a new month: waking up to what is

From the beginning all beings are Buddha.
It’s like water and ice – there is no ice without water – outside of us there is no Buddha.
It is sad that people ignore what’s near
And search for truth far away.

We are like someone surrounded by water
Crying out “I thirst!”

Like the son of a rich person going around poor on this earth we endlessly circle the Six Worlds.
The cause of our circling is ignorance.
From dark path to dark path we walk.
How can we be freed from the wheel of birth-and-death?

Hakuin’s Song of Zazen

Sunday Quote: It’s in our hands

Lovely days don’t come to you

You should walk to them

Rumi

Let things pass through

Just like a bead of water sits lightly on a lotus leaf,

or water on a red lily,

a wise person does not cling to

what is seen, heard or felt,

as they do not add on to the seen, the heard, or the felt.

The Buddha, Jara Sutta, 4.6

Unreal expectations

If you set up feeling good

as what you have to be feeling,

then you are creating another thing

you are failing at.

Mark Epstein

Another 24 hours

unbeing dead isn’t being alive.

e.e. cummings

Getting old

No one grows old by living

only by losing interest in living

Marie Beynon Rey