"Without Love, a person does not live, a person only exists."

"Without Love, a person does not live, a person only exists."
Throughout my life, I have been meeting people who are afraid of falling in love and afraid of opening their hearts for the fear of heartbreaks. However, there is no way around heartbreaks. Everyone eventually will cause you disappointment willing or not. The only way to develop a strong heart that is not afraid is in the same way that one develops a strong muscle, exercising it. EXERCISE LOVE. The muscles will hurt the first times after exercising, but then they grow, become strong and instead of becoming more afraid of hurting, they start craving exercising. The same happens to love. The only way for one to become emotionally strong is through challenges and heartbreaks. If you tackle those challenges and heartbreaks with kindness, method, intention, consciously and voluntarily, Love will never stop growing in your life. Otherwise, you will never live life fully. "Where there is Love, there is Life". Without Love, one does not live, one only exists.

The Clouds are not the Sky

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Finding this sentence was good to remind me what I tend to forget over and over and again. Clouded by thoughts, I stubbornly insist on thinking that I am my thoughts. Why would one insist on being thoughts when one is reality? Why would one insist on being a cage when one is the bird? Why would one insist on being a bird when one is the wide open sky ?

The Moon at my Window

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The Whole Universe is Medicine

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Face Reality

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Excerpt from:

Zen Wrapped in Karma dipped in Chocolate

by Brad Warner

Buddha is Coca-Cola

     Last night I had a dream in which a Zen Master told me: "Buddha is Coca-Cola." This picture is very illustrative.

http://stevemccurry.photoshelter.com/image/I0000tHDgIlHYLLo

We all gaze at the single bright Moon

Every Step I take is my Home - Dogen

The Journey itself is Home

You're Alone

                Photo credits: Dvids

               The verses above seem to be pregnant with a beautiful double meaning. It may be impossible to figure out what Han San really said in the original Chinese. However, this translation done by J.P.Seaton in his book Cold Mountain Poems give the reader much to think and, mainly, to feel.

               What does the “within” refer to in this case? Is the verse saying that everything within Earth is alone? Or is the verse saying one is alone and have all within oneself? Since it is written in poetic language, plus, being a pre-zen Buddhist poem, I would not be surprised if the verse had both meanings at the same time.

               We are all alone. Nobody can live other’s journey. However, we are all together in journeying individually. At the same time, all the individual journeys compose the only one journey that exists, the journey of the whole Universe. And, as parts of the Universe, each one of us, all beings, is the entire Universe.            

               By the way he is the full translation:

Green water in the stream in the pass,

white water rising the clear-welling spring…

Han Shan’s moon’s a flower, white as well…

So the darkest secret, the spirit by itself illumines

gaze into the emptiness, to the ends of Earth…

You’re alone, with all within…

(Poem XXXIII, pg. 49)

Into the Night, singing in Moonlight; into the Dawn, dancing with White Clouds.

The verses above come from the following poem:

Oh wise gentlemen, ignore me!

Like I ignore you fools.

I’m not stupid, I’m not wise,

from now on I’m just gone.

Into the night, singing in moonlight;

into the dawn, dancing with white clouds.

That’s the way to occupy your hands and mouth!

I can’t just sit still while my hair grows!

(Cold Mountain Poems, pg.29 – J.P.Seaton)

This is a very rich poem; many things could be said about it. However, these two verses caught my attention the most. It feels like a beautiful way of saying that it does not matter the situation, there is more than one way of finding joy in life and making it sacred.

The beautiful photo is a black & white interpretation of a photo by Gracey Stinson. She is very talented. Many of her photos you can download for free here.

By this Understanding You will awake to the Truth

          What I great moment when two sages who lived so far apart in distance, time and cultural background bring up the same revelation. This week i broke a couple of my own rules to make and post these cards. My initial intention when i started posting this series of quotes was to post only sentences by Zen figures. However, William Blake quote is so phenomenal, that it would not fit just as note in the commentaries of Huang Po’s quote. Therefore, here it is: Huang Po and William Blake sharing the lime light.

If the Doors of Perception were cleansed Everything would appear to Man as It is...Infinite

          What I great moment when two sages who lived so far apart in distance, time and cultural background bring up the same revelation. This week i broke a couple of my own rules to make and post these cards. My initial intention when i started posting this series of quotes was to post only sentences by Zen figures. However, William Blake quote is so phenomenal, that it would not fit just as note in the commentaries of Huang Po’s quote. Therefore, here it is: Huang Po and William Blake sharing the lime light.