Morning Trip (257)

“Good vs Evil is a prominent theme in Western culture. Our myths and popular entertainment are filled with it. Again and again we see two sides struggle for supremacy in some sort of final battle where the good emerges triumphant.

The trouble with applying this concept to life is that we naturally assume we must be the good guys and we must vanquish the other side, which must be evil.

In the meantime, the other side is thinking the exact same thing. Thus, both sides gear up for the final, climactic battle. There is no middle ground nor possibility of compromise.

It is time to try something different. Let go of the obsession with conflicts and replace it with a theme that promotes peace and collaboration.

Look at life not as a series of good vs evil battles, but simply as a journey of discovery. Look at other people not as your evil opponents, but simply as travel companions.

There is no titanic struggle for supremacy where one side emerges triumphant; there is only mutual assistance among friends…where everyone wins.

Examine the conflicts you experience or witness in your life. Are they truly necessary? To what extent are they caused by the pervasive tendency to see everything in terms of conflict? Notice the ones who are most lacking in harmony are also the ones who insist upon their moral certitude and goodness. Can you transcend this limiting mode of thought?

The sacred laws of hospitality bid us welcome the guest as a member of our own family: may all beings of good will who will come within the compass of my daily round today experience welcome and the hospitality of my heart.”
–Derek Lin

Morning Trip (236)

“It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightmentment or the courage to pay the price…
One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover. One has to accept pain as a conditon of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.”
–Morris L. West

Morning Trip (73)

“even before trees rocks I was nothing
when I’m dead nowhere I’ll be nothing

this ink painting of wind blowing through pines
who hears it?

sin like a madman until you can’t do anything else
no room for any more

fuck flattery success money
all I do is lie back and suck my thumb

one long pure beautiful road of pain
and the beauty of death and no pain

mirror facing mirror
nowhere else

passion’s red thread is infinite
like the earth always under me

a woman is enlightenment when you’re with her and the red thread
of both your passions flare inside you and you see

your name Mori means forest like the infinite fresh
green distances of your blindness

my monk friend has a wierd[sic] endearing habit
he weaves sandals and leaves them secretly by the roadside

no words sitting alone night in my hut eyes closed hands open
wisps of an unknown face

we’re lost where the mind can’t find us
utterly lost”
–Ikkyu

What is the Sum of Expression?

“The power in freedom is that it allows the mind to be capable. The curious mind is engaged by change, not overwhelmed. The free mind is powerful because it is energetic and confident that it can solve whatever problem it encounters. A mind full of wonder does not seek to make others struggle because it does not struggle. It does not seek to enslave others because it has no use for enslavement. It strives instead to instill hope and a spirit of exploration in others. The only order the curious mind can tolerate is a world where we are all our own masters, doing what we love to do.”
– Za Rinpoche and Ashley Nebelsieck
The Backdoor to Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a Bitch

Enlightenment Is A Bitch
by Dane Cervine

At first it isn’t so bad — a taste of ecstasy,
the world covered in honey. Even snails
scrawl the names of buddhas with their silvery trails.

But then, too much. Pears become unbearable,
wet white flesh so tender one could perish
contemplating the first taste.

Meditation becomes oddly redundant,
attention now like water, absorbed in tree root,
plumbing; even fire hydrants with their red

stubby arms become mandalas, and, worse,
the police siren revving its wail behind
my slow-moving car sounds like a mantra.

Even my wife’s complaints about me finally
sound true. I just bow. Kiss her slender hands.
Carry the garbage outside, but, damn! The moon!

Taken from The Sun Magazine