The start of the Advent season…
A person is not a thing or a process,
but an opening through which the absolute manifests.
Martin Heidegger
Tag: Life
Exquisitely singular
Today you will say things you can predict and other things you could never imagine this minute.
Don’t reject them, let them come through when they’re ready, don’t think you can plan it all out.
This day will never, no matter how long you live, happen again.
It is exquisitely singular. It will never again be exactly repeated.
Naomi Shihab Nye, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven
Supports all around
Just when the worst bears down
You find a pretty bubble in your soup at noon
And outside a bird says “hi”
Slowly the sun creeps along the floor;
It is coming your way. It touches your shoe.
William Stafford, It’s all Right
Right here
When you encounter things, you should know that right there the true teaching reveals itself.
You should know that place
Suzuki Roshi
Fresh eyes
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!
Kierkegaard
Stories
We human beings have the ability to think of things not in front of us. We create stories in our minds in which the hero or heroine is always us. We evaluate what happened in the past, we analyze our present conditions, and we anticipate what should happen in the future…… But this ability leads to many problems. We have certain expectations of our stories. If things go as we expect, we feel like heavenly beings, but if not, we feel we’re in hell. Often we desire more and more without ever experiencing satisfaction, like hungry ghosts. It’s important to see that it’s not life that causes suffering but our expectation that life should be the way we want. We can’t live without expectation, but if we can handle the feelings caused by the difference between our expectations and reality, that’s liberation.
Kosho Uchiyama, Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo
