As it goes

The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are,

to observe things as they are,

and to let everything go as it goes…


Shunryu Suzuki roshi, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

Sunday Quote: Attention

What you look hard at

seems to look hard at you.

Gerald Manley Hopkins

Each matter

You should speak appropriately about the affairs of your own life,

for each matter you encounter

constitutes the meaning of your existence.

Mazu Daoyi, 709–88, renowned ancient Chinese Zen master

Not seeing

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand;

the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

George Eliot

Our original face

If we’ve been eating a regular meal of resentment toward our spouse, our boss, our parents, or “the world,” the boat’s going to come back around in the next minute because it’s accustomed to us filling our plate. But we must be able to ask and to discover, “Who was I before I resented my spouse? And even before that?”

This is the primary way we learn to live in our True Self, where we are led by a foundational “yes,” not by the petty push backs of “no.”

Richard Rohr

Reality, as it is

Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.

Our teaching is just to live,

always in reality, in its exact sense.

 Shunryu Suzuki Roshi