zen

A perception  (experience), sudden as blinking, that subject and object are one, will lead to a deeply mysterious wordless understanding; and by this understanding will you awake to the truth of Zen.

As soon as the mouth is opened, evils spring forth.  People either neglect the root and speak of the branches, or neglect the reality of the 'illusory' world and speak only of Enlightenment.  Or else they chatter of cosmic activities leading to transformations, while neglecting the Substance from which they spring---indeed, there is NEVER any profit in discussion.

The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same.  But to one who has discovered his real nature, how can there be anywhere or anything separate from it?...

...Therefore it is said:  'The perception of a phenomenon IS the perception of the Universal Nature, since phenomena and Mind are one and the same.'

If, conceiving of the phenomenal world as illusion, we try to shut it out, we make a false distinction between the 'real' and the 'unreal'.  So we must not shut anything out, but try to reach the point where all distinctions are seen to be void, where nothing is seen as desirable or undesirable, existing or not existing.  Yet  this does not mean that we should make our minds blank, for then we should be no better than blocks of wood or lumps of stone;  moreover, if we remain in this state, we should not be able to deal with the circumstances of daily life or be capable of observing the Zen precept:  ' When hungry, eat.'  Rather, we must cultivate dispassion, realizing that none of the attractive or unattractive attributes of things have any absolute existence.

Red morning sky -
 snail,
  are you glad of it?

We are an endless moving stream in an endless moving stream.     

It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our mind?

The great lesson from the true mystics, from the Zen monks, and now also from the Humanistic and Transpersonal psychologists, is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life...in one's own backyard.

What stands in the way of effortless effort is caring, or a conscious attempt to do well.

I cannot find the Monastery of Heaped Fragrance,
Miles up now into the clouds of the summit.
There is no footpath through the ancient woods.
Where did the bell sound,
Deep in the sound, deep in the mountain?
The voice of the torrent gulps over jagged stones;
Sunlight hardly warms the bluish pines.
As dusk deepens in these unfathomable mazes,
I practice meditation
To subdue the dragon of desire.