The Truth of This Life: Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is

The air is sharp and cold; we know we are alive. We are here.

The only way we can continue this practice is if we want to sit, maybe for no reason, and if we are interested in awakening to the deceptions and delusions of our ordinary mind, not because that is an enlightened thing to do, but because it is helpful for our lives: we get in trouble less; our relationships are more harmonious.

See if you can do that, if your present activity, your present breath, is compelling enough to draw you out of your planning mind, out of your past mind.

Noticing our thoughts, and understanding how they determine our actions and relationships, helps us understand that we cocreate the world we live in with everyone. We cocreate our lives with others.

Maybe the virtue of our practice is that it shows us the arrogance of our minds. We discover that we don’t see things as they are; we see things as our mind creates them.

how completely Suzuki Roshi worked at things, how much care he took with the details. He took care of details I didn’t even notice. He put vastly more energy into things than I ever would have. He did not cut corners. He did not decide he didn’t have time.

we grab onto things to find pleasure or frustration, something, anything, to engage our feelings and thoughts.

When we are not paying attention, we live outside of time.

We are all a configuration of attributes, qualities, aspirations, and conditions, and at the same time we are completely free of all that. We are our causes and conditions, and simultaneously we are free of them.