WryPriest

“Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.”
― Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Blessed are the weak who think they are good because they have no claws.”
― Baruch Spinoza

“Not to understand is profound; to understand is shallow. Not to understand is to be on the inside; to understand is to be on the outside.”
― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“KODO SAWAKI: During World War II, when I visited a coal mine in Kyushu, they allowed me to go into the mine. Like the miners, I put on a hard hat with a headlamp and went down the shaft in an elevator. For a while, I thought the elevator was going down very fast. Then I started to feel as if it were going up. I shone my headlamp on the shaft and realized the elevator was still going down steadily. When an elevator starts descending with increasing speed, we feel it going down, but once the speed becomes fixed, we feel as if the elevator were rising. The balance has shifted. In the ups and downs of life, we’re deceived by the difference in the balance. Saying, “I’ve had satori!” is only feeling a difference in the balance. Saying, “I’m deluded!” is feeling another. To say food tastes delicious or terrible, to be rich or poor, all are just feelings about shifts in the balance. In most cases, our ordinary way of thinking only considers differences in the balance. Human beings put I into everything without knowing it. We sometimes say, “That was really good!” What’s it good for? It’s just good for me, that’s all. We usually do things expecting some personal profit. And if the results turn out different from our hidden agenda, we feel disappointed and exhausted.”
― Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo