A clear bright field

From the beginning, we all have a clear, wondrously bright field.

The many lifetimes of misunderstanding come only from distrust, hindrance, and the screens of confusion that we create.

Having turned yourself around, accept your situation;

if you set foot on the path, spiritual energy will marvellously carry you forward.

Contact all phenomena with total sincerity, with not a single atom of dust from outside yourself.

Hongzhi Zhengjue 1091-1157, Chan master, The Misunderstanding of Many Lifetimes

Sunday Quote: a good day

Spring and all its flowers now
joyously break their vow of silence.
It is time for
celebration, not for
lying low.

Hafiz

The ordinary

We don’t have to have any qualifications to watch our breath. We do not even need to be particularly intelligent — all we have to do is to be content with, and aware of, one inhalation and exhalation. 

Wisdom does not come from studying great theories and philosophies, but from observing the ordinary.

Ajahn Sumedho

Only one person

When people come to you for help, do not turn them off with pious words, saying, ‘Have faith and take your troubles to God.’

Act instead as though there were no God, as though there were only one person in the world who could help – only yourself.

Martin Buber, philosopher, 1978 – 1965

as we go along

It is really easy to be kind to others

when I remember that none of us came into this world

with a manual about how to get it all right.

Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroscientist and author

Need to run

Many of us have been running all our lives. We have the feeling that we need to run – into the future, away from the past, out from wherever we are.

In truth, we don’t need to go anywhere.

We just need to sit down and look deeply to discover that the whole cosmos is right here within us.

Thich Nhat Hanh