"I grumbled because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet,..." Confucius

Be present as the watcher of your mind- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.

Eckhart Tolle

Whether you are going or staying or sitting or lying down, the whole world is your own self. You must find out whether the mountains, rivers, grass, and forests exist in your own mind or exist outside it. Analyze the ten thousand things, dissect them minutely, and when you take this to the limit you will come to the limitless, when you search into it you come to the end of search, where thinking goes no further and distinctions vanish. When you smash the citadel of doubt, then the Buddha is simply yourself.

- Daikaku (1213-1279)

I have only got one book at hand, but it is a good one:

Eckhart Tolle:

"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind, which is to say as long as you are unconcious, spiritually speaking. I am talking here primarily of emotional pain, which is also the main cause of physical pain and physical disease. Resentment, hatred, self-pity, guilt, anger, depression, jealosy, and so on, even the slightest irritation, are all forms of pain. And every pleasure or emotional high contains within itself the seed of pain: its inseparable opposite, which will manifest in time."

" There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body."

People who study Buddhism in the present day should for now seek truly accurate vision and understanding. Then life and death will not influence you, and you will be free to leave or to stay. You do not need to seek the extraordinary, for the extraordinary will come of itself.

- Lin Chi (d 867?)

When the judgement comes from compassion,

you see your life clearly,

accept that you`re human and allow the past to go.

Eckhart Tolle:

Watch out for any kind of defensiveness within yourself. What are you defending? An illusory identity, an image in your mind, a fictitious entity. By making this pattern concious, by witnessing it, you disidentify from it. In the light of your conciousness, the unconcious pattern will then quickly dissolve.

Was it all a dream?

I mean those old bygone days.

Were they what they seemed?

All night long I lie awake

Listening to autumn rain

Ryokan (1758-1831)

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

- Anais Nin

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.Albert Einstein

Just put thoughts to rest;

Don’t seek outwardly anymore.

When things come up,

Then give them your attention;

Just trust what is functional

In you at present,

And you have nothing

To be concerned about.

- Linji (d. 867)

Buddhas of the past and future only talk about this mind. The mind is the buddha. And the buddha is the mind. Beyond the mind there’s no buddha. And beyond the buddha there’s no mind. If you think there’s a buddha beyond the mind, where is he? There’s no buddha beyond the mind, so why envision one? You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself. As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free. If you don’t believe me, deceiving yourself doesn’t help. It’s not the buddha’s fault. People, though, are deluded. They’re unaware that their own mind is the buddha. Otherwise, they wouldn’t look for a buddha outside the mind.

- Bodhidharma (d. 533)

In the phrase "perfect endowment," endowment refers to the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, while perfect means that, since there is mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, then any one world contains all the other worlds, indicating that this is "perfect."

Each of the Ten Worlds manifests its own Buddhahood.

Nicheren

I walk by this often, ... maybe a little simplistic but I try to keep this in mind thru my day,

“You think that good is hating what is bad. What is bad is the hating mind itself.”

—Bon Kai

cobra,was the photograph taken at Wat Umon,Chiang Mai?

Individuality and Rebellion

An individual is bound to be a rebel. An individual is a non-conformist, he cannot conform. He can say yes only to things which he feels are worth saying yes to, but it depends on his own feeling, his own intuitive understanding, his own intelligence. He cannot be forced to yield. He can surrender out of love, but he cannot be made to surrender; he would rather die than surrender.

Stop searching for phrases

and chasing after words.

Take the backward step

and turn the light inward.

Your body-mind of itself

will drop off,

and your original face will appear.

If you want to attain just this,

immediately practice just this.

- Dogen 1227