Tag: impermanence

Fresh

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Now it is raining, but we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out, it may be a beautiful day or a stormy day. Since we don’t know, let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now

Shunryu Sukuki, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind: Informal talks on Zen Meditation and Practice.

I love this bit of wisdom from Shunryu Suzuki. It comes back to me often when I hear the rain (or find myself in or anticipating a storm of whatever kind). Suzuki is better known for another saying ……”In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities”…They both point to the same place – our capacity to come fresh to the moment and to not make a buffer between ourselves and the world.

Bonnie Myotai Treace, in the nice introductory book, Wake Up: How to Practice Zen Buddhism

Join the dance

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The only way to make sense out of change

is to plunge into it,

move with it,

and join the dance.

Alan Watts

We can’t see where we are heading

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The path is unchartered. It comes into existence moment by moment and at the same time, drops away behind us. It’s like riding in a train sitting backwards. We cant see where we’re headed, only where we’ve been. This is a very encouraging teaching because it says that the source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to us right at this very instant.

Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

Sunday quote: Hold things lightly

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No matter how much the spring wind loves the peach blossoms,

they still fall.

Dogen Zenji, 1200-1253

Perspective

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I think, Dear God, and remember
there are stars we haven’t heard from yet:
They have so far to arrive. Amen,
I think, and I feel almost comforted.

Li-Young Lee, The Hammock

Not putting labels

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By teaching “Do not judge” (Matthew 7:1), the great teachers are saying that you cannot start seeing or understanding anything if you start with “no.” You have to start with a “yes” of basic acceptance, which means not too quickly labeling, analyzing, or categorizing things as in or out, good or bad, up or down. You have to leave the field open, a field in which God and grace can move. Ego leads with “no” whereas soul leads with “yes.”

The ego seems to strengthen itself by constriction, by being against things; and it feels loss or fear when it opens up. “No” always comes easier than “yes,” and a deep, conscious “yes” is the work of freedom and grace. So the soul lives by expansion instead of constriction.

Richard Rohr