step by step

 

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Dogen Genjokoan

9. A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once. 

Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish. You can go further. There is practice-enlightenment which encompasses limited and unlimited life.

10. Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past, and it is not merely arising now. 

source

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My Comment:

“When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point…”

Go slow. Find your place where you are. Each step is grounded just here. Do not be in the next place where the next step will take you. Be just here where this step stands. The in-rushing thoughts about where you have been and where you are going possess you and take you out of this point here. 

Practice is to be steadfast just here and to know that the past events do not make this event now. It is instantaneous, again and again and again. Stability is only now. Your point of power is only here. Align with this now and you align with the supreme thing as it is.

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