Buddhist

Forest and the Way Out, by Ananda Maitreya

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Centuries passed by. Incalculable was the crowd at the inn now and many were the discussions as to the interpretations of what had been written on the slab at the signpost. Some professed to know what the original exactly meant and others disagreed and consequently discord arose, parties were formed and actual progress ceased. Those who showed special brain skill and capability to interpret the symbols on the slabs at the post and those who were honoured and looked upon by others for numerous other reasons now became leaders of each party…

Uchiyama Roshi

Final Lesson, by Arthur Braverman

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And he [Uchiyama Kôshô Roshi] told us ‘to look at zazen and not at him as our teacher’. It’s almost as if he knew some of us would become dis­appointed in him and he didn’t want our disappointment to carry over into our zazen…

Kwan Yin (Kanjizai) with thanks to Maurice Ash

The Heart Sutra, Harada Sekkei Roshi

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Our purpose for living is to become No-mind/No-self, and a person who has become No-mind/No-self is called a Buddha. Each action we make is completely Empty, it is Nothingness, and if we express this using words, this is the ‘Buddha-dharma’. It is not possible for the ego to intervene in the Dharma…

Grass shooting in a rock wall.

Something in the training, by Trevor Leggett

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The man wants the bath water to be calm so he smacks down the waves as they come up. The teacher said, ‘That’s like trying to smack down your thoughts as they arise. But that will just create new ones! If, instead, you simply keep still and watch the waves, they will die down of themselves.’

Plants at the side of the road

Anicca

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One of the first insights of the Buddha ‘all that arises ceases’, are not reality, not nirvana, not liberation.