to be enlightened by all things

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever.



Eihei Dōgen, Genjōkōan (現成公案)

resurrection is a practice, not a ceremony

Nearly all of us are carrying our corpse as we walk around. We’re not truly alive, we’re not truly awake.

It’s very easy if we want to wake up and be a living person. In Christianity, they have the concept of resurrection. In Buddhism, resurrection is a practice, not a ceremony. When we hear the bell we can be resurrected. A single breath or step can resurrect us.

As we look around us, we can see if we’re among the living or among the dead. We may be right next to someone, but they don’t notice us, they are carried away by their memories, their anger, or sadness. Each moment can be a moment of resurrection, but they aren’t there to experience it.



Thich Nhat Hanh, Nothing to do, Nowhere to go - Waking up to who you are, Parallax Press, 2007



if you want to Wake Up...

highest goal

[Buddhism] teaches us to serve others, to sacrifice our own comfort for the sake of suffering humanity, and to observe religious precepts or disciplines voluntarily, but not as commandments imposed by some unseen power. By observing such good principles according to our own conviction not only do we ge the chance to be perfect but we also help others to live in peace.

This perfection is the highest goal which a person must attain in order to gain his salvation. It cannot be obtained through the influence of any god or mediator.
[...]

That is why the Buddha always welcomes people to come and see His teachings but not to come and believe at once. He also advised people to choose a proper religion by considering, and investigating in various ways without accepting anything through emotion or blind faith. This is why Buddhism is called a doctrine of analysis.


Why Buddhism, by Ven. Dr. Sri Dhammananda, in Gems of Buddhist Wisdom

constant flux

Buddhism holds that everything is in constant flux.
Thus the question is whether we are to accept change passively and be swept away by it, or whether we are to take the lead and create positive changes on our own initiative...


His Holiness The Dalai Lama


Photo and quotation from Rick Gunn's travel journal, that has been a great source of inspiration and encouragement to me, to be read at:
http://www.rickgunnphotography.com/project.php

as you could ever hope to be

When you’re trained as a Buddhist, you don’t think of Buddhism as a religion. You think of it as a type of science, a method of exploring your own experience through techniques that enable you to examine your actions and reactions in a nonjudgemental way, with the view toward recognizing, “Oh, this is how my mind works. This is what I need to do to experience happiness. This is what I should avoid to avoid unhappiness.

At its heart, Buddhism is very practical. It’s about doing things that foster serenity, happiness, and confidence, and avoiding things that provoke anxiety, hopelessness, and fear. The essence of Buddhist practice is not so much an effort at changing your thoughts or your behavior so that you can become a better person, but in realizing that no matter what you might think about the circumstances that define your life, you’re already good, whole, and complete. It’s about recognizing the inherent potential of your mind. In other words, Buddhism is not so much concerned with getting well as with recognizing that you are, right here, right now, as whole, as good, as essentially well as you could ever hope to be.

You don’t believe that, do you?

Well, for a long time neither did I.



With this confession, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche starts his precious book, The Joy of Living (Harmony Books, New York, 2007). To learn more about Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, please refer to The Yongey Foundation at:

http://mingyur.org/index.html

a practice infused with love

By the middle of the trip, I am in love. I can barely contain myself during the mindful walking meditations – it feels like mindful skipping. Fortunately, being with the Plum Village sangha is a safe place for a lover. No one thinks I’m crazy if I smile a little too widely. It feels like everything is in sync. To me, every chirp of a bird is a love song right now.

When I watch Thay as he leads the morning walking meditations, I sense that his heart is blown wide open. His brand of Zen Buddhism is far removed from the stick-thwacking, koan-churning stereotype of Zen. His is a practice infused with love, in all its dimensions. You can see it running through his students. The sangha beams with love and smiles. Even when Thay is not around, I am still imbibing his teachings, transmitted with authenticity by his students. This is not a grim, repressed bunch of monks and nuns, fearers of life hiding out in the security of the monastery. These people are engaged; they’re living fully, in this moment, freely sharing their findings with the rest of us.

Phap An, one of Thay’s senior monks, says that before he met Thay he spent years meditating on a deceptively simple koan: Who am I? It became an obsession: Who am I lifting this arm? Who am I taking this step? Who am I moving through space? Then he met Thay and discovered meditation in action. He dropped the philosophy and started living, being fully alive. There is some formal meditation at Plum Village, but not a lot. More important is how you live life. How you fully show up. It’s not about analyzing yourself into enlightenment. It’s about being, now. Now. Now. Now.




Excerpt from I Am Home by Velcrow Ripper, who reports on Thich Nhat Hanh’s historic second trip home to Vietnam, in 2007. To read the entire text please refer to:
http://www.plumvillage.org/pressrelease/pressrelease.html

Photos: top, Thay and the sangha just before the walking meditation at Tu Hieu, Vietnam, March 29 2007 © David Nelson; bottom, walking meditation towards Son Ha Monastery, Plum Village, France, June 2006 © Richard & Joanne Friday

To see more pictures from Thay's 2007 Vietnam pilgrimage, please refer to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rezdog/sets/72157594580266211/

when you reach the sea...

Float down this river…
float down in this old boat…
every river reaches the sea…
where upstream and downstream meet…
reaches the darkening sea…
is left as a crust of white salt on the shore.

So float down the river…
eyes closed… lips shut…
every scrap of dharma set aside.
Float down alone…
winds will blow…
night will fall and float down with you.
When you reach the sea…
Proclaim…
there is no one in pain…
anywhere in this world.



from the book Little Pilgrim by Ko Un, Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2005

photo: Dead Sea Sunset

hasten slowly

Maintain the state of undistractedness and distractions will fly off.
Dwell alone and you shall find a friend.
Take the lowest place and you shall reach the highest.
Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive.
Renounce all worldly goals and you shall reach the highest goal.


Milarepa (1052 - 1135)


if you would like to read more on Milarepa please refer to:

http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Av/Milarepa/Milarepa.htm