As far as the Zen masters are concerned, however, they have always been motivated by something beyond this material world and even when they are being apparently extreme or severe, if they are genuine, far from being cruel or uncaring they will be acting from a grandmotherly kindness…
Life always presents us with pairs. There are always two aspects that complement each other—sun and moon, day and night, mother and father, life and death.
What I want to say is that an ordinary person should truly be an ordinary person, completely giving up seeking mind and practice, and then just to be truly ordinary. That is enough…
We have to realize that life cannot be always easy and pleasant. Suppose there is a…
Short video (4mins): ‘An introduction to Zen’
The teacher said that people today, and always, sell themselves cheap. Somebody who is always saying, ‘I’m no good,’ won’t try at anything because, ‘Things always go wrong for me. And if I do happen to succeed in something, it’s never appreciated; it always goes badly. And is life worth living anyway?’ Such people are selling themselves cheap. They have a treasure in them…
Sometimes, while practising, it is as easy as pushing a boat over ice. At other times it is as difficult as trying to drag a cow to a well.
There are two trains of instruction, which sometimes people notice. One is that in the highest consciousness, the highest awareness, there is no effort. And the other is, ‘You have to put your whole heart and soul into this.’ And some people will say, as one does when one wants to get out of something, ‘You’re told these things are effortless and you’re trying to attain them by making tremendous efforts. Isn’t it absolutely ridiculous? It’s a self-contradiction.’ So these people either go in for a type of meditation which practically is falling asleep, or else they go in for a furious sort of meditation, and never attain any calm at all.
Buddhism now 