The Twelve Months of ZenJanuary 3, 2010, drawn from Dharma talks through 2009January: Genuine spiritual awakening absolutely threatens the status quo of a world that is built on the endless fears and hopes of the ego. If we want to be free, we actually have to let go of the very idea we want to know in order to know it. February: The only question is: What am I choosing in the moment? Am I choosing love or am I choosing fear? March: Gensha said, "Even in the dark mountain cave of demons there's complete liberation." (If you practice equanimity.) April: The meaning of samu is to reveal ourselves as our work. It is to realize no separation, no self. It is just doing. May: A new teacher asked a veteran, "What do you think teaching is?" "It's fifty percent encouragement." "What's the other fifty percent?" "Encouragement." June: Everything is useless unless it contributes to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the absence of separation. The Supreme Way of Enlightenment is unconditional love. July: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. But love never fails. (Adapted from Corinthians: 13) August: The Bodhisattva practice is the practice of the heart. As one awakens, the desire to help others naturally arises and is the heart of the Bodhisattva. September: Ask yourself: What is it that I most desire? October: When love is attached to any conditions, then it is not love. To know love you need to know yourself. And when you know yourself, you know love. November: When we are in Samadhi, we are immersed in the profound love of non-separation and we experience that that love fulfills all things. That Love embraces all things. That Love heals all things. That Love transforms all things. December: One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is evil. It is fear, judgment, projection, separation, limitation, discord, hatred, control, greed, arrogance, envy, dishonesty, cruelty, unworthiness, and so on. The other is good. It is Love, Forgiveness, Equanimity, Connection, Joy, Peace, Harmony, Truth, Trust, Compassion, Faith, Virtue, Humility, Empathy and so on." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." |