29 June 2015

Contemplation: Immovable Wisdom

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:

Immovable means unmoving.

Wisdom means the wisdom of intelligence.

Although wisdom is called immovable, this does not signify any insentient thing, like wood or stone.  It moves as the mind is wont to move; forward or back, to the left, to the right, in the ten directions and to the eight points; and the mind that does not stop at all is called immovable wisdom.

The Unfettered Mind:  Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master, Takuan Soho, p. 20

22 June 2015

Contemplation: The Bodhisattva Vows

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:
Sentient beings are numberless.  I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible.  I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless.  I vow to master them.
The Buddha-way is unsurpassable.  I vow to attain it.
The Four Bodhisattva Vows, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute.

15 June 2015

Contemplation: A Natural Instinct

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:


All of us have a natural instinct to desire happiness and avoid suffering.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Dzogchen, p. 99

01 June 2015

Contemplation: A Formless Field of Benefaction

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your contemplation:
Vast is the robe of liberation,
A formless field of benefaction.
I wear the Tathagatha's teachings,
Saving all sentient beings.
The Verse of the Kesa, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute