Happiness is your nature

 

Happiness is your nature.
It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside
when it is inside.

 

Ramana Maharshi

Seek Until You Find

 

You must seek until you find. Only when you find what you have been looking for will you be able to truly stop seeking. Better not to stop seeking energetically until then. It is imperative that you do not stop seeking until you reach the goal of Enlightenment. Do not allow yourself to stop until you've come to the absolute end of all seeking. Only when you have come home forever and you know without any doubt that it is all over should you allow yourself to stop.

 

Andrew Cohen

The silent watcher

 

Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations.  Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.  Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future.  Don't judge or analyze what you observe.  Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction.  Don't make a personal problem out of them.  You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.

Eckhart Tolle

But then at some point you do it for others. Because the others are you.

 

But no matter what kind of PureLand or different group, we can alllearn from the different teachings ofthe same Buddha. Refrain from allevils – greed, anger and ignorance. Goto that space of calmness within yourself.That’s the absence of greed,anger and ignorance. This is notclingingto birth and death. This isnot-clinging to samsara and nirvana.This is deep compassion, for all sentientbeings. Maybe for the first 10years this is for yourself. But then atsome point you do it for others.Because the others are you. And thisactually makes it easier. This is theBodhisattva approach. Doing somethingfor someone else. When we doit for ourselves, we become too critical.‘Am I being too greedy? Is itreally ok to want that?’ But whenyou do it for someone else, that

someone else includes you.

  

Dharma talk sem Jakusho Kwong-roshi hélt 12. ágúst 2009 meðan á sesshin stóð á Sonoma Mountain Zen Center.

Dagskrá Guðspekifélagsins um helgina

 

Föstudaginn  22. janúar  

Halldór Haraldsson: “Þetta er praktískt atriði.”

Laugardaginn  23. janúar    

“Meistari fjallanna.” Video-mynd um listmálarann og dulhyggjumanninn, Nicholas Roerich, og verk hans.

 

 

www.gudspekifelagid.is

 

In beginner’s mind we have many possibilities, but in expert mind there is not much possibility

Rev. S. Suzuki

Thursday morning lectures

Beginner’s Mind

People say to study zen is difficult but there is some misunderstanding why it is difficult.  It is not difficult because to sit in cross legged position is hard or to attain enlightenment is hard, but it is hard to keep our mind pure and to keep our practice pure in original way.  Zen become more and more impure and after zen school established in China it is development of zen but at the same time it is…it become impure.  But I don’t want to talk about Chinese zen or history of zen this morning.  But why I say I want to talk about why it is difficult is because just you came here this morning, getting up early is very valuable experience for you.  Just you wanted to come is very valuable.  We say ‘sho shin’.  Sho shin means beginner’s mind.  If we can keep beginner’s mind always that is the goal of our practice.  We recited Prajna Paramita Sutra this morning only once.  I think we recited very well, but what will happen to us if we recite it twice, three times, four times and more?  Then we will easily lose our attitude in reciting – original attitude in reciting- the sutra.  Same thing will happen to us.  For awhile we will keep our beginner’s mind in your  (blank space in transcript).  If we continue to practice one year, two years, three years or more we will have some  (blank on transcript) and we will lose the limitless meaning of the original mind.

In beginner’s mind we have many possibilities, but in expert mind there is not much possibility.  So in our practice it is important to resume to our original mind or inmost mind which we, ourselves, even we ourselves do not know what it is.  This is the most important thing for us.  The founder of our school emphasized this point.  We have to remain always beginners mind.  This is the secret of zen and secret of various practices….practice of flower arrangement, practice of Japanese singing and various art.  If we keep our beginner’s mind, we keep our precepts.  When we lose our beginner’s mind we will lose all the precepts and for zen students the most important thing is not to be dualistic or not…we should not lose our self-satisfied state of mind.  We should not be too demanding, or we should not be too greedy.  Our mind should always be rich and self-satisfied.  When our mind become demanding….when we become longing for something, we will violate our precepts not to kill, not to be immoral, not to steal, or not to tell lie and so on.  Those are based on our greedy mind.  When our mind is self-satisfied we keep our precepts.  When we ourselves is always self-satisfied, we have our original mind and we can practice good and we are always true to ourselves.  So the most difficult thing is to keep our beginner’s mind in our practice.  So if you can keep your beginner’s mind forever, you are Buddha.  In this point, our practice should be constant.  We should practice our way with beginner’s mind always.  There is no need to have deep understanding about zen.  Even though you read zen literature you have to keep this beginner’s mind.  You have to read it with fresh mind.  We shouldn’t say, “I know what is zen” or “I have attained enlightenment.”.  We should be always big enough.  This is very important.  And we should be very very careful about this point.

I was very much impressed by your practice this morning.  Although your posture was not perfect, but the feeling you have here is wonderful.  There is no comparison to it.  At the same time we should make our effort to keep this feeling forever in your practice.  This is very very important.  In Japanese art, when you master some art….when you become successor of your master, you will receive some paper on which something is written.

No one knows what it is.  It is very difficult to figure out what it is….to explain what it is. But if you have beginner’s mind, it’s all right.  If you can say, “Thank you very much” from the bottom of your heart, that’s all right.  If you say “What it is?” you have no secret….you can say “Thank you very much”.  That’s enough.  But this is very difficult.  So by your practice we must make our beginner’s mind more and more….we should appreciate beginner’s mind.  This is the secret of practice….zen pratice.

 

Shunryu Suzuki-roshi

 

Sjá: http://suzukiroshi.sfzc.org/dharma-talks/?p=409#more-409 

Guru is like a boat for crossing the river

 

Swami Rama - Don’t believe anyone who comes to you and demands, “Worship me.” Even Christ and Buddha did not ask that. Never forget that guru is not the goal. Guru is like a boat for crossing the river. It is very important to have a good boat, and it is very dangerous to have a boat that is leaking. But after you have crossed the river you don’t need to hang on to your boat, and you certainly don’t worship the boat. Many fanatics think they should worship a guru. A guru should receive your love and respect – that is different from worship. If my guru and the Lord come together, I will go to my guru first and say, “Thank you very much. You have introduced me to the Lord.” I will not go to the Lord and say, “Thank you very much, Lord. You have given me my guru.”

 

Swami Rama

Like the weather, there are all sorts of conditions in our personal lives

 

Like the weather, there are all sorts of conditions in our personal lives: clear days, cloudy days, rainy ones, and stormy ones.  These are all waves produced by the power of nature and are not things over which we have control.  No matter how much we fight against these waves, there is no way we can make a cloudy day clear up.  Cloudy days are cloudy; clear days are clear.  It is only natural that thoughts come and go and that psychological and physiological conditions fluctuate accordingly.  All of this is the very reality and manifestation of life.  Seeing all of this as the scenery of life, without being pulled apart by it—this is the stability of human life, this is settling down in our life.

Kosho Uchiyama

I will grow old in peace

 

The mountain is silent,
The water without form.
A clear breeze has no price,
The bright noon no lover.
Here, after a fashion,
I will grow old in peace.

 

Song Hon (1535-1598)

Zen-fyrirlestrar á íslensku

 

Hér getur þú hlustað á zen-fyrirlestra á íslensku.

 

 

 Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature.

Suzuki-roshi

 

 

If you meet the Buddha, kill him.

Linji

 

 

 

www.zen.is