Excerpts from
To you
by Sawaki Kôdô Rôshi
“At some point you’ve got to slap yourself in the face and seriously ask yourself: is your personal gain or loss really worth this overwhelming joy and suffering?
Sooner or later everyone starts thinking of nothing besides themselves. You say, “That was good!” But what was good? It was only good for you personally, that’s all.
Why is it that we humans are so wiped out? It is the constant effort to gain a little advantage that wipes us out.
Illusion means being unstable. Illusion means being controlled by the situation.
A person with big desires is easily fooled. Even the greatest conman can’t profit from a person with no desires.
Buddhism means no self, nothing to gain. You must be one with the universe and all living beings.
All beings are mistaken: we see as happiness that which leads to unhappiness, and weep over an unhappiness which isn’t unhappiness at all. We all know the child whose tears suddenly turn into laughter when you give him a cookie. What we living beings call happiness isn’t much more than that.”