This shell is not of my own making
Borrowing it from heaven and earth
I live out each and every day
Eichi Enomoto, 1903 – 1998, Hermit crab
One’s life is a combination of what one borrows and what one is gifted with. Without borrowing all the strength from heaven and earth, one cannot truly live, even for a minute
Shunda Aoyama, Zen Seeds
We can wish that things were different, but…
Where is liberation to be found? The Buddha taught that both human suffering and human enlightenment are found in our own fathom-long body with its senses and mind. If not here and now, where else will we find it?
Jack Kornfield
Our difficulties are not obstacles to the path; they are the path itself. They are opportunities to awaken. Can we learn what it means to welcome an unwanted situation, with its sense of groundlessness, as a wake-up call? Can we look at it as a signal that there is something here to be learned? Can we allow it to penetrate our hearts? By learning to do this, we are taking the first step toward learning what it means to open to life as it is. We are learning what it means to be willing to be with whatever life presents us. Even when we don’t like it, we understand that this difficulty is our practice, our path, our life.
Ezra Bayda, Being Zen
Once a day, take a moment to remember your real life’s work and differentiate it from the games you play in order to achieve it.
Then, commit to playing wholeheartedly.
Martha Beck
The pandemic has meant that we have lost a lot of what we were accustomed to. Can we still look for beauty or “see the moon” when our modern day structures fall?
The barn’s burnt down,
now I can see the moon.
Mizuta Masahide, 1657–1723, Japanese Zen poet
Every moment gives rise to a new perception, a new action, a new awareness, a new self. For a fraction of a mind-moment nothing is conditioned yet; anything is possible, everything is workable. No matter how much we like or dislike, or are hurt or maimed by a thought, action or event, our attitudes do not colour the event itself, only our relationship to it.
As this is so, no matter how much we stomp or shout or cajole or whine, reality is what it is. In this is sacredness and dignity.
Anzan Hoshin roshi, Cutting the Cat Into One: the Practice of the Bodhisattva Precepts
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