everyday is a good day

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Taigu
    Blue Mountain White Clouds Hermitage Priest
    • Aug 2008
    • 2710

    everyday is a good day

    As I was browsing through a few calligraphies of Kodo Sawaki, I bumped into this one:

    5b05[1].jpg

    Everyday is a good day

    A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

    Life itself.

    Just life.

    Life.

    Here and now, we have got it all.

    gassho


    Taigu
  • Rich
    Member
    • Apr 2009
    • 2614

    #2
    Good way to start the day. Thanks.
    _/_
    Rich
    MUHYO
    無 (MU, Emptiness) and 氷 (HYO, Ice) ... Emptiness Ice ...

    https://instagram.com/notmovingmind

    Comment

    • RichardH
      Member
      • Nov 2011
      • 2800

      #3
      Thank you, Taigu.

      Gassho, kojip

      Comment

      • Kyonin
        Treeleaf Priest / Engineer
        • Oct 2010
        • 6746

        #4
        Life is what is.

        Thank you, Taigu.

        Gassho,

        Kyonin
        Hondō Kyōnin
        奔道 協忍

        Comment

        • Heisoku
          Member
          • Jun 2010
          • 1338

          #5
          I heard this also from an unemployed guy, who happened to overhear two student whining about being broke. I always wondered how he came to this. Well since then I have learnt also!
          Thank you Taigu. I am still learning this one.
          Heisoku 平 息
          Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Basho)

          Comment

          • Jiken
            Member
            • Jan 2011
            • 753

            #6
            Gassho Taigu

            Daido

            Comment

            • Nindo

              #7
              Thank you Taigu.


              Once I bought my monthly bus ticket in a convenience store run by an Asian fellow, maybe a Chinese immigrant or Korean. He said the usual "Have a good day" and I said "Every day is a good day" - which made him look at me quizzically and he said "Ah, you know that one..."

              And yesterday I went to a jazz performance by Sheila Jordan who is just shy of her 84th birthday, with her bass partner Cameron Brown. They were completely dedicated to the music, in the music. She said all she ever wanted in life was to keep this music alive. Music is also bigger than us.
              Music itself.
              Just music.
              Music.

              Comment

              • Mp

                #8
                Beautiful Taigu ... thank you.

                Gassho
                Michael

                Comment

                • Kyonin
                  Treeleaf Priest / Engineer
                  • Oct 2010
                  • 6746

                  #9
                  Taigu,

                  How do you say that phrase in Japanese?

                  Thank you!

                  Gassho,

                  Kyonin
                  Hondō Kyōnin
                  奔道 協忍

                  Comment

                  • Taigu
                    Blue Mountain White Clouds Hermitage Priest
                    • Aug 2008
                    • 2710

                    #10
                    Hi Kyonin,

                    In old Japanese: Nichi nichi kore kojitsu
                    in modern Japanese: hibi kore kojitsu

                    here is a lovely vid of Harada roshi tracing the kanji with his brush:

                    Shodo Harada Roshi, the head of the Rinzai Zen monastery of Sogenji, Okayama, Japan, giving a demonstration of Zen Calligraphy. Harada Roshi is also the head...



                    gassho

                    (and my Japanese is almost non existent by the way)


                    Taigu

                    Comment

                    • pinoybuddhist
                      Member
                      • Jun 2010
                      • 462

                      #11
                      A lovely reminder for the morning. Thank you.



                      Raf
                      Originally posted by Taigu
                      As I was browsing through a few calligraphies of Kodo Sawaki, I bumped into this one:

                      [ATTACH=CONFIG]655[/ATTACH]

                      Everyday is a good day

                      A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

                      Life itself.

                      Just life.

                      Life.

                      Here and now, we have got it all.

                      gassho


                      Taigu

                      Comment

                      • Patrick
                        Member
                        • Jul 2011
                        • 30

                        #12
                        Magnifique ! Thank you.
                        Patrick__________________________
                        Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. -Voltaire
                        The better is the enemy of the good. -Voltaire

                        Comment

                        • Yugen

                          #13
                          Taigu
                          I have begun to revisit Sawaki's words through your posting and they are sustaining me right now, in a difficult time. Thank you Taigu, and to all here.

                          Gassho
                          Yugen

                          Comment

                          • Kyonin
                            Treeleaf Priest / Engineer
                            • Oct 2010
                            • 6746

                            #14
                            Thank you, Taigu.

                            This will be my phrase for the days to come.

                            Gassho,

                            Kyonin

                            Originally posted by Taigu
                            Hi Kyonin,

                            In old Japanese: Nichi nichi kore kojitsu
                            in modern Japanese: hibi kore kojitsu

                            here is a lovely vid of Harada roshi tracing the kanji with his brush:

                            Shodo Harada Roshi, the head of the Rinzai Zen monastery of Sogenji, Okayama, Japan, giving a demonstration of Zen Calligraphy. Harada Roshi is also the head...



                            gassho

                            (and my Japanese is almost non existent by the way)


                            Taigu
                            Hondō Kyōnin
                            奔道 協忍

                            Comment

                            • Jundo
                              Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                              • Apr 2006
                              • 40295

                              #15
                              Nonin Chowaney from Nebraska Zen Center has a simple, clear comment on this (Nonin, by the way, is a cancer survivor with one lung, a host of other health issues and a heck of a lot of fight) ...

                              As Taigu reminds us above, "everyday is a good day" is not some simple bumper sticker, but includes the ugly, the sad, even the most terrible of days. Taigu says ...

                              A famous statement, thunderous, breaking through our beliefs that tomorrow will be great and yesterday was better, something not for the faint hearted, something for what has courage in us, not for the victim, the abused, the oppressed, the destitute, the jobless soul, the lonely one, the bored, the angry guy, the weeping eye... For all these guys that we can sometimes be, a statement that says that As it is, raw, complete and intense, it is just good. It is good and we may cry, shout, beg, giggle, kick, strike or fly way...It is bigger than us, bigger than anything we can think of.

                              ------------------------


                              Everyday is a Good Day - by Nonin Chowaney


                              A couple of years ago, it snowed in Omaha on April 29th. I had wanted to work in the garden that day and when I looked out the window, my heart sank.

                              Later, I walked downstairs and mentioned that it was snowing to Albert, one of our group. "Yes," he responded, "there's something quite beautiful about these late Spring snowstorms."

                              Indeed there is, if you can approach them with an open mind; if you approach them with complaint because there'll be no gardening, they can be a real pain.

                              Lama Govinda writes that, "All suffering arises from attitude. The world is neither good nor bad. It is solely our relationship to it which makes it either one or the other." Snow on April 29th, or any weather condition on any other day, for that matter, is neither good nor bad. Good and bad is a question of mental attitude.

                              Moment-by-moment, we create the world in the mind. We can look out and create a gloomy, depressing world on any day by the condition of mind we bring to it. A depressed mind can make a bright, sunshiny day black and dreary, and a contented mind can create heaven out of rain and storm.

                              I am reminded of the old Zen saying, "Every day is a good day." What determines this? The mind that dwells nowhere; the mind that accepts everything. This is nirvana.

                              Nirvana may be understood as the absence of greed, anger (or aversion), and delusion. In other words, it's a state of mind. If we can approach whatever life brings us with the mind free from greed, aversion, and delusion, or accept things as they are without grasping for more or turning away from what's there, we cultivate the mental state known as nirvana, quiescence, or, heart-mind at peace with what is.

                              This does not mean passivity. It does not mean that we lay back and not move. What it means is that we start from zero, from acceptance of our lives as they are, and move from there. In that way we are not kept from or hindered in our living by complaining, grousing, or blaming others for the conditions of our lives. Every moment, then, affords us the opportunity to practice awakening, nirvana, enlightenment. When we sit zazen, we cultivate this practice.

                              The instruction for zazen is to cultivate the mind that abides nowhere, the mind of non-attachment. We are to allow thoughts to come and go, to arise without denial or suppression and to pass away without clinging. Angry thoughts about the boss? Let them come and let them go. Contentment with a lover? Let it come and let it go. I can't garden because it's snowing? Let it come and let it go. This practice does not aim for any particular state of mind; it is in and of itself the awakened state; sometimes it is called "cultivating the natural condition of mind."

                              Buddha, the awakened one, taught the Way to end human dissatisfaction, and nothing more. He taught that the end to suffering is non-attachment, non-clinging. This is the practice of zazen. Gradually, we are able to also cultivate this practice when standing, walking, or lying down; our life itself is enlightenment.

                              A mind that can abide anywhere is always content, even when suffering greatly. This is liberation; suffering is gone through. We accept what comes, live it, and move on.

                              ...

                              ... One moment, pain and suffering; the next, joy and relief. This all occurs in the mind; we create the world we live in. We sometimes cannot change the circumstances we live in, but we can always change our attitude. If we can learn to let go, it will change by itself.

                              As Lama Govinda said, "All suffering arises from attitude. The world is neither good nor bad. It is solely our relationship to it which makes it either one or the other." So, even if it's a bad day, "every day is a good day."

                              Last edited by Jundo; 10-16-2012, 03:50 AM.
                              ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                              Comment

                              Working...