From Bodhidharma (via Daily Zen) --
.Huike asked: If there are people intent on seeking the Path of Enlightenment, what method should they practice, what method is most essential and concise?
Bodhidharma answered: Let them just contemplate mind—this one method takes in all practices, and is indeed essential and concise.
I found this in Jon Kabat-Zinn's book Wherever You Go, There You Are --
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
(Lao-tsu, Tao-te-Ching)
An untitled poem by Issa, full of consolation --
In these latter-day,
Degenerate times,
Cherry-blossoms everywhere!
Gread advice on living.
Today's Zen meditation comes from Ancestor Ma (709–788) --
The Way does not need cultivation;
Just don’t pollute it.
What is pollution?
As long as you have a fluctuating mind,
Creating artificialities and pursuing inclinations,
All is pollution.
The quotation continues --
If you want to understand the Way directly,
The normal mind is the Way.
What is normal mind?
It has no artificial contrivance,
No right or wrong, no grasping or rejection,
No ordinariness and no sanctity.
I like this verse from Hui-neng, via Daily Zen,
What is sitting meditation?
To remove ourselves from
all external distractions and
quiet the mind is called “sitting.”
To observe the inner nature
in perfect calmness is called “meditation.”
Today's Zen Meditation is on wisdom --
In the Ch’an perspective wisdom is a state
That is free from attachments,
Free from measurement,
Free from self-reference
And empty of vexation.- Sheng Yen
Tiday's Zen meditation is from Wang Ming (6th century) --
Too much knowledge leads to overactivity;
Better to calm the mind.
The more you consider, the greater the loss;
Better to unify the mind.Water dripping ceaselessly
Will fill the four seas.
Specks of dust not wiped away
Will become the five mountains.
"What I know in my bones is that I forget to take time to remember what I know. The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves." -- Terry Tempest Williams (from Whiskey River)
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