Being Upright Quotes

“In asking to receive the precepts there is an admission that we don’t practice all by ourselves: we need help from the whole universe in order to practice the way fully.”
― Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“In the conventional practice of this precept, we gradually develop skillfulness and warmth in all our relations with the objects of our awareness. By “objects” I mean to include all other beings as well as our own actions of body, speech, and thought. By practicing with our body, speech, and thought as objects, and with animate and inanimate objects throughout our environment, we are laying the foundation for the ultimate practice of good that finally sets all beings free.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“All true goodness of body, speech, and thought spontaneously arise without the slightest deliberation from the joyful beings who are free from all selfishness. Every action of such upright, joyful beings manifests great beneficence upon the Earth.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“graciously arises from renouncing all selfish concerns is the source of embracing and sustaining all good.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Whenever we deny our basic connection with other beings, the bodhisattva precepts are broken.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“When we feel independent or separate from others, we feel anxious about whether they really care about us. We worry that they don’t approve of us or support us, and we may be tempted to lie about what we think and feel in order to gain their approval and support. Feeling separate from others and feeling threatened by their lack of approval, we may deny who we really are.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The fundamental delusion of human beings is the belief that we exist separately and independently from the rest of the universe.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Shakyamuni sat down beneath a bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. He was an advanced yogi and could sit for a long time in pain. But as he sat there, various demonic forces came to challenge him and tempt him to move. One of the demons said, “Who do you think you are, to sit by your own power and realize the way?” This brought some doubt to his mind, and he thought, Maybe I’m being arrogant. I’ll check with the Earth to see if I’m doing this on my own or together with the great Earth. So he touched the Earth with the fingertips of his right hand, and asked the Earth, “Do you witness and support my sitting still?” The Earth shook six ways, and a great roar came up from the Earth like a thousand voices saying, Yes, young man, you do not have to move from this spot.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“We should never take this precious practice so seriously that we lose our sense of humor. One of the wrong views that Shakyamuni Buddha warned his disciples about was the rigid adherence to the conventional understanding of the forms of discipline. It is not that the conventional understanding is wrong, it is just that we should not rigidly hold to it. Although paying attention to minute details of our conduct and bringing our behavior into accord with the precepts is necessary in order to realize the true import of the Buddha’s teaching, this effort is not sufficient for the realization of the ultimate goal.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“When practiced properly, these forms are beautiful expressions of the interdependence of all things. Their true nature is that they have no fixed nature. For this reason, although we practice these forms with precision, strength, and meticulous attention to detail, we are all the while applying the forms with a gentleness and flexibility that arise from the awareness of their true nature.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Nonattachment is the essence of the practice of embracing and sustaining forms and ceremonies. Finding the perfect balance between observing the forms and letting go of them, you realize the liberating potential of this first Pure Precept.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The dawning of this vision of the interdependence of the whole body opens upon a greater vision of the interdependence of your body with all animate and inanimate beings throughout the universe. Just as the whole body brings forth the mudra and the mudra brings forth the whole body, the body brings forth the whole universe and the whole universe brings forth the body. When you practice upright sitting with this mudra, you’ve got the whole world in your hands. Thus it is called the Cosmic Concentration Mudra.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The baby fingers touch the abdomen at the center of gravity of this posture, two or three inches below the navel. The back of the lower hand lightly touches the heel of the upper crossed leg. The arms are held away from the torso in such a way that an egg could be placed under the armpits.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The hands are held in what is called the Cosmic Concentration Mudra. Mudra is a Sanskrit word that means “circle,” “ring,” or “seal.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“As Suzuki Roshi said, “When you bow, there is no buddha and no you. One complete bow takes place. That is all. This is nirvana.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The one who is bowing, the one who is bowed to
Their nature, no nature
My body, other’s body, not two
Plunging into the inexhaustible vow
Living in harmony with all”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Dogen said that when there is bowing in this world, the buddha way flourishes; when there is no bowing in this world, the buddha way perishes.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“In Soto Zen one of the ways of receiving dharma from our teacher is receiving our teacher’s manner of bowing. When I join my palms together in a gesture of respect toward any being, animate or inanimate, I feel the hands of my teachers embodied in my hands. I feel my teachers’ presence in my joined palms. I also feel the presence of their teachers, all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Because of their immense and awesome import to our practice, such greetings are transmitted and performed ceremonially, that is to say, in established and traditional ways.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The character I can also be translated as “right conduct,” “loyal,” “faithful,” “public-spirited,” or “duty to one’s neighbor.” Ceremonies provide a way to unite all these wonderful qualities with our person-hood.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“For Dogen, the “mountains and rivers of the immediate present are the manifestation of the path of the ancient buddhas.”2 We care for everything in the natural and human-made world with utmost respect and devotion. Dogen had a deep veneration for and adamant protectiveness of the great and small trees in the mountains that surrounded Eiheiji (Monastery of Eternal Peace), and he resisted all unnecessary logging there.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Shakyamuni Buddha recommended that his monks plant and see to the care of five trees during their lifetimes. Throughout the Buddhist world the practice of reforestation and revegetation has been followed around many temples and monasteries.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Eiheiji (Monastery of Eternal Peace),”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Another important and difficult regulation for practitioners of the buddha way is to eat and drink moderately, to cast aside all worldly affairs in the realm of nourishing our bodies. This regulation is often phrased as “Eat only what is given at the time it is given.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“We not only practice being on time, but also being at the right place. As an opportunity for training your body and mind, you may voluntarily commit yourself to practicing a daily schedule of meditation, either alone or in a group.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Zen is, in a nutshell, being on time. Not being early and not being late is Zen. When you are early, there is no self who is early. There is just being early. When you are late, there is no self who is late. There is just being late. When you are on time, there is no self who is on time. There is just being on time. This selfless practice of being on time is inseparable from great awakening. Once I asked Suzuki Roshi, “What is right effort?” He said, “To get up with no hesitation when your alarm clock rings.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“In general terms, this precept is an admonition to be impeccable in time and space, including being on time for practice events, eating what is offered, not misusing or wasting the resources of the community or the natural environment, using things in an appropriate manner and returning them to their proper places, and observing the prescribed physical postures and verbal protocols.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“Intimately embracing and sustaining these forms and ceremonies, your attachments to body and mind immediately drop away, and you realize selflessness.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“The Three Pure Precepts are called pure because they have been purified of all duality.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts

“In the third Pure Precept, Buddha’s teaching to purify your mind is transmuted by the bodhisattva vow into “embrace and sustain all beings.” For a bodhisattva, the mind is purified by working for the welfare of others.”
― Tenshin Reb Anderson, Being Upright: Zen Meditation and Bodhisattva Precepts