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#2159 - Monday, May 30, 2005 - Editor: Gloria Lee  

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

- Vincent Van Gogh


From: www.beliefnet.com  



photo by Alan Larus, and more: http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/ants.htm  


The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"When you have understood that all existence,in separation and
limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live
integrally,in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone
beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept and example
and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have
and you don't have what you are not. You can only give what you are -
and of that you can give limitlessly."

...
"But why worry so much about causation? What do causes matter, when
things themselves are transient? Let come what comes and let go what
goes - why catch hold of things and enquire about their causes?"


...
"What happens to the body and the mind may not be within your power to
change, but you can always put an end to your imagining yourself to be
body and mind. Whatever happens, remind yourself that only your body
and mind are affected, not yourself."


posted by Manuel to  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANetofJewels    


  "True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."
  
Socrates  


 

photo by Helga Piatscheck  


How You Treat Others


Spiritual people often want unconditional support and understanding
from their friends, family, and mates, but all too often seem blind
to their own shortcomings when it comes to the amount of
unconditional support and understanding that they give to others. I
have seen many spiritual people become obsessed with how unspiritual
others are and assume an arrogant and superior attitude while
completely missing the fact that they themselves are not nearly as
spiritually enlightened as they would like to think that they are.
Enlightenment can be measured by how compassionately and wisely you
interact with others; with all others, not just those who support you
in the way that you want. How you interact with those who do not
support you shows how enlightened you really are.

As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back you have not
taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means
that you stand free of making demands on others and life to make you
happy. When you discover yourself to be nothing but Freedom, you stop
setting up conditions and requirements that need to be satisfied in
order for you to be happy. It is in the absolute surrender of all
conditions and requirements that Liberation is discovered to be who
and what you Are. Then the love and wisdom that flows out of you has
a liberating effect on others.

The biggest challenge for most spiritual seekers is to surrender
their self importance, and see the emptiness of their own personal
story. It is your personal story that you need to awaken from in
order to be free. To give up being either ignorant or enlightened is
the mark of liberation and allows you to treat others as your Self.
What I am describing is the birth of true Love.
 
                                         - Adyashanti

posted by Alan Stoltz to http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/satsangdiarygroup/
 


"Who Is Your Teacher?" by Kobun Chino


The real purpose of practice is to discover the wisdom which you have always
been keeping with you. To discover yourself is to discover wisdom; without
discovering yourself you can never communicate with anybody. In everyday
life, we can pick up some glimpse of wisdom, like the polished tool of the
carpenter expresses that there is wisdom in the arm of the carpenter. It is
invisible, you cannot draw it and show it.

Wisdom doesn't come from anywhere; it is always there as the exact
contents of awakening--it is always there and everywhere. What you can do is
to uncover it, like going to the origin of a river, you take off the fallen
leaves. Have you been to the source of a river? It is a very mystic place.
You get dizzy when you stay for a while. An especially big river has several
sources, and the real source, the farthest point which turns to the major
stream, is moist and misty, with some kind of ancient smell, and you feel
cold. You feel, "This isn't the place to go in." There is no springing
water, so you don't know where the source is. Actually, such place exists in
everyone; the center of us is like that. From this place, the ancient call
appears, "Why don't you know me? Living so many years with me, why can't you
call my real name?"

Unfortunately, we cannot travel into such place with this body and mind, but
we feel there is such an origin, and from there everything starts. From that
place you have come, actually, and whatever you do is returning to that
spot. In one lifetime you can meet with other people, at least one other
beside yourself. So, in other words, two of you discover. This is why you
are continuing to live so hard.

The way to discover your origin is to listen to the one with whom you feel,
"This is it!". It looks like you can do it by yourself, without others, but
actually, by yourself alone you cannot discover that origin. Reaching to
that point, you never believe, "This is it." But pointing to another's
origin directly and saying, "That's my origin." at that moment another
finger appears, pointing at you, and says, "No, that's my origin." And you
get dizzy. "Wait a minute, are you my teacher or are you my student?" And
both say, " No, it doesn't matter. I can be your student; I'll be an ancient
Buddha for you." The student says this to the teacher. Without throwing your
whole life and body into others you can never reach to your own true nature.

The more your understanding of life becomes clearer, and more exact, and
painfully joyful, the more you feel, "I'm so bad." The one who appears and
says, "No, you are not bad at all, that is the way to go." That is your
teacher. Don't misunderstand, this teacher is not always a person. It can
embrace you like morning dew in a field, and you get a strange feeling, "Oh,
this is it, my teacher is this field."

How to go with your true self is to deeply bow to yourself and ask, "Please,
let me know about myself." Because we cannot do it alone, we have to do it
with someone who is able to accept our vow. Letting such an occasion occur
is what supreme awakening is. It is not your creation, you just admire the
place where you are and be with it, and that place is the place to meet with
your teacher. It doesn't need to be some special kind of place. When you are
a little bit mindful about yourself you can create such an opportunity . . .
between your children and yourself, between your parents and yourself.

Kobun Chino Roshi

[Thanks to Barbara King for supplying text from Kobun Chino Roshi's talks.
First published in "JIKOJI News", Spring 1997]

......................................

In 1966 Kobun Chino Otagawa Roshi came
to USA in assistance of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
at San Francisco Zen Center and Sokoji, a
Soto Zen Temple in San Francisco.

Kobun Chino Roshi was Abbot of Jikoji
(Los Gatos, CA), Hokoji (Taos, New Mexico)
and Kaikyoshi of the Soto School in the USA.
He died in 2002.

________________________  

Kobun Chino's Trailer
By Reginald Ray


Reginald Ray writes a remembrance of Zen master and famed calligrapher
Kobun Chino Roshi, who died tragically with his young daughter in July, 2002.
 

On July 26, 2002, Kobun Chino Roshi drowned trying to save his five-year-old daughter Maya, who had fallen into a pond. The deaths of father and daughter were a terrible blow—first to his wife and two small surviving children, then to his immediate students, and beyond that to all who had come to know Kobun and love him for his gentleness, his warmth and the profundity of his realization.  

continues at: http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Columnists/Ray/200211_reginald_ray.htm


posted by Mike to  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E-zendo/

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