Zen in Ten: "You Are the Sky"

"Everything Else Is Just the Weather"

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

Hello Dear Readers! I hope you’re enjoying life wherever you’re abiding these days. Below are some nuggets of spiritual wisdom from various people. Perhaps take one up each day as a mantra, a mental touchstone to remind you of our limitless True Self. Bowing with cold hands and a warm heart, Rev. Shōren Heather

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1. “Zazen (seated meditation) is central to experiencing the awakened consciousness that existed prior to us taking a seat in the wild. Like Buddha, we sit on the earth and allow the seeds of awakening to sprout in our lives.” Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

2. “Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while . . . but they soon must go elsewhere. When they are gone, the ‘nothing,’ the ‘no-body’ that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey.” Thomas Merton

3. “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.” Koun Yamada

4. “In our Zen stream spirituality, we seek the return of our Original Nature to its original spontaneity.” Elaine Macinnes

5. “Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream of the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies. Meditation may take one out of the world, but it also puts one totally into it.” Gary Snyder

6. “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” Sharon Salzberg

7. “Zen pretty much comes down to three things: everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.” Jane Hirshfield

8. “When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.” Huang Po

9. “There is no mistake in nature.” Byron Katie

10. “You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.” Pema Chodron

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