome and unwelcome
Most days we will encounter some things that are “unwanted” even if only bad weather
Even now,
decades after,
I wash my face with cold water –
Not for discipline, nor memory, nor the icy, awakening slap,
but to practice
choosing
to make the unwanted wanted.
Jane Hirshfield, A Cedary Fragrance. In her twenties, she lived in a Zen monastery, with no electricity or hot water.
Each matter
You should speak appropriately about the affairs of your own life,
for each matter you encounter
constitutes the meaning of your existence.
Mazu Daoyi, 709–88, renowned ancient Chinese Zen master
Not seeing
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand;
the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
George Eliot
Our original face
If we’ve been eating a regular meal of resentment toward our spouse, our boss, our parents, or “the world,” the boat’s going to come back around in the next minute because it’s accustomed to us filling our plate. But we must be able to ask and to discover, “Who was I before I resented my spouse? And even before that?”
This is the primary way we learn to live in our True Self, where we are led by a foundational “yes,” not by the petty push backs of “no.”
Richard Rohr
Mindfulbalance 