Excerpts from "Living Buddha Zen" - Lex Hixon

"Spiritual completeness is self-authenticating free from any obligatory reference to master or tradition."

"at the center f the Sun, there is neither night nor day."

"If you think about mind-essence or Buddha nature, you begin to look elsewhere and ignore your own naked being."

"A wild tiger prowling through the marketplace...no distinction between remote mountain and busy city."

"If you cannot say reality is anything at all, how can you say it is silence?"

"Both singing and keeping still, Keizan Zenji offers his closing poem this morning: 'Only birds can fly over the sharp sword mountains against the dawn sky. Who can walk along a sharp line edge?' Yet when the birds reach the peaks, they find not a sharp line but a vast landscape, range after mountain range, covered with pine trees, filled with rushing streams. When someone actually reach the realmless realm - not speech, not silence - this sword edge provides plenty of space to walk comfortably. Even to dance and run in all directions."

Excerpts from Transmission of the Light - tranlation by T. Claery.

"The truth is beyond written words - how can it be made the subject of a lecture?"

"Yuantong then took his staff and went into the hall, where he saw Touzi sleeping. He hit the seat and scolded him. 'I have no extra rice here to give you so you can just eat and sleep.' Touzi said, 'What would you have me do?' Yuantong said, 'Why don't you ask about Zen?' Touzi said, 'Fine food is not for a satisfied man to eat.' Yuantong said, "What about the fact that many people do not agree with you?' Touzi said, 'Waht would be the use of waiting for them to agree?' Yuan tong said 'Who have you seen?' Touzi said, "Fushan." Yuantong said, "I had marveled at such stubborn laziness,' and they both laughed."

"When one person is benevolent, myriad people naturally benefit from it."

"Even if Shakyamuni Buddha were to appear in the world, and even if great master Bodhidharma were still alive, people shouldn't rely on their power - one can only attain enlightenment through one's own acceptance and personal realization."

"From the moment that one sits on the round cushion in simple zazen, the universe, while remaining just the universe, is already the full moon of nonduality, floating peacefully in the black sky of Mother Wisdom." Living Buddha Zen - Lex Hixon.

"Sitting Zazen for you is sitting Zazen for the World." - Zen Teacher Jundo (TreeLeaf.org).

“A bird in its passage

leaves no traces of its flight,

So why look for stages

on that dark and solitary road

which leads deep within?”

Qingyuan

The most beautiful things in this world often are pure blossoms of not-doing. - Zen teacher Taigu

One might run around the mountain looking for the mountain. Or, sit very still and find the mountain. - Zen Teacher Jundo

By stopping the search, something precious is truly found! - Zen Teacher Jundo

"Life is complete when one allows life to be complete." - Zen Teacher Jundo

The Pursuit of Happiness

http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2921

"Each step-by-step of the race itself IS the destination fully attained, the finish line is ever underfoot."

This is a very well written explanation of Zen. I am glad that I am associated to this Sangha. Treeleaf.org keeps on sprouting blossoms of joy.

Just click on the link...

Treeleaf Zendo • View topic - Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part V)

"What is called sitting-zen, sitting-meditation, is not meditation that is learned. It is the Dharma-gate of effortless ease." - Dogen.

The mind is like a noisy kitchen blender… filled with all kinds of rattlin’ stuff.

"The mind is like a noisy kitchen blender… filled with all kinds of rattlin’ stuff." - Zen Master Jundo of the TreeLeaf.org Sangha.

Buddha-nature is always clean and pure; Where is there room for dust to alight? - Huineng

What is the path? the Zen Master Nan-sen was asked. Everyday life is the path, he answered.

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. ~Robert M. Pirsig

He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquility of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a blessed life. - Epicurus

"Our one need is untroubled existence." - Epicurus