Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart

And as I continued to practice and to talk with other students of the buddha dharma, I found that many people share the conditioning that leads us to think that there’s something wrong with us. If we could only get, do, or be something more, then we would be all right. It’s so easy for us to get the idea that there’s something wrong with us. And it

this practice was not some exotic trip or a passing fad but a matter of life and death that required an equal commitment from us to meet him completely with our whole heart.

What does it mean to make total effort with no gaining idea? Notice that any gaining idea implies that just this is not complete as it is.

to feel the joy and the love that can come from living from the source of your being.

I couldn’t distract myself by reading about practice rather than doing it.

are we practicing just to express this limitless being, or because we think we’re not a limitless being? And once we discover we are a limitless being, will we continue practicing? Well, of course. That’s what limitless beings do. This is Dogen Zenji’s practice-enlightenment, practice-realization. This practice itself expresses the limitlessness th

How we actually live this precious life we have been given is the most important point. Although we may fervently wish to end all pain in the world, as many before us have wished, the best we may be able to do is not add to it.

at some point you need to “dig one deep hole instead of many shallow holes,” as

that kind of slight switch of saying, “Oh, good, I noticed. Now I can stop,” instead of, “Oh, bad, I’m doing it again”—that slight switch is very, very helpful. It allows you to notice sooner, because instead of getting hit with a stick, you’re going to get a little pat on the back