Sublime

Records of High Monks and The Gateless Gate

and be with not knowing. It encourages us to show up ready and eager to meet whatever arises. Perhaps most important, it demands the mental and emotional agility to be comfortable with the paradox of simultaneously holding two or more points of view with equal attentiveness.

“small mind.” It can also be described as sem. In Tibetan there are several words for mind, but two that are particularly helpful to know are sem and rikpa. Sem is what we experience as discursive thoughts, a stream of chatter that’s always reinforcing an image of ourselves. Rikpa literally means “intelligence” or “brightness.” Behind all the plann

This starts, of course, with getting curious and dropping the limiting stories we’ve created about ourselves. Then we have to stay present with whatever is happening to us. What I find helpful is to think of whatever I am experiencing—whether it’s sadness, anger, or worry; pleasure, joy, or delight—as simply the dynamic, fluid energy of life as it

there is more than a grain of wisdom in the Skeptics’ approach and not a little resemblance to our Buddhist concept of non-attachment. We might hear echoes of the Third Zen Ancestor’s reminder that the Way is not difficult for those who do not hold on to likes and dislikes. Knowing, not knowing; liking, disliking; wanting, not wanting—these are the

This koan resists the totalitarian impulse in spiritual paths.