Roshi Andrew Shugyo Bonnici, Ph.D.
Teachings On Zen Embodiment
* Roshi’s Teachings Page Two *
* Roshi’s Teaching Video Page Three *
© 2012-2015 All Rights Reserved
Permission From Author Is Required
To Live the Way of Ungraspable Enlightenment Itself
"Cherish this day with deep gratitude. Take refuge in the unborn stillness and birthless silence of your core-Self. Meet each moment that arises as your very first and your very last. Enjoy the exuberance and spontaneity of your beginner's heartmind. Embrace vast impermanence as the brilliant freshness of your everyday life and relationships. Treasure the practice of loving and being loved far beyond resistance, defensiveness, and fear. Save all beings and things by daily expressing your wholehearted presence, your deep caring, your magnanimous openness, and your simple Way of being Truth like the wetness of raindrops and the rough bark of trees."
March 3, 2015
The Infant's Way Of Falling And Arising On True Ground
"If you are asked, 'How can you walk in ungraspable enlightenment right here and now, even though you confidently rest in not-gaining, not-attaining, and not-knowing?' You can simply answer, 'It is like an infant taking its first steps; stumbling, falling on true ground, and arising to endlessly begin again.' We do not try to hide the falling or avoid its bright wisdoming. However, we do not stay in bondage to our sleeping in thinking mind or ego-self. We do not attach to passing thoughts of judgement, guilt, or shame. We do not push away inner forgiveness and compassion; nor do we paint a false illumination or an illusory awakening in the empty sky. This would only keep us falling on false ground while cutting us off from the brilliant life-force of our two feet. The infant does not know denial, rationalization, deception, pride, arrogance, or dishonesty. The infant simply falls, accepts the falling, senses the support of true ground, and stands with two feet to endlessly begin again. If you fall and stand in the basic goodness and sincerity of your beginner's heartmind, then you can stand naturally upright like baby buddha. Then you can honestly say, 'In-between heaven and earth, I live ungraspable enlightenment from the still integrity of my core-Self while in boundless intimacy, vast impermanence, and limitless interdependency with all beings and things."
February 13, 2015
Our Beginner's Heartmind
"Our beginner’s heartmind is exactly the heartmind of magnanimous openness, wondrous freshness, and childlike curiosity. It is exactly our original heartmind of simplicity, naturalness and spontaneity. The effortless authenticity of beginner’s heartmind is akin to the calming presence of streams, stones, and trees. The brilliant exuberance of beginner's heartmind mirrors the joyful wildness of spinning dolphins and the jubilant leaps of breaching whales. All the ancients who embodied the Way of boundless intimacy and limitless interdependency have proclaimed that beginner's heartmind is immeasurably deep, endlessly profound, and vitally playful beyond intending."
February 22, 2015
The Hub Of Our Daily Life
"To strictly or rigidly discipline ourselves to sit in zazen-only is to lose touch with a beginner's Way of daily romancing Zen as this Only Moment Body of limitless wonder and bright wakefulness. On the other hand, if we do not consciously choose to make zazen-only the necessary hub upon which our daily life turns, we will not come to realize liberation from the traps and cages of ego-self and thinking mind; nor will we embody the peace of an endless beginner who gratefully enjoys boundless intimacy and vast Oneness with all beings and things."
April 3, 2015
Not-Knowing And Not-Intending
"White clouds drift across the vast blue sky to proclaim the tranquility and brilliance of not-knowing. Mountain streams flow effortlessly downwards to proclaim the wisdom and serenity of not-intending. Sitting with ease and joy in zazen-only is just like this."
February 18, 2015
The Half-Opened Eyes Of Zazen-Only
"The practice of keeping our eyes slightly open during zazen-only is crucial to living the body of Zen meditation while passionately engaging in the activities and relationships of our everyday life. Our half-opened eyes in zazen-only are like two mirrors that graciously reflect things just as they are. We do not focus or concentrate our half-opened eyes on just one thing to the exclusion of everything else within our visual field. Rather, we openly and unconditionally see what is before us without ignoring or excluding anything.
We keep our mirror gaze ever fresh, relaxed, and at ease. If our visual field begins to grow dim or diffuse, we do not drift or float in the illusory sky of dimness and diffusion. This is not our Way. Our Way is to gently bring our vision back to its pristine crispness and natural clarity while taking refuge in seeing and being with things just as they are. All this supports our daily practice of Zen that is the lucid Way of seeing all beings, things, and circumstances just as they are while compassionately meeting them with the brilliant freshness and magnanimous openness of our beginner’s heartmind."
March 9, 2015
Embodying The Ungraspable Way
"Step confidently forward! The silent ground of an illuminating darkness will always uphold you; the lucid stillness of a shining light will always meet you. Face the unknown with the fearless curiosity and wonder of beginner’s heartmind. Always be the cross roads of life and death right here and now. Just let go and trust the bright wisdoming of each passing moment. Fly and soar in the vast Oneness of total reality! Take refuge in your boundless intimacy and limitless interdependency with all beings and things. Courageously be your core-Self that is far beyond doubt, anxiety, hatred, greed, confusion, and a world full of lacking, drivenness, and endless chatter."
March 12, 2014
The Time Of Choosing
"The time of forgetting ego-self, wholly embodying the still intelligence of core-Self, and compassionately doing with beginner's heartmind is the time of brilliantly living beyond I, me, and mine. The time of hesitating, resisting, and pushing away is the time of fear. The time of thinking it cannot be done is the time of avoiding your own greatness. The time of thinking about what others are thinking of your Way of living, being, and doing is the time of your own bondage. Which time do you choose to be?"
February 2, 2015
When Our Life Is Only Thinking
"When we think we hear the ordinary sounds of everyday life, we miss the vast stillness and silent illumination of their unfathomable depth. When we think we are listening to what others are saying, we miss the true mark of understanding with empathic caring and visceral core presence. When we think we see while reactively labeling, habituating, and comparing, we can no longer look with the brilliant and exuberant freshness of beginner's heartmind. When we think we know while aggressively protecting, deceitfully promoting, and belligerently advancing our one-sided views and beliefs, we demonstrate our felt inadequacy, our ignobility, and our deepest fear of dying to ego-self within the boundless intimacy, vast Oneness, and limitless interdependency of total reality."
March 17, 2015
Incomparable Flower
"When you just sit inside of zazen-only, you are a precious and incomparable flower blooming in the timeless and life giving desert of vast impermanence."
March 21, 2015
Just Being The Bow
"In our Soto Way of Zen, we bow to wholeheartedly honor our visceral experience of vast Oneness, timelessness, boundless intimacy, and non-duality. We daily practice just being the bow to conscientiously live a simple, creative, loving, productive, and compassionate life even as we logically blend with the wisdom of causality, the daily passage of linear time, and the interpersonal dance of duality."
March 25, 2015
