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Meditation Seed Thoughts Meaning to get a way from intellectualization and avoid word traps, I sailed across the sea to search for the transmission beyond the teachings; went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke - and found water in the clear stream, the moon in the sky. -- Kakua It's not in your actions or where you may go Not in your practices nor in what you know, Nor in your vows or a worship of any kind Only IN/AS your BEing a Meditative Mind. -- Yogajyotii Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes. Having known these two paths of progress and decline, let a man so conduct himself that his wisdom may increase. -- Dhammapada Even when obstacles crowd in, the path to Nibbana can be won by those who establish mindfulness and bring to perfection equipoise. -- Samyutta Nikaya The white clouds On the mountain tops Poke halfway into This thatched hut I had thought too cramped Even for myself -- Koho Kennichi How short this life! You die this side of a century, but even if you live past, you die of old age. -- Sutta Nipata To calm your mind, go for a walk at dawn in the park, or watch the dew on a rose in a garden. Lie on the ground and gaze up into the sky, and let your mind expand into its spaciousness. Let the sky outside awake a sky inside your mind. -- Sogyal Rinpoche It's where you aim your Arrow and pull the string Make sure it's flight is True or it won't do a thing, Then consider it not whether it may hit it's mark For there is not a target just that it may embark. -- Yogajyotii He who desires shelter quickly For himself and for all others Should use this sacred mystery, The exchanging of oneself for others. -- Shantideva Do not let your Karma get in the way of your Dharma, for your Dharma IS your Karma. -- Yogajyotii Before the eaves, Slender bamboos, A thousand stalks of jade, Sing when the cool rains fall. With a rustling sound, Their feathery green Intruding at my desk They know there is no Purer hidden spot than this. -- Isho Tokugan By love they will quench the fire of hate, by wisdom the fire of delusion. Those supreme ones extinguish delusion with wisdom that breaks through to truth. -- Itivuttaka To understand the essence of things and find out one's actual nature is something that can be done by oneself. People often, so to speak, ride the donkey to search for the donkey, and the further they travel the more they go astray. -- Mazu Old cedars and ancient cypresses impale rosy mists. Through huge boulders and hanging vines a small path winds; even monkeys and cranes won’t come to a mountain this desolate - only the wind-borne cassia pods that fill my thatched hut. -- Tesshu Tokusai You have got to stay IN/AS the anew Stillness IN/AS that Silence All arises IN/AS BEingness, As you look around All is very much a stranger For All IS just What-IS without projected danger. -- Yogajyotii In every virtue all-accomplished, with wisdom full and mind composed, looking within and ever mindful - thus one crosses the raging flood. -- Sutta Nipata When you are identified with the mind you cannot be very intelligent because you become identified with an instrument, you become confined by the instrument and its limitations. And you are unlimited - you are consciousness. -- Osho It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. -- Decouvertes There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The iris pond has flowered Before the old temple; I sell tea this evening By the water’s edge. It is steeped in the cups With the moon and stars; Drink and wake forever From your worldly sleep. -- Baisao One who is virtuous and wise shines forth like a blazing fire; like a bee collecting nectar he acquires wealth by harming none. -- Digha Nikaya In a grove of tall bamboos beside an ancient temple steam rolls from the brazier in fragrant white clouds; I show you the path of Sages beyond this floating world, but will you understand the lasting taste of spring? -- Baisao Consort only with the good, come together with the good. To learn the teaching of the good gives wisdom like nothing else can. -- Samyutta Nikaya On the basis of individuality and freedom of choice the manifest universe will never yield its secret. -- Ramesh Balsekar Why seek Mind somewhere else? Wandering freely, I meet my own true nature everywhere, through all phenomena. I cannot become it, for it is already me. -- Master Tung-shan My head is the sky, my feet are below the Earth, and my two hands are East and West. -- Abu'I-Hasan Khurqani True Nature is in the Gold not in the Ring As the Ring is but the shape of any thing, It is in the very impurities that we are told Will so determine the Essence of our Gold. -- Yogajyotii As long as I am this or that I am not all things. -- Eckhart Love is like this: If you were to cut your head off, and give it to someone else, would that make any difference? -- Kabir Contemplating foulness in the body, Being mindful of in-and-out breathing, Ever ardent and seeing clearly The calming down of all formations; Such a bhikkhu who see rightly Is thereby well released. Accomplished in knowledge, at peace, That sage has overcome all bonds. -- Itivuttaka The empty path welcomes you, fragrant with grass and little flowers, the path paved with paddy fields still bearing the marks of your childhood and the fragrance of mother's hand. Walk leisurely, peacefully. Your feet touch the Earth deeply. Don't let your thoughts carry you away, Come back to the path every moment. The path is your friend. She will transmit to you her solidity, and her peace. -- Thich Nhat Hanh Master Tung Kwo asked Chuang: "Show me where the Tao is to be found." Chang Tzu replied, "There is nowhere it is not to be found." -- Chuang Tzu In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song. -- Kahlil Gibran A man of the Way comes rapping at my brushwood gate, wants to discuss the essentials of Zen experience. Don’t take it wrong if this mountain monk’s too lazy to open his mouth: late spring warblers singing their hearts out, a village of drifting petals. -- Jakushitsu Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, mind is their maker. If one speaks or does a deed with a mind that is pure within, happiness then follows along like a never departing shadow. -- Dhammapada Keeping conditioned notions can not See That we are not True Nature's Gold Purity, We forget that we are not the Ring you see But rather the Gold and Ring in it's Totality. -- Yogajyotii Do not seek him anywhere else Or he will run away from you! Now that I go on all alone, I meet him everywhere. He is even now what I am. I am even now what he is. Only by understanding this way Can there be a true union with the Self-So. -- Tung-shan In the awakened eye Mountains and rivers Completely disappear The eye of delusion Looks out upon Deep fog and clouds Alone on my zazen mat I forget the days As they pass The wisteria has grown Thick over the eaves Of my hut -- Muso Difficult to detect and very subtle, the mind seizes whatever it wants; so let a wise man guard his mind, for a guarded mind brings happiness. -- Dhammapada The pointing by the guru to the Truth is like the pointing out of a destination by someone who has already traversed a road and knows to where it leads. From this viewpoint he is not only important but necessary. But it is a great error to expect that the guru will carry the disciple to the destination. This he cannot and will not do. A true guru is concerned not with changing the world or the behavior of the disciple but only with taking the disciple back to the very source of manifestation itself. -- Ramesh Balsekar You’re bound to become a buddha if you practice. If water drips long enough even rocks wear through. It’s not true thick skulls can’t be pierced; people just imagine their minds are hard. -- Shih-wu It is odd that such ignorance does prevail We are so close we could just lift the Veil, In our folly we so establish such confusion Marked distorted notions Blinded delusion. -- Yogajyotii One who has crossed over the mire, crushed the thorn of sensuality, reached the ending of delusion, is a monk undisturbed by bliss & pain. -- Udana In the great Way of the Buddha patriarchs there is always supreme continuous practice which is the Way without beginning or end. Arousing the thought of enlightenment, practice, bodhi, and nirvana have not the slightest break, but are continuous practice which goes on forever. Therefore, it is neither one's own effort nor someone else's effort; it is pure continuous practice which transcends the opposition of self and others. - Dogen When enlightened Zen masters set up teachings for a spiritual path, the only concern is to clarify the mind to arrive at its source. It is complete in everyone, yet people turn away from this basic mind because of their illusions. -- Yuanwu No mother nor father nor any other kin can do greater good for oneself than a mind directed well. -- Dhammapada There is nobody to look for something, because it is your nearness. Nothing can be more near to you than what you are. It is enough to live with this for some time, not to think about it, not to manipulate it, but simply to live with it. -- Jean Klein We have become naught but Court Jester With painted faces costumes that Gesture, But Hidden under all that cloth and paste Is True Nature's Essence going to waist. -- Yogajyotii And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. -- T.S. Elliot You are all Buddhas. There is nothing you need to achieve. Just open your eyes. -- Siddhartha Gautama But great souls resorting to me, the divine nature, their undivided minds are devoted to knowing the imperishable source of being. Always glorifying me and striving with firm resolve and honoring me with devotion, they worship ever united. -- Baghavad Gita To drink up the ocean and turn a mountain upside down is an ordinary affair for a Zennist. Zen seekers should sit on the site of universal enlightenment right in the midst of all the thorny situations in life, and recognize their original face while mixing with the ordinary world. -- Huanglong Live without covetous greed, fill your mind with benevolence. Be mindful and one-pointed, inwardly stable and concentrated. -- Anguttara Nikaya Man's life has two layers to it: one is that of the essential, and another is that of the accidental. The essential is never born, never dies. The accidental is born, lives and dies. The essential is eternal, timeless; the accidental is just accidental. We become too much attached to the accidental and we tend to forget the essential. -- Osho When you suddenly realize the source of mind, you open a box of jewels. Honorable on earth and in the heavens, you are aloof even from the joy of meditation. The essence containing all flavors is the supreme delicacy, worth more than ten thousand ounces of pure gold. -- Fenyang You try to live Two lives psychosomatically Thinking you are together only incidentally, One is just a Mask the other you can't find Your whole world like sitting in a duck blind. -- Yogajyotii This is to be done by one skilled in aims who wants to break through to the state of peace: Be capable, upright, & straightforward, easy to instruct, gentle, & not conceited, content & easy to support, with few duties, living lightly, with peaceful faculties, masterful, modest, & no greed for supporters. Do not do the slightest thing that the wise would later censure. -- Sutta Nipata Where there is beauty, there is ugliness. When something is right, something else is wrong. Knowledge and ignorance depend on each other. It has been like this since the beginning. How could it be otherwise now? Wanting to chuck out one and hold onto the other makes for a ridiculous comedy. You must still deal with everything ever-changing, even when you say it’s wonderful. -- Ryokan Irrigators direct the water, Fletchers fashion the shaft, Carpenters bend the wood, The wise control themselves. -- Dhammapada When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself. -- Shunryu Suzuki Finding the universal In every particular, Whether coming or going, They remain unmoving. Finding silence which Contains thoughts, Whatever they do They hear the truth. -- Hakuin We can surely fool some every bit of the time We can fool them all some times with a rhyme, But we can't fool them all each and every day When we fool ourself we throw the Key away. -- Yogajyotii Think not lightly of good, saying, "It will not come to me." Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. -- Dhammapada You are the Self, here and now. Leave the mind alone, stand aware and unconcerned and you will realize that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature. -- Nisargadatta Maharaj Whoever makes love grow boundless, And sets his mind for seeing the end of birth, His fetters are worn thin. If he loves even a single being, Good will follow. But the Noble One With compassionate heart for all mankind Generates abounding good. -- Buddha Vacana One is the quest for worldly gain, and quite another is the path to Nibbana. Clearly understanding this, let not the monk, the disciple of the Buddha, be carried away by worldly acclaim, but develop detachment instead. -- Dhammapada Do you really want Heaven do you want Hell Sages' Wise Words really never actually tell, They just Point to Heaven the rest is on you You've got to confront that Hell that you do. -- Yogajyotii "Enlightenment" and "Nirvana"? They are dead trees To fasten a donkey to. The scriptures? They are bits of paper To wipe mud from your face. The four merits and the ten steps? They are ghosts in their graves. What can these things Have to do with you Becoming free? -- Te-shan Lead a righteous life; lead not a base life. The righteous live happily both in this world and the next. One who looks upon the world as a bubble and a mirage, him the King of Death sees not. -- Dhammapada Just as a mountain of rock, is unwavering, well-settled, so the monk whose delusion is ended, like a mountain, is undisturbed. -- Udana A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. -- Basil Neither in the sky nor in mid-ocean, nor by entering into mountain clefts, nowhere in the world is there a place where one may escape from the results of evil deeds. Neither in the sky nor in mid-ocean, nor by entering into mountain clefts, nowhere in the world is there a place where one will not be overcome by death. -- Dhammapada Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. -- Carl Jung Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you. -- Kahlil Gibran When you let go of Hell Heaven's very Near It's all about what you hold onto that's dear, Can not get to Heaven dragging Hell behind Hell is conditioned notion that make you Blind. -- Yogajyotii Like a thoroughbred horse touched by the whip, be strenuous, be filled with spiritual yearning. By faith and moral purity, by effort and meditation, by investigation of the truth, by being rich in knowledge and virtue, and by being mindful, destroy this unlimited suffering. -- Dhammapada Today I sat before the cliffs Sat until the mist blew off A rambling clear stream shore A towering green ridge crest Cloud’s dawn shadows still Moon’s night light adrift Body free of dust Mind without a care. -- Cold Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge. -- Digha Nikaya Just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself. Self-knowledge leads to wonder, and wonder to curiosity and investigation. -- Alan Watts Last year in a lovely temple in Hirosawa, This year among the rocks of Nikko, All’s the same to me: Clapping hands, the peaks roar at the blue! -- Hakugai You are your own master, you make your future. Therefore discipline yourself as a horse-dealer trains a thoroughbred. -- Dhammapada In order to reach the final goal of freeing oneself of suffering, it is not enough to just understand the Essential Universal Truths if we don't apply them in our daily lives. We must use daily cultivation to slowly modify our body and mind. -- Heart Sutra A little birdie dropped out of the sky one day He thought it mostly Peaceful so would stay, He Sang of Wonders we had hidden away Songs of the very True Nature of The Way. -- Yogajyotii The world? Moonlit drops shaken From the crane’s bill. -- Dogen Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. NIRVANA is the greatest joy. -- The Dhammapada We understand why children are afraid of darkness, but why are men afraid of light? -- Plato May all creatures, all living things, all beings one and all, experience good fortune only. May they not fall into harm. -- Anguttara Nikaya Cold Cliff’s remoteness Is what I love No one travels this way Clouds lie around on the peaks A lone gibbon howls on the ridge What else do I cherish? It’s good to grow old content Cold and heat change my Appearance;the pearl Of my mind stays safe -- Han shan Those of peaceful mind, discerning, mindful and given to meditation, clearly see things rightly and long not for sensual pleasures. -- Itivuttaka Better than a thousand useless words is one useful word, hearing which one attains peace. -- Dhammapada To turn within means all the twenty-four hours, and in every situation, to pierce, one by one, through the layers covering the self, deeper and deeper, to a place which cannot be described. It is when making distinctions ceases, when wrong views and ideas disappear of themselves without having to be driven forth, when, without being sought, the true action and true impulse appear of themselves. It is when one can know what is the truth of the heart. -- Daikaku In the great Way of the Buddha patriarchs there is always supreme continuous practice which is the Way without beginning or end. Arousing the thought of enlightenment, practice, bodhi, and nirvana have not the slightest break, but are continuous practice which goes on forever. Therefore, it is neither one’s own effort nor someone else’s effort; it is pure continuous practice which transcends the opposition of self and others. -- Dogen The gift of Dhamma triumphs over all other gifts; the taste of Dhamma triumphs over all other tastes; the happiness of Dhamma triumphs over all other pleasures; the eradication of craving triumphs over all suffering. -- Dhammapada What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage. -- Bruce Barton The nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end. -- Aldous Huxley God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction. -- Meister Eckhart Why it’s but the motion of eyes and brows! And here I’ve been seeking it far and wide. Awakened at last, I find the moon above the pines, the river surging high. -- Yuishun "Impermanent are all compounded things." When one perceives this with true insight, then one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path of purification. -- Dhammapada The man resolute in the way must, from the beginning, never lose sight of it, whether in a place of calm or in a place of strife, and he must not be clinging to quiet places and shunning those where there is disturbance. -- Daikaku The Atman cannot be purified through the practice of the six limbs of yoga, or through the annihilation of the mind, or through the instruction of a teacher. The Atman is the Reality Itself & It is Purity Itself. The Atman neither has a body of five elements, nor is It without a body. Truly, everything is the Atman. -- Avadhuta Gita Behold the universe as an expression of the divine: all that lives and moves here. Leaving the transient, find joy in the Eternal. The way to enjoy this world - is to see it in its true glory. -- Isa Upanishads Vast and spacious, like sky and water merging during autumn, like snow and moon having the same color this field is without boundary, beyond direction, magnificently one entity without edge or seam. -- Hongzhi Look not to the faults of others, nor to their omissions and commissions. But rather look to your own acts, to what you have done and left undone. -- Dhammapada If you seek the Buddha, you will be caught by the Buddha demon. If you seek the patriarchs, you will be bound by the patriarch demon. Whatever you are seeking, all becomes suffering. It is better to have nothing further to seek. -- Rinzai The real nature of ignorance is identical to the nature of enlightenment; the empty body of illusory transformations, is identical to the body of reality. Once you’ve awakened, there’s not a single thing in the body of reality. Original inherent nature is the naturally real enlightened one. -- Yung chia Train yourself in doing good that lasts and brings happiness. Cultivate generosity, the life of peace, and a mind of boundless love. -- Ittivuttuka Look within and in a flash You will conquer the apparent And the void. -- Seng-T’san Knowing that the other person is angry, one who remains mindful and calm acts for his own best interest and for the other's interest, too. -- Samyutta Nikaya Meditation practice is not clarifying conceptual distinctions, but throwing away one's preconceived views and notions and the sacret texts and all the rest, and piercing through the layers of coverings over the spring of self behind them. All the great ones have turned within and sought in the self, and by this, went beyond all doubt. -- Daikaku Wise listeners, the wisdom of enlightenment is inherent in each of us. We fail to recognize it because of delusion of mind, and so to know our own essence of Mind we seek the teachings of the enlightened. -- Hui-neng By doing evil, one defiles oneself; by avoiding evil, one purifies oneself. Purity and impurity depend upon oneself: no one can purify another. -- Dhammapada Taking things easily and without forcing, after some time the rush of thought, outward and inward, subsides naturally, and the true face shows itself. -- Bukko The Buddha Nature which is ours from the very beginning is like the sun which emerges from the clouds, or like a mirror which, when rubbed, regains its original purity and clarity. -- Ho-shan Generosity, kind words, doing a good turn for others, and treating all people alike: these bonds of sympathy are to the world what the lynch-pin is to the chariot wheel. -- Anguttara Nikaya When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void. -- Musashi With his wealth collected justly, won through his own efforts, he shares both food and drink with beings who are in need. -- Itivuttaka There is no way to felicity, felicity is the way. There is no way to meditation meditation is the way. There is no way anywhere here is the way. -- Tan Shih As Namaste is to say *may the Divine Essence IN me Embrace the Divine Essence IN you as a Divine Essence of One*, so too Metta is to say *may the Loving Kindness IN me Embrace the Loving Kindness IN you as Loving Kindness of One*, so too Zikr is to say *may the Self Remembering IN me Embrace the Self Remembering IN you as a Self Remembrance of One*. It is in the Inner Embracing of each other that we Realize that we are all cut from the same bolt of cloth yet most do not Realize it yet. -- Yogajyotii
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