In this talk, Zach continues to share some common Zen stories and interprets them on different levels. We learn from The Legend of Angulimala what it means to practice ahimsa, stop the mind, and end the criticism and war in our own minds. We can also see that the truth found by psychological science and the ancient wisdom teachings are the same.
Learn more at www.zachbeach.com
When the Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?” he replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But, sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,” and the Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.”
My dear
is it true
that your mind is sometimes like
a battering ram
running all through the city,
shouting so madly inside and out
about the ten thousand things
that do not matter?
– Hafiz
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after so many things.
– The Zen Master Ryokan
What a strange day when I found out what I was chasing wasn’t running.
– Shira Erlichman
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
― C.G. Jung
Our neon times have neglected and evaded the depth-kingdoms of interiority in favor of the ghost realms of cyberspace. We have unlearned the patience and attention of lingering at the thresholds where the unknown awaits us. We have become haunted pilgrims addicted to distraction and driven by the speed and color of images.
– John O’Donohue
My friends, let’s grow up.
Let’s stop pretending we don’t know the deal here.
Or if we truly haven’t noticed, let’s wake up and notice.
Look: Everything that can be lost, will be lost.
It’s simple — how could we have missed it for so long?
Let’s grieve our losses fully, like ripe human beings,
But please, let’s not be so shocked by them.
Let’s not act so betrayed,
As though life had broken her secret promise to us.
Impermanence is life’s only promise to us,
And she keeps it with ruthless impeccability.
To a child she seems cruel, but she is only wild,
And her compassion exquisitely precise:
Brilliantly penetrating, luminous with truth,
She strips away the unreal to show us the real.
This is the true ride — let’s give ourselves to it!
Let’s stop making deals for a safe passage:
There isn’t one anyway, and the cost is too high.
We are not children anymore.
The true human adult gives everything for what cannot be lost.
Let’s dance the wild dance of no hope!
– Jennifer Welwood
Tied up, it loosens,
untied, it’s too long
my love’s hair —
nowadays I can’t see it —
has she combed it together?
Everyone now says
my hair is too long
and I should tie it up —
but the hair you gazed upon
I’ll leave in tangles
– Mikata No Sami and his wife
A faint clap of thunder
Clouded skies
Perhaps rain comes
If so, will you stay here with me?
A faint clap of thunder
Even if rain comes not
I will stay here
Together with you.
– The Garden of Words
Namaste, my friend
I see the light inside you
No matter the joy or sorrow
That is in your heart right now
Let us sit together
In noble silence or
Conscious conversation
Let us grow together
With compassion
And healing grace
Let us wake up together
Each as a mirror to the other
A reminder of the goodness
The truth of who we are
– Christy Sharshel
