Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart

respecting things and respecting each other, because when we respect things, we will find their true life. When we respect plants, we will find their real life, the power and the beauty of flowers. Though love is important, if it is separated from respect and sincerity, it will not work. With big mind and with pure sincerity and respect, love can r

if I wanted to work for peace, I should try to find some peaceful way to do it.

It’s up to me how I want to be.

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

We need to let it go, let our life flow through our hands like a river and not try to grab some piece of it and hold on to it. Just to be present with it and find out how to express our vow in this moment, in this circumstance, right where we are right now, instead of trying to figure out how to make it the way we want so that it’ll be just what we

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.

We all want to be the one who knows. But if we decide we “know” something, we are not open to other possibilities anymore. And that’s a shame. We lose something very vital in our life when it’s more important to us to be one who knows than it is to be awake to what’s happening.

Notice how much you tend to dwell in the past and speculate about the future; it will help you to practice more in this realm of appreciating your life in this moment.

The Dalai Lama’s bodhisattva vow is “Every day, think as you wake up: ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I’m going to use my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts