“I sat down to meditate and nothing happened”

: )

The only journey is the one within…

You need not leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait.
You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet,
  and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
– Franz Kafka

Don’t go outside your house to see the flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
– Kabir

Without going outside, you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window,
  you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Thus the sage knows without traveling;
He sees without looking;
He works without doing.
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The only journey is the one within.
– Rainer Maria Rilke

Buddhist Golden Rule

“What you do to others, you do to yourself.”

– John Daido Loori

Like snowflakes touching the sun…

That’s how a zen teacher described thoughts arising and dissipating in an awakened mind…

How do you save all sentient beings?

The Four Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
The dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them.
The Buddha way is unattainable; I vow to attain it.

The Renewal of Vows Ceremony:

Vowing to save all sentient beings. But they’re numberless! That means there’s no end to the number of them. And yet you vow to save them. Impossible! It can’t be done. But you vow to save them. And by the way, if you intend to save all sentient beings, you’d better be prepared to be saved by all sentient beings. It goes both ways. Cause and effect goes both ways. Effect doesn’t follow cause, nor does cause precede effect. They’re one, and they move forward in time and they move backward in time.

- John Daido Loori

Zen at work

“If our spiritual life does not occur in relationship to the people around us, then I suspect that it’s not a spiritual life.”

– Zencast 131, “Integrating Practice with Work”

I want, I want, I want!

There was a disturbance in my heart, a voice that spoke there and said, I want, I want, I want! It happened every afternoon, and when I tried to suppress it, it got even stronger… It never said a thing except I want, I want, I want!

— Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King

Each moment…

At each moment do not rely on tomorrow,
Think of this day and this hour only,
and of being faithful to the Way while given a life just for today —
for the next moment is uncertain and unknown.

— Dogen, via Helena IR

Zen Archery

As a master of Zen archery, Kobun was asked to teach a course at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The target was set up on a beautiful grassy area on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Kobun took his bow, notched the arrow, took careful aim, and shot. The arrow sailed high over the target, went past the railing, beyond the cliff, only to plunge into the ocean far below. Kobun looked happily at the shocked students and shouted, “Bull’s eye!!”

- Kobun Chino, via Hardcore Zen

Inhaling, exhaling
Moving forward, moving back
Living, dying, coming, going —
Like two arrows, let flown each to each,
meet midway and slice
the void in continual flight —
Thus, I return home.

- Gesshu Soko, 1696, via Salon.com

True Meditation

What is this true meditation?
It is to make everything:
coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness,
words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame,
gain and loss, right and wrong,
into one single koan

- Hakuin, via ZenFrog