No Distinction

The Noble Eightfold Path, which is the Buddhist way of life, is meant for all, without distinction of any kind.

~Walpola Rahula, in What the Buddha Taught

The Practice

The common belief that to follow the Buddha's teaching one has to retire from life is a misconception. It is really an unconscious defense against practicing it.

~Walpola Rahula, in What the Buddha Taught

Awareness

Paying attention to your own mistakes will keep you in step with the Way. 

~Hui-neng

Buddhahood

To practice as a buddha is to be a buddha.

~Hui-neng

The Positive

Overcome the anger by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth.

~The Buddha

This Is Buddhism

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.

Shunryu Suzuki, in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Our Way

You may think that if there is no purpose or no goal in our practice, we will not know what to do. But there is a way. The way to practice without having any goal is to limit your activity, or to be concentrated on what you are doing in this moment. Instead of having some particular object in mind, you should limit your activity. When your mind is wandering about elsewhere you have no chance to express yourself. But if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha nature. This is our way.

When we practice zazen we limit our activity to the smallest extent. Just keeping the right posture and being concentrated on sitting is how we express the universal nature. Then we become Buddha, and we express Buddha nature. So instead of having some object of worship, we just concentrate on the activity which we do in each moment. When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat. If you do this, the universal nature is there.

~Shunryu Suzuki, in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Meditation

The practice of zazen is not for gaining a mystical something. Zazen is for developing—or allowing—a clear mind, as clear as a bright autumn sky.

~Shunryu Suzuki

Do Not Waste - Anything

We do not inherit the world from our parents, we borrow it from our children. Words to help with this practice come from Ruth Rowen, a woman who was a child during the Great Depression. Ruth says, "We prided ourselves on our economy. You never threw anything away."

What Have I Done or Not Done?

Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.

~The Buddha, found in The Dhammapada verse 50

Right Effort

If your practice is good, you may become proud of it. What you do is good, but something more has been added. Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.

~Shunryu Suzuki

Meditation Off the Cushion

Cooks enact the Buddhist Way by rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.

~Eihei Dogen

Buddhist Practice

Buddhism is not about something "out there." It is no pie-in-the-sky religion. Buddhism is about your mind, your actions, your responses, and your moment-to-moment daily life.

Buddhist Practice

If you practice, you will become the Practice—that is the Practice.

The Practice of Buddhism

Reading about Buddhism is important. But to be aware of my actions, my words, and my thoughts are also very important. To understand my actions (words, thoughts, deeds) have results is important.

A good beginning in the practice of Buddhism to the measure of the Five Precepts: Respect for Life, Respect for the Property of Others, Respect for Sexual Boundaries, Respect for the Use of Language in Regard to Others, and the Respect for My Body and My Mind.

The Practice of Buddhism is not an intellectual exercise. The Practice of Buddhism is a course of Action. The Noble Eightfold Path is Buddhism. It is the Expression of the Teaching and the Experience of Freedom from stress and anxiety.

If you want to know Buddhism, know the Eightfold Path.

The Simplicity of Buddhism

There is stress and anxiety in life.

There is a cause for this stress and anxiety.

There is freedom from this stress and anxiety.

There is a path of practice for the experience of this freedom.

Buddhist Practice

Paese in Toscana by Antonietta Varallo

Buddhist practice is simply a system directed to the one end of lessening the suffering of life.

~Ananda Metteyya

Presence

Gently notice when your mind drifts into the elsewhere and the elsewhen.

When you are not here and now, you are likely lost in imagination, worry, wish, or rehashing.

Simply and gently notice this.