Trevor Leggett (1914 – 2000), was one of the leading writers on Zen Buddhism in the West.
This comes again and again. There is something hidden even in the terrible experiences we have, which ― if we have spiritual sight and discrimination ― we can find. There is a treasure in our own house which we often don’t see. We can say, ‘Well, how can there be?’…
Mindfulness in words — trying to make an internal commentary of what one is doing — is just a kind of illusion.
The well-known Zen Buddhist phrase ‘the finger pointing at the moon’ refers to the means and the end, and the possibility of mistaking one for the other…
At the beginning you have to take up a koan riddle. One such is this: ‘What is your true face before father and mother were born’. For one facing the turbulence of life and death, such a koan clears away the sandy soil and opens up the golden treasure which was there from the beginning, the ageless root of all things…
We go round looking for opportunities, trying to create opportunities, so we can bring out the big gun. But actually people somehow get an instinct for not getting in front of a big gun, even though it may be hidden in the bushes…
“Yes, the compassion ration certainly went up and up, didn’t it?” agreed the priest. “My own teacher used to say that Compassion is catching.”
So we have these two extremes — blind faith without enquiry, and enquiry which is no real enquiry at all; it’s just an endless sort of doubt, and still lacks focus…
Thought I would like to share this verse and Zen Calligraphy with you from a new printing of The old Zen Master by Trevor Leggett. Very apt in the current financial crisis…
