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Artist: Tara Turner
“The Imagination Of Trees”
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A window is a transparent partition between my heart
and the heart of the world.
Marc Chagall
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
no effort
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click image to enlarge
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What effort does it take to just be here now?
Gangaji
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My Comment:
Upon hearing Gangaji speak these words the realization dawned that there was a subtle ‘efforting’ going on incessantly in me, in that part of me that wants to achieve and accomplish something. It is a useful function of my mind to prompt me as to what needs to be done so that my physical existence doesn’t encounter obstacles and obstructions. However, these ‘needs’ are related to the world of subject-object and are valid only for that realm.
When I turn my attention inwards there is nothing to accomplish beyond letting go of what is distracting me from seeing the ‘what is’, or the ‘Thusness’ as Zen calls it. The discipline of letting go of distractions is what Gangaji speaks to here.
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change of perspective
the eternal, pristine Being
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Q: I believe that we should not inflict suffering on other lives. Should we then endure the mosquito bite and submit to it also?
Ramana: You do not like to suffer yourself. How can you inflict suffering on others? Just keep off mosquitoes since you suffer by their stings.::
Q: Is it right that we kill other lives, e.g., mosquitoes, bugs?
Ramana: Everyone is a suicide. The eternal, blissful, and natural state has been smothered by this life of ignorance. In this way the present life is due to the killing of the eternal, pristine Being. Is it not a case of suicide? So then, everyone is a suicide. Why worry about murders and killing?
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safety
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“As an island unto myself, Buddha is my mindfulness, shining near, shining far. Dharma is my breathing, guarding body and mind.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
We should practice in order to touch the Buddha and the Dharma several times a day, in our daily lives. The Sangha is also available. First of all the five elements within us — form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness, the five Skandhas–may be in disharmony with each other when you don’t practice.
hold your own space
…wherever you are.
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focus
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Where is my focus?
I direct my attention inward
to observe closely my own awareness.
I open up to my own inner being.
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a radically different activity
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Shikan Taza or “just sitting,” an expression for silent illumination used by the Zen Master Rujing. This objectless and nondualistic meditation does not involve stages or striving for any goal or achievement; thus it is an activity radically other than the usual worldly activity, which grasps and seeks for some result.
Zen Master Hongzhi encourages this practice when he says,
“Stay with that just as that. Stay with this just as this.”
For Hongzhi, you already have the shining “field of boundless emptiness… from the very beginning.” There is no place else to look. “People who sincerely meditate and authentically arrive trust that the field has always been with them.” …
Nothing is external to this luminous present mind.
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inside and outside
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Ramana – Talk 42
Mr. Duncan Greenlees, Madanapalli, wrote as follows: One has at times had vivid flashes of a consciousness whose centre is outside the normal self and which seems to be inclusive. Without concerning the mind with philosophical concepts, how would Bhagavan advise us to work towards getting, retaining and extending those flashes? Does abhyasa in such experiences involve retirement?
empty and open out body and mind
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This phrase (coined by Zen Master Hongzhi):
The essence is to empty and open out body and mind,
as expansive as the great emptiness of space
has been my mantra for several days, together with Ramana’s statement: Continue reading
the direct teaching
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How to Contemplate Buddha
Contemplating your own authentic form is how to contemplate Buddha. If you can experience yourself without distractions, simply surpass partiality and go beyond conceptualizing. All buddhas and all minds reach the essential without duality. Patch- robed monks silently wander and tranquilly dwell in the empty spirit, wondrously penetrating, just as the supreme emptiness permeates this dusty kalpa.
