Zen pearls

Striving to improve ourselves,
we have destroyed ourselves.
Our greatest enemy is any thought that promises to improve ourselves,
Following a promise to improve ourselves
is a sheer disrespect for what we are.
Every thought is a distraction from what we are.
And so are the circumstances and characters we meet and the substances we use.
We are already Buddhas.
That´s why
Zen master says
"If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him."

-Dosti Regmi

 

Some main principles of Zen philosophy are the denial of the ego, the focus on interconnectedness in the universe, the recognition of attachment as a source of suffering, and the realization that human perception is faulty.

 

Observe silence. Language is a tool that can cause distortions in reality and offset balance.

Focus on the process, not the results. Atiśa said: "the greatest effort is not concerned with results."

  
Do not rush. Do things thoroughly and completely. Have a space between things.

Be minimalist. Show restraint.

"Rather than being your emotions and thoughts, be the awareness behind them." - Eckhart Tolle.

Anatta: 

"To study Zen is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things." - Dogen

The separation between self and others is just an illusion that disappears when we are awakened.

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not." - Tich Nhat Hanh.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that finds beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.

mono no aware referring to the bittersweet awareness / melancholic appreciation that all the beautiful things around us are short-lived; perfectly exemplified by the two-week cherry blossom season.

Emptiness:

This principle is called "wu" in Chinese "ku" in Japanese shunyata in Sanskrit. Emptiness does not mean nothing exists, it means nothing exists on its own, as everything exists relative to other things that constantly change. Emptiness is actually the middle state between absence and existence. Zen monks consider emptiness as the awakening stage when people feel boundless unity with the universe, also symbolized with the zen circle showing that inside and outside of the circle are one.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves." - Nagarjuna.

Attachment is the cause of suffering:

You only lose what you cling to” - Buddha
"Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day." - Zen proverb.

Our Logic is misleading. Appearances are faulty. 

Zen is a form of non-rational experience of the universe. The dualistic perception that separates the perceiver from the perceived or mind from body or subject from object or background from the foreground is wrong.

Gratitude:

"When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you” - Lao Tse

Be non-judgemental:

The zen teaching is a) we are not the center of the universe, so we should not think that the things happening around us happening for us b) things that are happening are just natural phenomena happening for natural reasons and they don’t have negative intentions to harm us. 

"The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." - Jiddu Krishnamurti

"Wise men don’t judge, they seek to understand." - Wei Wu Wei

"Do not seek to be understood, Understand." - Jesus

Do not seek scholastic enlightenment:

It so happens a monk was with his master and said one day I have lived here for a very long time and you have not given me one instruction. Today you must, then the master says, " well, " then have you eaten your breakfast fast, " and he says yes. Then go wash the bowl. The monk was awakened.

Lankavatara Sutra:

Teachings within the sutra cover a wide range of Mahayana concepts cast within a Yogacara (“mind-only”) and tathagata-garbha (buddha-nature) context.

Diamond Sutra:

Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra). The Buddha said this Sutra may be known as “The Diamond that Cuts through Illusion.”

Thus shall you think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightening in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

The platform Sutra:

The text centers on teachings and stories ascribed to the sixth Chan patriarch Huineng.  

‘The body is a bodhi tree the mind is like a standing mirror always try to keep it clean don’t let it gather dust.’

vs

‘Bodhi doesn’t have any trees this mirror doesn’t have a stand our buddha nature is forever pure where do you get this dust?’