Every molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair's enough to stir the sun.
- Shutaku
Every molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair's enough to stir the sun.
- Shutaku
A very famous Zen story, with a great message for all of us.
Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.
As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. "Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!"
"Brother," the second monk replied, "I set her down on the other side, why are you still carrying her?"
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Very Cool.![]()
Growth Through Adversity
You can lose your sight and still see.
So why do you not see while you have sight?
Growth Through Adversity
If your are near you know.
If you are there you understand.
If you are you grow.
Growth Through Adversity
The most important place in the world is the place you're at.
The most important person in the world is the person you're with*.
The most important thing in the world is the thing you're currently doing.
(* or animal, flower, plant - and of course yourself)
Sleep if you must.
Dream if you desire.
But remember to Awaken.
Growth Through Adversity
The essence of Zen and of awakened living, I may have said it before, can be summed up in 3 words:
Just this, now.
Just this. Now.
That's all there ever is. Just this, now!
If I may my dear friend add a couple words to this Truth you've so accurately expressed....
All that has ever been,
All that will ever be,
Is All Now.
Rory, you are truly wise beyond your years. Tyvm for sharing Now.
Growth Through Adversity
Thanks my friend. What you wrote reminds me of what I believe is referred to as Tattvamasi, the essential truth pointed to in the ancient Vedas:
I am that.
Thou art that.
All this is that.
And that alone IS.
The basic truth of life in a nutshell!
We are in this existance both Life and Body.
One is eternal and timeless. The other weathers with the passage of time, until it is no longer capable of containing the Life.
Each of us must face this truth.
How we react to it is up to us.
I choose grace.
Growth Through Adversity
Beautifully expressed my wise and beautiful friend.
It's interesting how Buddhism and other Eastern approaches emphasise the impermanence of the form and recommend contemplating its dissolution. Ramana Maharshi, one of the greatest sages of the 20th century reached enlightenment while lying awake as a child imagining the death of his body. That moment consciousness was freed from its identification with form and for the rest of his body's existence, his consciousness was at one with the infinite.
How might we consider the eternal without considering that which is bound to time?
How might we consider the light without considering the dark?
The right to the left, as with the day to the night.
Growth Through Adversity
There are two places where you may witness eternity, yet both are the same.
Look Out. Look In.
...
Growth Through Adversity
You may have all the riches and power of the world, but you still leave it as you came into it.
Seek the lessons of Life, not the riches of a single lifetime.
Growth Through Adversity
Isn't the smallest grain of sand as mighty as the largest star?
Isn't the sugar ant as alive as all Life collectively upon planet Earth?
Growth Through Adversity
Life is the sunshine and the showers. One isn't better or more 'right' than the other.
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