Birdland

If you cannot understand the songs of birds you cannot understand Jazz.

A Compelling Case

We are often compelled by our desperation to do that which we would not do.

So Near, Yet So Far

It is a strange truth that God could not be closer to us and we could not be further away.

Shocking

Shock is the result of a statistical anomaly that jolts us awake and reminds us that everything is due to chance.

Child Abuse

The same capitalistic social system that strives to safeguard children from physical harm does not hesitate to poison their minds with an incessant barrage of marketing and advertising.

I Would Love To Change the World

In truth, we cannot change the world. But we can change ourselves.

How strange, then, that most men are willing to suffer and die in an attempt to change the world rather than live with the responsibility of changing themselves!

Thoughtless

Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.--Dogen

When we have no thought of good or evil we become aware of the true meaning of our lives.

No Bull

It is not the same thing to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.--Spanish proverb

As Zen Master Suzuki makes clear in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Zen is something to practice and not something to talk about.

Journey of Discovery

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."--Marcel Proust

The Return

If we were not grateful for the gift of life the first time we found ourselves in the Garden of Eden, we will certainly be grateful when we finally return.

                                            We are stardust
                                            Billion year old carbon
                                            We are golden
                                            Caught in the devil's bargain
                                            And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
                                                                                                                       --Joni Mitchell

Guiding Light

There is no devil I detest more than fraud. He it was who contrived the fall of man and even now sets his traps for the unwary.

Only the light of Truth can safely guide us back to the Promised Land.

False gods

It is difficult to forget about fame and profit in a society that worships both. Yet pursuing these false gods will never lead us to true happiness.

False Prophet

Annunciation

                                          Don't be dismayed, woman, by my fierce form.

                                          I come from far away, in headlong flight;

                                          Whirlwinds may have ruffled my feathers.

                                          I am an angel, yes, and not a bird of prey;

                                          An angel, but not the one in your paintings

                                          That descended in another age to promise another Lord.

                                          I come to bring you news, but wait until my heaving chest,

                                          The loathing of the void and dark, subside.

                                          Sleeping in you is one who will destroy much sleep.

                                          He's still unformed but soon you'll caress his limbs.

                                          He will have the gift of words, the fascinator's eyes,

                                          Will preach abomination and be believed by all.

                                          Jubilant and wild, singing and bleeding,

                                          They'll follow him in bands, kissing his footprints.

                                          He will carry the lie to the farthest borders.

                                          Evangelize with blasphemy and the gallows
                                          He'll rule in terror, suspect poisons

                                          In spring-water, in the air of high plateaus.

                                          He'll see deceit in the clear eyes of the newborn,

                                          And die unsated by slaughter, leaving behind sown hate.

                                          This is your growing seed. Woman, rejoice.

                                                                                                           --Primo Levi

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.--Matthew 7:15

Silence!

When one talks about Zen it fills me with disgust.--Zen Master

Zen is something to practice and not something to talk about.

Storytelling

Our personal history emerges from the present moment. The retelling of own stories will reveal whether or not we were sleepwalking through life or fully aware of the adventure.

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” ― Thomas Merton

Battering Ram

Marketers use the television as a battering ram in order to beat down the door to the subconscious mind. Once they gain access, they undermine the superego and exploit the hedonistic forces of the id for profit and gain.

The result is an inner emptiness and a spiritual desolation that will turn the human psyche into a devil's playground.

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”
                                                                                                         ― John Milton, Paradise Lost

Cultivation

It is not that talent is rare in ordinary people, but that it is rare for ordinary people to cultivate talent.

Sudden Realization

If you cannot get along without hope then hope that you will realize the true meaning of your existence.

Fuel for Thought

Indignation fuels my criticism of American culture for no society murders the potential of her children with such alacrity and leads them astray.

The Wanderer

Stop your wandering, look penetratingly into your inherent nature, concentrate your spiritual energy, sit in zazen, and break through.--Bassui's Zen

It's a Fact of Life

The meaning of our lives lies not in the biography of our existence, but in the fact of our existence.

The Way to Prison

A Zen priest was jailed several times after he was caught stealing small items from his neighbors. A friend offered to provide the priest what he needed so that the priest would no longer be tempted to steal.

"You do not understand," the priest replied. "I steal so that I can return to jail and bring the message about the Way to the prisoners."

ZEN STORY

If the Truth cannot be found in prison, it cannot be found anywhere else.

The Gate of Heaven

“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth...which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.

"This little point of nothingness…is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.

"I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.”--Thomas Merton

The Intuitive Way

"It is not enough to tell people that it is possible to become Buddha. What Zen does is to actually produce Buddhas....It is something that must be experienced, not explained.

"Scientific knowledge is gained and developed by syllogism--but Zen, because it is based solely on intuition, has no need for such a roundabout method.

"Zen is the actualization of the unselfish life."

                                                                                                                                  --Nyogen Senzaki

Here Be Dragons

Do not come to this blog looking for a new answer. Come here looking for signs of danger so that you can discover the way home yourself. 

"You cannot discover the path, because there is no path. Truth is a thing that is living, and to a living thing there is no path - it is only to dead things that there can be a path.

"Truth being pathless, to discover it you must be adventurous, ready for danger; and do you think a guru will help you to be adventurous, to live in danger?

"To seek a guru obviously indicates that you are not adventurous, that you are merely seeking a path to reality as a means of security"-- J. Krishnamurti

On Guard

Hope is a weak defense against reality.

True courage guards the Soul as a fortress protects its inhabitants.

Photographs and Memories

Photographs can be a very helpful tool when seeking a greater understanding of the human condition. By capturing a past moment, photographs allow us to study one link in the never-ending chain of cause and effect.

And sometimes, if you examine the faces closely, you catch the ego with its guard down.

Modern Slavery

Those in power are slowly coming to the realization that the best way to control the masses is to teach them to love their own slavery.

A Common Practice

It is easy to spot an outright lie. It is the half truth that is really dangerous. It is a pious fraud that is practiced by politicians, religious leaders, marketers, and scam artists across the globe.

Zen: It is not what you think!

"If you are thinking, you can't understand Zen. Anything that can be written in a book, anything that can be said--all this is thinking.

"But if you read with a mind that has cut off all thinking, then Zen books, sutras, and Bibles are all the truth.

"So is the barking of a dog or the crowing of a rooster. All things are teaching you at every moment, and these sounds are even better teaching than Zen books."--Seung Sahn

Rich Man, Poor Man

Once we accumulate things it is very difficult to let go of our possessions.

We appear to be rich, but our dependence on material wealth makes us poor for, as Thoreau wrote, "a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

Liberation

Therapy can help you manage the disease, but only the Truth can liberate you from the obsessions, compulsions, and disorders of egotism.

War

The spiritual journey is an all out war against the evolutionary forces which we inherited from our primate ancestors.

We must learn to tame the savage animal within us before it breaks out of its civilized cage without warning.