Quotes - Pure, clear rmind, Peace & Happiness

Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don't worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going. ~Zen Master Seung Sahn

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. ~Lin-Chi

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act wih an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. ... Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable. ~Buddha

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photos by Andrew Kime

Happy Father's Day, Gassho- Respect & Gratitude

This is my first Father's Day without my Dad here on the material plane with me. I am dealing quite well with his death.. I am not sad. In fact, this may sound strange but I almost feel closer to him. It is an honour to be his daughter..I know he is happy and close to me. I wish a special Happy Father's Day to my Dad, and especially to my husband- who is also a great Dad. .. and to all the fathers and even to all the men out there for their father potential and for caring and nurturing and loving all of us, all of us women and children. ~Gassho~

"People often ask me how Buddhists answer the question: "Does God exist?"

The other day I was walking along the river. The wind was blowing. Suddenly I though, Oh! the air really exists. We know that the air is there, but unless the wind blows against our face, we are not aware of it. Here in the wind I was suddenly aware, yes, it's really there.

And the sun too. I was suddenly aware of the sun, shining through the bare trees. Its warmth, its brightness, and all this completely free, completely gratuitous. Simply there for us to enjoy.

And without my knowing it, completely spontaneously, my two hands came together, and I realized that I was making a gassho.* And it occurred to me that this is all that matters: that we can bow. Just that. Just that."

~Eido Tai Shimano, Zen Master, quoted in A Listening Heart: The Art of Contemplative Living, by David Steindl-Rast, p. 83

* A gassho is the gesture of raising the hands palm to palm to indicate respect, gratitude, humility, or all three.