From ekp@excite.com Sun Apr 1 09:32:32 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 00:32:32 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <26855160.986113952592.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> "And what, monks, is Right View? It is, monks, the knowledge of suffering, the knowledge of the origin of suffering, the knowledge of the cessation of suffering, and the knowledge of the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called Right View."Mahasatipatthana Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, in,Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha,trans. by Maurice Walshe "What you are looking for is what is looking" .............St. Francis of Assisi _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Mon Apr 2 07:56:36 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 23:56:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <16694647.986194596947.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> It is often the case that whatever we are doing, be it sitting, walking, standing, or lying, the mind is frequently disengaged from the immediate reality and is instead absorbed in compulsive conceptualization about the future or past. While we are walking, we think about arriving, and when we arrive, we think about leaving. When we are eating, we think about the dishes, and as we do the dishes, we think about watching television.This is a weird way to run a mind. We are not connected with the present situation, but we are always thinking about something else. Too often we are consumed with anxiety and cravings, regrets about the past and anticipation for the future, completely missing the crisp simplicity of the moment. B. Alan WallaceTibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up "What you are looking for is what is looking" .............St. Francis of Assisi _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Tue Apr 3 07:39:15 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 23:39:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <10673273.986279955108.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality....Zen is the "everyday mind," as was proclaimed by Baso (Ma-tsu, died 788); this "everyday mind" is no more than "sleeping when tired, eating when hungry." As soon as we reflect, deliberate, and conceptualize, the original unconsciousness is lost and a thought interferes. We no longer eat while eating, we no longer sleep while sleeping. The arrow is off the string but does not fly straight to the target, nor does the target stand where it is. Calculation which is miscalculation sets in. D.T. Suzuki, in Eugen Herrigel's, Zen and the Art of Archery _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Wed Apr 4 07:32:57 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 23:32:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <26980423.986365977094.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> If we let a wild elephant loose in a populated area it will cause massive destruction, but the uncontrolled wild mind can cause much more harm than such a crazed beast. If the deluded, wild elephant of our mind is not subdued, it will create much suffering of the deepest hell in the future. In fact, if we investigate we can see that the creator of all the sufferings of this and future lives is nothing but our unsubdued mind. To subdue this wild beast is much more important than bringing a jungle elephant under our control.Many benefits follow from taming our mind. If we take the rope of mindfulness and tie our elephant mind securely to the post of virtue, all of our fears will swiftly come to an end...If we do not develop mindfulness, our meditations will be hollow and empty. There will be nothing to keep our wild elephant mind from running back and forth in its customary, uncontrolled manner between objects of attachment, anger, jealousy and so forth. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,Meaningful to Behold "What you are looking for is what is looking" .............St. Francis of Assisi _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Thu Apr 5 07:42:37 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 23:42:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <6899313.986452957152.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> The Buddha Nature which is ours from the very beginning is like the sun which emerges from the clouds, or like a mirror which, when rubbed, regains its original purity and clarity. - Ho-shan One word---to a wise man. One lash-----to bright horse. Zen saying _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Fri Apr 6 07:31:12 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 23:31:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <23794117.986538672470.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> Look within and in a flash You will conquer the apparent And the void. - Seng-T’san (d.606) One word---to a wise man. One lash-----to bright horse. Zen saying _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sat Apr 7 08:43:49 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 00:43:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] weekend dharma Message-ID: <25135228.986629430772.JavaMail.imail@seamore.excite.com> gleaned from dailyzen.com....enjoy...ike The Perception of Sages The Scripture on Infinite Light says, "Rivers, lakes, birds, trees, and forests all invoke Buddha, Truth, and Communion." In a moment of awareness without discrimination, great wisdom appears. This is like pouring water into the ocean, like working a bellows in the wind. Furthermore, how do you discriminate? "Buddha" is a temporary name for what cannot be seen when you look, what cannot be heard when you listen, whose place of origin and passing away cannot be found when you search. It covers form and sound, pervades sky and earth, penetrates above and below. There is no second view, no second person, no second thought. It is everywhere, in everything, not something external. This is why the single source of all awareness is called "Buddha." It doesn't change when the body deteriorates; it is always there. But you still cannot use what is always there. Why? Because, as the saying goes, "Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs vision." Although buddhahood is wonderful, if you are obsessed with it, it becomes a sickness. An early Zen master said, "It is not mind, not Buddha, not a thing - what is it?" This says it all. It has brought us the diamond sword that cuts through all obsessions. Another classical Zen master said, "The slightest entangling thought can cause hellish actions; a flash of feeling can chain you indefinitely. Just end ordinary feelings, and there is no special perception of sages to seek - the perception of sages appears where ordinary feelings end." - Xiatang (birth and death unknown) Xiatang points out that the awareness basic to Zen is inherently non-discursive; it is not reached by suppression of reason, but by a level of attention beyond that of ordinary sense. - taken from Zen Essence - The Science of Freedom translated and edited by Thomas Cleary (1989) Much of what has been written of old is truly more like a finger pointing at the moon because, as Xiatang alludes, this awareness is non-discursive. However, occasionally we find a kind of writing that takes us beyond the letters and images into a different realm of perception. Many of us have been delighted and enticed by images similar to those expressed in The Scripture on Infinite Light: "Rivers, lakes, birds, trees, and forests all invoke Buddha, Truth, and Communion." I have one source I return to often in my quest to develop the awareness to learn from nature…. The mountain presided over the landscape so vividly that it seemed to be an illusion of rock and snow conjured up to fill a void. A hologram to fill a bare place in the universe. A real illusion, one you could fall from. A void was just somewhere your thoughts couldn't reach at all, some place left uncreated and unhandled by knowledge, some place here. The peak stood against the sky like an enormous cutout behind which lay the unknown, an unknown that did not lie merely ahead, but also behind the eyes of the one who listened and watched. When you become caught by what you see and hear, when you become lost in your thoughts, you diminish the world. Then the far ridge of the mountain and the eyes of the watcher mark the circumference of a sphere of the mundane. Both then lie on an orbit of beginning and ending, a mean circle of tired knowledge. A circle much smaller than most would dare to hope. Yet beyond your thoughts, untouched by history, is a beyond that lies outside the orbit. You have to relax into it, and the periphery of that beyond is right here, right now. It passes behind your eyes, through your core, directly to your heart. It turns continually so that the unknown beyond and the unknown within constantly exchange places and become just two aspects of one limitless something. Intuit it, but don't chase it - let it come to you. If you pass beyond that circle without budging an inch, you'll enter a vast clarity that excludes nothing. Not even illusion. First you have to see the borders of your smallish world, the circumference of the sphere, in order to pass beyond. See clearly the boundaries of the island, and you will simultaneously see the immense sea. To pass beyond you have to see the edges of your mundane world of thoughts. A scene from a dream. A white wonderland with a hint of spring that knelt and paid homage to the stark monolith whose melting snows allowed its lushness. The islands of spring were opening like eyes in the meadow. In them hellebore was still pointed tightly and shot up like reddish-green missiles. Thick patches of both pink and lavender phlox bloomed in lovely heaps next to the crusty snow. When things become achingly lovely, it means you've fallen back within the old circle, imprisoned within the small sphere of history. It's the sense of separation that aches. When you let go of the contents of the circle everything feels serene. Then even the circumference dissolves and illusions become the truth. The art of life is to know the borders of the mundane sphere, to keep the narrowness from taking over your life. - taken from Journeys on Mind Mountain - G.BlueStone (1990) There is a vastness right here when we unlearn enough to see. Until then the division between self and the immensity around us seems very concrete. Somehow we must soften our hold here and gently intend forward. Something hidden, go and find it, The Monkess ********************************************** It takes a long time to become young ....Pablo Picasso _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sun Apr 8 10:23:13 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 02:23:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <12824884.986721793921.JavaMail.imail@almond.excite.com> The real nature of ignorance is identical to the nature of enlightenment; the empty body of illusory transformations, is identical to the body of reality. Once you’ve awakened, there’s not a single thing in the body of reality. Original inherent nature is the naturally real enlightened one. - Yung chia (d.713) "you can't solve a problem on the same level you created it." ......Al Einstein _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Mon Apr 9 07:35:20 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 23:35:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <14277110.986798120889.JavaMail.imail@knuckles.excite.com> Vast and spacious, like sky and water merging during autumn, like snow and moon having the same color this field is without boundary, beyond direction, magnificently one entity without edge or seam. - Hongzhi (1091-1157) "you can't solve a problem on the same level you created it." ......Al Einstein _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Tue Apr 10 07:38:45 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 23:38:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <8989667.986884725826.JavaMail.imail@roary.excite.com> When we preach the Dharma to those who see only the ego’s illusory world, we preach in vain. We might as well preach to the dead. How foolish are they who turn away from what is real and true and lasting and instead pursue the fleeting shapes of the physical world, shapes that are mere reflections in the ego’s mirror. Not caring to peer beneath the surfaces, deluded beings are content to snatch at images. They think that the material world’s ever-flowing energy can be modified into permanent forms, that they can name and value these forms, and then, like great lords, exert dominion over them. Material things are like dead things and the ego cannot vivify them. As the great lord is by his very identity attached to his kingdom, the ego, when it attaches itself to material objects, presides over a realm of the dead. The Dharma is for the living. The permanent cannot abide in the ephemeral. True and lasting joy can’t be found in the ego’s world of changing illusion. No one can drink the water of a mirage. Maxims of Master Han Shan (from Journey to Dreamland) "you can't solve a problem on the same level you created it." ......Al Einstein _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Wed Apr 11 07:41:57 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 23:41:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <29683290.986971317838.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Every musician plays scales. When you begin to study the piano, that's the first thing you learn, and you never stop playing scales. The finest concert pianists in the world still play scales. It's a basic skill that can't be allowed to get rusty. Every baseball player practices batting. It's the first thing you learn in Little League, and you never stop practicing. Every World Series game begins with batting practice. Basic skills must always remain sharp. Seated meditation is the arena in which the meditator practices his own fundamental skills. The game the meditator is playing is the experience of his own life, and the instrument upon which he plays is his own sensory apparatus. Even the most seasoned meditator continues to practice seated meditation, because it tunes and sharpens the basic mental skills he needs for his particular game. We must never forget, however, that seated meditation itself is not the game. It's the practice. The game in which those basic skills are to applied is the rest of one's experiential existence. Meditation that is not applied to daily living is sterile and limited. Henepola Gunaratana,MIndfulness in Plain English _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Thu Apr 12 07:31:25 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 23:31:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <19845366.987057085892.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Why it’s but the motion of eyes and brows! And here I’ve been seeking it far and wide. Awakened at last, I find the moon above the pines, the river surging high. - Yuishun (?–1544) "Say this is a stick and i will beat you with it! Say this is not a stick and i will beat you with it! Now what will you say" ........Zen Koan _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Fri Apr 13 17:39:57 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 09:39:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] long piece for spring Message-ID: <17106318.987179997264.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Plum Blossoms... Honoring the Teachings of Spring One day my late master Tendo addressed the monks: "This is my first address of the winter season. Yet even now an old plum tree with many tangled branches is beginning to bloom-one, two, three, four, five, countless blossoms appear. These blossoms are not proud of their purity or fragrance. The petals fall and it feels like spring as the wind blows through the flowers, trees, and grasses. You monks are no doubt surprised to hear this. Suddenly, however, a great change occurs. A violent storm arises with driving rain and pounds the earth; it then turns into a blizzard and snow covers the earth. The old plum tree endures various conditions, even freezing cold that seems to cut off its very life." The old plum tree mentioned here withstands all conditions-sometimes it blooms, sometimes it bears fruit, sometimes it faces spring, sometimes winter; sometimes it faces strong winds, sometimes storms; sometimes it surprises monks; sometimes it is the enlightened vision of the ancient Buddhas; sometimes it appears with grasses and trees; sometimes it is pure fragrance. It faces all these changes, all those that occur imperceptibly. Heaven and earth, the bright sun and pure moon - all aspects of the old plum tree - cannot be separated from one another. When the old plum tree blooms the entire world blooms. When the world blooms spring comes. Then the five leaves bloom as one flower-three, four, five, one hundred, one thousand, countless flowers bloom. All these flowers grow on one, two, countless branches of an old plum tree. An udumbara flower and a blue lotus flower also bloom on the same branch. All these blooming flowers constitute the beneficence of an old plum tree. Such an old plum tree covers the worlds of human beings and celestials. These worlds appear within the old plum tree. Hundreds of thousands of flowers are the flowers of human beings and celestials. Millions of flowers are the flowers of the Buddhas and Patriarchs. When this kind of plum tree blooms, all the Buddhas emerge in this world and Bodhidharma comes into existence. Once, my late former master said to the monks: "When Shakyamuni lost his ordinary sight and attained enlightened vision, one branch of a plum tree bloomed in the snow." - taken from Volume Two of the Shobogenzo translated by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens (1977) Surely it is spring For the fragrance of flowers Circulated by the mountain breeze Spreads throughout The peaks and valleys - Dogen Spring is fully here and yet not quite here in the mountains. Those of us who live close to them learn this freshly every year. The spring snows continue to block our way to the peaks until well into July in some locations. Often in June we hope to get into our favorite high mountain meadow only to be turned back by deep snows still claiming their space. There is a direct quality learning from Nature that is wordless, cleansing, uplifting, and requires no explanation to those willing to listen. In much of the poetry of Zen one can feel this, and in Dogen's writing above, the universality of the teaching of plum blossoms is recognized. Feel the power of the present moment in the landscape below and imagine yourself there listening…. The stream was large enough that it was better crossed in the morning before the midday sun would wake and thaw the sleeping snowfields above. Then the melting snows of the warm afternoon would send forth torrents that coursed wildly down the mountainside, and the falls just below the ford would literally boom. The booming resounded in the mountain valley, echoing and filling it like water fills a vessel. Everything within that refreshing vessel of dark green forest was immersed in that steady reverberation. Immersed in a divine roar whose endless layers echoed off transparent walls. It's not the sort of sound you hear solely with your ears. Even to bathe in it won't be enough because there will still be someone there to interfere, to interpret. It has to be felt deeper, below the surface, at the very point where all the senses emerge like a fleck of foam falling into the stream. Just by listening with your eyes you can fold back on yourself and merge into that primal stream of awareness like a river is swallowed by the immensity of the ocean. Only then will you know what point to live from. Only then will you be sure. - Journeys on Mind Mountain, G. BlueStone Outside my window, plum blossoms, just on the verge of unfurling, contain the spring. The clear moon is held in the cuplike petals of the beautiful flower I pick and twirl. - Dogen (1200-1253) _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sat Apr 14 09:38:58 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 01:38:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <635065.987237538485.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Some people practice throughout their entire lives just by paying attention to breathing. Everything that is true about anything is true about breath: it's impermanent; it arises and it passes away. Yet if you didn't breathe, you would become uncomfortable; so then you would take in a big inhalation and feel comfortable again. But if you hold onto the breath, it's no longer comfortable, so you have to breathe out again. All the time shifting, shifting. Uncomfortableness is continually arising. We see that everything keeps changing. Sylvia Boorstein,Tricycle: The Buddhist Review,Vo. II, #1 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sun Apr 15 10:12:59 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 02:12:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <27258765.987325980482.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Observing respiration is also the means for practicing right awareness. Our suffering stems from ignorance. We react because we do not know what we are doing, because we do not know the reality of ourselves. The mind spends most of the time lost in fantasies and illusions, reliving pleasant or unpleasant experiences and anticipating the future with eagerness or fear. While lost in such cravings or aversions, we are unaware of what is happening now, what we are doing now. Yet surely this moment, now, is the most important for us. We cannot live in the past; it is gone. Nor can we live in the future; it is forever beyond our grasp. We can live only in the present. If we are unaware of our present actions, we are condemned to repeating the mistakes of the past and can never succeed in attaining our dreams for the future. But if we can develop the ability to be aware of the present moment, we can use the past as a guide for ordering our actions in the future, so that we may attain our goal. S. N. Goenka,The Art of Living "Say this is a stick and i will beat you with it! Say this is not a stick and i will beat you with it! Now what will you say" ........Zen Koan _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Mon Apr 16 07:35:03 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 23:35:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <13796027.987402904380.JavaMail.imail@swirly> We make every effort to keep things as they are, because human beings, alone, lament transience. Yet no matter how we grieve or protest, there is no way to impede the flow of anything. If we but see things as they are and flow with them, we may find enjoyment in transience. Because human life is transient, all manner of figures are woven into its fabric. Shundo Aoyama.....Zen Seeds ******************************************************** A sword cannot cut itself. Desire cannot overcome itself. Self cannot understand itself. The Way cannot be followed by trying." ...........Zen aphorism _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Tue Apr 17 07:48:29 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 23:48:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <33374347.987490109907.JavaMail.imail@swirly> There are also those who, claiming enlightenment, insist that they understand the non-substantial nature of reality. Boasting that the disease of materialism cannot infect them, they try to prove their immunity by carefully shunning all earthly enjoyments. But they, too, are in the dark. ........Maxims of Han Shan "you can't solve a problem on the same level you created it." ......Al Einstein _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Wed Apr 18 07:26:54 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 23:26:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <18485342.987575215144.JavaMail.imail@swirly> All our activity is rooted in the eternal nature of “everyday mind”. Most of the time we forget this, but Buddhas are always aware of this fact. If we have the mind that seeks the Way, surely we will enter the Way. This desire for enlightenment must be self generating. It cannot come from others. Enlightenment is the natural activity of “everyday mind.” - Dogen (1200-1253) "What you are looking for is what is looking" .............St. Francis of Assisi _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Thu Apr 19 07:34:15 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 23:34:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <26618192.987662056293.JavaMail.imail@swirly> Neither are they correct who dedicate themselves to exposing the fraud of every sensory object they encounter. True, perceptions of material objects give rise to wild desire in the heart. True, once it is understood how essentially worthless such apparent objects are, wild desires are reduced to timid thoughts. But we may not limit our spiritual practice to the discipline of dispelling illusion. There is more to the Dharma than understanding the nature of reality. ....the Maxims of Master Han Shan When the Buddha teaches others he does so out of compassion, because the Tathagata is wholly freed from both favour and aversion. Samyutta Nikaya I, 111 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Fri Apr 20 07:38:28 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 23:38:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <12792843.987748709325.JavaMail.imail@swirly> The foundation and initial goal of [our] transformation is avoiding doing harm to others. Whether alone or with others, we must strive to avoid doing harm either directly with our words or deeds or indirectly with our thoughts and intentions. We may injure others with abuse, slander, sarcasm, and deceit, or by acts of omission due to insensitivity and thoughtlessness. The most subtle way of harming others is indirectly by means of our thoughts, judgments, and attitudes. When the mind is a dominated by hostility, we may be viciously attacking others with our thoughts. Although no apparent injury may be inflicted, these thoughts affect us internally and influence our way of interacting with others, and the long-term effect is invariably harmful. So the initial theme of Dharma practice is a nonviolent approach to our own lives, to other living beings, and to our environment. This is a foundation for spiritual practice, and can provide well-being for both ourselves and others. On this basis of non violence we can look for ways to serve others keeping in mind that any work will be altruistic if our motivation is one of kindness and friendliness. B. Alan Wallace,Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up ***************************************** Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame. Dhammapada 81 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sat Apr 21 09:26:20 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 01:26:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <18515897.987841580901.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> Upon the oxygen of a mind free from doubt I put the yoke and plow of skillful means and wisdom. Steadfastly I hold the reins without distraction. Cracking the whip of effort, I break up the clods of the five poisons. I cast away the stones of a defiled heart, And weed out all hypocrisy. I cut the stalks and reap the fruit of action Leading to liberation.... Realization does not arise out of words. Understanding does not come from mere suggestions. I urge all those who work for Enlightenment To meditate with perseverance and effort. Endurance and effort overcome the greatest of difficulties May there be no obstacles for those who seek Enlightenment. The Life of Milarepa,trans. by Lobsang Lhalunga **************************************** The good renounce (attachment for) everything. The virtuous do not prattle with a yearning for pleasures. The wise show no elation or depression when touched by happiness or sorrow. Dhammapada 83 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sun Apr 22 10:17:28 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 02:17:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <12829889.987931049551.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> Picking chrysanthemums at the eastern gate, I leisurely view South Mountain. The vapors rise along the valleys, groups of birds fly back inside each sunset. Trying to say it, I have forgotten the words. Tao Yuan Ming (365-427)" ************************************************ Calm is his thought, calm his speech, and calm his deed, who, truly knowing, is wholly freed, perfectly tranquil and wise. Dhammapada 96 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Mon Apr 23 07:42:37 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 23:42:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <5651951.988008157499.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> Most writings on the doctrine of karma emphasize the strict lawfulness governing karmic actions, ensuring a close correspondence between our deeds and their fruits. While this emphasis is perfectly in place, there is another side to the working of karma—a side rarely noted, but so important that it deserves to be stressed and discussed as an explicit theme in itself. This is the modifiability of karma, the fact that the lawfulness which governs karma does not operate with mechanical rigidity but allows for a considerably wide range of modifications in the ripening of the fruit. If karmic action were always to bear fruits of invariably the same magnitude, and if modification or annulment of karma-result were excluded, liberation from the samsaric cycle of suffering would be impossible; for an inexhaustible past would ever throw up new obstructive results of unwholesome karma Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation "There is nothing infinite apart from finite things." ...........D.T.Suzuki _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Tue Apr 24 07:37:36 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 23:37:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <15819304.988094256435.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> . What is the best way to sever our attachment to material things? First, we need a good sharp sword, a sword of discrimination, one that cuts through appearance to expose the real. We begin by making a point of noticing how quickly we became dissatisfied with material things and how soon our sensory pleasures also fade into discontent. With persistent awareness we sharpen and hone this sword. Before long, we find that we seldom have to use it. We’ve cut down all old desires and new ones don’t dare to bother us. The Maxims of Master Han Shan ******************************************** Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself. Dhammapada 103 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Wed Apr 25 07:39:40 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 23:39:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <30116754.988180780649.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> Cultivating the mind is very much like cultivating a crop. A farmer must know the proper way to prepare the soil, sow the seed, tend to the growth of the crop, and finally harvest it. If all these tasks are done properly, the farmer will reap the best harvest that natures allows. If they're done improperly, an inferior harvest will be produced, regardless of the farmer's hopes and anxieties.Similarly, in terms of meditation it is crucial to be thoroughly versed in the proper method of our chosen technique. While engaged in the practice, we must frequently check up to see whether we are implementing the instructions we have heard and conceptually understood. Like a good crop, good meditation cannot be forced, and requires cultivation over time. B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up ********************************************************** Think not lightly of evil, saying, "It will not come to me." Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the fool, gathering it little by little, fills himself with evil. Dhammapada 121 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Thu Apr 26 07:21:10 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 23:21:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <29968441.988266071647.JavaMail.imail@dotty.excite.com> Buddha was not interested in the elements comprising human beings, nor in metaphysical theories of existence. He was more concerned about how he himself existed in this moment. That was his point. Bread is made from flour. How flour becomes bread when put in the oven was for Buddha the most important thing. How we become enlightened was his main interest. The enlightened person is some perfect, desirable character, for himself and for others. Buddha wanted to find out how human beings develop this ideal character—how various sages in the past became sages. In order to find out how dough became perfect bread, he made it over and over again, until he became quite successful. That was his practice. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind *************************************** At death a person abandons what he construes as mine. Realizing this, the wise shouldn't incline to be devoted to mine. Sutta Nipata IV, 6 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Fri Apr 27 07:45:16 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 23:45:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <19586905.988353917316.JavaMail.imail@blizzard.excite.com> Cranes in the wilderness, lonely clouds—their destination is uncertain. Where in this world am I to address my deepest thoughts? Forest trees in serried ranks ascend the cliff walls. Like a series of brush strokes, hills and peaks arrayed out to the horizon; my mind brims with Zen clear as water, old bones jut angularly thin as kindling; fame is nothing one can keep for long— a hundred years of light and dark before we reach our end. - Betsugen Enshi (1296–1364) -------------------------------------------------- I have love for the footless, for the bipeds too I have love; I have love for those with four feet, for the many-footed I have love. Anguttara Nikaya II, 72 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sat Apr 28 09:27:50 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 01:27:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <19654216.988446471472.JavaMail.imail@ants.excite.com> True Dharma seekers who live in the world use their daily activity as a polishing tool. Outwardly they may appear to be very busy, like flint striking steel, making sparks everywhere. But inwardly they silently grow. For although they may be working very hard, they are working for the sake of the work and not for the profits it will bring them. Unattached to the results of their labor, they transcend the frenetic to reach the Way’s essential tranquillity. Doesn’t a rough and tumbling stream also sparkle like striking flints – while it polishes into smoothness every stone in its path? The Maxims of Master Han Shan ----------------------------------------------- Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled. Dhammapada 110 _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Sun Apr 29 10:10:15 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 02:10:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <31308059.988535416269.JavaMail.imail@ants.excite.com> The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away, and the weather is clear again. If your heart is pure, then all things in your world are pure. Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself, then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way. - Ryokan _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ From ekp@excite.com Mon Apr 30 07:22:07 2001 From: ekp@excite.com (ike) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 23:22:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Dailydharma] dailydharma Message-ID: <15336414.988611727831.JavaMail.imail@ants.excite.com> No one is absent and no one is ignorant. This is a gathering of the Buddha-mind that is given to us at birth. When you return home, be mindful of all your daily matters, just the way you are listening to the teachings now. Then you’ll be just living with unborn Buddha-mind. Because of desire, we become stubborn, self-centered, and deluded. This way we move away from Buddha-mind, and become foolish. Originally, no one is deluded. - Bankei ---------------------------------------------- Should a person commit evil, let him not do it again and again. Let him not find pleasure therein, for painful is the accumulation of evil. Dhammapada 117 "What you are looking for is what is looking" .............St. Francis of Assisi _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/