The Way of the Tortoise...

Just so you know, I plan to ruin all this goodness with a sundae...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:55:53 -0500

Taking in some air at Pelham Bay Park

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:56:04 -0500

Buhre Avenue Station - Bronx, NY

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:31:59 -0500

"This is the problem: Many years ago I sat one day, in a sad enough mood, on the slopes of the..."

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:55:24 -0500

“This is the problem: Many years ago I sat one day, in a sad enough mood, on the slopes of the Laurenziberg. I went over the wishes that I wanted to realize in life. I found that the most important or the most delightful was the wish to attain a view of life (and—this was necessarily bound up with it—to convince others of it in writing) in which life, while still retaining its natural full-bodied rise and fall, would simultaneously be recognized no less clearly as a nothing, a dream, a dim hovering. A beautiful wish, perhaps, if I had wished it rightly. Considered as a wish, somewhat as if one were to hammer together a table with painful and methodical technical efficiency, and simultaneously do nothing at all, and not in such a way that people could say: “Hammering a table together is nothing to him,” but rather: “Hammering a table together is really hammering a table together to him, but at the same time it is nothing,” whereby certainly the hammering would have become still bolder, still surer, still more real, and, if you will, still more senseless.”

- Franz Kafka in his diary, 1920, from Cosmopsis. (via mills)

Something something Buddhists something. In all seriousness, though, I feel like this does fit in quite soundly with the Way Of The Tortoise. Thoughts, Mr. Peter Reyes?

(via hungryghoast)

Very much so… The effort of no effort seems to be what Kafka speaks of here, much like the tortoise that moves toward its destination, but does not rush. The tortoise yearns to reach a place, but advances with a slow and steady stride, for it knows that the true aim is not to meet its objective, but to express its true nature; much like the man who hammers together the table because it is what he does.

The obstacles to your practice are your true guides on the Eternal Way.

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:56:25 -0500

alexbotsaris: wild ocean by Dyrk.Wyst on Flickr.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:37:10 -0500

alexbotsaris:

wild ocean by Dyrk.Wyst on Flickr.

Meditation Journal - 11.07.11

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:34:00 -0500

Do not suppress what arises, but realize instead that it is empty; an observable formation with a conditioned existence. Watch it form and then fade to nothingness, like smoke rising from an open flame.

Observe and do not presume to know.

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:40:09 -0500

Photo

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:32:05 -0500

We don't need our ideals.

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:20:15 -0500

Image source: marshallmatlock.com

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:05:00 -0500

Image source: marshallmatlock.com

Photo

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:28:18 -0500

From "The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma" translated by Red Pine

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:26:58 -0500

Image source: www.shaolincom.com

“According to the sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings. Angry people got to hell and happy people go to heaven. But once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty and you let them go, you free yourself from karma. If you don’t see your nature, quoting sutras is no help.”

Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was anyone in...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:10:13 -0500

Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was anyone in here! :D

Happy Sunday!

Photo

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:51:22 -0400

Meditation Journal - 11.03.11

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:08:00 -0400

The desire to control anything means that it controls you; it’s the reversal of roles into which we are often duped by our delusions. Therefore, we should not be looking to control anything that we perceive as problematic, but to be free of it. And to be free of it does not mean to abandon or turn away from it, but to accept and exist with it in harmony. To be free means, not only to be liberated from all phenomena, but to give freedom to all manifestations of the Way.

GPOY

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:55:19 -0400

GPOY

Self Portrait - Kikuchi Yosai

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:15:54 -0400

Source: en.wikipedia.org

From "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:55:59 -0400

Image source: shambhalasun.com

“So try not to see something in particular; try not to achieve anything special. You already have everything in your pure quality. If you understand this ultimate fact, there is no fear. There may be some difficulty, of course, but there is no fear.”

fer1972: The Dark Hedges (photo by Bob McCallion)

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:35:50 -0400

fer1972:

The Dark Hedges (photo by Bob McCallion)