Letting go

Sometimes the way I act reminds me of a child who accidentally grabbed the hot end of a fire poker. The child is crying but he won't let go, and the longer he is holding it, the more painful it becomes.

This would be the simplest of life lessons: if it hurts, let go.

Then why is it so hard to do?

Altai Kai - Kai Kozhong

Good student, bad student

A good student learns even from a bad teacher.

A bad student doesn't learn even from a good teacher.

Pain and growth

Pain shows a spot of growth. What hurts has the potential to teach me something invaluable.

Being unhappy

If a problem can be solved,
Why be unhappy?

If a problem cannot be solved,
What is the use of being unhappy?

~ A Tibetan monk (?)

Diversity

When everyone is the same, someone will always differ. There's no thing to fit everyone.

Mass production

Mass production requires and generates uniformity in the world that, by its nature, is not uniform. How uniform can we get before we lose the world?

Pinterest: How to prevent your Blogger images from being pinned

Pinterest: How to prevent your Blogger images from being pinned

Four types of people

We meet four types of people in life, 
And we must know how to deal with them: 

Those who know and know that they know - they are the wise - follow them. 
Those who know but don't know that they know- they are misguided - enlighten them. 
Those who don't know and know they don't know- they are the students - guide them. 
Those who don't know and don't know they don't know - they are fools - avoid them.

~ An Arabian proverb

Teaching

Central Asian monk teaching East Asian monk. 9th century fresco from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turfan, Xinjiang, China. 

Pain as a banner

I need to remember not to use my pain as a banner. Not to expect people to be more tactful or sensitive towards me just because I endured suffering. 

Pain should not be a subject of pride or self-identification but something to live through and let go. My personality should not be built upon pain.

Schweinerl in Stein by Alupus

Source

Changing my world

Once the change is clearly defined, it soon surfaces in the reality.

Success

A truly successful career does not pursue goals of future success.

If you enjoy and find meaning in the job you're doing right now, it's already a success.

Snow meditation

Looking up in the sky, trying to see the point from which the snow is falling.

Nothing holy

廓然無聖 
Vast emptiness, nothing holy.
(Kakunen mushõ.) 

~ Bodhidharma

Source.

Unrequited love

Unrequited love is a promise of the real one. It feels painful, like a promise of a place you can never get to. 

And the real love, on the contrary, feels very natural, like you're already where you want to be, like it's nothing special, - because, at last, you've arrived home safely. 

Genro's cave

A cloud rests at the mouth of the cave
Doing nothing all day.
The moonlight penetrates the waves through the night,
But leaves no trace in the water.

~ Genro's comment in The Iron Flute Koan Collection

Subtlety

入林不動草、入水不立波

"Entering the forest he moves not the grass;

Entering the water he makes not a ripple." 

~ Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 152, 224)

Source

Alertness

When a small insect flies by so close to your skin that you can feel the movement of the air caused by its wings.

November

Feeding the swine with acorns for the winter
from "Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry"

Evening bell from mist-shrouded temple

Flowers and birds

Autumn warmth

Teaching children

Children copy everything you do, including swear words, using substances, abusing other people.

Words don't teach. Actions do.

Prometheus and his liver

It's curious how this myth resonates with the harmful effects of eating too much fire-processed food.

Clarity

Crystal-clear clarity of every moment as it goes by.