Traffic was heavy coming off the bridge
and I took the road to the right, the wrong one,
and got stuck in the car for hours.

Most nights I rushed out into the evening
without paying attention to the trees,
whose names I didn’t know,
or the birds, which flew heedlessly on.

I couldn’t relinquish my desires
or accept them, and so I strolled along
like a tiger that wanted to spring,
but was still afraid of the wildness within.

The iron bars seemed invisible to others,
but I carried a cage around inside me.

I cared too much what other people thought
and made remarks I shouldn’t have made.
I was slient when I should have spoken.

Forgive me, philosophers,
I read the Stoics but never understood them.

I felt that I was living the wrong life,
spiritually speaking,
while halfway around the world
thousands of people were being slaughtered,
some of them by my countrymen.

So I walked on–distracted, lost in thought–
and forgot to attend to those who suffered
far away, nearby.

Forgive me, faith, for never having any.

I did not believe in God,
who eluded me.

– Edward Hirsch

The Seven Points of Practice

Offered by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi in the last formal talk he gave at Antaiji, on February 23, 1975.
Found via Jordan Fountain @ Slow Zen: Asura Dharma

1. Study and practice the Buddha-dharma only for the sake of the Buddha-dharma, not for the sake of human emotions and worldly ideas.

2. Zazen is the most venerable and only true teacher.

3. Zazen must work concretely in our daily lives as the two practices (vow and repentance), the three minds (magnanimous mind, parental mind, and joyful mind), and as the realization of the saying, “Gaining is delusion, losing is enlightenment.”

4. Live by vow and root it deeply.

5. Realizing that development and backsliding are your responsibility alone, endeavor to practice and develop.

6. Sit silently for ten years, then for ten more years, and then for another ten years.

7. Cooperate with one another and aim to create a place where sincere practitioners can practice without trouble.

These are great principles to practice with especially #5 “Realizing that development and backsliding are your responsibility alone, endeavor to practice and develop.” This one hits home today. Forward and backward is up to me alone. Make a firm effort. Not for any care of result. No gain in mind. This seems so abstract when written on a blog. How does one endeavor to to practice and develop in this practice? This is a great topic for study.