A Zen Moment

Opening bell
echoes from the canyon walls --
raindrops on the river.

The sounds of rocks bouncing off rocks;
the shadows of trees traced on trees.

I sit, still.
The canyon river chants,
moving mountains.

The sermon spun on the still point:
dropping off eternity, picking up time;
letting go of self, awakened to Mind.

- Michael P. Garofalo



To what shall I compare this life of ours? Even before I can say it is like a lightning flash or a dewdrop it is no more.
- Sengai



Well versed in the Buddha Way, I go the non-Way Without abandoning my Ordinary person's affairs. The conditioned and Name-and-Form, All are flowers in the sky. Nameless and formless, I leave birth-and death.
- Pang Yun



As flowing waters disappear into the mist We lose all track of their passage. Every heart is its own Buddha. Ease off ... become immortal. Wake up! The world's a mote of dust. Behold heaven's round mirror. Turn loose! Slip past shape and shadow, Sit side by side with nothing, save Tao.
- Shih-shu, 1703



Two come about because of One, but don't cling to the One either! So long as the mind does not stir, the ten thousand things stay blameless; no blame, no phenomena, no stirring, no mind. The viewer disappears along with the scene, the scene follows the viewer into oblivion, for scene becomes scene only through the viewer, viewer becomes viewer because of the scene.
- Seng-ts'an, 600



The Buddha Mind contains the universe. In this universe there is only one pure substance, One absolute and indivisible Truth. The notion of duality does not exist. The small mind contains only illusions of separateness, of division. It imagines myriad objects and defines truth in terms of relative opposites. Big is defined by small, good by evil, pure by defiled, Hidden by revealed, full by empty. What is opposition? It is the arena of hostility, of conflict and turmoil. Where duality is transcended peace reigns. This is the Dharma's ultimate truth.
- Maxims of Master Han Shan Te'Ch'ing, # 76, 1600