Sublime

from Tozan Ryokai, a ninth-century Buddhist monk: Do not try to see the objective world. You which is given an object to see is quite different from you yourself. I am going my own way and I meet myself which includes everything I meet. I am not something I can see (as an object). When you understand self which includes everything, You have your

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While emptiness is what’s left when you take away the thoughts and beliefs that you have constructed around an event, not knowing is a way to move in the absence of such thoughts. It’s a creative possibility. Not knowing who you are allows you to meet an event without pretending it is something else—something that happened before. Then you might

the art of sitting still (in other words, clearing the head and stilling the emotions)—and as I observed the sense of attention, kindness, and even delight that seemed to arise out of his life of going nowhere—I

Our usual understanding of life is dualistic: you and I, this and that, good and bad. But actually these discriminations are themselves the awareness of the universal existence. “You” means to be aware of the universe in the form of you, and “I” means to be aware of it in the form of I. You and I are just swinging doors. This kind of understanding

And he who realizes Buddha in himself, “the one behind your face, listening to my sermon,” lives in self-confidence.

Also I found that I was at no risk of becoming saintly or of knowing all the answers. It was just that something in my heart was at rest and the world seemed a much kinder place. Other people seemed kinder than I and I was grateful to them for waiting for me to discover this. The world bubbled with light just under the surface, even when