The Light That Shines through Infinity Quotes

“I and all beings on the great earth both simultaneously attain enlightenment together.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Oneness between you and breathing enables you to feel that your life is worth living. This is perfection of concentration: your mind is unified, and there is no gap between breath and you. There is just breathing—the rhythm of life. This is samadhi. When you practice zazen as samadhi, your zazen is not just you; it’s the rhythm of the whole universe.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“We have to learn how to tune in because what we do influences ourselves and others. When you get up in the morning, you don’t get up by yourself. Your getting up is activity that connects all beings, influencing all beings, so it must be activity that is confirmed by all beings and helping all beings. When your activity is peaceful and your life is harmonious, it is called right mindfulness, or not forgetting mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness as an awareness of enlightenment is unifying your mind. Zen practice retreats are called sesshin. In Japanese, ses is “to collect” or “put together,” and shin is “the mind.” So the meaning of sesshin is to unify the mind: that mind is the one mind of the universe, which is now your mind. Your unified mind is lots of minds, collected as one. This is called mind–full–ness. This mindfulness is your destination, your great target to aim at.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Dogen Zenji said, “When one side appears, the other is in darkness.” It’s like a sheet of paper: when you use one side of the paper, the other side is simultaneously there. As a practical matter, it’s not necessary to point out the other side. All you have to do is use this side and the other is already with you.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“The intersection of time and space is the unique place for you to be present and alive as you really are. But it’s pretty hard to be there. We don’t really know how to deal with the huge energies arising there. Still, if you seek a calm mind, the important point to learn is the exact, precise point where you manifest your own life and simultaneously the life of the whole universe. That is why we practice zazen. In zazen, as simple as we can, we try to just be present at the intersection where this very moment is functioning. At that time, in that place, there is no way to analyze zazen as something separate from you. All you can do is just be one with zazen as the rhythm of life and communicate directly with zazen using your whole body and mind. Then, through your skin, muscle, and bone, zazen teaches you the pure nature of human activity. Sitting right in the middle of the original, lively quality of human life is called shikantaza. Zazen as shikantaza is nothing but dynamic function and movement. That’s all! There is nothing else. When you see your life in terms of the human world and simultaneously in terms of real reality, many possibilities come up. Each moment is a unique opportunity for you to create your life anew. The time and space of whatever you do—saying “good morning,” having a meal together, or sitting zazen—is the precise point where you digest the life of all sentient beings and create new life. This is our practice every day. It is also the practice of the whole universe.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“So let go of your strong attachment to your individual self enough to see how your own life is supported by others’ lives.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“In the realm of space, your life is nothing but the lively energy of life, interconnecting with everything. So you are not you; you are all sentient beings—all that exists, animate and inanimate. Even though you are one small being, this one being is produced by many things. That is the big scale of your being. You can trust in the big scale of your life, but you cannot always live there. If you try to stay in space, your individual life is completely up in the air. You are a being who is also present in the time process. So come down to the earth and express this energy in your daily life. In daily life, there is no reason why you have to attach to yourself or your ideas too much. You are you in time, but simultaneously in space you are not you because you exist with all sentient beings. Even though you are exactly you, still, wherever you go you are interconnected with others.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Taking Care of Everyday Life Your life possesses a very strong power because it is the lively energy of life. That energy is always present in your life. You can depend on it, but that doesn’t mean you can use it to build up your ego. How to express your energy in your daily life is always a question. We have to be careful. Whatever we may do, we have to find the best way to live in the human world by expressing the energy of life in a concrete way. How? Take care of yourself and simultaneously don’t attach to yourself too much. You cannot ignore your existence in the realm of time. You have to live as an individual person and take care of your life in a practical way. The problem is that we are always looking at our life only in terms of the time process. We’re attached to being separate from others and having our own ideas and opinions. This is a problem because you do not live only by your own effort. Without the effort of myriad other beings supporting your life, you would die. So you also cannot ignore your existence in the realm of space.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“At the intersection of time and space, everything exists separately and everything exists interconnected. That is the pivotal point where the incipient moment is functioning. This very moment is the place where you are fully alive as you really are: you are individual you in time and your existence is interrelated with all beings in space. So you are you, and simultaneously you are not you. This is reality. It seems to be contradictory, but we live in that reality. You are connected with the whole universe—you cannot escape. That’s why, as clear as we can, we have to understand the reality we are present in.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“In space you cannot say who you are, but in time your senses function and you can recognize yourself. If you want to understand your life, you have to understand both: the practical, impermanent realm of the time process and the interconnected, eternal realm of space. Then you can understand the place where those two aspects of life are unified. That is the intersection of time and space.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Dogen’s way of forgetting the self is to merge into the rhythm of life itself and experience the real meaning of existence. At that time you realize your true self. When you pass by your small, egoistic self and pay attention to the big scale of self, you find that your life is supported by the whole world. Then your life is very broad. It contains all beings and influences all circumstances, imparting wonderful fragrances everywhere.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Dogen Zenji says, very simply, about the essence of Buddhist practice: To study the Buddha way is to study the self, To study the self is to forget the self, To forget the self is to be confirmed by all beings, To be confirmed by all beings is to be free from your body and mind and the body and mind of others.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“breath of life or the cosmic energy of the life force. That energy is already yours, so welcome it into your awareness. Tuning in to the universal life force lets you see yourself in a different way: you belong to the flow of life. That realization brings relief and joy. It also changes your way of thinking about your life and guides you to live in a beneficial way, giving wisdom and compassion to yourself and others.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“Meditation lets us witness the stories we tell ourselves. We see how our busy mind works, how it limits and controls us, and then we calmly step aside from it. When you step aside and let go of your story, you create a space. The space between your story and your life is the place where you discover the deeper nature of human life.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life

“To take care of your life is to burn the flame of your life force in everything you do.”
― Dainin Katagiri, The Light That Shines through Infinity: Zen and the Energy of Life