Mon - January 24, 2005

the very nearly completed addition to the el dorado springs animal shelter 

thank you everyone who made it possible.

 

 

Posted at 06:50 PM     Permalink  

Fri - November 12, 2004

story boards for the el dorado springs lions club: the mike and diana baker fund for animals 

 

 

 

Posted at 03:05 PM     Permalink  

Mon - October 25, 2004

Let him suffer! 

Over and over again, I would come to Maezumi Roshi and say, "So and so is in such pain, what can we do?" He would reply, "Let him suffer! Let him go through it!" And I thought, "How cruel!" Yet what is a Bodhisattva but someone who allows others to go through what they must go through? Everybody else is trying to stop the pain, patching him up and patting him on the back and saying, "It's OK, dear, everything is going to be all right." Everybody is conspiring to cover things up.

When you rob a person of his pain and suffering, you rob him of his life, his freedom, his independence; you keep him dependent on you. . . Ironically, it is the ones we most cherish whom we most often rob of their independence, because we tend to shield and overprotect them.

Dennis Genpo Merzel, The Eye Never Sleeps

 

 

Posted at 08:03 PM     Permalink  

Thu - October 21, 2004

Today 

Today is the ideal moment between yesterday and tomorrow.

365 Tao

Deng Ming Dao

 

Posted at 08:31 PM     Permalink  

Sun - October 17, 2004

This Our fathers Did for Us 

When we build let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor, and the wrought substance of them, See! This our fathers did for us!

John Ruskin
 

 

Posted at 05:30 PM     Permalink  

Thu - October 14, 2004

Returning to the Source 

To see into things is finding your way.
Follow the light that guides you homeward,
and do not get lost in the darkness.
This I call returning to the source.

Lao Tzu
 

 

Posted at 07:03 PM     Permalink  

Sun - October 10, 2004

do something with your life 

If you're not doing something with your life, it doesn't matter how long it is.


 

Posted at 08:14 AM     Permalink  

Sat - October 9, 2004

The Wisest Are Like Water 

The wisest are like water.
Water benefits all things,
it does not compete,
it sinks to the lowest places,
and follows in the Way.

In life, the wise one values the simple.
In his heart, he values stillness.
In relations, he values humanity.
In speech, he values sincerity.
In government, he values peace.
In business, he values competence.
In actions, he values timeliness,
the least that can be expected.

Even the highest
cannot be reproached
for choosing the lowest place.
Laozi


 

 

 

Posted at 08:22 AM     Permalink  

Thu - August 5, 2004

Often At War In Themselves 

The mass of men deem what is unnecessary to be necessary, and therefore
they are often at war (in themselves). Therefore those who pursue this
method of (internal) war, resort to it in whatever they seek for. But
reliance on such war leads to ruin.

Kwang-Tze









 

Posted at 06:39 PM     Permalink  

Wed - August 4, 2004

How Should I Cast Away Enjoyment? 

How should I cast away the enjoyment of my royal court, and undertake
again the toils of life among mankind?

Kwang-Tze






 

Posted at 09:24 AM     Permalink  

Tue - August 3, 2004

The living frame is but so much dust 

Life is a borrowed thing. The living frame thus borrowed is but so
much dust. Life and death are like day and night. And you and I were
looking at (the graves of) those who have undergone their change. If
my change is coming to me, why should I dislike it?

Kwang-Tze






 

Posted at 09:23 AM     Permalink  

Mon - August 2, 2004

Heaven Does Nothing 

Heaven does nothing, and thence comes its serenity;
Earth does nothing, and thence comes rest.
By the union of these two inactivities, all things are produced.






 

Posted at 09:15 PM     Permalink  

Sat - July 31, 2004

Always without desire 

Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu





 

Posted at 08:57 PM     Permalink  

Thu - July 29, 2004

Color of the Wind 

What is the color of the wind?

A Zen Forest
Soiku Shigematsu




 

Posted at 09:07 PM     Permalink  

Wed - July 28, 2004

A Barking Dog 

When one listens to a barking dog, one might imagine emotion, pain, reaction, anxiety, and self-identification, but actually there is nothing there - just sound from a long and deep corridor, channeled out of nothingness and fading into nothingness again.

Like that dog, we may all strive, but there is truly nothing to be done. If we look deeply into our lives, there is only a thin veneer of self-generated meaning over an immense ocean of nothingness.

What we do only has meaning in the here and now. It will not remain in the next instant. Just do what you can for the present, and leave everything else to happen naturally. Work. Wash. Meditate. Eat. Study. Sleep. Exercise. Talk. Listen. Touch. Die each night. Be born again each morning.
 

Tao 365-Daily Meditations, Deng Ming-Dao




 

Posted at 08:12 AM     Permalink