"If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering."

--Viktor Frankl 

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“Yet this is not urgent enough. You should examine both the mundane world and the Buddha realm. Tomorrow, or even in the next morning, you might become gravely ill, lose your senses, and suffer from great pain. You might suddenly be killed by a demon, or a robber, or an enemy. Truly nothing is for certain. Therefore in this transient world where the time of death is unpredictable, scheming to live forever or wasting your time plotting against others is quite stupid.

“The Buddhas spoke this truth to sentient beings. Ancestors expounded solely on this matter. I also speak of impermanence, the swift passage of time, and the urgency of birth and death. Do not ever forget this truth. Realize that you have just today, just this moment. You should concentrate your mind on the study of the way without wasting your time. If you do this, your practice becomes easy. To discuss the superiority or inferiority of your nature, the brilliance and slowness of learning, is not necessary.”

Dogen (1200-1253)  Excerpted from Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen - Kazuaki Tanahashi

Dogen speaks clearly of the mind that seeks the way with clarity and how to maintain the intensity of practice over time.  We couldn’t ask for a world of more distraction than the one we currently inhabit.  To maintain our commitment to practice over 50 or 60 years requires that we find a way to refresh ourselves daily; there is no formula that works for everyone.  We each find our own life koans to keep us awake.  And we are not in monasteries where the routine is set up for us, responsibilities provided, and practice times reliable.  One cornerstone of waking up is meditation and finding the strength of commitment to the Way to return to our practice daily.

However far we “stray” it is always good to remember

The key to cultivating the Way is knowing that your own mind is originally pure, that it is neither created nor destroyed, and that it is free of discrimination.  The mind whose nature is perfectly pure is your true teacher and superior to any of the Buddhas of the ten directions you might call upon.  Hung-jen

Every now and then we receive requests to create a recommended reading list, and you'll note, there has never been such a list on Daily Zen.  However, we do have readers who are friends of Daily Zen who have shared their own works with us, many of them wonderful books.  This month I'd like to take a few moments to share 3 books you might enjoy, each unique and worthy of attention.

First is a book that is like a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine in your face, Fine Tuning by Jane Bernard.  Open to any page, you can start anywhere, and jump right into a series of reflections with your Muse, an exploration into the source of creativity and inspired living.

Second is a delightful children's book great for the child in you
or any children you associate with.  Jumping the Grate  by Sharon Gia, is an inspiring adventure story with rich color illlustrations and a CD of songs to accompany the book.

Third is the most recent publication of

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This month we bring an Informal Talk from Dogen to build upon our recent readings. This talk begins with a question a student from any time or place could have asked. Join us in following Dogen's reply:

Informal Talk Dogen ( 1200-1253)

One day a student asked: “Although I have been studying the way for years, I haven’t been enlightened. The teachers of old have said: ‘Don’t depend on intelligence and learning.’ So I believe that even if I am slow and have little wisdom, I should not become discouraged. Is there anything to learn from the teachers of old about this?”

Dogen instructed: “You are right. Inherent intelligence or high capacity is not necessary. You should not depend on brilliance or smartness. Don’t exclude those who are very slow or less talented. It is a mistake, however, to say that for the true study you should be like a blind, deaf, or dumb person. The true study of the way should be easy. But even among hundreds and thousands of students in the assembly of the on teacher in Great Song China, those who genuinely attain the way and inherit dharma are only one or two. Therefore, we should keep the examples of the ancient masters in mind.

“I see that there are those who have the utmost aspiration and those who don’t. Those who have the utmost aspiration and study accordingly will not fail to attain the way. You should remember that how much you study and how fast you progress are secondary matters. The joyfully seeking mind is primary.

“Those who vow to steal a precious treasure, to defeat a powerful enemy, or to know a beautiful lady, will follow their intention and keep it in mind on each occasion under all circumstances while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Nothing is left unachieved with such a commitment. If you seek the way with genuine intention, as you practice just sitting, as you work on koans about ancient teachers, or face the teacher, then you can shoot a bird however high in the sky or catch a fish however deep in the water. But without arousing such a determined mind, how can you achieve the great matter of cutting off the transmigration of birth and death at the very moment the words ‘buddha way’ are uttered? Those who have such a determined mind will invariably be enlightened, whether or not they are less learned or are slow, whether or not they are dumb or unwholesome.

“Upon arousing this mind, you should reflect on the impermanence of the world. Impermanence is not something you merely visualize, or something you create and think about. Impermanence is the truth that is right in front of you. You need not study other people’s words or textual evidence on this matter. To be born in the morning and to die in the evening, not to see someone today whom you saw yesterday; the impermanence of life is in your eyes and ears. You should not see or hear it only in terms of others but apply it to your own self.

“Even if you hope to live for seventy or eighty years, in the end you are destined to die. You should regard your pleasure and sorrow, relationship, and attachment in worldly affairs as your enemy. To do so is the way to a fuller life. You should keep in mind the Buddha way alone and work for the bliss of nirvana. Especially those of you who are elderly or who are middle-aged, how many years do you have left? How can you be lax in your practice of the way?

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As we approach the Equinox, which is a time of balance and change, we bring more teaching on the beginning and continuing of meditation.  We never get so far along in practice that we lose the need to return to the beginning.  In the beginning of practice we are introduced to that phrase called "beginner's mind" which so wonderfully captures that sense of discovery and freshness of new adventures.  What greater adventure can there truly be than that of exploring who we are, how to live a meaningful life, and what is "out there" vs "in here?"  However you voice your quest, the following reading can help you along your way:

"Koan Practice and Shikantaza” reprinted from On Zen Practice by Hakuyu Taizan Maizumi.     Boston: Wisdom Publications 2009

Time to return to the beginning with Spring/Fall around the corner.  Many of you have asked for more instruction on beginning meditation.  Even for people who have practiced many years, we all remain beginners and can benefit from revisiting these principles.  There is a simplicity and straightforwardness in the above instructions that allow easy entry into the world of meditation.  We all get off on tangents in practice, and Yasutani Roshi helps us return to the basics here. 

To begin is one thing; to continue throughout one’s life, is quite another.  In our fast paced world it is rare to see people who can stay with a practice long enough to appreciate the benefits of meditation.  Meditation is like stepping out of one’s own time and life to enter a timeless experience of life. 

May my mind be clear,

May I live fearlessly

In the Mind of Readiness.

May I rely on nothing
Save Emptiness.

 Sitting into Spring/Fall,

Elana

Thank you Elana!

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"The ideal of how we should be is the most poisonous thing in the whole world.” - Charlotte Joko Beck

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^{To return to your original state of being,
You must become a master of stillness.
Activity for health’s sake,
Never carried to the point of strain,
Must alternate with perfect stillness.
Sitting motionless as a rock,
Turn next to stillness of mind.
Close the gates of the senses.
Fix your mind upon one object or,
Even better, enter a state
Of objectless awareness.
Turn the mind in upon itself
And contemplate the inner radiance.}

^{- Anonymous}

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^{"This mind is always intrinsically round and bright, illuminating everywhere. People of the world don’t know it, and just recognize perception and cognition as mind. Drop perception and cognition, and the road to mind comes to an end. If you want to know the mind, it is not apart from perception and cognition; and yet original mind is not limited to perception and cognition either.”}

^Huang-po

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^{The natural, real Buddha nature is always inherently complete and luminous; it was thus before our parents gave birth to us, it is thus right now, and it will always be thus forever.}

Ta-tu (17th century)

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"To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. 

To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment." 

-- Dogen

http://tinyurl.com/ypswrn

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It's the old American double standard, you know say one thing and do something different. And of course the country is founded on the double standard, that's our history, we were founded on a very basic double standard. This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free. [laughter, applause] Am I right? A group of slave owners who wanted to be free. So they killed a lot of white English people, in order to continue owning their black African people, so they could wipe out the rest of the red Indian people, and move west and steal the rest of the land from the brown Mexican people, giving them a place to take off and drop their nuclear weapons on the yellow Japanese people. [laughter] You know what the motto of this country ought to be? You give us a color, we'll wipe it out! [laughter]

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He's a lot like me: very insane.

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Start the day with love,
Fill the day with love,
Spend the day with love,
End the day with love.
This is the way to God

Sathya Sai Baba

Wishing you all a peaceful day - tapas

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Yes! Very good, Tapas. Now you have understood.

Glad you are here helping me to understand that I understood myself!!! God you are really funny!!! God loves you and me too.

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When I realise the Self, then I'll KNOW I'm a beggar.

Realise Yourself and then you will know that there are no Others!  Until then everyone is a beggar for Truth, Peace and Pure Love.

Shanti - tapas

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I am the eternal servant of Krishna. He wants me to BE happy.

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If he's very fortunate, the force and vision and purpose of a man's life will transcend the mundane. In that moment he becomes very attractive.

If he becomes attractive to himself, then he is probably not fortunate.

All is perfect; "I am" is as perfect as a beggar or what ever else. Ultimatly we are all beggars until we have realised the Self; until we have gone through the Fire of Truth.                      with love - tapas

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How do I become a human being rather than a human doing?

By realising that you are nothing and everything; so there is no becoming of something witch you already are. Just a remembering!

God bless dear brother - tapas

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How amazing it is
That all people
Have this but cannot polish
It into bright clarity.
In darkness unawakened,
They make foolishness
Cover their wisdom.

- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157)

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Open your hidden eyes and return to the root of the root of yourself.
--Rumi

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"Entering the forest he moves not the grass;
Entering the water he makes not a ripple." Zenrin Kushû

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Death is nature's way of telling us to slow down.

(no attribution) 

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Essential truth spoken concisely is true eloquence.

Krishnadas
Kaviraja

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Shakespeare (Hamlet)

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TEXT 6

bandhur atmatmanas tasya
yenatmaivatmana jitah
anatmanas tu satrutve
vartetatmaiva satru-vat

SYNONYMS

TRANSLATION

PURPORT

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sri-bhagavan uvaca
kalo 'smi loka-ksaya-krt pravrddho
lokan samahartum iha pravrttah
rte 'pi tvam na bhavisyanti sarve
ye 'vasthitah pratyanikesu yodhah

WORD FOR WORD

PURPORT Although Arjuna knew that Krishna was his friend and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he was puzzled by the various forms exhibited by Krishna. Therefore he asked further about the actual mission of this devastating force. It is written in the Vedas that the Supreme Truth destroys everything, even the brahmanas. As stated in the Katha Upanisad (1.2.25),

yasya brahma ca ksatram ca
ubhe bhavata odanah
mrtyur yasyopasecanam
ka ittha veda yatra sah

Eventually all the brahmanas, ksatriyas and everyone else are devoured like a meal by the Supreme. This form of the Supreme Lord is the all-devouring giant, and here Krishna presents Himself in that form of all-devouring time. Except for a few Pandavas, everyone who was present on that battlefield would be devoured by Him. Arjuna was not in favor of the fight, and he thought it was better not to fight; then there would be no frustration. In reply, the Lord is saying that even if he did not fight, every one of them would be destroyed, for that was His plan. If Arjuna stopped fighting, they would die in another way. Death could not be checked, even if he did not fight. In fact, they were already dead. Time is destruction, and all manifestations are to be vanquished by the desire of the Supreme Lord. That is the law of nature.

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For the young man the days are short and the years are long. For the old man the days are long and the years are short.

Attribution? I have no clue.

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When I let go of what I am,

I become what I might be. ~Lao Tzu

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Krishna says, "I am the taste of water." Rasa aham apsu. Bhagavad-gita 7.8

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^{The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over;
thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.
--Katha-Upanishad}

^{"Being neither teacher nor guru, and since from the first not a thing is, the most one can do is to offer a glimpse or help point the way. In the end it resides in you"}

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Someone pushed a seed into the ground thinking he would claim the result that was the beginning of agriculture and war. People became a little more cold hearted and ice caps started to develop on the poles.

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What's greater than God, more evil than the devil, poor people have it, rich people need it and if you eat it you die?

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Thich Nhat Hanh
wise words from a wise man

Thanks, Carol

"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout our entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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When a fish swims, it swims on and on, and there is no end to the water. When a bird flies, it flies on and on, and there is no end to the sky. There was never a fish that swam out of water, or a bird that flew out of the sky. When they need a little water or sky, they use just a little; when they need a lot, they use a lot. Thus they use all of it at every moment, and in every place they have perfect freedom.

DOGEN

^^^^^^^^^^ Love that Amin!!!

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       The mind of the past is ungraspable;
        the mind of the future is ungraspable;
        the mind of the present is ungraspable.

             -    Diamond Sutra

  Finally out of reach - 
   No bondage, no dependency.
   How calm the ocean,
   Towering the void.

    -   Tessho's death poem

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When a fish swims, it swims on and on, and there is no end to the water. When a bird flies, it flies on and on, and there is no end to the sky. There was never a fish that swam out of water, or a bird that flew out of the sky. When they need a little water or sky, they use just a little; when they need a lot, they use a lot. Thus they use all of it at every moment, and in every place they have perfect freedom.

DOGEN

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A monk asked Yueh-shan, "What does one think of while sitting?"

"One thinks of not-thinking," the Master replied.

"How does one think of not-thinking?" the monk asked.

"Without thinking," the Master said.

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Zen Master Unmon said: "The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your robes at the sound of a bell?"

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One day, Jizo received one of Hofuku's disciples and asked him, "How does your teacher instruct you?" "My teacher instructs me to shut my eyes and see no evil thing; to cover my ears and hear no evil sound; to stop my mind-activities and form no wrong ideas," the monk replied. "I do not ask you to shut your eyes," Jizo said, "but you do not see a thing. I do not ask you to cover your ears, but you do not hear a sound. I do not ask you to cease your mind-activities, but you do not form any idea at all."

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