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The Most Real and Most Difficult Practice
“Sometimes people have the idea that
practice means going to Dharma centers
or sitting in meditation or performing
rituals and this sort of thing. They think
that all this is practice while the rest of
the day is a waste of time. People think
there is this big split,, and they often
despair, feeling that their families and
their children are an obstacle that takes
them away from the spiritual life. But the
fact is … our family, our children, our
partners, our parents – they are our
practice and the ones who need our
loving – kindness, our compassion, our
patience, our joyous effort.”~ Tenzin Palmo (AKA Dalai Lama)
practice means going to Dharma centers
or sitting in meditation or performing
rituals and this sort of thing. They think
that all this is practice while the rest of
the day is a waste of time. People think
there is this big split,, and they often
despair, feeling that their families and
their children are an obstacle that takes
them away from the spiritual life. But the
fact is … our family, our children, our
partners, our parents – they are our
practice and the ones who need our
loving – kindness, our compassion, our
patience, our joyous effort.”~ Tenzin Palmo (AKA Dalai Lama)
The Great Way is not difficult
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
– Hsin Hsin Ming, Seng Ts’an
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
– Hsin Hsin Ming, Seng Ts’an
Apparitions
greatmiddleway.wordpress.com
May 18, 2018
All beings —since their first aspiration until the attainment of Buddhahood— are sheltered under the guardianship of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who, responding to the requirements of the occasion, transform themselves and assume specific forms.
Thus, for the sake of all beings, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas sometimes appear as their parents, their spouses and children, their kinsmen, their servants, their friends, their enemies, and even as devas or in some other forms.
—Ashvaghosa, The Awakening of Faith
The Fifth Precept is about health and healing
“In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they can do anything they want to it. When they make such a determination, the law supports them. This is one of the manifestations of individualism. But, according to the teachings of emptiness, non-self, and interbeing, your body is not yours alone. It also belongs to your ancestors, your parents, future generations, and all other living beings. Everything, even the trees and the clouds, has come together to bring about the presence of your body. Keeping your body healthy is the best way to express your gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to betray future generations. You practice this precept for everyone. If you are healthy, everyone can benefit from it. When you are able to get out of the shell of your small self, you will see that you are interrelated to everyone and everything, that your every act is linked with the whole of humankind and the whole cosmos. To keep yourself healthy in body and mind is to be kind to all beings. The Fifth Precept is about health and healing.”
🌻🌻Thich Nhat Hanh🌻🌻
🌻🌻Thich Nhat Hanh🌻🌻One minute you are a Buddha, the next minute a sentient being
Student: Sometimes I see my worldviews as illusions, and I feel wholeness. But then I become caught up again in separateness. What does it take to stop moving back and forth, to move from occasional moments of realization to constant realization?
Adyashanti: Dissolve the one who asks, “When will it go from moments of realization to constant realization?” Do you have a sense of the one who is asking that? It’s a particular movement of thought that is asking.
It’s all just a conceptual overlay. There is a saying in Zen: “One minute you are a Buddha, the next minute a sentient being.” Sometimes you are Buddha. Sometimes a sentient being. And it’s always Buddha because both are masks. Sentient being is a mask. Buddha is a mask, too. When the masks are dropped, both the sentient being and the Buddha are the same.
– Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing p. 65
It all begins when we say, “I”
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
Everyone imagines that their ego is something unchangeable, some immovable center-point which everything revolves around. There once was a man who said, “Look, everyone is dying except me!”
He’s been dead for a long time now.
– Kodo Sawaki, ‘To You’
Waking up from group stupidity
What a shame to have been born a human being and to spend your whole life worrying. You should reach the point where you can be happy to have been born a human.
Birth, old age, sickness, and death – we can’t fool around with these ultimate facts.
Reality: getting a handle on this must be our goal. Don’t get stuck in categories.
It’s strange that not a single person seriously considers his own life. For ages, we’ve been carrying around something uncooked. And we comfort ourselves with the fact that it’s the same for the others too. That’s what I call group stupidity: thinking that we just have to be like the others.
Satori means creating your own life. It means waking up from group stupidity.
– Kodo Sawaki, ‘To you’
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