good quotes from girija

[ramachandran girija]

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“Relationships are steppingstones for the evolution of our consciousness. Each interaction we have, be it one of joy or contrast, allows us to learn more about who we are and what we want in this lifetime. They bring us into greater alignment…as long as we continue to move forward and do not get attached to hurt, anger, or being a victim.”
-Alaric Hutchinson, living peace

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Love is being able to view a situation without adding duality to it.”
-Alaric Hutchinson, living peace

 

[ramachandran girija]

“The effects you will have on your students are infinite and currently unknown; you will possibly shape the way they proceed in their careers, the way they will vote, the way they will behave as partners and spouses, the way they will raise their kids.”
- Donna Quesada, Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to inspire Teachers

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.”
- Alan W. Watts

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Courage is often associated with aggression, but instead should be seen as a willingness to act from the heart.”
- Donna Quesada, Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to inspire Teachers

 

[ramachandran girija]

“I wave my skinny arms like a tall
flower in the wind”

• Ikkyu, crow with no mouth

 

[ramachandran girija]

• “I'd love to give you something
  but what would help?”
  *** Ikkyu, crow with no mouth

 

[ramachandran girija]

Muddy Road

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unble to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carriedher over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?”
- Nyogen Senzaki, zen flash, zen bones: A collection of zen and pre-zen writings
“

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Do not seek for the truth, only stop having an opinion.”
- seng-Ts’an

 

[ramachandran girija]

“tahiya hote pavan nahin pani, tahiya srishti kown utpati;
tahiya hote kali nahin phula, tahiya hote garbh nahi mula;
tahiya hote vidya nahin Veda, tahiya hote shabd nahin swada;
tahiya hote pind nahin basu,
nahin dhar dharni na pavan akasu;
tahiya hote guru nahin chela, gamya agamya na panth duhela.

Sakhi: avigati ki gati ka kahown, jake gawn na thawn
gun bihuna pekhana, ka kahi lijai nawn

In that state there is no air or water, and no creation or creator; There is no bud or flower, and no fetus or semen; There is no education or Vedas, and no word or taste; There is no body or settlement, and no earth, air or space; There is no guru or disciple, and no easy or difficult path.

Sakhi: That state is very strange. I cannot explain it. It has no village or resting place. That state is without gunas (qualities). What name can on give it? ”
*** kabir, the bijak of Kabir

 

[ramachandran girija]

A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), recieved a university professor who came to inqure about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your up?”

• Nyogen senzaki

 

[ramachandran girija]

• “The object of your desire is not an object.”
  *** jack gardner, words are not things

 

[ramachandran girija]

“[Y]ou are here to learn something. Don’t try to figure out what it is. This can be frustrating and unproductive.”
*** steven l.peck, a short stay in hell

 

[ramachandran girija]

“You don't think your way back to joy; you open to it.”
- Donna Quesada, Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to inspire Teachers

 

[ramachandran girija]

A Buddha

In Tokyo in th Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime he slept.

One da Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist.

"Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?"

"I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.

"One who never drinks is not even human," said Tanzan.

"Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, what am I?"

"A Buddha," answered Tanzan.”
*** nyogen senzaki

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Vulnerability really means to be strong and secure enough within yourself that you are able to walk outside without your armor on. You are able to show up in life as just you. That is genuine strength and courage. Armor may look tough, but all it does is mask insecurity and fear.”
**** Alaric Hutchinson, living peace

 

[ramachandran girija]

“For the unified mind in accord with the Way all self-centered striving ceases. Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true faith is possible. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold nothing. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.”
*** sengcan, hsin hsin ming

 

[ramachandran girija]

“One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.”
*** sengcan, hsin hsin ming

 

[ramachandran girija]

“The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated.”
*** r.h.blyth

 

[ramachandran girija]

“When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?”
*** sengcan, hsin hsin ming

 

[ramachandran girija]

“The love of nature is religion, and that religion is poetry; these three things are one thing. This is the unspoken creed of haiku poets.”
**r.h.blyth

 

[ramachandran girija]

“Nothing divides one so much as thought.”
*** r.h.blyth

 

[ramachandran girija]

“We took a bus to the nearby monastery of one of the last great Tang dynasty Chan masters, Yun-men. Yun-men was known for his pithy “one word” Zen. When asked “What is the highest teaching of the Buddha?” he replied: “An appropriate statement.” On another occasion, he answered: “Cake.” I admired his directness.”
*** Stephen bachelor, confession of a buddhist atheist

 

[ramachandran girija]

“As we live out of such a mind, we become generous, with no sense of tolerance. We become patient, with no sense of putting up with anything. We become compassionate, with no sense of separation. And we become wise, with no sense of having to straighten anyone out.”
*** steve hagen

 

[ramachandran girija]

“I did not believe in stalemates. I believed in resolutions, one way or another, and if I found myself on the losing end, so be it. Losing meant quiet, and forgetting quickly, and giving up nothing of any real worth to me. I did not debate restaurant bills, politics, wrongly delivered mail, divorces. These things were officiously loud, and silence was always best.”
*** soren Narnia, a listing of the holdings of the national museum of romance