Contemplation: Ordinary Things

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take this as your object of contemplation:

To seek the character of reality outside of ordinary things is like running from the space in one place to look for space elsewhere. The ordinary is the true; there is no need to abandon the ordinary and strive for the holy. Scripture says, "Life and death is nirvana; each form, each scent, is all the Middle Way." This is called arousing the aspiration for enlightenment by thinking of the uncreate four truths, seeking above and teaching below.

Chih-i, Stopping and Seeing, p. 16