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After a long period of work,
suddenly in an instant,
mind and thoughts are cut off,
and Amitabha Buddha’s real body will appear before you as a lofty presence.
Only then will you be sure about the saying, “The one who has never moved is Buddha.”

T’aego

There are three kinds of compassion.
One kind is compassion whose object is living beings as such.
Another is compassion whose object is elements.
The third is objectless compassion.
These three kinds of compassion are very different.

- Muso Kokushi (1275-1351)

@ghost-of-a-duke said
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge… is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.”

― Bill Bullard

High mountain cascades froth
This wild temple owns few lamps.
Sit facing the glitter of the moon:
Out of season, heart of ice.

- Hui Yung (332–414)

"If you've read one guide book , you've read them all" has proven to be an attitude that has failed. Pleading ignorance is an unviable option.
No one has read this one yet, for it is still being written.
Please stand by ...

"In the end there are three things that matter in life:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
And how deeply did you learn to let go?"

Buddha

“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is Creator, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”

– Hermann Hesse

@hakima said
“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is Creator, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”

– Hermann Hesse

Knife in hand
I chop the thick bamboo
For the less the bamboo,
The more the wind
And this,
No one comprehends…
But all I want is
To make waves on the pond.

- Po Chu-I (772-846)

Spiritually is the process of stripping away every layer of yourself that is false. This is neither pleasant nor easy, and the whole point is to get you to a point of surrender. Not the ego trying to surrender but the ego realizing and experiencing its own limitations.
~Adyashanti

Swift waters; soft, quiet
Like gently rustling locusts
I sit in an empty pavillion
Alone, but for the jagged peaks
The coupled ranges gone white with snow
Moonlight has captured the black night.

- K’o Chen (11th–12th c.)

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

It only took a single flake
To freeze my mind in the snowy night
A few clangs to smash my dreams
Among the frosted bells
And the stove’s night fire fragrance
Too is melted away
Yet at my window the moon
Climbs a solitary peak.

- Han Shan Te-ch’ing (1546–1623)

“let love be your energy”

Robert Peter Williams