Tag: Be fully present

When we identify

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The important thing is not to know who “I” is or what “I” is.  You’ll never succeed.  There are no words for it.  The important thing is to drop the labels. As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don’t seek the truth; just drop your opinions.” If you drop your labels, you would know. What do I mean by labels? Every label you can conceive of except perhaps that of  human being. I am a human being. Fair enough; doesn’t say very much.

But when you say, “I am successful,” that’s crazy. Success is not part of the “I”. Success is something that comes and goes; it could be here today and gone tomorrow. That’s not “I”.  When you said, “I was a success,” you were in error; you were plunged into darkness. You identified yourself with success. The same thing when you said, “I am a failure, a lawyer, a businessman.” You know what’s going to happen to you if you identify yourself with these things. You’re going to cling to them, you’re going to be worried that they may fall apart, and that’s where your suffering comes in.

 Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there’s falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere.

Anthony de Mello sj, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

Now

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The Buddha famously avoided all questions about the afterlife, preferring to focus on what helped us deal with the challenges of this life. He said he was interested only in “suffering and the end of suffering” – practical skills for dealing with the mind.

Hakuin Zenji said, “If you want to know about life after death, ask the man who wants to know.” Thus there is no other way than to ask yourself, for this problem does not belong to the category of knowledge. You yourself must solve it by practice. Buddha’s practice after his enlightenment is not different from each individuals practice before enlightenment, if there is no idea of self. When you are engaged in selfless practice, you are free from the idea of past, present and future; from the idea of this world or another; from the idea of coming or going.


Shunryu Suzuki

Remember

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Remember that at any given moment there are a thousand things you can love.

David Levithan, 1972 – American author and editor.

Sunday Quote: How

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How you stand here is important.

How you
listen for the next things to happen.

How you breathe.

William Stafford, Being A person [extract]

Making things solid

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The Buddha described what we call “self” as a collection of aggregates – elements of mind and body – that function interdependently, creating the appearance of woman or man. We then identify with that image or appearance, taking it to be “I” or “mine,” imagining it to have some inherent self-existence. For example, we get up in the morning, look in the mirror, recognize the reflection, and think, “Yes, that’s me again.” We then add all kinds of concepts to this sense of self: I’m a woman or man, I’m a certain age, I’m a happy or unhappy person – the list goes on and on.

When we examine our experience, though, we see that there is not some core being to whom experience refers; rather it is simply “empty phenomena rolling on.” Experience is “empty” in the sense that there is no one behind the arising and changing phenomena to whom they happen…So when anger arises, or sorrow or love or joy, it is just anger angering, sorrow sorrowing, love loving, joy joying. Different feelings arise and pass, each simply expressing its own nature. The problem arises when we identify with these feelings, or thoughts, or sensations as being self or as belonging to “me”: I’m angry, I’m sad. By collapsing into the identification with these experiences, we contract energetically into a prison of self and separation.

Joseph Goldstein, If There Is No Self, Who Is Born, Who Dies, Who Meditates?

The nature of change

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Breathing in, I see the beautiful leaves, 

breathing out, I know they are impermanent.

Smiling at the nature of change

I enjoy their presence even more.

Thich Nhat Hanh.