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Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

Dogen

Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
DOGEN

Eat Engage Fire Head Moderate Pass People Save Saving
The coming and going of birth and death is a painting. Unsurpassed enlightenment is a painting. The entire phenomenal universe and the empty sky are nothing but a painting.
DOGEN

Birth Come Enlightenment Go Painting Sky Unsurpassed
To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.
DOGEN

Anxiety Harmony Imperfection Wholeness
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
DOGEN

Buddha Expect Nothing Grasp Want Way
Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.
DOGEN

Bear Children Mind Parents Universe Whole
We must always be disturbed by the truth.
DOGEN

Always Disturbed Must Truth
Realization doesn’t destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.
DOGEN

Destroy Drop Individual Moon Realization Reflection Sky Water
IF YOU WOULD BE FREE OF GREED, FIRST YOU HAVE TO LEAVE EGOTISM BEHIND. THE BEST MENTAL EXERCISE FOR RELINQUISHING EGOTISM IS CONTEMPLATING IMPERMANENCE.
DOGEN

Behind Egotism Excercise Exercise First Free Greed Relinquish
Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech.
DOGEN

Cease Follow Intellectual Practice Speech Understanding Word
In the stream, Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.
DOGEN

Cast Past People Reflection Rush Stream World
People who truly follow the Way would do well to conceal the fact that they are Buddhists.
DOGEN

Buddhist Conceal Follow People Way
Yet you must not cling to the words of the old sages either; they, too, may not be right. Even if you believe them, you should be alert so that, in the event that something superior comes along, you may follow that.
DOGEN

Alert Believe Either Events Right Sage Word
Why abandon a seat in your own home to wander in vain through dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before your eyes.
DOGEN

Abandon Another Eye Home Land Region Seat Wander
If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?
DOGEN

Buddhist Go Yourself Zen Proverb
Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming.
DOGEN

Blossom Bound Emptiness Grass
I asked, “What are words?” The tenzo said, “One, two, three, four, five.” I asked again, “What is practice?” “Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.”
DOGEN

Ask Cooking Entire Hidden Nothing Practice Said Two Universe Word

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

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Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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