DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrecovery

Enlightenment has no tree, 
It would be an error to expect
It in a peach blossom. 
Discard whatever is held in the hands
As an external aid to enlightenment, 
For the monk is clothed
In the universe itself


- Takuan 

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A WOMAN’S SPIRIT #essentialsofrecovery

I wonder what my life would be like if I were to focus my energy and thoughts only on things that really matter.

~ Robbie Rocheford ~

We spend much of our precious time spinning our wheels. Our minds wander from thought to thought and person to person with no real sense of direction. Fortunately, we can develop the discipline of taking charge of our thoughts. We have merely to pause, quiet our minds, and focus. It’s a technique that we can hone, and practicing it empowers us. It also frees us to spend our precious moments on beneficial ideas or activities.

Our attitude about a task will determine our approach to it. It may seem impossible to be in charge of our thoughts, but that’s because we have never understood that we could responsibly and actively take control. Any negative thought can be stopped, even in midstream. And a replacement thought, such as “God is in charge,” can be substituted. The exhilaration we will feel at realizing the power of this technique is astounding. Our recovery will be enhanced many times over as we grow in our reliance on this tool.

I will pause throughout the day to clear my mind. Taking charge of my thoughts will be enlightening.

© 1994 by Hazelden Foundation 

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrec

Those who are following the Way should behave like a piece of timber which is drifting along a stream. If the log is neither held by the banks, nor seized by people, nor obstructed by gods, nor kept in the whirlpool, nor itself goes to decay, I assure you that this log will finally reach the ocean. If monks walking on the Way are neither tempted by the passions, nor led astray by some evil influences, but steadily pursue their course for Nirvana, I assure you that these monks will finally attain enlightenment.

– Sutra of Forty Two Chapters 

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Daily Zen - Enlightened Mind #essentialsofrec #Zen

"Zen says the ordinary mind is the enlightened mind. You don't go anywhere; the ordinary world is paradise. Here and now, everything is there! you need not go anywhere.

For the first time you become aware of the beauty of the world...everything is young and fresh and alive and God is here! if you think your God is somewhere else you are still listening to the mind, because that is the language of the mind: "Somewhere else, somewhere else! Never here!" - and he is always here.



Meditation reveals you the here and now. And then the ordinary mind becomes the most extraordinary. And the ordinary life becomes the supreme, the ultimate. The only difference is of a closed and open mind. When thoughts are there, the clouds are not there and the mind is open. And when the mind is open the old part has fallen, the water has flowed out, the reflection disappears, no water, no moon!"

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Daily Zen - What is enlightenment? #essentialsofrec #Zen #Buddhism

Coming to understand, coming to realize that you are not the body. you are the light within, not the lamp, but the flame. you are neither body nor mind. Mind belongs to the body, mind is not beyond body, it is part of the body. Minds is also atomic, as body is atomic. 

You are neither body nor the mind - then you come to know who you are. And to know who you are is enlightenment.....

Enlightened means you have realized who you are. 

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #OA #overeaters #Recovery

LIGHT

It’s better to light a candle then to curse the darkness.

–Old Chinese Proverb

I have been living with this disease of compulsive eating for as long as I can remember. I remember stealing money out of my mother’s purse to buy sugar-filled soft drinks and candy, and sneaking food out of the cupboard and trying to make it look like nothing was missing. I hid food and ate in isolation, pretending on the outside that nothing was wrong. But I carried this terrible secret — I lived to eat.

As my disease progressed, I acted out in other compulsive ways, and surrounded myself with people who cared nothing for my welfare. I kept running faster and faster, and eating more and more, as my disease sucked all of the energy from my spirit. I sank deeper into the darkness of despair and depression, cursing all those I blamed for my unhappiness.

Through the grace of my Higher Power, my life became so painful that I had to seek help outside of myself. I found this program, and a candle was lit. While my recovery has been rocky over the last 10 years, that candle of progress and hope continues to light my way. No matter how bad things get now, I know that I have my Higher Power and my program friends to lean on. The wonderful people I have met through the program have saved my life, and have shown me the path to peace and abstinence. While I don’t always choose to follow that path perfectly, I continue to recover, and to find everyday joys that make life worth living.

One day at a time . . .

I will keep the light of recovery burning.

Suzanne

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DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrec #Zen #Buddhism #Enlightenment

"Enlightenment" and "Nirvana"? They are dead trees to fasten a donkey to. The scriptures? They are bits of paper to wipe mud from your face. The four merits and ten steps? They are ghosts in their graves. What can these things have to do with you becoming free?

- Te-shan

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DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrec #Zen #Buddhism #Zen

If you did not attain
Enlightenment in the past, do so now.
Liberate this body
That is the culmination of many lifetimes.
Before enlightenment,
Ancient buddhas were like us.
When enlightened we will be like those of old.

- Longya

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Daily Zen

Enlightened Mind

"Zen says the ordinary mind is the enlightened mind. You don't go anywhere; the ordinary world is paradise. Here and now, everything is there! you need not go anywhere.

For the first time you become aware of the beauty of the world...everything is young and fresh and alive and God is here! if you think your God is somewhere else you are still listening to the mind, because that is the language of the mind: "Somewhere else, somewhere else! Never here!" - and he is always here.

Meditation reveals you the here and now. And then the ordinary mind becomes the most extraordinary. And the ordinary life becomes the supreme, the ultimate. The only difference is of a closed and open mind. When thoughts are there, the clouds are not there and the mind is open. And when the mind is open the old part has fallen, the water has flowed out, the reflection disappears, no water, no moon!"

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Daily Zen

Enlightened Beings

You have your own values, and you always look through those values. An enlightened person is totally in a different dimension, where he lives without values, where he lives without any criteria, where he lives without any morality, where he simply lives without the ego. An enlightened person simply lives. He is not manipulating his life, he is a white cloud floating. He has nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. Nothing is good for him and nothing is bad. He does not know any God, he does not know any devil. He knows only life, and life in its totality is beautiful....

An enlightened person always appears like a madman. So the first thing to be understood is don't evaluate an enlightened person through your values - very difficult, because what else can you do. ...



Second thing: an enlightened person behaves from the center never from the periphery. You always behave from the periphery, you live on the periphery, the circumference. To you the circumference is the most important thing. You have killed your soul and saved your body. The enlightened person can sacrifice his body, but cannot allow his soul to be lost. He is ready to die - any moment he is ready to die - that's not a problem. But it is not ready to lose his center, the very core of his being.

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DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrecovery

Enlightenment--that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance--never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.

-Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, "Landscapes of Wonder"

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

 The realm of enlightenment of all the Buddhas and patriarchs is the same as that of you monks. If you have a head full of Buddhas and patriarchs, how will you ever get to see what is your own? But if you see what is your own, at that time there cannot be any Buddhas, patriarchs, other people or dharma established…The patriarah is not another person separate from yourself, and the Buddha is miraculous, pure awakening.

- Hongzhi

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DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrecovery

Those who live according to the Buddha mind and do not succumb to illusions have no cause to seek enlightenment outside of themselves. Sit with the Buddha mind, keep company only with the Buddha mind, sleep with the Buddha mind, arise with the Buddha mind, dwell only with the Buddha mind; then in all your daily activities—walking and waiting, sitting and lying down—you will act like a living Buddha. Nothing else remains to be said.

- Bankei (1622-1693) 

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Daily Zen

Enlightenment -- that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance -- never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.

-Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, "Landscapes of Wonder"

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Daily Zen

Enlightenment is a way of saying that all things are seen in their intrinsic empty nature, their Suchness, their ungraspable wonder. Names or words are merely incidental, but that state which sees no division, no duality, is enlightenment.

-Prajnaparamita  

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

The wisdom of enlightenment is 
Inherent in every one of us.
It is because of the delusion 
Under which our mind works
That we fail to realize it ourselves, 
And that we have to seek 
The advice and the guidance of Enlightened ones.

- Hui-neng (638-713) 

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. 

Dogen

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Daily Zen - Enlightened Beings #essentialsofrecovery

You have your own values, and you always look through those values. An enlightened person is totally in a different dimension, where he lives without values, where he lives without any criteria, where he lives without any morality, where he simply lives without the ego. An enlightened person simply lives. He is not manipulating his life, he is a white cloud floating. He has nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. Nothing is good for him and nothing is bad. He does not know any God, he does not know any devil. He knows only life, and life in its totality is beautiful....

An enlightened person always appears like a madman. So the first thing to be understood is don't evaluate an enlightened person through your values - very difficult, because what else can you do. ...

Second thing: an enlightened person behaves from the center never from the periphery. You always behave from the periphery, you live on the periphery, the circumference. To you the circumference is the most important thing. You have killed your soul and saved your body. The enlightened person can sacrifice his body, but cannot allow his soul to be lost. He is ready to die - any moment he is ready to die - that's not a problem. But it is not ready to lose his center, the very core of his being. 

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Daily Zen #essentialsofrecovery

Enlightened Mind

"Zen says the ordinary mind is the enlightened mind. You don't go anywhere; the ordinary world is paradise. Here and now, everything is there! you need not go anywhere.

For the first time you become aware of the beauty of the world...everything is young and fresh and alive and God is here! if you think your God is somewhere else you are still listening to the mind, because that is the language of the mind: "Somewhere else, somewhere else! Never here!" - and he is always here.

Meditation reveals you the here and now. And then the ordinary mind becomes the most extraordinary. And the ordinary life becomes the supreme, the ultimate. The only difference is of a closed and open mind. When thoughts are there, the clouds are not there and the mind is open. And when the mind is open the old part has fallen, the water has flowed out, the reflection disappears, no water, no moon!"

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DAILY ZEN #essentialsofrecovery

What is #enlightenment?

Coming to understand, coming to realize that you are not the body. you are the light within, not the lamp, but the flame. you are neither body nor mind. Mind belongs to the body, mind is not beyond body, it is part of the body. Minds is also atomic, as body is atomic.

You are neither body nor the mind - then you come to know who you are. And to know who you are is #enlightenment.....


Enlightened means you have realized who you are.

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