eat a peach
Yes it is delicious. Or some grapes, or a plum, or a pomegranate.
A grapefruit is good too.
And an apple is good.
As a boy I lived near a apple and peach orchard. The boys in the neighborhood use to steal the famer's apples and peaches and munch on them right there in the orchard. Latter I realized that that was wrong.
But they were tasty at the time when that hadn't occurred to me yet.
Tt is difficult for me to see how one can bite into one of the varieties of tasty fruit and not believe in God.
And there is some very good fruit from elsewhere in the world which are not allowed into the US.
If we have presence of mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know right and wrong continually. There is plenty of time to meditate, we just don't fully understand the practice, that's all. While sleeping we breathe, eating we breathe, don't we? Why don't we have time to meditate? Wherever we are we breathe. If we think like this, then our life has as much value as our breath, and wherever we are we have time.
- Achah Chah: Taste of Freedom
@ghost-of-a-duke saidI like that one from Mr. Wilde.
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Oscar Wilde
"All truth is God's truth."
- ? -
So don't be in a hurry and try to push or rush your practice. Do your meditation gently and gradually step by step. In regard to peacefulness, if you become peaceful, then accept it; if you don't become peaceful, then accept that also. That's the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persistently keep at it.
- Ajahn Chah: Bodhinyana
@rookie54 saidHm, I'm thinking "presence of mind" might be an attachment. 😉
If we have presence of mind then whatever work we do will be the very tool which enables us to know right and wrong continually. There is plenty of time to meditate, we just don't fully understand the practice, that's all. While sleeping we breathe, eating we breathe, don't we? Why don't we have time to meditate? Wherever we are we breathe. If we think like this, then our li ...[text shortened]... has as much value as our breath, and wherever we are we have time.
- Achah Chah: Taste of Freedom
@rookie54 saidI almost agree with that, except it seems slightly bossy.
So don't be in a hurry and try to push or rush your practice. Do your meditation gently and gradually step by step. In regard to peacefulness, if you become peaceful, then accept it; if you don't become peaceful, then accept that also. That's the nature of the mind. We must find our own practice and persistently keep at it.
- Ajahn Chah: Bodhinyana
@rookie54 saidSure it does.
Each person forms his future by his actions; his every good or bad action spreads its vibrations and becomes known throughout the universe.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
@rookie54 saidSo, what is the point of making everything into one single koan?
What is this true meditation?
It is to make everything:
coughing, swallowing,
waving the arms, motion,
stillness, words, action,
the evil and the good,
prosperity and shame,
gain and loss,
right and wrong,
into one single koan.
- Hakuin
What's wrong with letting lots of things be uncollected, uncoordinated, and disparate, as they already are?
@rookie54 saidNice one!
Some people put stress on oneness,
but this is not our understsanding.
We do not emphasize any point
in particular, even oneness.
Oneness is valuable,
but variety is also wonderful.
- Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971)