Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings

Month: December, 2009

December 31, 2009

A Gift of Dharma for 12.31.09

Today’s quote comes to us from the great Tibetan saint Jetsun Milarepa (1052-1135), whom I previously quoted and wrote a little biography for here.  This is it–a poem of his called “Response to a Logician,” translated by Thupten Jinpa and Jas Elsner for their book Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight & Awakening:

I bow at the feet of my teacher Marpa.
And sing this song in response to you.
Listen, pay heed to what I say,
forget your critique for a while.

The best seeing is the way of “nonseeing” –
the radiance of the mind itself.
The best prize is what cannot be looked for –
the priceless treasure of the mind itself.

The most nourishing food is “noneating” –
the transcendent food of samadhi.
The most thirst-quenching drink is “nondrinking” –
the nectar of heartfelt compassion.

Oh, this self-realizing awareness
is beyond words and description!
The mind is not the world of children,
nor is it that of logicians.

Attaining the truth of “nonattainment,”
you receive the highest initiation.
Perceiving the void of high and low,
you reach the sublime stage.

Approaching the truth of “nonmovement,”
you follow the supreme path.
Knowing the end of birth and death,
the ultimate purpose is fulfilled.

Seeing the emptiness of reason,
supreme logic is perfected.
When you know that great and small are groundless,
you have entered the highest gateway.

Comprehending beyond good and evil
opens the way to perfect skill.
Experiencing the dissolution of duality,
you embrace the highest view.

Observing the truth of “nonobservation”
opens the way to meditating.
Comprehending beyond “ought” and “oughtn’t”
opens the way to perfect action.

When you realize the truth of “noneffort,”
you are approaching the highest fruition.
Ignorant are those who lack this truth:
arrogant teachers inflated by learning,
scholars bewitched by mere words,
and yogis seduced by prejudice.
For though they yearn for freedom,
they find only enslavement.

December 30, 2009

Goodbye, Joe…

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren

Joe was an artist. I am grateful to him and will miss him.

December 30, 2009

A Gift of Dharma for 12.30.09

Today’s quote is from Buddhist teacher and author Martine Batchelor.

A former Jogye Buddhist nun at South Korea’s Songgwangsa monastery, she was a longtime student of Master Kusan Sunim.  From 1981 to 1985, Batchelor even served as his French and English interpreter during his lecture tours in Europe and the United States.

She has since re-entered lay life and is now married to fellow dharma teacher Stephen Batchelor.

In addition to translating Kusan Sunim’s The Way of Zen into English, Batchelor is the author of Meditation for Life, Let Go:  A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free, Principles of Zen: The Only Introduction You’ll Ever Need, Women On The Buddhist Path, The Spirit of the Buddha, The Path of Compassion: The Bodhisattva Precepts, Zen, Walking On Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating, Way of Zen, Buddhism and Ecology (with Kerry Brown), and Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices.

Here’s the quote:

In love there is affection, warmth and contact which can have a healing effect. There is a physical, emotional, mental sharing. We come into contact with others. We affect them and they affect us. Love can influence us greatly, it can help us soften what is fixed. It can help us open what is closed. It can be a creative force in our life. In coming close to others we are enriched by their natures and in turn they are enriched by us. Something new can come out of this intimate sharing. In love there is also passion which is full of energy and excitement. This will invigorate us and is often associated with a deep feeling of joy.

Some of the obstacles to love are our agenda, expectations, needs and wants. We have to be careful that in love we are not looking for ourselves, for a replica; nobody can be exactly like us. Love can help us discover our differences so that we can become enriched by them.

3 comments
December 30, 2009

Want to Be Inspired at the Movies?

Then go see this one right away.  I felt incredibly inspired, and it’s so rare anymore that movies move me that way at all…

1 comment
December 29, 2009

A Gift of Dharma for 12.29.09

Today’s quote is from Buddhist psychiatrist Mark Epstein.

A graduate of both Harvard College and the Harvard Medical School, he has been a practicing Buddhist “since his early twenties.”  His main teacher have been Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield.

A contributing editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Dr. Epstein is also the author of such vital works as Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart, Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught, Going on Being: Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and Psychotherapy, and Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective.

He has a private practice in New York City.

Here’s the quote, from Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, pg. 19:

If aspects of the person remain undigested–cut off, denied, projected, rejected, indulged, or otherwise unassimilated–they become the points around which the core forces of greed, hatred and delusion attach themselves.

1 comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 43 other followers