Monday, March 12, 2012

Original calm & stillness emerge


The water is clear right down
to the bottom.
Fish swim lazily on.
The sky is vast without end.
Birds fly far into the distance.

Wanshi - "Accupuncture Needle of Zazen"

     "When your mind and body allow your original calm and stillness to emerge, your nature will appear. That's the purpose of sitting, and it's especially the purpose of long sittings, which exhaust both the thinking mind and the body until your true nature appears. And when it does, you will know that your nature is just like the water in Wanshi's poem, clear right down to the bottom. ... hollow and empty through and through."

       Kwong J. No beginning, no end. The intimate heart of Zen. Harmony Books, NY, 2003.


Photo: Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures   http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/

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