Don’t Be a Sleepwalker
My instructor asked questions such as: What had I done, in detail, from the time I had awakened until the time I arrived at the session, a period of one and a half hour? ……
Category: Wisdom Traditions
Counter-the Culture
The highest way of living for those who take the tonsure is to aim to lack nothing while owning nothing. —Yoshida Kenkô, Essays in Idleness, translated by Meredith McKinney If you wish to possess everythingYou must…
Look Deeply
I love my tiny hut, my lonely dwelling. When I chance to go down into the capital, I am ashamed of my lowly beggar status, but once back here again I pity those who chase…
Some Sayings
Ben Bag Bag said, Turn it (the Torah) and turn it over again, for everything is in it, and contemplate it, and wax grey and old over it, and stir not from it, for thou…
Moment by Moment by Moment …
1. Zen students are with their masters at least ten years before they presume to teach others. Nan-in was visited by Tenno, who, having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day happened to…
Blake and Dostoevsky
“The Divine Image” To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveAll pray in their distress;And to these virtues of delightReturn their thankfulness. For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveIs God, our father dear,And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveIs…
Remember to Remember
The following is the conclusion to Leo Tolstoy’s short story “Three Questions”— Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have…
Be a Light
Then coming to this pass [Ryōkan] found only one way to go: he made up his mind, to go his own way, that is to say, to pursue the way of truth—the only way a…
Here and Now, This Is It
In another passage of the letter to his brother, he defines the ecstatic sense of life that he felt on being pardoned: “Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute could be a lifetime…
How Rare!
It is truly impressive to speak only reluctantly about something you thoroughly understand, and not to mention it at all unless asked.—Yoshida Kenkô, Essays in Idleness, translated by Meredith McKinney