When you begin to study Zen, you aim to attain realization. Your motive is good in so far as motive is concerned, but in your meditation you should aim at nothing. You may aim at realization to encourage yourself when you are not meditating, but beware of clinging entanglements. Encouragement is one thing, meditation is another. Do not mix them up. Carry your meditation as the eternal present, and saturate your everyday life with it.
Nyogen Senzaki.
Photo by Erin Dorothy O’Connor.
WIsdom has three stages. The first one is knowledge acquired by hearing or reading. We reach the second stage when we make this knowledge our own by taking its guidelines to heart and trying to actualize them through thought, speech, and action. As we do this more and more, our thoughts, words, and deeds are purified, and the third and highest stage of wisdom arises.
Ayya Khema.
Photo by Asako Yasunaga.
It is vital for us to obtain genuine confidence in the nature of mind and reality, grounded in understanding and reason. What we need is a skeptical curiosity and constant inquiry, a curious mind, drawn toward all possibilities; and when we cultivate that, the desire to deeply investigate naturally arises.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Photo by Stian Furuhaug Grønvold.
Our exaggerated sense of self and our compulsion to find happiness for this larger-than-life self we have fabricated cause us to ignore, neglect and harm others. Of course, it is our right to love and take care of ourselves, but not at the expense of others. While ‘As long as I’m alright’ is our motto, we have no hesitation in acting with total disregard for others.
Geshe Sonam Rinchen.
Photo by prayforsnow.
All things are interrelated and interdependent; nothing exists in isolation. The entire universe is one ecosystem, similar to a spider web - if one part is touched, the entire net shimmers. As a result of interrelatedness and interdependency, every expression of energy, including our thoughts and intentions, ultimately touches and affects everything else.
Matthew Flickstein.
Photo by Jen.
