There is so much more than our time on Facebook or our favorite shows on TV or Netflix. The universe is bigger than our bad day at work or our disagreements with our ex-spouses or our current spouses.
By Daniel Scharpenburg
Cultivating the Empty Field is a book I really like.
There is a section in here with a quote by Zen Master Hongzhi: “All things are innately amazing beyond description. Perfect vision has no gap. In mountain groves, grasslands and woods, the truth has always been exhibited.”
That’s what this video talk is about—the sense of wonder we get when we just start paying attention. We get caught up in our problems and a lot of the time we just don’t see the wonder in our lives. One of the reasons people like to go into the mountains or go look at the ocean is to see that there is so much that is bigger than us and bigger than our everyday problems.
There is so much more than our time on Facebook or our favorite shows on TV or Netflix. The universe is bigger than our bad day at work or our disagreements with our ex-spouses or our current spouses.
Buddhism often gets a bad reputation for being negative with The Four Nobles Truths and the idea that life is about suffering, but Buddhism also shows us that life is about being present and wonder. There is a way out of suffering.
There is great wonder in nature, but the truth is there’s great wonder everywhere, all the time. We just have to slow down and pay attention to see it.
Quotes are taken from “Cultivating the Empty Field, The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi” by Taigen Dan Leighton, which you can get here:
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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The Speed of Wonder: John Muir Laws on Attention, Art and the Sacred Act of Looking
The leaf is not just a leaf. It is a galaxy of chloroplasts, a vascular system, a fingerprint of time. A living, trembling archive of light and weather and form. You can’t handle it. You can barely comprehend it. But you can bow to it. You can draw it. You can fall in love with it.
He specializes in bringing meditation practice and Buddhism to people in a practical way that applies to real life.
Find out more about Daniel here and connect with him on Facebook
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He specializes in bringing meditation practice and Buddhism to people in a practical way that applies to real life.
Find out more about Daniel here and connect with him on Facebook
- Review of The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk’s Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge {Book Review} - August 23, 2022
- The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving Kindness by Ayya Khema {Book Review} - July 21, 2022
- That is Not Your Mind! Zen Reflections on the Surangama Sutra {Book Review} - July 16, 2022
