Chaos is inherent

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence."
– Zen Proverb

Zen school

"I'd like to offer something to help you but in the Zen school we don't have a single thing!"
– Ikkyū

Inner surrender

"Inner surrender leads to the highest truth."
– Zen Proverb

Zen is not a particular state

Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance — embracing all opposites.
– Taisen Deshimaru

Forever time, time flash

"When you look forward into time, it seems like forever. When you look back, it appears time has passed in a flash."
— Zen Proverb

Flow (Zen Proverb)

Let go or be dragged.
Zen Proverb

The study of Zen is...

"The study of Zen is like drilling wood to make fire: the wisest course is to forge ahead without stopping."
– Hakuin

The Zen path is..

"The Zen path is devoted to clearing away conceptual obstructions and seeing into true nature." – Robert Aitken

The wholeness of beauty

"By plucking the petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower."
– Zen Proverb

Suffering

"Suffering has many faces. If we discover the roots of one suffering, we are at the same time discovering the roots of others." – Thích Nhat Hanh

To understand nothing

"To understand nothing takes time." – Zen Proverb

Understand yourself and then...

"Understand yourself and then you will understand everything." – Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Fill your bowl

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill." – Zen Proverb

Many people think excitement is happiness

"Many people think excitement is happiness.... But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace." — Thích Nhat Hanh

The affairs of the world

The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation. – Jetsun Milarepa

See purely

The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see. - Huangbo Xiyun

When nothing is

"When nothing is done, nothing is left undone." – Zen Proverb

Zen does not confuse spirituality

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes." – Alan Watts

Zen teaches nothing

"Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points." – D.T. Suzuki

The world is won by...

Zen Proverb — "The world is won by those who let it go."

The meaning of life is...

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves. — Alan Watts

Experience this

"Experience this moment to its fullest." – Zen Proverb

Find the truth

"If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?" – Dōgen

Truth is silence

"When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much." – Zen Proverb

Why it's dark

"Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it's dark." – Zen Proverb

The truth

"The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling." – Robert M. Pirsig

Wiser man

"It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others." – Zen Proverb

Others

"A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself." – Dōgen

One with everything

"Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear." ― Shunryu Suzuki

The most precious gift

The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. —Thich Nhat Hanh

How do I know that I don’t need what I want?

How do I know that I don’t need what I want?
I don’t have it.
What is, is.
You don’t get a vote.
Haven’t you noticed?
Reality is always kinder than the story we tell about it.
- Byron Katie

Reality is always kinder

“Reality is always kinder than the stories we tell about it.”
~Byron Katie

Practice good

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments. – Dogen Zenji

See all living beings as...

"See all living beings as your father or mother, and love them as if you were their child." ~Atiśa Dīpa kara Śrījñāna

Zen is... (quote)

"Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child." – Takuan Sōhō

A wonderful Zen practice

"Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself." – Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

(In)finite

"The infinite is in the finite of every instant." — Zen Proverb

Having enough

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. ~Lao Tzu

External circumstances

Peace can be found within, no matter the external circumstances. ~Allan Lokos

True calmness

It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness. – Shunryu Suzuki

Nothing we see or hear is...

"Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality." ― Shunryu Suzuki

What Is Is

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, “Meow.” Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless.

And yet, if you pay attention, you’ll notice that you think thoughts like this dozens of times a day. “People should be kinder.” “Children should be well-behaved.” “My husband (or wife) should agree with me.” “I should be thinner (or prettier or more successful).” These thoughts are ways of wanting reality to be different than it is. If you think that this sounds depressing, you’re right. All the stress that we feel is caused by arguing with what is.

People new to The Work often say to me, “But it would be disempowering to stop my argument with reality. If I simply accept reality, I’ll become passive. I may even lose the desire to act.” I answer them with a question: “Can you really know that that’s true?” Which is more empowering? — “I wish I hadn’t lost my job” or “I lost my job; what can I do now?”
The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t have happened should have happened. It should have happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don’t know how to stop.

I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don’t feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
- Byron Katie, 'Loving what Is'

The overlooked

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
-Tao Te Ching

The power of clarity

Until we know that death is equal to
life, we live in fear.

When I am perfectly clear, what is
is what I want.

Arguing with reality is like trying
to teach a cat to bark-hopeless.

How do I know that I don’t need what
I want? I don’t have it.

We fear only what we haven’t understood.

There are no physical problems-only
mental ones.

We never make a decision. When the
time is right, the decision makes itself.

The miracle of love comes to us in
the presence of the uninterpreted moment.

The last story: God is everything,
God is good.

No one can hurt me-that’s my job.

When they attack you and you notice
that you love them with all your heart,
your Work is done.

Forgiveness is realizing that what
you thought happened, didn’t.

Seeking love keeps you from the
awareness that you already have it-that
you are it.

Have you asked you?

Everything happens for me, not to me.

We say to others only what we need
to hear.

I don’t let go of concepts-I
question them. Then they let go of me.

Nothing you believe is true. To know
this is freedom.

If you want to see the love of your
life, look in the mirror.

Reality is always the story of a
past, and what I love about the past is-
it’s over.

We suffer only until we realize that
we can’t know anything.

You can only see what you believe-
nothing else is possible.

I could find only three kinds of
business in the world-mine, yours, and
God’s. Whose business are you in?

No one has ever been angry at
another human being-we’re only angry at
our story of them.

Gratitude is what we are without a story.

(Quotes by Byron Katie)

Happiness is strange

Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously, happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Meaning of Life

A Haiku by Choshu

The moon in the water,
Broken & broken again,
Still it is there.

It is almost unbelievable, how Zen poets have said things. No other language has been able to rise to such heights. What Choshu is saying:

The moon in the water,
Broken & broken again,
Still it is there.

because each time wind comes, a wave comes, the moon (in the lake) is broken into thousand pieces. But again the lake becomes silent and all the broken pieces all over the lake start gathering again. Because it is a reflection, the moon is never broken. It is only the reflection that is broken. And because the moon is never broken, it does not matter that its reflection is broken a thousand times. All our bodies, all our minds, all our lives are nothing but the reflection of the real moon... broken a thousand times. Still, in the inner most core of your being, the moon is as full & as perfect as ever.
- OSHO

Stop and be still.

There is a very simple secret to being happy. Just let go of your demand on this moment. Any time you have a demand on the moment to give you something or remove something, there is suffering.

Your demands keep you chained to the dream state of conditioned mind. The problem is that when there is a demand, you completely miss what is now. Letting go applies to the highest sacred demand, and even to the demand for love. If you demand in some subtle way to be loved, even if you get love, it is never enough. In the next moment, the demand reasserts itself, and you need to be loved again. But as soon as you let go, there is knowing in that instant that there is love here already.

The mind is afraid to let go of its demand because the mind thinks that if it lets go, it is not going to get what it wants - as if demanding works. This is not the way things work.

Stop chasing peace and stop chasing love, and your heart becomes full. Stop trying to be a better person, and you are a better person. Stop trying to forgive, and forgiveness happens.

Stop and be still.

— Adyashanti

HOW DO WE RELATE TO OUR THOUGHTS?

Most people think that they are what their thoughts tell them they are. One day I noticed that I wasn’t breathing — I was being breathed. Then I also noticed, to my amazement, that I wasn’t thinking — that I was actually being thought and that thinking isn’t personal.

Do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I think I won’t think today?” It’s too late: You’re already thinking! Thoughts just appear. They come out of nothing and go back to nothing, like clouds moving across the empty sky. They come to pass, not to stay. There is no harm in them until we attach to them as if they were true.

No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don’t let go of my thoughts — I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

Thoughts are like the breeze or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. They appear like that, and through inquiry we can make friends with them. Would you argue with a raindrop? Raindrops aren’t personal, and neither are thoughts.

Once a painful concept is met with understanding, the next time it appears you may find it interesting. What used to be the nightmare is now just interesting. The next time it appears, you may find it funny. The next time, you may not even notice it. This is the power of loving what is.
- Byron Katie, 'Loving What IS'

In Zen we don't find

In Zen, we don't find the answers. We lose the questions.
~Zen saying

Zen is....

"Zen is feeling your way along in the dark. You might think it would be better to have more light, to know where you are going, and to get there in a hurry, but Zen is feeling your way along in the dark. Then you are careful and sensitive to what is happening"
~Shunryu Suzuki

When we get angry, we suffer.

“When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget. We think that we are the only one that suffers, and the other person is our oppressor. This is enough to make anger arise, and to strengthen our desire to punish. We want to punish the other person because we suffer. Then, we have anger in us; we have violence in us, just as they do. When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately. So understanding the other is understanding yourself, and understanding yourself is understanding the other person. Everything must begin with you.”

― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Anger

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes

The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator

I’m sorry
But I don't want to be an Emperor
That's not my business
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone
I should like to help everyone if possible
Jew, Gentile
Black man, White
We all want to help one another
Human beings are like that

We want to live by each other's happiness
Not by each other's misery
We don't want to hate and despise one another
In this world there’s room for everyone and the good earth is rich
And can provide for everyone

The way of life can be free and beautiful

But we have lost the way

Greed has poisoned men's souls
Has barricaded the world with hate
Has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed
We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want
Our knowledge has made us cynical
Our cleverness hard and unkind
We think too much, and feel too little
More than machinery, we need humanity
More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness
Without these qualities life will be violent
And all will be lost

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together
The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men
Cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all
Even now, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world
Millions of despairing men, women, and little children
Victims of a system that makes men torture
And imprison innocent people
To those who can hear me I say
“Do not despair”

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress
The hate of men will pass
And dictators die
And the power they took from the people
Will return to the people
And so long as men die
Liberty will never perish

Soldiers, don't give yourselves to brutes
Men who despise you, enslave you
Who regiment your lives
Tell you what to do, what to think, and what to feel
Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men
Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts
You are not machines
You are not cattle
You are men
You have the love of humanity in your hearts
You don't hate
Only the unloved hate
The unloved and the unnatural
Soldiers, don't fight for slavery
Fight for liberty

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written
“The kingdom of God is within man”
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men
In you, you the people

You the people have the power
The power to create machines
The power to create happiness
You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful
To make this life a wonderful adventure
Then in the name of democracy
Let us use that power
Let us all unite
Let us fight for a new world, a decent world
That will give men a chance to work
That will give youth a future
And old age a security

By the promise of these things brutes have risen to power
But they lie, they do not fulfill their promise
They never will
Dictators free themselves
But they enslave the people
Now let us fight to fulfill that promise
Let us fight to free the world
To do away with national barriers
Do away with greed
With hate and intolerance
Let us fight for a world of reason
A world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up!
The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through
We are coming out of the darkness into the light
We are coming into a new world
A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality
The soul of man has been given wings, and at last, he is beginning to fly
He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future
That glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us
Look up. Look up.

The DNA Journey

Do you know why your dog is happier than you?

The other person (Zen Story)

A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation.

After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared disturb his meditation.

But when he opens his eyes, he sees it’s an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake.
At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him.

From then on, whenever he comes across someone who irritates him or provokes him to anger, he reminds himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”

Making sense of change

The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
~Alan Watts

Meditation doesn’t have a reason

We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose. In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
~ Alan Watts

Surrender is the constant

If it feels like you can surrender to whatever is happening in the moment then do that. If you cannot surrender then you cannot surrender in this moment. And once you realize that you cannot surrender in this moment then it's in that moment that you are naturally surrendered to "not being able to surrender". As a result, true surrender is not a moment to moment unfolding in which you can or cannot do, it's a realization that surrender is the constant and therefore the realization is constant. ~Sri Summairu

Achieving Happiness

Zen Student: "Master? Why don't you ever talk about the problem of achieving Happiness?"

Zen Master: "Happiness is a problem?"

Zen Student: "No. The problem of how to achieve Happiness. How to hold on to it. How to make it last."

Zen Master: "Oh... First you must weep."

Zen Student: "What?"

Zen Master: "Oh yes. You must weep.

Then you must become angry. Very very angry.

And then you must feel very very sad.

Then you must feel enraged!

And Lost.
And Frightened.
And Guilty, Jealous, and Ashamed...

Then you must feel Hopeless.
Like you are emptied out of ALL of your willfulness.
Like you cannot go on living like this for one more day.

Then... Your ego must drop!
That is most important...
Your ego must drop.

Then, when ALL that you have been holding back - when ALL that poison is finally gone from your mental soup - you will see: THERE is HAPPINESS!

Happiness is right there. In the emptiness. In the absence of Ego...
It was there this WHOLE time. Waiting to be discovered.
But that is the thing!
We can only Dis-cover something if it is Already There!

Happiness is already there.
So why talk about it?
It is only covered up and obscured by your Ego.

So... You are right. I don't talk about Happiness.
I talk about Meditation and the obstacles to becoming empty...
I talk about Zen.

That is to say: I don't talk.
I listen to what YOU say. And I try to find the Truth beneath it.
I listen.
I answer questions.
But there is nothing to teach that creates Happiness.

I merely teach you how to relax and feel and listen...and breathe, maintain posture; do not fall asleep.
I talk about Meditation.

Happiness takes care of itself.

As we say in Zen: 'There is Nothing to teach.'

So all Zen Masters have a lot to say about Nothing."
~ Pahka Dave

The Story of two dogs

THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE: ONE UNIT

I live in a small trailer on my landlord's 7 acre property. I have to walk my dog on a extendable and retractable 20 foot leash, where I can control the length of the leash from a button on the handle of the leash, because he will chase the free range chickens if he is not on a leash.

There are a lot of trees and other things that my dog will wrap the leash around, as he's sniffing the smells on the ground and walking in circles.

I used to either follow the same path he went, to get the leash unwrapped, or I would go to the obstacle that he wrapped himself around and shift the leash from one hand to another, unwinding the wrap.

I day, while walking him, I felt it was time to teach him to not wrap the leash around trees and other objects. So, as soon as he was about to go around in a circle, beginning to wrap the leash around something, I would push the button to stop the leash from extending. He noticed the resistance and the fact that he was unable to move forward, but he would keep trying anyhow.

After a while of trying to force through the resistance, it dawned on him that he couldn't go forward anymore, no matter how hard he tried. He was just digging into the ground, going nowhere.

Then, he tried something else. He looked at me and barked. Trying to get me to extend the leash or fix the problem he is having. I attempted to point to the other side of the object, trying to point out that he is stuck becuase he wrapped the leash around the object. All he had to do was take 3 steps and go around to the other side of the object.

I couldn't tell if he didn't like that idea or if he couldn't tell what I was trying to point out, but he started staring at me and whining.

He still had some of his weight on the leash, even though he was now sitting on the ground, giving up. Not trying to push forward through walking anymore, but still resisting by putting his weight forward and also resisting by giving up.

After a while, he got wore out and stopped resisting with his weight forward and he instantly noticed the difference because the pressure on his harness stopped, since he was no longer pushing his weight forward and the leash gave slack.

I couldn't tell if he thought that freed him up or if he thought I gave in to his whining, but he stood up and tried to continue to push forward, but with one lean, he felt the resistance again.

I knew if I just stood still, he would eventually figure it out by going with the path of the least resistance.
In a similar way, life is much like this example. Life is a still and unmoved truth; life is the truth and the way. Life is constantly trying to show us what it is and what is happening, but we refuse to listen and want to go about it our own way.

For a while, it can feel like life is doing all the work for us, so when it asks us to pay attention and invites us to start taking responsibility for the stuckness we feel and start taking responsibility for the wrapping-up we find ourselves in, we create resistance.

We think the resistance is life but it's really that we don't care to find out what is causing the seemingly resistance. We have our favorite way, which is anyway we like and we want to continue that way.

We create resistance by pushing forward into a direction that we want to go. We are not open to listen to what life wants for us. If we just go the way of least resistance, we will find the way life set out for us.

And we will discover that the way with least resistance is the way which is towards truth. With that discovery comes an effortlessness, and as soon as we hit any resistance, then we know that's not the way. It becomes very simple to be guided by life. It's easy to flow with what is, because "what is not" will feel like resistance and inner conflict. Even emotional or mental resistance fits well into this example.

My dog now knows that I will not give in to what he wants and so there is no other choice for him. Hence, he naturally chooses the path which is choiceless (simply because he doesn't have another choice, unless he wants to pout and be in resistance).

Sometimes my dog will still want to pout and that is okay, he can choose that, if he wants to and he can pout however long he wants to, but instead he quickly remembers that he is happier when he is not resisting and happier when simply taking the route with no resistance. Now, we have a flow, a relationship of one movement and act as one unit; one body.

Similarly, you may think you have desires and wants that are different than how life is appearing, but only when you flow with life do you discover that life's desires for you, are actually your desires for you, absolutely no difference. You are not separate from life; you are Life itSelf. One Life.

When you're flowing with life, the One Life becomes very apparent, because when you're not flow with life, then the resistance becomes very apparent. When you see this clearly, there is no choice but to flow with life; no choice but to Be as Life is.

If you identify with resistance, rather it feels like a choice or not, then resistance is still necessary. Resistance is Grace, it helps us see that resistance is not necessary. Life will get its way, eventually, because it is the truth and the way. We can resist for a long time, even lifetimes, but not forever. ~Conscious Flex admin

Seeing what is

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
~ Dogen

Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with discovering what is good or bad or advantageous, but what is.
~ Alan Watts

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
~ Zen Saying

If you want to know something, go elsewhere. If you want to un-know everything, then sit and listen.
The silence inside of you is the sound of your knowledge collapsing. Remember, it is you who said, "I want to be free."
~ Adyashanti

Life is thus
Death is thus
Verse or no verse
What's the fuss?
~ Dahui Zonggao

It's logical; if you're not going anywhere any road is the right one.
~ Ikkyu

I never get lost, because I don't know where I am going (c'est vrai lol!).
~ Ikkyu

If one is not
Trying to get to some place,
One cannot become lost.
~Wu Hsin

" Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
~ Bashô

I confess that there is nothing to teach: no religion, no science, no body of information which will lead your mind back to the Tao. Today I speak in this fashion, tomorrow in another, but always the Integral Way is beyond words and beyond mind. Simply be aware of the oneness of things.
~ Hua Hu Ching

The whole point of Zen is to suspend the rules we have superimposed on things and to see the world as it is.
~ Alan Watts

The hardest thing to do

"Stopped to get dinner for my son and the guy behind us in the drive-thru yells to my son, "Hurry up fucken nigger!" When I got to the window I asked to pay for his order. I wrote this on the back of his receipt and asked the cashier to hand it to him with his food. My son asked me why I paid for his food if he was mean, I explained that being nice to nice people is easy, you have to be nice to mean people, that's the hardest thing to do." ~ Story credit(La Peggy)

The Control

Having a fearless attitude you begin to realise that you can accept whatever happens. You can let go of life, you can follow it because you are not expecting anything out of it and you're not trying to control it. You have the wisdom, the mindfulness, the ability to roll with the flow rather than to be drowned by the tidal waves of life.
~ Kuan Yin

What if you let go of every bit of control and every urge that you have, right down to the deepest urge to control anything that may be happening with you at this moment? If you were able to give up control absolutely, totally, and completely, then you would be a spiritually free being.
~ Adyashanti

Our entire life seems to be nothing but a wasted effort to control our natural responses and reactions to events and change them to suit what we think are our preferred requirements. Yet, the controller himself is nothing more than a concept created by thought, by memory, by the past.
~ Ramesh Balsekar

If you want real control, drop the illusion of control. Let life live you. It does anyway.
~ Byron Katie

100 benefits of meditation

Physiological benefits:

1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:

36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility
71- Reduces road rage
72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:

80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life

~ Frederic Premji

The wise farmer (Zen story)

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

It's all ideas

Pupil: Some people call you a cynic.
Master: What is cynicism?
Pupil: The notion that nothing has any use.
Master: What a useless idea!

23 emotions people feel but can't explain

Zen Story - Cyclin'

A Zen Teacher saw five of his students return from the market, riding their bicycles. When they had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?”

The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying this sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!” The teacher praised the student, saying, “You are a smart boy. When you grow old, you will not walk hunched over, as I do.”

The second student replied, “I love to watch the trees and fields pass by as I roll down the path.” The teacher commended the student, “Your eyes are open and you see the world.”

The third student replied, “When I ride my bicycle, I am content to chant, nam myoho renge kyo.” The teacher gave praise to the third student, “Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel.”

The fourth student answered, “Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony with all beings.” The teacher was pleased and said, “You are riding on the golden path of non-harming.”

The fifth student replied, “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle.” The teacher went and sat at the feet of the fifth student, and said, “I am your disciple.”

What is, is. (Eckhart Tolle quotes)

"Change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“In today's rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“I don't want it to end, and so, as every therapist knows, the ego does not want an end to its “problems” because they are part of its identity. If no one will listen to my sad story, I can tell it to myself in my head, over and over, and feel sorry for myself, and so have an identity as someone who is being treated unfairly by life or other people, fate or God. It gives definition to my self-image, makes me into someone, and that is all that matters to the ego.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind. The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more ore you are free of pain, of suffering - and free of the egoic mind. Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“In surrender, you no longer need ego defenses and false masks. You become very simple, very real. “That’s dangerous,” says the ego. “You’ll get hurt. You’ll become vulnerable.” What the ego doesn’t know, of course, is that only through the letting go of resistance, through becoming “vulnerable,” can you discover your true and essential invulnerability.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“The ego says, ‘I shouldn’t have to suffer,’ and that thought makes you suffer so much more. It is a distortion of the truth, which is always paradoxical. The truth is that you need to say yes to suffering before you can transcend it.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Suffering needs time. It cannot survive in the now.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Whatever you accept completely, you go beyond...If you fight it, you're stuck with it.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, Realizing the Power of Now

“Resistance is weakness and fear masquerading as strength. What the ego sees as weakness is your Being in its purity, innocence, and power. What it sees as strength is weakness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“Nonresistance, nonjudgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

“When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

“So give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting . . . snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” you can reply, “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“the moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what is, you are free of the mind.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

I CHOOSE LOVE - SHAWN GALLAWAY

Being simply is extraordinary

Bankei opened a Zen school not far away from another Buddhist school. Over a few weeks, many students from the other school began to attend Bankei's lectures. Eventually the other school's Master called on Bankei, who was in the middle of a lecture. The other Master scolded his students for abandoning his school, and yelled at Bankei, saying that *his* teacher could perform miracles such as walking on water and signing his name from the other side of a river. Bankei replied, "My miracle is that when I'm hungry, I eat, and when I am tired, I sleep."

Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The beauty of Zen is found in simplicity and tranquility, in a sense of the all-embracing harmony of things.
~ Thích Thiên-Ân

The universe works by itself - that I know. What else do I need to know?
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
~ Rabindranath Tagore

Let go of grasping

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
~ Dogen

The bird of paradise lands only on the hand that does not grasp.
~ Zen proverb

When you get free from certain fixed concepts of the way the world is, you find it is far more miraculous than you ever thought it was.
~ Alan Watts

Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don’t accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace.
~ Ajahn Chah

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
~ Zen Proverb

Once at Cold Mountain, troubles cease -
No more tangled, hung up mind.
Idly scribbling poems on the rock cliff,
I take whatever comes, like a drifting boat.
~ Hanshan

My daily activities are not unusual,
I'm just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing...
My supernatural power and marvelous activity -
Drawing water and carrying firewood.
~ Layman P'ang

It is happening right now. You are hearing. You are seeing. The functioning is going on as pure experience right now. The trouble arises because you are looking for something to grasp with the mind and say: 'This is it'! You are looking for an experience in the mind to say: Ah, that's it.' And all you do is tuck that away in your memory, and you go along on your merry way looking for something else
- Sailor Bob Adamson

The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something - usually ourselves. When we feel unhappy, when we feel inadequate, we get stingy; we hold on tight. Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can - a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement - we are training in letting go.
~ Pema Chodron

Do everything with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end.
~ Ajahn Chah

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
~ Alan Watts

The intuitive mindless nature of Zen

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion; not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is the way to liberation.
~ The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

The greatest gift that you can give to this world is to make the mind still.
~ Ajahn Chah

Stop thinking, and end your problems.
~ Lao Tzu

I never get lost, because I don't know where I am going (c'est vrai lol!).
~ Ikkyu

Be still, and silent.
Know the stillness of freedom
Where there is no more striving.
~ Dhammapada

Here it is – right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.
~ Huang po

When you are practicing Zen meditation do not try and stop your thinking. If something comes into your mind, let it come in and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try and stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.
~ Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

The essence of meditation practice is to let go of all your expectations about meditation.
– Mingyur Rinpoche

In awareness there is no becoming, there is no end to be gained. There is silent observation without condemnation, from which comes understanding.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
~ Ram Dass

You will always find an answer
in the sound of water.
~ Chuang Tzu

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.
~ Zen Proverb

The more you talk and think about it,
The further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking,
And there is nothing you will not be able to know.
~ Xinxin Ming

Man is a thinking reed, but great works are done when we are not calculating and thinking. "Childlikeness" has to be restored with training in the art of self-forgetfulness. When this is attained we think, yet we do not think.
~ D.T.Suzuki

Not thinking about anything is Zen.
Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down;
Everything you do is Zen.
~ Bodhi-Dharma

An ancient master said, “The mountains, the rivers, the whole earth, the entire array of phenomena are all oneself.” If you can absorb the essence of this message, there are no activities outside of meditation: you dress in meditation and eat in meditation; you walk, sit, and lie down in meditation; you perceive and cognize in meditation; you experience joy, anger, sadness, and happiness in meditation.
~ Muso Soseki

Nothing wrong (nature is everything)

No raindrop ever falls in the wrong place.
~ Zen saying

Spring flowers, autumn moon,
Summer breeze, winter snow
When the mind is free from thoughts,
Every season is just perfect!
~ Wumen Huikai ~

Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe.
~ Alan Watts

"You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should."
~ Max Ehrmann

An Innocent Misunderstanding

“Because of an innocent misunderstanding you think that you are a human being in the relative world seeking the experience of oneness, but actually you are the One expressing itself as the experience of being a human being.”
~ Adyashanti

Your Freedom

“Until the whole world is free to agree with you or disagree with you, until you have given the freedom to everyone to like you or not like you, to love you or hate you, to see things as you see them or to see things differently—until you have given the whole world its freedom—you’ll never have your freedom.”
~Adyashanti, The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment

Allow all to be

Pain may arise;
Don’t worsen it with resistance.
Pleasure may arise;
Don’t diminish it by grasping.
Allow all to be as it is.
~Wu Hsin

Awaken with Byron Katie

She’s already filled to the brim; there isn’t room for a drop more. When you have what you want — when you are what you want — there’s no impulse to seek anything outside yourself. Seeking is the movement away from the awareness that your life is already complete, just as it is. Even at moments of apparent pain, there’s never anything wrong or lacking. Reality is always kind; what happens is the best thing that could happen. It can’t be anything else, and you’ll realize that very clearly if you inquire.

I have a friend whose wife fell in love with another man. He had been doing The Work for a while, and instead of going into sadness and panic, he questioned his thinking. “‘She should stay with me’ — is it true? I can’t know that. How do I react when I believe the thought? Extremely upset. Who would I be without the thought? I would love her and just wish the best for her.”

This man really wanted to know the truth. When he questioned his thinking, he found something extremely precious. “Eventually,” he said, “I was able to see it as something that should be happening, because it was. When my wife told me about it, she didn’t have to censor anything to protect me. It was amazing to hear what it was like for her, without taking any of it personally. It was the most liberating experience I ever had.”

His wife moved in with the other man, and he was fine with that, because he didn’t want her to stay if she didn’t want to. A few months later she hit a crisis point with her lover and needed someone to talk to. She went to her best friend — her husband. They calmly discussed her options. She decided to get a place of her own where she could work things out, and eventually, after many ups and downs, she went back to her husband. Through all this drama, whenever my friend found himself mentally at war with reality and experiencing pain or fear, he inquired into the thought he was believing at that moment, and returned to a calm and cheerful state of mind. He came to know for himself that the only possible problem he could have was his unquestioned thinking. His wife gave him everything he needed for his own freedom.
~Byron Katie

Conscious relating

If you are willing to look at another person's behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will over a period of time cease to react at all.
~Yogi Bhajan

THE GREAT INTERNAL SPACE

What opens inside you when you’re willing to entertain the possibility that things may be different than you thought they were is what I call the “great internal space”: a place where you come to know that you don’t know.

This is really the entry point into the end of suffering: when you become conscious of the fact that you don’t really know. I mean that you don’t really know anything—that you don’t really understand the world, you don’t really understand each other, you don’t really understand yourself.

This is such an obvious thing when we really take a moment and look around. When we look at the world that human beings have created and how we relate to each other, it’s so obvious that we don’t really know anything at all.

This is one of the things that I saw when I was a little child: This adult world has an insane quality to it. Everybody’s going around pretending like they really know things, pretending like they know what’s real and what’s not, pretending they know what’s right, pretending they know who’s wrong, but actually nobody really knows. But this is something we’re afraid of. We don’t really want to admit that nobody really knows.

Again, we can see that there’s a great unwillingness in most of us to be disturbed in this way. But if you’ve suffered enough—and I imagine that you have suffered plenty—then maybe you are willing to be disturbed. Maybe your suffering has created a longing for this great internal space.
~Adyashanti, Falling into Grace

We are all created equal

“If you believe that anyone’s action is bad, how can you see the good in it? How can you see the good that comes out of it, maybe years later?

If you see anyone as bad, how can you understand that we are all created equal?

We’re all teachers by the way we live. A blind drunk can teach more about why not to drink than an abstinent man in all his piety.

No one has more or less goodness. No one who ever lived is a better or a worse human being than you.”
~Byron Katie

Dr. Brené Brown on Blame

You are probably a bit of a blamer - most of us are. But why should we give it up? In this witty sequel of RSA Short, inspirational thinker Brené Brown considers why we blame others, how it sabotages our relationships, and why we desperately need to move beyond this toxic behaviour:

The Intelligence of everything

"How do you know that you are a higher order of being than a potato?"
Speech by Alan Watts


Alan talks about his revelation of intelligent nature:

What Zen isn't

"Zen isn’t simplifying your life. Zen is simply life."

There’s a lot of talk about Zen, but until you topple the tower of babble, it isn’t Zen.

Zen isn’t a habit. It is the absence of all habits and conditioning. There are no habits in Zen, because everything, everywhere, everytime is altogether new.

Zen isn’t simplifying your life. Zen is simply life. When we don’t fuss with it, life simplifies itself.

Zen isn’t waking up so you can get out of bed. Zen is getting out of bed so you can wake up.

Zen isn’t eating less, spending less, talking less or working less. It’s wanting less, fearing less, worrying less and striving less. The latter takes care of the former.

Zen isn’t about making a change in your life. It is about living the change you already are.

Zen isn’t a moment of Zen. It is eternal. It is now. Zen never ends.

Now, how do you come to see and believe this for yourself? Certainly not by reading about it, although one or two good books every now and then won’t hurt. You know by what you practice, or it isn’t Zen.
~Karen Maezen Miller

Suffering is an illusion

The illusion:

Suffering is an illusion. You feel compassion for the beings who suffer, but there is no reason for you to become emotional yourself. Because suffering does not exist, it can be removed.

Even your emotions do not really exist. You may not be able to actually experience other people’s emotions, but you can certainly experience your own. Your emotions need no introduction, as you already know them. In fact, you can examine them in a thorough way.

When you experience an emotion, find out how it exists. You can research it by your mind because it is fresh and within you, and you experience it. See whether the emotion is in your skin, or in your bones, or in your blood. In which part of your body is it located? When you look, you will not find the emotion anywhere. By the time you decide to have a good look at it, the emotion is already lost. So where did it go? Is it hiding somewhere in one corner of your body? Where is the emotion? When you examine both negative and positive emotions in this way, you will not find them as having any real existence.

When somebody makes you angry, is that anger coming from a place inside him to you? Or is the anger inside you? Examine it. Did he throw the anger at you? Check it! Or is your anger like a light that can be switched on? If so, where is the switch? Analyse and examine every part of your mind relative to the anger that is there. Rummage through all parts of yourself to see if the emotion really exists somewhere in you, or not. What caused your anger? Is the anger caused by somebody, if so, how?

You can examine an emotion with the kind of precision I have just described. Every emotion can become an object of your mental examination. None of the emotions truly exist. Instead, what you will find is just emptiness – the emptiness of anger and the emptiness of every emotion. This is the way to develop the wisdom in your mind by means of your emotions.

An emotion is easy to examine, but so is a non-emotional thought – neither exists. The reality of all thoughts is non-existence, yet superficially, they appear clearly like a mirage. Depression, anxiety, all thoughts and emotions are like waves of the mind. When the wave comes, you feel it. When it has subsided, you don’t experience it.
The wave or thought is from your mind; this is why you can experience it. When it is there, examine it, and you will find nothing. Don’t try to find it in a deliberate or aggressive way, as if you have to find it. That would be too emotional and extreme. You look, and finding nothing, you keep that awareness. This is how you maintain an analytical, and accurate view of mind.

It makes no difference whether the mental happening is positive, or negative. What makes you happy should be examined. What makes you sad or cry, should also be examined. Finding nothing, you might feel at a lost, and that feeling should also be examined. In other words, examine anything and everything. You will find nothing. Keep that view, and you will have a fresh experience of the real nature, or the pure part of your mind. When you do, you
will also see that the minds of others are the same. All suffering are just waves of the mind, having no true existence. They are like reflections, reflections from a crystal, mirages, or dreams – none of them exist solidly in the least.
~Shamar Rinpoche, Mahamudra Curriculum

Stroke of insight ~Jill Bolte Taylor

Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery:



To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life.
~Jill Bolte Taylor

Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think.
~Jill Bolte Taylor

I love knowing that I am simultaneously as big as the universe and yet merely a heap of star dust.
~Jill Bolte Taylor

The Truth of Zen

Never knowing; always emptying:

Not thinking about anything is Zen.
Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down;
Everything you do is Zen.
~Bodhi-Dharma

Not-knowing most closely approaches the Truth.
~Zen saying

How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?
~Nan-in

The most important thing is always to keep your beginner's mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.
~ Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

If you have any image of what the Truth is, slay it immediately because that's not It. We must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all, not once but continually.
~Adyashanti

Nothing moves without mind

Peace of mind is not touching anything with mind:

Moving mind

Two men were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind.

"It's the wind that is really moving," stated the first one.

"No, it is the flag that is moving," contended the second.

A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them. "Neither the flag nor the wind is moving," he said, "It is MIND that moves."

Both opposites are equal

Pleasure and pain are equal in a clear heart.
No mountain hides the moon.
~Ikkyu



The Reality of not two (non-duality).

Learning from nature

Be as nature is:

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
~Lao Tzu

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
~Zenrin Kushu

The water of the valley stream never shouts at the tainted world: “Purify yourself!”
But naturally, as it is, shows how it is done.
~Ryokan

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to sail.
~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Look at the stream, there are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? It simply flows over and around them and moves on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is.
~Zen saying

Obey the nature of things, and you are in concord with the Way; Calm and easy and free from annoyance.
~Xinxin Ming: Faith in Mind

The Power of Vulnerability ~Brene Brown

Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity:

Facing difficulties in life

Approaching problems wisely:

When faced with any difficulty of life, resolve it by following these four steps: face it, accept it, deal with it and let it go.
~ Chan Master Sheng Yen

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.
~Eckhart Tolle

The Story of the Chinese Farmer

“The Story of the Chinese Farmer” is a parable about life and nature that helps us to stay grounded in truth:

"How fortunate.
Maybe.

How unfortunately:
Maybe."
~(Voice of: Alan Watts)

One universal body of life

The Tree of Life:

Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe. ~ Alan Watts

How wonderful will it be when all beings experience each other as limbs on the one body of life.
~ Shantideva

Difference between empathy and sympathy

What is the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

Brené Brown on Empathy:



“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
― Brené Brown

“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.”
― Brené Brown

“Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

“Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's something we choose to practice.”
― Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

“We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

“When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable.”
― Brené Brown

“There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed. Emotional stoicism is not badassery. Blustery posturing is not badassery. Swagger is not badassery. Perfection is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery.”
― Brené Brown, Rising Strong

From not-knowing present-action arises

How presence moves:

"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?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things."
~ Tao Te Ching

Nonviolent Communication Workshop ~Marshall Rosenberg (Full Video 3 hours)

Nonviolent Communication Workshop ~Marshall Rosenberg (Full Video 3 hours)



“All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.”
― Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

“Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.”
― Marshall B. Rosenberg

“Don’t mix up that which is habitual with that which is natural.”
― Marshall B. Rosenberg

“I’ve just become aware that for thirty-six years, I was angry with your father for not meeting my needs, and now I realize that I never once clearly told him what I needed.”
― Marshall B. Rosenberg

Inner acceptance of whatever you are experiencing

“A woman in her thirties came to see me. As she greeted me, I could sense the pain behind her polite and superficial smile. She started telling me her story, and within one second her smile changed into a grimace of pain. Then, she began to sob uncontrollably. She said she felt lonely and unfulfilled.

There was much anger and sadness. As a child she had been abused by a physically violent father. I saw quickly that her pain was not caused by her present life circumstances but by an extraordinarily heavy pain-body. Her pain-body had become the filter through which she viewed her life situation.

She was not yet able to see the link between the emotional pain and her thoughts, being completely identified with both. She could not yet see that she was feeding the pain-body with her thoughts. In other words, she lived with the burden of a deeply unhappy self. At some level, however, she must have realized that her pain originated within herself, that she was a burden to herself. She was ready to awaken, and this is why she had come.

I directed the focus of her attention to what she was feeling inside her body and asked her to sense the emotion directly, instead of through the filter of her unhappy thoughts, her unhappy story. She said she had come expecting me to show her the way out of her unhappiness, not into it.

Reluctantly, however, she did what I asked her to do. Tears were rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking. “At this moment, this is what you feel.” I said. “There is nothing you can do about the fact that at this moment this is what you feel. Now, instead of wanting this moment to be different from the way it is, which adds more pain to the pain that is already there, is it possible for you to completely accept that this is what you feel right now?”

She was quiet for a moment. Suddenly she looked impatient, as if she was about to get up, and said angrily, “No, I don't want to accept this.” “Who is speaking?” I asked her. “You or the unhappiness in you? Can you see that your unhappiness about being unhappy is just another layer of unhappiness?” She became quiet again. “I am not asking you to do anything. All I'm asking is that you find out whether it is possible for you to allow those feelings to be there. In other words, and this may sound strange, if you don't mind being unhappy, what happens to the unhappiness? Don't you want to find out?”

She looked puzzled briefly, and after a minute or so of sitting silently, I suddenly noticed a significant shift in her energy field. She said, “This is weird. I 'm still unhappy, but now there is space around it. It seems to matter less.”

This was the first time I heard somebody put it like that: There is space around my unhappiness. That space, of course, comes when there is inner acceptance of whatever you are experiencing in the present moment.

I didn't say much else, allowing her to be with the experience. Later she came to understand that the moment she stopped identifying with the feeling, the old painful emotion that lived in her, the moment she put her attention on it directly without trying to resist it, it could no longer control her thinking and so become mixed up with a mentally constructed story called “The Unhappy Me.” Another dimension had come into her life that transcended her personal past – the dimension of Presence. Since you cannot be unhappy without an unhappy story, this was the end of her unhappiness. It was also the beginning of the end of her pain-body. Emotion in itself is not unhappiness. Only emotion plus an unhappy story is unhappiness.

When our session came to an end, it was fulfilling to know that I had just witnessed the arising of Presence in another human being. The very reason for our existence in human form is to bring that dimension of consciousness into this world. I had also witnessed a diminishment of the pain-body, not through fighting it but through bringing the light of consciousness to it.”
― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

The place of no pain

Be fully here:

A monk asked master, "How can we escape the cold and heat?"
Tozan replied, "Why not go where there is no cold and heat?"
"Is there such a place?" the monk asked.
Tozan replied, "When cold, be thoroughly cold; when hot, be hot through and through."

Bring me your mind

A restless mind:

Huike: "I have a restless mind and beg Master to settle it for me."

Bodhidharma: "Bring me your mind and I will settle it for you."

Huike (after searching for his mind): "Well, I can not find it."

Bodhidharma: "There, I have already settled it."

Incredible Display of Humanity

Mystery transit rider:

I saw the most incredible display of humanity on the sky train. A six foot five man suffering from drug abuse and\or mental health issues was being very aggressive on the bus with erratic movements, cursing, shouting, etc. While everyone was scared, this one seventy year old woman reached out her hand, tightly gripping his hand until he calmed down, sat down silently, with eventual tears in his eyes. I spoke to the woman after this incident and she simply said, "I'm a mother and he needed someone to touch." And she started to cry. Don't fear or judge the stranger on the bus. ~Ehab Taha

Ehab's Facebook post about the incident was shared more than 5,800 in 48 hours.
Reference link: BC CTV News

“His hand was hanging there so I just extended myself to him and just grabbed hold of his hand,” she said. “He completely calmed right down.”

They rode hand-in-hand until he reached his stop, at which point witnesses said he thanked her before walking off.

Fellow Surrey resident Ehab Taha was touched by her gesture, and decided to capture it with a photo:


After he uploaded it to Facebook with a brief summary of what happened, it was shared more than 16,000 times in a matter of days.
Reference link: Full Story

The Stories of Zen

Zen teachers have admonished their students to seek direct experience and regard book learning of any kind with skepticism.

Acknowledging the old masters admonition to seek realization directly rather than through analysis, we hope to avoid succumbing to this temptation by keeping the words "about Zen" to a minimum. Thus, presenting the stories of Zen provide great clarity about Zen.

A man was visiting a Zen master in Japan. The Zen master invited him to drink tea with him. They sat together and the man was talking and talking and talking about his understanding of Zen. In the meantime, the Zen master started to pour tea into the cup. He was pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring. When the cup was full he kept on pouring and the cup overflowed.

The man was talking but finally noticed the overflowing cup and said, "Stop! It cannot take any more. It's already full."

The Zen Master put the teapot aside and said, "Just like your mind. Always filled with opinions. How can I teach you anything?