Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes a story I read, sometimes something that came to me while holding my mala beads.
Hanshan asked Shide: when someone slanders me, cheats me, insults me — how should I deal with it? Shide replied: tolerate him, yield to him, let him be, avoid him, endure him, respect him, pay him no mind.
On a windy day in Guangzhou, a flag flapped outside my window. I stood there watching it and remembered a story from thirteen hundred years ago — two monks arguing about whether it was the wind or the flag that was moving. Huineng said: it's neither. It's your mind that moves. I used to think this was idealism. Now I think it's about something simpler — what makes you suffer isn't what happens outside, but how your mind responds.
On Vulture Peak, the Buddha held up a single flower. Thousands were bewildered. Only Mahākāśyapa smiled. Thus began the mind-to-mind transmission that would become Zen — a timeless teaching about direct awareness beyond words.
Is the wind moving? Is the banner moving? Or is your mind moving? A question that has echoed through thirteen centuries, revealing our attachment to external appearances.
"My mind is uneasy. Please pacify my mind for me." Damo's response made the very mind Huike was desperately seeking completely vanish.
Someone asked Nanquan Puyuan: What is the Way? Nanquan said: Ordinary mind is the Way. The person pressed: Can I aim for it? Nanquan replied: Once you aim, you've already strayed.