Moving freely ...

Only one who has seen through things understands “moving freely as one and the same”.
In this way, rather than relying on your own distinctions, you dwell in the ordinary.
To be ordinary is to be self-reliant; to be self-reliant is to move freely; and to move freely is to arrive.
That’s almost it, because to arrive is to be complete.
But to be complete without understanding how - that is called Way.

From Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters, translated by David Hinton (Berkeley, 2013)

Resting with Tai Ji’s nothingness ...

... even if you practice the movements and don’t get anything else, you will still get the benefit of exercise, and certainly Tai Ji won’t do you any harm! The important thing in Tai Ji is not how well you look but how well you feel. Sometimes you might have very pleasant feelings of lightness, and the practice may also hit a certain part of your mind and help with that too: as the practice becomes more effective you may experience your mind resting with Tai Ji’s nothingness ...

Miss Rose Shao Chiang Li

When I became a bird ...

When I became a bird, Lord, nothing could not stop me.

From Liz Berry, Black Country (London. 2014)

A pure vision of the place where we are ...

The root of the Vajrayana is “pure vision”, or the perception of the perfect purity of all phenomena. To enact this purity of perception, we do not perceive the place where we are now as just any ordinary place; we imagine it to be a celestial buddhafield. As we recite the description in the visualisation, we consider this place itself to be the supreme paradise of Guru Rinpoche, Zangdopalri - the Glorious Copper Coloured Mountain - where everything reflects total perfection. The ground is composed of gold, the trees are wish-fulfilling trees, and the rain is the rainfall of nectar. All beings are dakas and dakinis; the calls of the birds are the sounds of Dharma; the sounds of nature, wind, water, and fire reverberate as the Vajra Guru mantra; and all thoughts are expressions of wisdom and bliss.

From Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Guru Yoga (New York, 1999)

Under the eastern hedge

                                               Shitao: Poetic Feeling of Tao Yuanming

You just go ahead ...

We worry about our adequacy. Am I skillful enough? Am I good enough to do what I am doing? It is so uncertain, and at some point, there’s no help for it. To find our way in life, we will have to have some strong conviction. We’ll just have to go ahead. If you wait until you’re good enough or you’re skilful enough or until you are sure of yourself and are certain to get it right, it may never happen. At some point there’s no help for it, and you just go ahead ...
... You start from where you are standing still, and you accelerate yourself into activity - into hearing and seeing and acting - where things are coming along. But at the same time, there’s no help for it. If you wait for I’m inspired or I’m sure it’s okay, then your whole life may be spent waiting. And over time you may find that worse than going ahead.

From Edward Espe Brown, The Most Important Point (Boulder, 2019)

Summer’s radiance ...

When winter wind scratches and chafes,
we face south and the enduring warmth,

and when summer’s radiance blazes down,
we face north where frost and snow abide.

From The Mountain Poems of Hsieh Ling-yun, translated by David Hinton (New York, 2001)