Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart

We are very skillful. We can hold both an extremely elevated view of self and an extremely negative view of self at the same time. Neither one is accurate.

to see buddha in everyone and, of course, to see buddha in ourselves.

This is the whole point of mindful awareness: to be able to live our life truly as we wish to live it

Practice is a matter of life and death. This life is our practice. This practice is our life—because it’s all about birth and death. And we’ve all been born, and we’re all going to die.

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

we can’t breathe in once and stay alive. And we can’t wake up once and stay awake. Pretty soon we go back to sleep again. So this practice of ours is a never-ending, continuous effort. The never-ending continuous joy of waking up and waking up.

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.

Pay attention to how you live. Pay attention to your actions. Are your actions kind? Are your actions honest? Are your actions supported by the desire to help beings, to benefit beings? Are your actions selfish or generous? How are you living this life?

We don’t sit to become a buddha, we sit because it is what buddhas do. And we are all buddha from the beginning. So