Listen to the Other, look at the self, and judge neither.

How belittling is a label.

Consider a fish in a pond. Material progress means the fish gets bigger and the pond gets smaller until the poor silly fish chokes in its own shit. Spiritual progress means the fish gets smaller and the pond gets bigger until the fish dissolves and disappears into water.

"Intellect takes you to the door, but it cannot gain entry, only love can do that."

Impact gently, plant firmly. In walking, and in everything.

Whenever we do something we become an operator and that gives us a feeling of power and a sense of meaning. Sitting, however, we do nothing, simply sit, patiently allowing ourselves to be operated upon by the prevailing forces in our vicinity: the pull of gravity, the draw of heaven, noises, draughts, vibrations. We become operand. Yet, paradoxically, when we bring awareness to this state, these forces center us in the world with such unambiguous incision that we become empowered simply by being rather than by what we can make of the world. Creature rather than creator. And this liberates the heart to love, wisely or foolishly, it matters not, because the mind no longer needs to worry about protecting a manufactured, and therefore false, identity.

"in moving away from England a whole world opened up"

The spiritual cannot be understood in terms of the material, and vice versa. They are different worlds, different dimensions – incommensurable. But they can, obviously, both operate in the same space otherwise we would lack either body or spirit. Mind is that space – that inclusive container of both realms – and we need to recognize it as such, rather than the reluctant go-between it has been relegated to since the two dimensions became antagonistic. And, surprisingly, that antagonism developed when these realms started to become corrupted by the other: when the material world developed ethical compunction and the spiritual bowed to a calculated economy of tit-for-tat.

"When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness."

"Always now – just now – come into being. Always now – just now – give yourself to death. Practicing this is Zen practice."

Each adjective, each adverb, each descriptor, a symbol of adoration.

Spike a can of beer with a good glug of vodka,
Sleep like a bairn for three long hours.
Wake, right as rain, and sit
A good long hour, worshipping your maker.

The tension that must be harboured to hold onto material gains – property, reputation, earning power – is exactly the tension that must be relinquished to make spiritual progress. Material egress, divine congress. Otherwise regress.

The whole wide world resonates with memory thence meaning.

Starting over

Spend a little of each day in worship. For your soul, if nothing else.

Downright spine
Upright heart