When the Lakota leader Sitting Bull was asked by a white reporter why his people loved and respected him, Sitting Bull replied by asking if it was not true that among white people a man is respected because he has many horses, many houses? When the reporter replied that was indeed true, Sitting Bull then said that his people respected him because he kept nothing for himself.
Joseph Bruchac, Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving
My peace is there in the receding mist
when I may cease from treading these long shifting thresholds
and live the space of a door
that opens and shuts
Samuel Beckett at his most zen-like.
What we call “I” is just a swinging door, which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.
Suzuki Roshi, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
Maya Angelou
Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?”
David M. Bader, Zen Judaism
The wind blows through the sky and flies over continents without settling anywhere. It traverses space and leaves no trace. Thus should thoughts pass through our minds, leaving no residues and not altering our realization of fundamental simplicity.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Above all, don’t try to become a future Buddha.
Your only concern should be,
as thought follows thought,
to avoid clinging to any of them.
Dogen, Buddhist priest, 1200 – 1253, Founder of the Soto school of Zen
