Life 42 (Feb 22 - May 22)

[winston]

Finding Yourself in No-Self

It’s not that there’s no self, because that’s ridiculous.

You’re you, and I’m me. But the self doesn’t exist in the way we imagined it does. . . .

Try to find it as it really exists, not as you think it should.

- “The Zen of Therapy”, Interview with Mark Epstein by James Shaheen

[winston]

Work With What’s There

You don’t escape from your delusions in zazen.

Instead, you look straight at them, since you have to work with them.

This is the paradox. You never enter a promised paradise in which there will be no delusion.

But all your delusions are workable. If they weren’t, I think we’d all go mad.

- Jakusho Kwong-roshi, “Emptying into Spaciousness”

[winston]

Even when we perform binding actions, how should our attitude be so we are not completely bound?

Actions that bind include all activity in relation to exterior objects. Such actions are usually resorted to with a desire for results.

This craving for results leads one to the morass of “I” and “Mine” and the demon of lust and greed.

If one follows this path, there will be sudden flares, as when clarified butter (ghee) is poured in the sacrificial fire!

Assigning priority to sense objects is the same as assigning importance to poison! But while engaged in those activities and in those sense objects, if one has no interest in results or consequences, then not only can one be victorious over the feelings of “I” and “mine”, greed and lust, one can also be far away from all such traits!

One will never be troubled by such traits. Liberating action is pure, faultless, unselfish, and unswerving.

Its characteristic is the importance given to the idea of action without any desire of the fruits thereof (Nishkama karma), as elaborated in the Scriptures.

- Dhyana Vahini, Ch 1.

Body attachment gives rise to ego in man. Success eludes one who is egoistic.
Egolessness is true humanness.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Befriending Your Breath

The breath is like a soothing friend holding your hand, as you walk into fear or loneliness or anger, encouraging you to stay with it.

And if you feel like running away, observe that.

And the breath is always there, in, out, in, out.

- Interview with Larry Rosenberg by Amy Gross, “The Art of Doing Nothing”

[winston]

Why do we struggle with distrust and doubt, about when and if our problems will really be solved at all? How can we overcome our fears?

Since your vision is impaired by doubt, pride,or prejudice, you don't see the Divine, who is in you as well as outside you.

You long for a thing that is not; you ignore the treasure that’s within your grasp.

You swear you have no bird in your hand; you struggle for birds, that you believe, are waiting for you in the bush.

The bird in the bush is only the image of the bird you have in your hand but you are unaware of this truth.

You have faith in the senses and the knowledge they garner; you have faith in fancies and fantasies of your mind; you have faith in the conclusions of your reason; but you have no faith in the Divine who cannot be bound or found by these.

So, you fear, you grieve, you doubt! Have the curtain of ‘Thought of the Divine’ all around you; then, deadly mosquitoes of desire and distrust cannot harm you.

That curtain will confer health on you, through immunity from disease. You will have undisturbed ease, with nothing to pine for, nothing to fear from.

- Divine Discourse, Apr 04, 1973.

The lighthouse of hope for this ocean of life is the Divine, who is the only permanent entity. This lighthouse never fails.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Real Wisdom is Compassion

Awakening reveals the no-thingness of things—that no thing is apart from all other things.

To realize truly that there is only this nature, with no “other” outside us, is to naturally want to refrain from causing harm, just as we refrain from doing harm to one of our own limbs or eyes.

- Bodhin Kjolhede, “Pain, Passion and the Precepts”

[winston]

What is the path of bliss and fulfilment?

The practice of the discipline of Nishkama Karma (performing actions without desiring the results) involves the development of truth, righteousness, peace, and love.

While on this path, if one also takes up the discipline of remembering the name of the Divine, is there anything else that can confer more joy and bliss?

It will give the fullest satisfaction. If one treads this holy path, the Divine Himself will bestow all that is needed, all that is deserved, and all that will give peace of mind.

Offer everything to the Divine without any desire for the result; that indeed will yield full joy, and is in fact the easiest.

While it is very difficult to speak untruth and act against dharma, it is very easy to utter the truth and walk in the path of dharma.

It is a very pleasant task to speak out the thing just as it is; one need not spend a moment of thought upon it.

So, instead of following sensory actions, which offer all these troubles and complications, follow actions that liberate - the path of Atmic bliss, which is true, eternal and holy.

- Dhyana Vahini, Ch 1.

When one’s heart is filled with good thoughts and feelings, all that comes out
through the senses - your speech, vision, action – will also be pure.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Let Voidness Liberate

When we are clear and sure about what we are doing, we are less open to the many other possibilities available.

But when we let ourselves hang out in the space of not-knowing, there is enormous potential and life could unfold in innumerable ways.

So rather than avoid and fear this place of uncertainty, we can embrace it and all its gifts.

- Kaira Jewel Lingo, “Trusting the Unknown”

[winston]

Is it true that good and bad come from the same Divinity?

The Divine is the originator of both joy and grief. Without His will, no blade of grass can waver in the wind!

If this Truth is firmly established in the heart, one can get the unique bliss of liberation.

He gives everything; whatever we get is His Grace. You have no right to judge whether what you get is good or bad.

In order to have Him so firmly installed within you, worship of idols or pictures, meditation on His Glory, recitation of His Name, and so on, are all useful as preliminary sadhana (spiritual practice).

I won't say that temples or houses of worship, altars and shrines where He is invoked and adored, are not needed.

Until the letters are learnt, illustrations are necessary in primers.

The letter A is learnt in association with the image of the apple printed above it. On that account, you can’t be constrained to remember that particular apple whenever you think of ‘A’!

- Divine Discourse, Apr 04, 1973.

Just as the water you drink is eliminated as perspiration, the karma that you
accumulate is eliminated through karma, gladly borne.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Guide Yourself Towards Healing

Once you have genuinely, fully, and tenderly touched your own brokenness, place a seed in the crack.

Make a wish in that fissure and share with yourself, the aimless kindness of your own presence.

- Lama Karma, “A Letter from My Future Self, Encouraging Me to Practice”