Pablo Neruda

” What weighs more heavily on the belt,

sadness or memories?”

 

The Book of Questions

Ryokan

Keep your heart clear and transparent

And you will never be bound.

A single disturbed thought, though,

Creates ten thousand distractions.

Let myriad things captivate you

And you’ll go further and further astray.

How painful to see people

 All wrapped up in themselves.

Li Po

You ask why I live

Alone in the mountain forest,

And I smile and am silent

Until even my soul grows quiet:

It lives in the other world,

One that no one owns.

The peach trees blossom.

The water continues to flow.

Kuei-Shan

“As long as you are subject
To a life bound by force of habit,
You are not free from the
Burden of the body.”

Seeds of Trust

The packet of seeds

Rustling , nudging for years

Burst open today.

I shall reap the seeds of trust.

Bankei

“Your self-partiality is at

the root of all your illusions.

There aren’t any illusions

when you don’t have this

preference for yourself”.

This July…

“Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices,
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent”.

Hakuin

Surangama Sutra

You will see then that both your body and mind,

together with the mountains, rivers, space,

and earth of the outward world,

are all within the wonderful, illumined,

 and true Mind.

Bodhidharma

Outwardly, all activities cease;

Inwardly, the mind stops its panting.

When one”s mind has become a wall,

Then he may begin to enter the Tao.

Tao-te Ching

Attain the center of emptiness,
Preserve the utmost quiet;
As myriad things act in concert
I thereby observe the return.
Things flourish,
Then each returns to its root.
Returning to the root
Is called stillness:
Stillness is called return to Life,
Return to Life is called the constant;
Knowing the constant is called enlightenment.