the instruction is simple:
just come back. come back to your breath, resting your attention on your breath, allowing your breath to carry you. just come back. time and time again, return to the breath. this is the practice.
~j
04.23.17
practice
ready to awaken…
Zen Student:Is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?
Zen Master:
As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.
Zen Student:
Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?
Zen Master:
To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.
#zen #wisdom #practice #awareness #WakeUp #meditation
let the mind stay…
The world is swirling around, a sound over here, a sight over there.
Confusion is an easy companion of distraction.
Where is balance and harmony, when the mind wants to run?
Let the mind stay…
~j
Song of Paldarbom
by Shepa Dorje, the yogi Mila Milarepa
I can contemplate the sky,
But clouds make me uneasy.
Milarepa, tell me how
To meditate on clouds.
“If the sky’s as easy as you say,
Clouds are just the sky’s play.
Let your mind stay
Within the sky.”
I can contemplate the sea,
But waves make me uneasy.
Milarepa, tell me how
To meditate on waves.
“If the sea’s as easy as you say,
Waves are just the sea’s play.
Let your mind stay
Within the sea.”
I can contemplate my mind,
But thoughts make me uneasy.
Milarepa, tell me how
To meditate on thoughts.
“If your mind’s as easy as you say,
Thoughts are just the mind’s play.
Let your mind stay
Within your mind.”
simply exist, exist simply…
The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no “meaning,” they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share. I understand all this, not in my mind but in my heart, knowing how meaningless it is to try to capture what cannot be expressed, knowing that mere words will remain when I read it all again, another day.
~
Peter Matthiessen
no shortcuts, just sit…
the light inside…
Whatever confronts you
don’t believe it.
When something appears
shine your light on it.
Have confidence in the light
that is always
working inside you.
~
Master Linji
it is all right here…
it is all right here
wind dancing through sleeping trees
birds singing, “Wake up!”
~j
02.26.17
your light gives life, just shine…
We cannot force awakening in others.
We can only practice to awaken ourselves and in our practice make ourselves available to benefit others though the benefits of our practice.
In this way, we are planting seeds of loving kindness, compassion, open heartedness, and wisdom. Then when the right conditions arise, these seeds are nourished and grow manifesting awakening in others as well.
Just shine your light. And your light, like the sun, will give life.
Wishing everyone all that is beneficial and all that brings happiness on this Tibetan New Year, Losar.
Tashi Delek!
~j
02.27.17
an open heart…
our practice is a practice of compassion, of opening the heart.it is a practice of allowance, allowing our heart to break open and reveal the vulnerability and tenderness that is our power and strength.
it is a practice of being with life through laughter and tears alike.
~j
a worthy experiment…
most of us live from one reaction to another reaction, ping ponging through life. what would happen if we simply just stop, if we allow ourselves the space to be still, if we just sit and breathe? we may just find that it is a worthy experiment.
~j
*phrase in artwork inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh.
The Metta Garden 