what if we begin to trust
in what we cannot know
for this is far more
than we can perceive
being moved
and pushed and pulled
then what‘s the point resisting

Your practice is yours and yours alone. It’s a deeply personal, private experience. Your motivations don’t need to be justified or rationalized. You don’t need to impress your students, your teachers, your peers, or the community. Just follow your own motivation to practice and enjoy yourself. It’s yours.

Jason Crandell

‚When I was in China in the Zen monastery, one time I was reading the sayings of an ancient master. A monk from Szechuan asked me: What’s the use of that? What’s the use of reading?

I said: When I go home, I want to be able to guide people.

The monk asked: What’s the use of that?

I said: For benefiting all sentient beings.

The monk said: In the end, what’s the use of that?

Later I thought about this conversation and realized that studying the sayings and stories of ancient masters and expounding them for deluded people is of no use in awakening ourselves and guiding others.

If you sit and clarify the great matter and understand the essence, the power of this is boundless and awakening others, even without reading one word.

I think that is why the monk said: In the end, what’s the use of that?

So afterward I stopped reading the recorded sayings of old masters and just sat still.‘

– Dogen

From a talk of Michael Stone

sometimes
when I do remember
as I sit and wait
I practice this

I allow the earth to carry the weight of my body
and the cold air to feel my warmth
I give myself to the space that holds my shape
and even the tree and I
we notice each other.

in mind
someone
that’s hard to love

and here‘s my secret practice

I let myself be loved by them
I open to their love.

„the knowing through experience is much more profound than the intellectual unterstanding.

allow the understanding to come from experience, it’s the experience that touches us in deep places, it’s that being touched that brings about transformation.

being touched very deeply allows the letting go.“

from a talk of norman feldman.

Sitting quietly,
one minute, one hour, no matter,
finding the quiet within
I find myself again and again.

Finding myself, I offer the quiet light
to those on the street, in the office,
all around me.

To the lost and suffering beings, to the bewildered
and questioning,
even to the bare tree with its leafless
branches filled with chirping sparrows.

From „Most intimate“ / Roshi Pat Enkyo O‘Hara