For Zen students a weed is a treasure. With this attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.
There is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this moment
Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going on in that world, and that is, you might say, enlightenment. When you see plum blossoms or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.
Our practice should be based on the ideal of selflessness. Selflessness is very difficult to understand. If you try to be selfless, that is already a selfish idea. Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
If it is raining out, do not walk fast, because it is raining everywhere.
Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.
The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the experts, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all possibilities.
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves. That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others...before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.
While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gain ing ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.
Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way.
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, 'Oh, this pace is terrible!' But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself.
You want to eliminate your evil desires in order to reveal your Buddha nature, but where will you throw them away?
To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or to cook for yourself; it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time.
To find perfect composure in the midst of change is to find nirvana.
If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.
The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
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