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.

A reversed way of fighting temptations

The usual reaction: I'm going to quit it forever, but now I'll just have it one last time.

The reversed reaction: I might do it again in the future, but not right now.

A drop of nostalgy

Endless evolution

Every living being recreates itself every moment of time by enhancing the things it needs and neglecting the things it doesn't need. The more attention it pays to something, the more expressed this thing becomes in its life.

That's how each creature's look exactly reflects its desires and inclinations.

Hedgehog in the Fog

Simplicity

And an old black woman
was dandling a baby and singing:
'If I were a pharaoh,
I'd buy myself two pears:
I'd give one to my friend,
and I'd eat the other one myself...'

From Alexandria Songs by Mikhail Kuzmin

А старая черная женщина
качала ребенка и пела:
"Если б я был фараоном,
купил бы я себе две груши:

одну бы отдал своему другу,

другую бы я сам скушал..."

Из "Александрийских песен" Михаила Кузмина

Artificial paradox

The great paradox of the modern world: Artificial materials and products are cheaper and easier to buy than natural materials and products.

There's a Russian saying that translates approximately as a fish searches where it's deeper and a man searches where it's better. But it should be a man searches where it's easier. People tend to go the easiest way available, and the artificial industry offers that easy way out. 

However, breaking the rules of nature causes problems that are 'solved' with new 'developments' of industry that cause new problems, making another turn in the vicious circle. That's how what was initially supposed to make people's lives easier keeps making them more complicated the further we drift away from the natural world.

Height

The taller you are, the deeper you need to bow when you go through a low doorway.

The higher your center is, the more humble you need to be to the world.

Chores

Doing the chores is often taught as something difficult and unpleasant, a continuous nuisance to deal with. This creates a 'family tradition' of hating the chores.

However, chores are a privilege I have in life and my way of playful transformation of my world. 

Think of all the people who have no house to clean, no clothes to wash, no food to remove the remainder of from the crockery. Think of all the people who have no arms to do the cleaning or no legs to take out trash.

Being able to do the chores is the royal privilege of living a full life.

Home

If each of us treats the world the way they treat their property, this world will flourish beyond words.

Imagine a home with 6 billion caring owners.

A good student

A good student has 2 essential qualities:

1. Disregard for looking silly.
2. Endless, illogical stubbornness to try again and again.