Sublime

Second, in order to reach the final goal of “regulating of no regulating,” you must begin with a simple and easy practice.

When I walk, every step is a delight, and not because I am diligent or disciplined but because I allow the artist in me to operate and to make my practice new, interesting, nourishing, and healing.

(Samyuktagama Sutra,

new practices are required to take new actions. When we fully comprehend this, we gracefully allow the time to practice so that we can embody new behaviors.

Your focus should be on direct experience and natural awareness rather than on trying to make something happen or to philosophically ponder.

Good in the Middle is the frame of mind with which we enter into the heart of the practice, one inspired by the realization of the nature of mind, from which arises an attitude of nongrasping, free of any conceptual reference whatsoever, and an awareness that all things are inherently “empty,” illusory, and dreamlike.

The prime importance in Taoism of practice over faith, experience over erudition, cannot be overstated. Halfway measures never suffice: One must go “all the Way.”

To do Zen practice, we have to desire a certain kind of a life. In traditional terms, it’s a life in which our vows override our ordinary personal considerations: we must be determined that our lives develop a universal context and that the lives of others also develop that context. If we’re at a stage in our lives (and it’s not good or bad, it’s j