Humility is a perpetual quietness of Heart.
It is to have no trouble.
It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore
To wonder at nothing that is done to me
To feel nothing done against me.
It is to be at rest when nobody praises me
Or when I’m blamed or despised;
It is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and
Shut the door
And bow to the universal mystery in secret
And be at peace.
As in a deep sea of calmness,
When all around and about is trouble.
Anonymous
I have great gratitude for Zazen. Zazen has introduced me to this deep silence of non-doing and to the perpetual quietness of Buddha’s heart. More and more, it teaches me to be and do nothing. To let all the “pumping of life” go and to settle back into a cool deep pond of silence. My root teacher, Katagiri-Roshi, called it “returning to silence” and he would just say, “trust the universe” or “the universe will correct.” This is the great relief of spiritual life. The Tao Te Ching calls it, “drinking from the Great Mother’s breasts”, our Prajna-Paramita, The Great Mother of Emptiness.
Perhaps this is the entrance into the Three Doors of Liberation:
1. Emptiness - Shunyata
2. Signlessness – Animitta
3. Aimlessness - Apranihita
From the Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation):
Other people have a purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.
Labels: Humility, non-doing, silence, zazen