Teachings

If you are not attached to anything, then you are free. If you hold something you are hindered.

Like or dislike is what creates a prison that we live in. So if you only practice when you want to practice and then don’t practice when you don’t want to practice, that’s a fundamental problem.

We just sat for one half hour. Sometimes the clock goes very slow, sometimes it goes very fast. Sometimes your leg hurts, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes your mind is clear, sometimes it is not. Here’s the interesting thing, all of that was yours. That was your experience. That wasn’t anybody else’s idea, that was your idea. That’s what Zen means, “make your life yours."

Our practice is based on finding your center and making your center steady. Sometimes we say, „make your center strong.”

Nobody guarantees our life. So if there is anything that you think may be useful, just now is the time to use it. In our life, past mind cannot be attained.

When we return to don't know, our job is always right in front of us. In fact our whole life is just that moment! But if we immediately re-enter the realm of like or dislike, then we can never find our job.

Student: It is very difficult to practice without expectation. Because we are putting in all the energy and time and... So how to do it?

While there are many approaches to practicing, practicing with a sangha – together action – is the most powerful. It forces us to confort our limitation, which in turn helps us to overcome them.

So everything is truth. But how much do you believe that? Every day we use truth, but we don't understand truth.

Here is one more story alluding to the benefit of Sangha. A monk was going to do a ten-year solo retreat in a cave high up in the mountains. As he passed through the plain and foothills below the mountain he met a farmer who asked him where he was going.

Open the gift. Inside is only don’t know. Such an expensive gift, and yet few will accept it. Accepting it means abandoning the familiar, and that can be terrifying. And yet, not knowing is very familiar territory for us all, a place where we can be empowered.