With a broken-down oven, in a hotel kitchen, on an uninhabited island
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The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. Yasutani Roshi
The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.
Yasutani Roshi
Either I exist or I do not exist, and no amount of pap which I happen to be lapping can dull me to the loss. William Carlos Williams
Either I exist or I do not exist, and no amount of pap which I happen to be lapping can dull me to the loss.
William Carlos Williams
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked that if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you five, that is a mistake. But if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you ninety-seven, that is no longer a mistake. The man you are talking to is operating with a wholly different logic from your own. Thomas Friedman
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked that if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you five, that is a mistake. But if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you ninety-seven, that is no longer a mistake. The man you are talking to is operating with a wholly different logic from your own.
Thomas Friedman
The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad. Salvador Dali
The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.
Salvador Dali
The ultimate destiny of the human spirit is a condition in which all identification with the . . . finite self will disappear. . . . As a minor dream vanishes completely on awakening, awareness will be eclipsed in the blazing light of total awareness. Some say, “The dewdrop slips into the shining sea.” Others say the metaphor would be more accurate if it pictured the ocean as entering the dewdrop itself. Huston Smith
The ultimate destiny of the human spirit is a condition in which all identification with the . . . finite self will disappear. . . . As a minor dream vanishes completely on awakening, awareness will be eclipsed in the blazing light of total awareness. Some say, “The dewdrop slips into the shining sea.” Others say the metaphor would be more accurate if it pictured the ocean as entering the dewdrop itself.
Huston Smith
What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream? Or what’s worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists? Woody Allen
What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream? Or what’s worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?
Woody Allen
The young student said to his master, “Am I in possession of Buddha consciousness?” The master said, “No.” The student said, “Well, I’ve been told that all things are in the possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the birds, the animals, all beings.” The master said, “You are correct. All things are in possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the bees, the birds, the animals, all beings — but not you.” “Not me? Why not?” “Because you are asking this question.” D.T. Suzuki
The young student said to his master, “Am I in possession of Buddha consciousness?” The master said, “No.” The student said, “Well, I’ve been told that all things are in the possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the birds, the animals, all beings.” The master said, “You are correct. All things are in possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the bees, the birds, the animals, all beings — but not you.” “Not me? Why not?” “Because you are asking this question.”
D.T. Suzuki
One day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? Samuel Beckett
One day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you?
Samuel Beckett
And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept. Jean Cocteau
And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept.
Jean Cocteau
Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else. Songs like “Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain” or “I Saw the Light” — that’s my religion. I don’t adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. . . . The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs. Bob Dylan
Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else. Songs like “Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain” or “I Saw the Light” — that’s my religion. I don’t adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. . . . The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.
Bob Dylan
I do not believe in God. I believe in cashmere. Fran Lebowitz
I do not believe in God. I believe in cashmere.
Fran Lebowitz
So many gods, so many creeds, / so many paths that wind and wind, / While just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
So many gods, so many creeds, / so many paths that wind and wind, / While just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Before, I always lived in anticipation . . . that it was all a preparation for something else, something “greater,” more “genuine.” But that feeling has dropped away from me completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and the life is worth living. Etty Hillesum
Before, I always lived in anticipation . . . that it was all a preparation for something else, something “greater,” more “genuine.” But that feeling has dropped away from me completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and the life is worth living.
Etty Hillesum
The greatest mystery is in unsheathed reality itself. Eudora Welty
The greatest mystery is in unsheathed reality itself.
Eudora Welty
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for joy. Pema Chödrön
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for joy.
Pema Chödrön
“My feet are cold,” one says, and the legless man replies: “So are mine. So are mine.” Kentucky folklore
“My feet are cold,” one says, and the legless man replies: “So are mine. So are mine.”
Kentucky folklore
What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner. Colette
What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
Colette
© Gloria Baker Feinstein
I agree with Richard Mehl [Correspondence, October 2002] that it was harsh of D.T. Suzuki to humiliate his student in the name of teaching him a lesson [Sunbeams, July 2002]. What I don’t find helpful about Mehl’s letter, however, is the assumption that this kind of teaching is inherent to Zen Buddhism. Clearly, Zen has no monopoly on stories of teachers whose primary tool seems to be shame.
What we observe of a religion’s practices often has more to do with the culture in which the religion is being practiced than it does with the actual teachings of the religion. Would a Protestant American observing the day-to-day activities of Christians in Africa recognize those practices as belonging to the same religion as his or her own? For that matter, would an alien observing Southern Baptists, Midwestern Lutherans, and Boston Catholics recognize that all these groups consider themselves Christians?
To disregard the role of cultures — often patriarchal cultures — in shaping religious practices is to accept their distortion of religion as the thing itself. Humans are flawed, and so they carry out spiritual teachings in flawed ways. But no matter what behavior Buddhists or Christians might exhibit, Christ said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and Buddha said, “Cease from evil; do only good; and do good for others.”
The quote from D.T. Suzuki [Sunbeams, July 2002] reminds me why Zen religious attitudes, which have found such favor in America, consistently irk me. A student asks an innocent question — “Am I in possession of Buddha consciousness?” — and finds himself subtly humiliated: “All things are in possession of Buddha consciousness,” the master replies, “but not you.” When the student asks why, the master tells him, “Because you are asking this question.” Presumably, once the student fully accepts the dogma of “Buddha consciousness,” he can join the universe from which the master has excluded him.
Forty years ago, Ernest Becker, in a book titled Zen: A Rational Critique, showed how Zen training could be compared to brainwashing. Some Zen stories go beyond subtle psychological disorientation, recommending physical threats or actual violence to achieve conversion. After all, this is the same D.T. Suzuki who aligned the Zen doctrine of “no-mind” with Japanese imperial militarism. To all Sun readers flirting with Zen, I recommend Brian Victoria’s Zen at War, a startling cautionary history of where Zen thoughtlessness can lead.