Holding our concepts lightly

 

Emptiness is the track on which the centered person moves.

Je Tsongkhapa, Tibetan Buddhist,  (1357-1419)

To know emptiness is not just to understand the concept. It is more like stumbling into a clearing in the forest, where suddenly you can move freely and see clearly. To experience emptiness is to experience the shocking absence of what normally determines the sense of who you are and the kind of reality you inhabit. It may last only a moment before the habits of a lifetime reassert themselves and close in once more. But for that moment, we witness ourselves and the world as open and vulnerable.

Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism without Beliefs

Sunday Quote: Dance first

He could dance first and think afterwards ……. It’s the natural order

Samuel Beckett, from Waiting for Godot

 

You don’t have to drown

In fully allowing conditions to be what they are, we stabilize our hearts and find peace. It’s like putting a boat into water. We make an ark of truth: ‘Conditions are like this,’ and in that truth, we don’t adopt the conditions as our own. This is important: you can’t drain the sea, but you don’t have to drown.

Why we feel overwhelmed, as if we’re drowning, is because the heart is‘leaky.’ When it isn’t secure, perceptions and feelings flood in and cause it to sink

Ajahn Sucitto, Parami

Gifts each day

A habit is a sure cell of predictability; it can close you off from the unknown, the new, and the unexpected. You were sent to the earth to become a receiver of the unknown. From ancient times, these gifts were prepared for you; now they come towards you across eternal distances. Their destination is the altar of your heart.

John O Donohue, Eternal Echoes

Where you are

 

We can only be where we are: Right here, right now.

Zen practice is to accept that place with calm.

We cannot always be master of the situation, but we can always be master of ourselves.

Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen 24/7: All Zen All the TIme

 

Sunday Quote: Contentment comes from within

 Every moment is an opportunity to come home…

Make an island of yourself,
make yourself your refuge;
there is no other refuge.

Digha Nikaya, 16