What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.
Hakuin EkakuRead
What is the sound of one hand?
Interpretation
This quote provokes thought about perception and existence.
The quote 'What is the sound of one hand?' challenges individuals to confront the nature of reality and the limits of human understanding. It is a Zen koan that encourages deep reflection, suggesting that some questions may not have straightforward answers and that true comprehension often lies beyond logical reasoning.
In practice
During a meditation session to illustrate the concept of perception versus reality.
What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.
Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.
At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha.
All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas.
Religion is a feature of cultural evolution that, among other things, addresses anxieties created by cultural evolution; it helps keep social change safe from itself.
Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on.
Wanting to be liked means being a supporting character in your own life, using the cues of the actors around you to determine your next line rather than your own script. It means that your self-worth will always be tied to what someone else thinks about you, forever out of your control.
For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.
There are stories, like maps that agree... too consistent among too many languages and histories to be only wishful thinking.... It is always a hidden place, the way into it is not obvious, the geography is as much spiritual as physical. If you should happen upon it, your strongest certainty is not that you have discovered it but returned to it. In a single great episode of light, you remember everything.
I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.
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