Drop It

This story is told about the Buddha, who one day was sought out by an ardent follower who had brought presents to the master to show his devotion. The Buddha gave him audience. The man stepped forward and held out his right hand, offering a precious ivory ornament. "Drop it," said Buddha. The man, surprised, stepped back. Then he stepped forward again, this time offering in his left hand a precious jewel. "Drop it," said Buddha. Again the disciple, surprised, obeyed and stepped back. Then, smiling as if catching the Buddha's meaning, he held out both hands empty and stepped forward. "drop it," said Buddha.

Inconceivable

Found these words of wisdom in an article by John Daido Loori:

Although water is inherently empty, it flows up and it flows down. It rises to the sky and rains down on earth. Water becomes dew, ice and snow. It flows and it's still. It breaks and it melts. Water becomes rivers and streams, lakes and oceans. Water is all of these things, yet it is not any of these things. It is inconceivable.

It is also inconceivable that you and I are the same thing, yet I'm not you and you're not me. It's inconceivable, because our minds are dualistic. We only understand something to be one thing and not another. But life doesn't work that way. We need to learn to use our minds differently. Or rather, we need to relearn what we have forgotten after years and years of conditioning. That is the only way that we will be able to see the wonder that surrounds us.

Daido Roshi was the founder of Zen Mountain Monastery and author of many books on Zen, creativity and photography. He passed away last year and is most certainly missed.

The plants and flowers
I raised about my hut
I now surrender
To the will
Of the wind.
                ~Ryokan

Trying Not to Grit My Teeth . . .

From an interview with Maya Angelou by Brian Lanker from the book I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America

I'm convinced that I'm a child of God. That's wonderful, exhilarating, liberating, full of promise. But the burden that goes along with that is, I'm convinced that everybody is a child of God. The brutes, the bigots, the batterers and the bastards are also children of God. And that's where the onerous burden comes in for me, as a practicing Christian, to try to keep that in mind and not grit my teeth until they break off into little stubs.

Everyday Magic

From Chagyam Trungpa's Shambhala:

"Realize that your own wisdom as a human being is not separate from the power of things as they are. They are both reflections of the unconditioned wisdom of the cosmic mirror. Therefore there is no fundamental separation or duality between you and your world. When you can experience those two things together, as one, so to speak, then you have access to tremendous vision and power in the world - you find that they are inherently connected to your own vision, your own being. That is discovering magic. We are not talking here about an intellectual revelation; we are speaking of actual experience. We are talking about how we actually perceive reality."

Key here is that this isn't just an idea. He's talking about actual experience in the here and now. Trying our best to see things as they actually are. It ain't easy!

Lovely

It's 8am and the sun is out. First time we've seen it in awhile. There are shapely, distinct shadows on the wall! Beads of water on the pine needles from last night's rain glisten like so many diamonds. The slightest breeze changes everything. I'm off to the studio to make some cups.

Javelinas and Teenagers

More from Barbara Kingsolver:

". . . most of us have come to see human ownership of places and things, even other living creatures, as a natural condition, right as rain. While rights and authority and questions of distribution are fiercely debated, the basic concept is rarely in doubt. I remember arguing tearfully, as a child, that a person couldn't own a tree, and still in my heart I believe that, but inevitably to come of age is to own. When we stand upon the ground, we first think to ask, 'Whose ground is this?' And NO TRESPASSING doesn't just mean, 'Don't build your house here.' It means: 'All you see before you, the trees, the songbirds, the poison ivy, the water beneath the ground, the air you would breathe if you passed through here, the grass you would tread upon, the very idea of existing in this place - all these are mine.' Nought but a human mind could think of such a thing. And nought but a human believes it. Javelinas, and teenagers, still hark to the earth's primordial state and the music of the open range."