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Beginner's Mind After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress. It is like studying a foreign language; you cannot do it all of a sudden, but by repeating it over and over you will master it. This is the Soto way of practice. We can say either that we make progress little by little, or that we do not even expect to make progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough. There is no Nirvana outside our practice. |
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Breathing If you say, "I breathe.", the "I" is extra. |
Sleeping Sleeping is the best meditation. |
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Sitting and Standing If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen, it means your mind is still wandering about |
Alignment and Articulation No bogus hocus pocus, I bring back to focus Skills if you notice my position is lotus |
Trekking and Sport I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms... |
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Collection / Cultivation / Absorbtion There comes a redeemer and he slowly too fades away There follows a wagon behind him that's loaded with clay and the seeds that were silent all burst into bloom and decay The night comes so quiet and it's close on the heels of the day |
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Endeavor When I was just a little young boy, Papa said "Son, you'll never get far, I'll tell you the reason if you want to know, 'cause child of mine, there isn't really very far to go" |
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Homestead All politics are local. |
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| July/Aug 2018 Calisthenics Jumpstart 
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My Concious Day |
My Day of Thirds |
My Locomotive Day |
My Absorptive Day |
My Physiological Day |
My Parental Day |
My Endeavoring Day |