Fragrances of human flowering: living intimately with the whole

In part 13, Shanti lets the mystics speak: Gautama Buddha, Dōgen Zenji, Hakuin Ekaku, Kabir and Ramakrishna

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

prince, monk and Master

“Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except yourself.”

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

“The root of suffering is attachment.”

“Nothing is forever, except change.”

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in anything simply

because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply

because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything

merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

Do not believe in traditions

because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

Dōgen Zenji

Zen Master

“Truth is not far away.

It is nearer than near.

There is no need to attain it,

since not one of your steps leads away from it.”

“Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves.”

“Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.”

“To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.”

“But do not ask me where I am going as I travel in this limitless world, where every step I take is my home.”

“To escape from the world means that one’s mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.”

Hakuin Ekaku

Zen Master and artist

“Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.”

“All beings by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water.

Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.”

Kabir

weaver and poet

“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.

I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.”

“All know that the drop merges into the ocean

but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.”

“The river that flows in you also flows in me.”

Ramakrishna

mystic

“The fabled musk deer searches the world over

for the source of the scent which comes from itself.”

“God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.”

To be continued…

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