Serenity

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

~Lao Tzu

Transcend

Transcend The Dominant Paradigm

Bizarre

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
~ Douglas Adams

Transition

"The bottom line for our species is that because of population growth and the fivefold economic expansion since 1950, the environmental demands of our economic system now fill the available environmental space of the planet. This has brought us to a historic transitional point in the evolutionary development of our species from living in a world of open frontiers to living in a full world—in a mere historical instant. We now have the option of adjusting ourselves to this new reality or destroying our ecological niche and suffering the consequences.

~unknown

Engage Life

“Seek above all a game worth playing. Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found the game play it with intensity - play as if your life and sanity depended on it (they do depend on it). Follow the example of the French existentialists and flourish a banner bearing the word ‘engagement.’ Though nothing means anything and all roads are marked ‘no exit,’ yet move as if your movements had some purpose. If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one. For it must be clear, even to the clouded intelligence, any game is better than no game.”
~ Robert S. DeRopp

Life Pods

A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean.

“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks.

“Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.”

“But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”

The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and throw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

~Adapted from a story by Loren Eisley

Knowledge vs. Intelligence

Lake Blanche
Originally uploaded by ~Kaku.

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."

~from "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff

Try?

Do or Do Not, there is no try.

~Yoda

Holographic Principles

When we try to pick out anything
by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the universe.

~John Muir

Understanding

If you understand,
things are just as they are.
If you do not understand,
things are just as they are.

~unknown

No Mind?

The sound of water
says what I think.

~Chuang Tzu

Puddle Theory

Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

~Douglas Adams

Friends

The World is like a mirror, you see?
Smile, and your friends smile back.

~unknown

The Source

I asked a child, walking with a candle,
"From where comes that light?"
Instantly, he blew it out.
"Tell me where it has gone --
then I will tell you where it came from."
-Hasan of Basra

Peas in a pod

The Buddha was not really a God.
In fact, he thought it quite odd
That we all go around
Worshiping mounds
More mindless than peas in a pod.
-Ethan A. Mills

Fish Tracks

Talking about Zen all the time
is like looking for fish tracks
in a dry riverbed.
-Wu-Tzu

Creation

Out of nothing
Stars shining infinite
Into the void.
-Kaku

Death

Nothing in the cry of Cicadas,
Suggests they are about to die.
-Basho

Reflections

To what shall I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected in dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill.
-Dogen

Things

Things are not what they seem,
nor are they otherwise.
-Lankavatra Sutra

Children

Children have neither past nor future;
But that which happens seldom to us,
they rejoice in the present.
-Jean de La Bruyere

Considering Trees

Consider the trees
which allow the birds to perch
and fly away.
Neither inviting them to stay
nor desiring them never to depart.
If your heart can be like this,
you will be near to the way.
-Unknown

Ultimate Attainment

The past is already past,
Do not try to regain it.
The present does not stay,
Do not try to touch it.
Moment to moment.
The future has not come,
Do not think about it beforehand.
Whatever comes to the eye,
Leave it be.
There are no commandments
To be kept.
There is no filth to be cleansed.
With empty mind really
Penetrated, the dharmas
Have no life.
When you can be like this,
You have completed
The ultimate attainment.
-P'ang Yun

Mind at Peace

When the mind is at peace,
The world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
Not getting stuck in the void.
You are neither holy nor wise,
Just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.
-P'ang Yun

Sitting Quietly

Sitting quietly, doing nothing.
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.
-Zenrin Kushu

Nonduality

We go into the darkness, we seek initiation, in order to know directly how the roots of all beings are tied together: how we are related to all things, how this relationship expresses itself in terms of interdependence, and finally how all phenomena abide within one another. Yes, the roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another. We cannot exist without the presence and support of the interconnecting circles of creation---the geosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the sphere of our sun. All are related to us; we depend on each of these spheres for our very existence.
-Joan Halifax