A pure, flowing river

The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned.

No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn.

Many experiences – good, bad, and indifferent – are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

The sun and the moon

Everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them…..We have a universe within ourselves that mimics the universe outside. None of us are just black or white, or never wrong and always right. No one. No one exists without polarities.

Everybody has good and bad forces working with them, against them, and within them.

Suzy Kassem, 1975 – American Poet, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

Allowing each and every thing

The point here is to take life in all its rich variety just as it is, with its ten thousand opposites,

and to go along with whatever circumstances require, embracing things after their own inclination or according to chance,

letting things be, rather than getting in their way, and thus allowing each and every thing, each and every appearance, to pursue a meaning and purpose distinct from my own.

Totsudo Kato, 1870 – 1949, Japanese writer

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