Michael Forbus's Page

“I came from Elsewhere, and though I do not know where that is, I am certain to return there in the end.”

-Rumi

----------------------------------------------------

Pick Up Your Coat

A contemporary Zen master has said that "Zen is picking up your coat from the floor and hanging it up." Nothing could be simpler. Yet how difficult! There is no fun in "picking up your coat." Tasks like this do not seem at all self-fulfilling and enriching. Even worse, "picking up your coat" doesn't seem to be a very "spiritual" kind of practice—unlike, we imagine, prayer, meditation, fasting, or developing a meaningful relationship. There is nothing more ordinary or unspecial than "picking up your coat." Yet, it is really the essence of practice, for "picking up your coat" is exactly what Dogen means by meditation.

- Francis Dojun Cook, How to Raise an Ox, Wisdom Publications

----------------------------------------------------



“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

-Rumi

----------------------------------------------------

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem.
To meditate means to observe.
Your smile proves it.
It proves that you are being gentle with yourself,
that the sun of awareness is shining in you,
that you have control of your situation.
You are yourself,
and you have acquired some peace.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh



With Metta