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Integration

If you have certain ideas about zazen it is very difficult to know zazen as it is, right in the midst of transiency. There is no way to escape constant change. So, how can I be one with zazen as it is? How can I show the truth of impermanence? I must be I as I really am. This is not just a problem for human beings. A pine tree must be alive as a pine tree. That is all it has to do. Pine tree, bamboo, lake, winter, all show impermanence constantly. Pine tree must be pine tree as it is when the pine tree exists. Winter must be winter as it is when winter comes. Snow must be snow as it is. Only when the pine tree becomes the pine tree as it is, can it show impermanence, which is called nature. This is why we notice how beautiful the pine tree is. When the pine tree is the pine tree as it is, the pine tree really exists with everything else in nature—pebbles, lake, river, sky—this is really the way the pine tree becomes the pine tree as it is. This is the practical aspect of impermanence.
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wisdom and compassion

When we sit, two flavors are there. One is very sharp, cutting through delusions, suffering, pain and any emotion like a sharp sword. This is called wisdom. But within wisdom there must be compassion. That compassion is to see human life for the long run. Compassion is not. something we try to create; we cannot do it. Compassion comes from the measure of our practice, which we have accumulated for a long, long time. It naturally happens. Katagiri Roshi
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two inclinations: Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo

The issues of the mind all boil down to two minds: one that likes to do good, and one that likes to do evil. One mind, but there’s two of it. Sometimes an inclination to do good takes hold of us, and so we want to do good. This is called being possessed by skillfulness. Sometimes an inclination to do evil takes hold of us, and so we want to do evil. This is called being possessed by unskillfulness. In this way, our mind is kept always unsettled and unsure. So the Buddha taught us to develop our awareness in order to know what’s good and worthwhile, and what’s evil and worthless. If unawareness obscures our mind, we can’t see anything clearly, just as when haze obscures our eyesight. If our knowledge gets really far up away from the world, we’ll have even less chance of seeing anything, just as a person who goes up high in an airplane and then looks down below won’t be able to see houses or other objects as clearly as when he’s standing on the ground. The higher he goes, the more everyt
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Suzuki: being the cosmos

And when you have perfect  composure in your practice. you include everything. You are not  just you. You are the whole world or the whole cosmos. and you  are a Buddha. So when you sit. you are an ordinary human. and  you are Buddha. Before you sit. you may stick to the idea that you are ordinary. So when you sit you are not the same being as  you arc before you sit. Do you understand?  You may say that it is not possible to be ordinary and holy.  When you think this way, your understanding is one-sided. In  Japanese, we call someone who understands things from just one  side a Itllllbtlll-ktlll. "someone who carries a board on his shoul- der." Because you carry a big board on your shoulder, you can- not see the other side. You think you are just an ordinary human,  but if you take the board off, you wiu understand, "Oh, I am  Buddha, too. How can I be both Buddha and an ordinary  human? It is amazing!" That is enlightenment.  When you experience enlightenment, you
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http://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Teishos/Shodo_Harada_On_the_Heart_Sutra.html

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home go back to Zen Commentaries & Teishos thezensite  On the Maka Hanya Haramita Sutra Shodo Harada Roshi July, 1993 From today through the three days which we are gathered here I will do Dharma lectures on the Heart Sutra. This Heart Sutra in a mere 261 words puts together totally the essence of the Buddha's teaching, his wisdom and understanding. This very experience of the Buddha is manifested in this sutra. Of course, this is an impossible task to do in just three days and we will have to abbreviate it greatly and won't be able to cover it all. It is a sutra which should be read by each of us every day, but do not end it's study here please.  The title itself,  Maka Hanya Haramita Sutra , was added later and could be called extra but in fact the essence of this sutra is all put together in this one title, so I shall begin by talking about that one title.  The first word  maka , this word means great, superior, plentiful, all rolled into one. We have to see
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Maezumi Roshi: Appreciate your life

I had the great fortune to sit several seshins with Maezumi Roshi and to hear the themes of this talk from him directly. They are living words. LR Appreciate Your Life BY  MAEZUMI ROSHI | MAY 1, 2001 Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) The pitfall is always within yourself. This very body and mind is the Way. You are complete to begin with. There is no gap, but you think there is. How do you answer when someone asks you, “Why do you practice?” In the Genjo Koan, Dogen Zenji says: To study the Buddha Way is to study the self To study the self is to forget the self To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas. To be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas is to free one’s body and mind and those of others. The word narau, or “study,” is more like “to repeat something over and over and over.” We could also say “to learn,” but not necessarily to learn something new. Perhaps an even better word would be practice. To practice the Budd
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Shiviti

ולא יתדמה כו' שמי שהוא אהוב מאד אצל האדם מרוב אהבתו אותו תמונתו דבוקה בלבו והתמונה הדבוקה בלב מצטיירת ומתדמה תמיד לפניו כאלו היא עומדת נגדו וזה פשט הכתוב שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד: One who is very much beloved to someone, due to that person's great love, his picture will cleave to his heart. And the picture which clings to his heart becomes manifested and pictured before him always as if it were placed before him. This is the pshat (plain meaning) of the verse (Tehilim 16:8) "I have set G-d before me always". https://www.sefaria.org/Pat_Lechem,_Third_Treatise_on_Service_of_God.5.92
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