wisdom

Oh this life, this life!

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“Buddha told a parable in a sutra:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another Tiger was waiting to eat him. 

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the fine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!”
~ a Zen parable as retold in the book, “Zen Flesh Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings” compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki

Thich Nhat Hanh mantra…

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  Breathing in,

I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out, I feel fresh.
Breathing in,
I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out, I feel solid.
Breathing in, I see myself as space.
Breathing out, I feel free.
~Thich Nhat Hanh

are we willing?

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Are we willing to listen?

Are we willing to see?

Our response to suffering, whether in Nepal, or Baltimore, or the arguments presented to the Supreme Court on this day, reflects our humanity and our ability to look and listen beyond our own perspective and our own initial emotional responses, from a place that reflects our interdependence, our capacity for compassion, and service to the principle of alleviating this world from suffering from where we are in this moment, with what we have in this moment, and who we are in this moment.
#interdependence #compassion #WeAreOne #Presence #look #listen #serve #Nepal #Baltimore #Equality #wisdom #peace #Life #Love

choosing wisdom…

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casting shadows, JMW 2012
casting shadows, JMW 2012

 

In all likelihood, the environmental crises we will encounter in the coming decades and probably centuries will bring great upheavals and immense suffering. It is all so hard to wrap one’s mind around because the problem is unprecedented in magnitude. At the same time, we have the whole history of human wisdom to draw upon in making our choices and taking action. The defining question of our age will be how we meet the calamities we will face, and how we will act to mitigate them and find our virtue in confronting them. The stakes couldn’t be higher, yet as human beings, we are not only expert in creating misery, we are also expert in working to resolve it. Both legacies, and the ability to choose which to follow, belong to us.

– James Shaheen, “Choosing Wisdom in the Face of Peril”

when you love, you love…

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Bug Walk medium

 

“Someone has said, ‘To be a saint is to have loved many things’ —many things —
the tree, the dog, the sky, the flowers, even the color of someone’s clothing.
You see, when you love, you love, and love extends to everything all the time and everywhere.”
~ Richard Rohr

For Warmth, a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh…

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Thich-Nhat-Hanh-arrives-by-Kelvin-Cheuk+copy

 

I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.

~Thich Nhat Hanh
(written after the bombing of Ben Tre, during the Vietnam War)

dirt beneath these nails…

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dirty nails

Awake in the world
What is this meditation?
Dirt beneath these nails

~j

“A long time ago in China, a Zen student asked if any of the sages had ever fallen into hell.  His teacher answered that they are the first to go there!  The shocked student asked, ‘But if they are enlightened, why would they fall into hell?’  The teacher looked at the student and with a smile said, ‘If I didn’t fall into hell, how could I help you?’  Do you see what he is doing here?  He completely reverses the student’s problem, saying this is not about the student’s idea of purity, but about helping and caring.  That is what’s important.  He’s saying that you have to get your hands dirty; you have to dig right in.  Just as you are, without some special robe or degree or twenty years of meditation practice.  Just as you are, you can help.”

~ Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara
from the chapter “Living In The Suffering World”
from her book, “MOST INTIMATE: A Zen Approach To Life’s Challenges”