Clear mind

File:20140513Hockenheim.jpg

Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going.

Seung Sahn, 1927 – 2004

photo AnRo0002

Our natural spaciousness

File:Path across field - geograph.org.uk - 1297870.jpg

We all have a clear, wondrously bright field from the beginning. With boundless wisdom,  journey beyond this,  letting go of accomplishments. Abandon all scheming and simply take on responsibility. Having turned yourself around, and accepting where you are, set out along your path, and a spiritual energy will marvelously move you along. Contact phenomena with total sincerity, not a single atom of dust outside yourself.

Hongzhi, 1091-1157, Chinese Chan (Zen) monk

photo evelyn simak

Not holding on to outcomes

sunflower wilting

A flower falls, even though we love it;

a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dogen

Sunday Quote: Beauty

20151009_122925

Nothing here below is profane
for those who know how to see.

Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and philosopher,  The Divine Milieu, p.69

What we learn from the leaves

File:Maple leaf autumn.jpg

A person  fundamentally does not dwell anywhere. The white clouds seem fascinated by the green mountain’s foundation. The bright moon loves being carried along with the flowing water. But the clouds part and the mountains appear, and the moon sets and the water is cool. Each bit of autumn contains vast interpenetration without bounds.

Hongzhi, 1091-1157, Chinese Chan (Zen) monk

photo: lite

Going with the flow

abbey river

A similar message to yesterday’s, on holding things lightly…

Long ago, a monk asked the old master:

“When hundreds, thousands or myriads of objects come all at once, what should be done?”

The Master replied “Don’t try to control them”

Dogen, 1200 – 1253