Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart

What does it mean to make total effort with no gaining idea? Notice that any gaining idea implies that just this is not complete as it is.

The awakened mind of buddha is available to each one of us. But we have to take down the walls. We have to clear out any ill will that we can notice. We have to find out what’s feeding it and how we can disconnect it from our lives and put it down. To see what’s separating us from all of those around us. To recognize greed, anger, and delusion when

it’s really beneficial for us to recognize, each time we encounter another being, that we are already connected just by being alive. We’re all living one life in some way.

are we practicing just to express this limitless being, or because we think we’re not a limitless being? And once we discover we are a limitless being, will we continue practicing? Well, of course. That’s what limitless beings do. This is Dogen Zenji’s practice-enlightenment, practice-realization. This practice itself expresses the limitlessness th

And as I continued to practice and to talk with other students of the buddha dharma, I found that many people share the conditioning that leads us to think that there’s something wrong with us. If we could only get, do, or be something more, then we would be all right. It’s so easy for us to get the idea that there’s something wrong with us. And it

Even though you sit trying to have the right posture and counting your breath, it may still be lifeless zazen because you’re just following instructions; you’re not kind enough with yourself.

If we are a little more alert, we can catch it before it’s done instead of regretting it after it’s done. If we are a little more alert, we can see the possibility of something wholesome that we can do and decide to do it.

at some point you need to “dig one deep hole instead of many shallow holes,” as

Our practice is to help people, and to help people, we find out how to practice our way in each moment.