Keep your heart clear and spacious
and you will never be hooked.
A single disturbed thought
causes ten thousand distractions
Ryokan, Zen Buddhist monk, 1758 – 1831
photo Adityamadhav83
Tag: balance
Every step is a good step
Every time we make a mindful step, we are engaged in an act of enlightenment.
We can be enlightened about the fact that we are making a step.
Each step can have beauty in it.
Thich Nhat Hanh
A solid sense of self
Chi Hsing-tzu was training a fighting cock for the king.
After 10 days, the king asked if the bird was ready for combat. “No, Your Majesty,” replied Chi,” He’s too full of fire, arrogant, always ready to pick a fight. He’s relying on his own strength.”
Another 10 days passed, and the king asked again, Chi said, “No, Sir, not yet. He still becomes excited when a rival bird appears.”
10 more days. The king asked again. “Not yet,” Chi said. “He still gets an angry glint in his eye, and ruffles up his feathers.”
Another 10 days, another question.
Chi said, “Now, Sir, he is ready.
When a rival bird crows, his eyes don’t even flicker. He stands immobile like a block of wood.
His focus is inside.
Other birds will take one look at him and run.”
Story told by Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zhou), Chinese Taoist philosopher, 4th century BC
Photo fernando de suosa
Sunday Quote: Losing our fears
Who sees all beings in his own Self
and his own Self in all beings,
loses all fear.
Isha Upanishad
Our original mind
Mind has no colour; it is not long or short;
it does not vanish or appear; it is free from purity and impurity alike; and its duration is eternal.
It is utter stillness.
Such, then, is the form and shape of our original mind,
which is also our original body.
Hui Hai 720 – 814
photo alvesgaspar
Holding both sides
Our problems are a big deal for us.
So we need to make space for an attitude of honouring things completely and at the same time not making them a big deal. It’s a paradoxical idea, but holding these two attitudes simultaneously is the source of enormous joy: we hold a sense of respect toward all things, along with the ability to let go. In Buddhist terms, the space that opens is referred to as ‘shunyata,’ or emptiness. It’s basically just a feeling of lightness. When you begin to see life from the point of view that everything is spontaneously arising and that things aren’t ‘coming at you’ or ‘trying to attack you,’ in any given moment you will likely experience more space and more room to relax into. So shunyata refers to the fact that we actually have a seed of spaciousness, of freshness, openness, relaxation, in us.
Pema Chodron
photo Manfred Werner
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