Enlightenment does not come until your mind and body are
in perfect accord.
If you cannot accept your experience,
you won't feel you have enlightenment.
In other words, when your mind and body are completely one,
then enlightenment is there.
Whatever you hear, whatever you think,
that is enlightenment.
So it is not the sound of a stone hitting bamboo
or the color of plum blossoms
that makes people enlightened.
It is their practice.
In your everyday life you always have opportunities
for enlightenment. If you go to the rest room,
there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
When you cook, there is a chance to attain
enlightenment.
when you clean the floor,
there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
by Shunryu Suzuki,
not always so -
practicing the true spirit of Zen
VIII
Owl reread his book.
He sat, baffled, hearing nothing
as Coyoté noisely approached.
Coyoté brushed past the creosote
bush.
Owl muttered, flung berries into his mouth.
Coyoté looked across the stream.
Owl muttered again and stirred dust.
Owl stood up,
shifting the dust from hand to hand.
He mumbled,
"What time is it?"
Coyoté peered at the dust and muttered,
"What is sound?"
Owl heard him, turned, watched.
Coyoté tossed a
pebble across the stream.
Owl watched it skip, saw the dust puff upward.
Owl saw his shadow.
In the dust, flickering and flowing past.
Flowing past them.
Behind. Beyond. Same. Same.
Owl muttered.
Turned and stared.
Owl said nothing.
Coyoté said,
"Hey, Owl."
The happiness
worldly people seek
is in wealth rather than poverty,
health rather than sickness,
success rather than failure,
gain rather than loss,
beauty rather than ugliness,
and love rather than hatred.
Most people, in the midst of endless vicissitudes,
look for satisfaction beyond themselves.
However, no matter what they fervently desire,
in real life good fortune and bad fortune are all interwovern.
In real life, all things take their course,
regardless of our personal circumstances.
by Shundo Aoyama,
Zen Seeds - Reflections of
a
Female Priest
VIII coda
Coyoté stood by Owl.
There was
nothing
to say.
Owl hugged him.
Coyoté spied Owl's book.
Zen Seed - Beginner's Mind.
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