The Truth of This Life: Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is

The not-knowing mind is willing to know and feel whatever is happening.

Nothing binds us but the habituated mind.

we grab onto things to find pleasure or frustration, something, anything, to engage our feelings and thoughts.

how completely Suzuki Roshi worked at things, how much care he took with the details. He took care of details I didn’t even notice. He put vastly more energy into things than I ever would have. He did not cut corners. He did not decide he didn’t have time.

ALL OF US LOOK OUT at the same world. And we all see a different version of it, depending on what’s already in our minds. Practice is to notice how the dust of our mind obscures the clear reflection of the world, how our values and preferences determine our interpretations.

Simply going with conditions allows our mind to remain calm and ready for whatever may happen next.

The only way we can continue this practice is if we want to sit, maybe for no reason, and if we are interested in awakening to the deceptions and delusions of our ordinary mind, not because that is an enlightened thing to do, but because it is helpful for our lives: we get in trouble less; our relationships are more harmonious.

REALIZING YOU ARE BUDDHA is a very sobering experience. This wasn’t exactly the Buddha you had in mind when you came to practice.

Maybe the virtue of our practice is that it shows us the arrogance of our minds. We discover that we don’t see things as they are; we see things as our mind creates them.