If you know a view as a view, you can be free of that view.
If you know a thought as a thought, you can be free of that thought.
Norman Fischer, Beyond Language
Sunday Quote: free
Tag: Mindfulness
Good and bad habits
It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route and make a beaten path for ourselves.
I had not lived there a week, before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct.
The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Beyond likes and dislikes
The person who has gone beyond likes and dislikes, Sri Ramakrishna will say, is like an autumn leaf floating in the wind.
It floats gently here when the wind flows here, it goes there when the wind blows there, and slowly it settles to the ground.
Eknath Easwaran, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living
Continual practice
In Japan, cleaning is called “Soji” and valued as a way to cultivate our minds. Buddhist monks in a monastery put more time into practicing Soji than into practicing Zen meditation. A monk’s day begins with cleaning. We sweep the temple grounds and polish the temple building
One important thing Soji practice tells us is that we never complete cleaning. Just as leaves begin to fall after you sweep, desires begin to accumulate right after you refresh your mind. We continue cleaning the gloom in our hearts, knowing that we will never end it.
Shoukei Matsumoto, 1979 -, author of A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind
A fixed gaze
Rinzai Gigen, the founder of the Rinzai school of Buddhism, said: “Be master wherever you go – then wherever you are, things are as they truly are.”
This means that no matter the circumstances, if you try your best to do what you’re capable of in the here and now, you will realize your potential protagonist, or who you’re meant to be. A protagonist is not misled by information run rampant, does not allow their focus to be drawn this way and that. Their gaze is fixed steadily in one direction. A protagonist stands firmly on the ground, carving a path of their resoluteness. You could even say they are leading their life with certainty.
We are all capable of becoming our own protagonists, anytime and anywhere. But first, we must focus our efforts. Concentrate on the here and now.
Why not begin there?
Shunmyo Masuno, Don’t Worry
All around
Since the treasure does exist in this world,
consider no ruin empty of treasure….
If the inner eye has not been granted to you,
always think that treasure could be in anybody.
Rumi, The Mathnawi II: 2153-2155
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