Weekend Zen, August 31-September 1

When we are mired in the relative world,

never lifting our gaze to the mystery, 

our life is stunted, incomplete; we are filled

with yearning for that paradise that is lost,

when as young children, we replace with 

words ...and abstractions....our direct,

spontaneous experience of the thing itself, in 

the beauty and precision of this present moment.

~ Peter Matthiessen

Daily Zen - Friday, November 6

Soon the child’s clear eye is clouded over

by ideas and opinions...Not until years later 

does an instinct come that a vital mystery has

been withdrawn. The sun glints through the

 pines and the heart is pierced in a moment of 

beauty and strange pain, like a memory of

paradise. After that day, we become seekers.

~ Peter Matthiessen 

Daily Zen - Thursday, December 29

If you are truly aware of five minutes a day, 

then you are doing pretty well. 

We are beset by both the future and the past,

and there is no reality apart from the here and now. 

~ Peter Matthiessen