How can we ever lose interest in life?
Spring has come again
And cherry trees bloom in the mountains.
Ryokan, 1758 – 1831, Zen monk, hermit and poet
Lift your eyes
Tag: Joy
Sunday Quote: listen
I tried to discover, in the sounds of forests and waves, words that others could not hear, and I opened up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.
[Je tâchais de découvrir, dans les bruits des forêts et des flots, des mots que les autres hommes n’entendaient point, et j’ouvrais l’oreille pour écouter la révélation de leur harmonie.]
Flaubert, November
Sunday Quote: Goodness
The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness.
Now, in this life
Leo Tolstoy
Independent yet dependent
Tozan, a famous Zen master, said:
“The blue mountain is the father of the white cloud. The white cloud is the son of the blue mountain. All day long they depend on each other, without being dependent on each other. The white cloud is always the white cloud. The blue mountain is always the blue mountain.”
This is a pure, clear interpretation of life. There may be many things like the white cloud and the blue mountain: man and woman, teacher and disciple. …They are quite independent, but yet dependent. This is how we live, and how we practice.
Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Patience, wait and see
The nature of rain is the same,
but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.
Arab Saying
Start with this right now
On the other hand, you could just relax and realize that, behind all the worry, complaint and disapproval that goes on in your mind, the sun is always coming up in the morning, moving across the sky, and going down in the evening. The birds are always out there collecting their food and making their nests and flying across the sky. The grass is always being blown by the wind or standing still. Food and flowers and trees are growing out of the earth. There’s enormous richness.
You could envelop your passion for life and your curiosity and your interest. You could connect with your joyfulness.
You could start right now.
Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape
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