Action, Work & Perfect Struggle - Quotes

“When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself”

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”

"If you take pride in your attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort, your practice will confine you by a thick wall."

"Practice does not mean that whatever you do, even lying down, is zazen. When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice…."

"When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat…. If you say,”It doesn’t matter,” it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. It means that you are to some particular thing or way. That is not what we mean when we say, “Just to sit is enough,” or “Whatever you do is zazen.” Of course, everything you do is zazen, but if so, there is no need to say it. p. 41

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  Pt. 3 : Right Understanding, "Naturalness"

-Shunryu Suzuki

Here are some quotes (i think they belong to Osho, the spiritual psychiatrist) :

You are perfect as you are, with all your imperfections you are perfect. If you are imperfect, you are perfectly imperfect - but perfection is there.”

You are utterly unique, incomparably unique. You need not be like somebody else, you need not be an imitator, you have to be authentically yourself.

“Everything can become a meditation if you live it totally and intensely. And then your life becomes whole.”

The man of meditation does not become powerful:
he becomes silent, he becomes peaceful.
Power is created out of conflict:
all power is out of friction.

If you can get into any act with your whole heart, you are total. Totality brings wholeness, and totality brings wholeness, and totality brings health, and totality brings sanity.

Whatever you are doing, do it as if it is a question of life & death. Put your total energy into it, and it will give you tremendous bliss.

-Osho

Action vs. Avtivity

"Remember two words: one is "action", another is "activity". Action is not activity; activity is not action. Their nature are diametrically opposite. Action is when the situation demands it, you act, you respond. Activity is when the situation doesn't matter, it is not a response; you are so restless within that the situation is just an excuse.

Action comes out of a silent mind - it is the most beautiful thing in the world. Activity comes out of a restless mind. Action is moment to moment, spontaneous; activity is loaded with the past."

"Activity is your escape from yourself. In action you are. Find the distinction within yourself; what is activity and what is action; that is the first step. The second step is to become involved in action so that the energy moves into action and whenever there is activity to be more watchful about it, more alert. If you are aware, activity ceases, energy is preserved, and the same energy becomes action.

Action is always new and fresh like the dew drops in the morning. And a person who is a person of action is also always fresh and young. The body may become old, but his freshness continues. The body may die, but his youth continues. The body may disappear, but he remains - because God loves freshness. God is always for the new and the fresh."

- quoted from Tantra: The Supreme Understanding byOsho

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Paulo Coelho

and lastly, an Islamic tradition relates:

"Allah, His angels and all those who live in the heavens and the earth, even the ants in their holes and the fish supplicate for those who instruct people in virtuous knowledge" (Tirmidhi)(?).

sincerity (ikhlas)

sirr= secret

sirr Allah= the secret of Allah

Unitarianism (tawhid)= doctrine of Oneness of God

A question from Abu Sa'id ibn Abi 'l-Khayr:

   Answering the question, "What is sincerity (ikhlas)?" he said:

   The Prophet has said tha ikhlas is a divine sirr in man's heart and soul, which sirr is the object of His pure contemplation and is replenished by God's pure contemplation thereof. Whosoever declares God to be One, his belief in the divine Unity depends on that sirr.

   Being asked to define it, he continued as follows:

   That sirr is a substance of God's grace (latifa) --- for He is gracious (latif) unto His servants (Koran, 42, 18) --- and it is produced by the bounty and mercy of God, not by the acquisition and action of man. At first, He produces a need and longing and sorrow in man's heart; then He contemplates that need and sorrow, and in His bounty and mercy deposits in that heart a spiritual substance (latifa) which is hidden from the knowledge of angel and prophet. That substance is called sirr Allah, and that is ikhlas .... That pure sirr is the Beloved of Unitarians. It is immortal and does not become naught, since it subsists in God's contemplation of it. It belongs to the Creator: the creatures have no part therein, and in the body it is a loan. Whoever posseses it is "living" (hayy), and whoever lacks it is "animal" (hayawan). There is a great difference between the "living" and the "animal". 

Source:

Studies in Islamic Mysticism,  by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson   Page 51

sincerity of seekers

Photo credit: Flickr

Bulleh Shah, a punjabi Sufi poet said in his poetry:

jay rabb milda naataiN dhotaiN
tay rabb milda daddouaN maachiaN nou
jay rabb milda jungul phirai
Natay rabb milda gaayaN wachiaN nou
way Bullayaa, rabb unnaaN nou milda
attay dilaiyan sachiyaN aachiyaN nou
credit

Translation:
If God was to be found through washing and bathing, then He would be found to frogs and fishes..
If God was to be found in jungles and wilderness, then He would be found to cows and buffalos..
If God was to be found in caves(?), then He would be found to bats..
Bulleh Shah!, God is found only to person who have sincerity in heart

Read Bulleh Shah's Poetry with translation

Knowledge of Sincerity II

THE COOK'S ASISTANT
(taken from Idries Shah's book, 'Wisdom of the Idiots',)

A certain famous, well-liked and influential merchant came to Bahaudin Naqshband. He said, in open assembly:
'I have come to offer my submission to you and to your teaching, and beg you to accept me as your disciple.'
Bahaudin asked him:
'Why do you believe that you are able to profit by the teaching?'
The merchant replied:
'Everything that I have known and loved in the poetry and the teaching of the ancients, as recorded in their books, I find in you. Everything the other Sufi teachers preach, extol and report from the Wise Ones I find in actuality in you, and not in completeness and perfection with them. I regard you as at one with the great ones, for I can discern the aroma of Truth in you and in everything connected with you.'
Bahaudin told the man to withdraw, saying that he would give him a decision as to his acceptibility in due time.
After six months, Bahaudin called the merchant to him, and said:
'Are you prepared to appear publically with me in an interchange?'
He answered:
'Yes, by my head and eyes.'
When a morning meeting was in progress, Bahaudin called the other man from the cirle and had him sit beside him. To the hearers he said:
'This is so-and-so, the distinguishable King of Merchants of the city. Six months ago he came here and believed that he could discern the aroma of truth in everything connected with me.'
The merchant said:
'This period of trail and seperation, this six months without the glimpse of the Teacher, this exile, has caused me to plunge even more deeply into the classics, so that I could at least maintain some relationship with him whom I wish to serve, Bahaudin El-Shah, himself visibly identical with the great Ones.'
Bahaudin said:
'Six months have passed since you were last here. You have not been idle: you have been working in your shop, and you have been studying the lives of the Great Sufis. You could, however, have been studying me, whom you regard as identifiably one with the Knowers of the past, for I have been, twice a week in your shop. uring this six months during which we "have not been in contact", I have been forty-eight times in your shop. Many of those occasions passed with my making some kind of transaction with you, buying or selling merchandise. Because of the goods and because of a simple change of dress and appearence, you did not recognise me. Is this "discerning the aroma of truth"?'
The other man remained silent.
Bahaudin continued:
'When you come near to the man whom others call "Bahaudin", you can feel that he is the truth. When you meet the man who calls himself the merchant Khaja Alavi (one of Bahaudin's pseudonyms) you can not discern the aroma of truth from that which connected with Alavi. You find perceptibly in Naqshband only hat others preach and themselves are not. In Alavi you do not find what the Wise are but do not appear to be. The poetry and the teaching to which you have referred is an outward menifestation. You feed on outward manifestation. Do not, please, give that the name of spirituality.'
This merchant was Mahsud Nadimzada, later a famous saint, who became a disciple of Bahaudin's after he had submitted to studying under cook of the Khanqa, who was quite unintstructed in poetry, spiritual talk or exercises.
He once said:
'If I had not studies what I imagined to be a spiritual path, I would not have had to forget the numerous errors and superficialities which Khalifa-Ashpaz (the cook) burned out of me by ignoring my pretensions.'

Knowledge of Sincerity

THE BOOK IN TURKI
(taken from Idries Shah's book, 'Wisdom of the Idiots',)

A would-be disciple went to Bahaudin.
The master was sorrounded by thirty of his students,
in a garden, after dinner.
The new comer said:
'I wish to serve you.'
Bahaudin answered:
'You can best serve me by reading my Risalat (Letters).'
'I have already done so.' said the newcomer.
'if you have done so in reality and not in appearance,
you would not have approached me in this manner.,' said
Bahaudin.
He continued:
'Why do you think that you are able to learn?'
'I am ready to study with you.'
Bahaudin said:
'Let the most junior Murid (disciple) stand up.'
Anwari, who was sixteen years of his age, rose to feet.
'How long have you been with us?' asked El-Shah.
'Three weeks, O Murshid.'
'Have I taught you anything?'
'I do not know'
'Do you think so?'
'I do not think so.'
Bahaudin said to him:
'In this newcomer's satchel you will find a book of
poems. Take it in your hand and recite the entire
contents without mistake and without even opening it.'
Anwari found the book. He did not open it, but said:
'I fear that it is in Turki.'
Bahaudin said:
'Recite it!'
Anwari did so, and as he finished the stranger became
more and more affected by his wonder -- a book being
read without being opened by some one who did not
know Turki.
Falling at the feet of Bahaudin, He begged to be
admitted to the circle.
Bahaudin said:
'It is the kind of phenomenon which attracts you --
while it still does, you can not really benefit from it. That
is why, even if you have read my Risalat (Risalaat /رسالات) , you have not
really read it.'
'Come back,' he continued, 'when you have read it as
this beardless boy has read it. It was only such study that
gave him the power to recite from a book which he had
not opened, and at the same time prevented him from grovelling in wonderment at the event.'