Everywhere you look
The mountains are covered
With mist and blooming cherry trees.

- Ryokan (1758-1831)

KEEPING QUIET
by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.

~ Rumi

At sunrise, glorious sunrise
it’s a big catch!
A big catch of sardines!

On the beach, it’s like a festival
but in the sea, they will hold
funerals
for the tens of thousands dead.
~Misuzu Kaneko

To see how erratic emotions victimized us often took a long time.
We could perceive them quickly in others, but only slowly in ourselves.
First of all, we had to admit that we had many of these defects, even though such disclosures were painful and humiliating.
Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word "blame" from our speech and thought.

— TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 47

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a specific challenge for me is to replace every instance of "we/us" with "I"

Humans and non-humans have the same nature and attributes.
The Great Way is perfectly empty, free of thought and reason.
You have already attained the Dharma and lack nothing.
How could you differ from the Buddhas?
There is no other Dharma.
Just let your mind be.

- Tao-shin

I have slowly climbed the lower slopes
And made my way along the side,
Now I climb and descend again
Along the mountain track.
I look back at the dizzy heights of the road,
I gaze ahead at the towering mountain steps.
I watch the morning clouds round the range,
I listen to the evening torrent rushing
Through the gorge.

- Hsieh-Ling-yun (385-433)

All afflictions and obstructions are essentially empty and still.
Every cause and effect are but dreams or illusions.
There is no Triple Realm to escape from, nor any enlightenment to attain.

- Tao-shin

Ish yara al-ahdab hadbat-u.
- The Bashar Teg

If buddhas could liberate beings, since you’ve already met countless Buddhas, why haven’t you become a buddha?

It’s because you haven’t been honest with yourself.

With your mouth you say you understand, but in your mind you don’t understand. You’ll never escape the Wheel of Rebirth.

- Hui-ko (487-593)

The voice of success and profit
May stir the vault of heaven,
But not this place.
In the rounds of the day,
You wear threadbare clothing
And eat simple fare.
When the mountain snow deepens,
Your thoughts
Are far from those of people.
Occasionally,
Immortals pass your door
And knock.

- Kuan-hsiu (832-912)

"The bubbles are to be found on the surface of the sea. The depth of the sea is free from bubbles. The commotion is to be seen on the surface, the depth of the sea is still.

The mind is the commotion of that something that is within us, that something which we call heart. The happiness, knowledge, pleasure and love that is stored in our innermost being is in our profound depth.

Changing emotions and passions, dreams, ever-rising thoughts and imaginations, all belong to the surface, as the bubbles belong to the surface of the sea."
--Hazrat Inayat Khan

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann

According to an account in a number of early Zen annals, one day when Tao-shin was in Emperor Wu’s old capital, he happened to notice the sky above Oxhead Mountain south of the city. It looked so unusual, he decided to investigate and saw a monk meditating at the bottom of a cliff.

When Tao-shin approached him and asked what he was doing, the monk, Fa-jung said, “Contemplating the mind.”

Tao-shin asked, “Who is it who is contemplating, and what sort of thing is the mind?”

The monk stood up and bowed.

- Tao-shin

The hundreds of thousands of doors to the truth all depend on this one square inch. The rivers of mystery and virtue all have their origin here in the mind. Every power and expression of morality, meditation, and wisdom are already present and inseparable from this mind of yours.

- Tao-shin