Where wisdom arises

When a person remains focused on the inconstancy of everything that comes together,

ignorance is abandoned,

and clear knowing [wisdom] arises.

The Buddha, Itivuttaka: The Group of Threes, Iti 3.36; 

Sunday Quote: The secret

The secret of Zen is just two words: not always so.

[In Japanese it is two words] 

Suzuki Roshi

An unfolding process

It’s only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly.

That again is part of this paradox.

You cannot rip away caterpillarness.

The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control.

Ram Dass

The disease of our age

 

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,

to surrender to too many demands,

to commit oneself to too many projects,

to want to help everyone in everything

is to succumb to the violence of our times.

Thomas Merton

Up hills and down valleys

Jung [said]..: “A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not yet discovered its meaning.” Notice that he does not rule out suffering, for suffering, the medieval adage had it, “is the fastest horse to completion.”

The clear implication of Jung’s position is that working through one’s way to meaning – that is, to an enlarged view of ones dilemma and perhaps to an enlarged view of one’s own summons – can lead one through the valley of the shadow.

James Hollis, Living an Examined Life: Wisdom For the Second Half of the Journey.

(The interesting medieval idea he refers to is from Meister Eckhart: The quickest horse that carries you to perfection is suffering)

Join the dance

The only way to make sense out of change

is to plunge into it,

move with it,

and join the dance.

Alan Watts