The Practice of Compassion

Good article by Ji Aoi Isshi on compassion:

"Some mistakenly think that zen soars high above any need for compassion. Don't be one of them. Since I have compassion for you, I'll try to set you straight on this point right now! Open your minds:"

Zen Master Su Bong - Why do I have to finish this?

Interesting talk with brief discussion afterwards:

"Zen Master Seung Sahn says that try mind is already enlightened mind. So only sit, only try, only go straight, don't know. These days I think try mind is the most important thing there is, the only thing we have that's substantial. What else have you got to hold on to? This life? This feeling? This attainment, no attainment? How can you hold that? How can you hold clear eyes? Maybe you got enlightenment, how do you hold that? Nothing's guaranteed. Everything's always changing. You cannot hold your life. 'Coming empty-handed, going empty-handed, that is human.' That means we cannot hold anything."

Zen lectures on WMA

For Zennists looking for something to listen to, subjects include What is Buddha Nature?, Practicing Compassion, and The Three Marks of An Awakened Life. Files are WMA format (Windows Media) so you might have to convert to MP3 to put it on your portable MP3 player. (Some of these would benefit from a little editing, but that's what the fast forward button is for).

When will we notice the way?

I know that in myself I miss things that I should do or ways that I should be that would help me, but I act like those things, that would bring more positive things into in my life, are strangers. We all miss opportunities that if we grasp at them would bring us to a better understanding of ourselves and give us better lives.

Daily Zen Meditation: "For twenty seven years
I’ve always sought the Way.
Well, this morning we passed
Like strangers on the road.

- Kokuin (10th century)"

Jack Kornfield - Seeing Suffering Directly

Following up on yesterday's post, this should be of interest:

"If you want to make a change, a difference, it means looking at the world with real honesty, unflinchingly and directly. Then, look at yourself and see that this sorrow is not just out there, but it's also in ourselves. It's our own fear and prejudice and hatred and desire and wanting and and neurosis and anxiety. It's our own sorrow. We have to look at it and not run away."

Zen Living: Hate

Blog post with simple but positive message:

"Replace hate with love and there's a possibility that its good medicine will heal the world, one being at a time."

Presentation Zen: Contrasts in presentation style: Yoda vs. Darth Vader

Ok, this post really has nothing to do with Zen (well, nothing more than anything else) but it's funny, so who cares. Plus, it's from Presentation Zen, which has "Zen" in the title. Isn't that Zen enough?!?

Zen Koans - AshidaKim.com

I tend to enjoy Koans or just stories about Zen. This is a little story about Kakua and one note.

From: Zen Koans - AshidaKim.com

After Kakua visited the emperor he disappeared and no one knew what became of him. He was the first Japanese to study Zen in China, but since he showed nothing of it, save one note, he is not remembered for having brought Zen into his country.

j a c k / z e n: Tao of sustainability

Another interesting post at JackZen:

"One of the ego's favorite beliefs is the expectation that any one person can be the single, ultimate source of our wants and needs. The practice of labelling relationships is an attempt to hold each other to this unfulfillable and unsustainable belief."

Trust

Interesting article:

"A life not fully tested is a sad one of wasted potential. It remains a life that does not venture out to risk failure, but instead constructs a cocoon of habits around itself made up of comfortable cliches and abstractions. The room is stuffy and claustrophobic. The weird, flickering spasms of T.V. light fill the room at night to ward off death for another sleepless night.

Zen training turns off the T.V. set, opens the windows to let in some fresh air, and rips up our comfortable newspaper clippings that we have been saving. It sits us down in an empty room with nothing to hold onto. Here we begin to learn how to trust what is fundamental and elemental. Like a great red wood tree in an old growth forest, we become unshakable. Our attention does not wander or stray. We remain. We stay. We breathe. This is how we learn to trust our experience as it is."

Zen Blog Vimala Sangha

Interesting blog:

"I mentioned last week that Dogen's oft-quoted dictum is, “To study the Buddhism is to study the self.” There are many layers and aspects to what we might call the self. We might add to his dictum the word “directly.” To study Buddhism is to study the self DIRECTLY. How do we do that? Well, stop looking outward, and let the mind rest in itself. Whether there is thinking going on or not is not so important at this stage. What is important is the attitude of self-inquiry. What is really going on?



Who is thinking these thoughts anyway? Where do they come from? -- LEW"