Pieces from my last reading: Saltwatter Buddha – A surfer`s quest to find zen on the sea by Jaimal Yogis

Zen

”But maybe if I had been calmer, I might have seen other options, might have avoided creating so much worry.

Or not. I really don’t know.“

About Thich Nhat Hanh: ”But it wasn’t even what he said. It was how he said it, how he moved. What his being exuded. I have never seen such peace and kindness on a human’s face. I decided that day that I would be a Buddhist monk, too.”

Surf

*In Hawaii, many many many years ago, when the surf was too big even for the chiefs, it was called ”Awili” a word meant that the gods were surfing.

*Hawaiians gradually lost much of their land and all their autonomy when the U.S annexed Hawaii as a territory in 1898.

*Hesitation can make things far worse than complete commitment.

Surfers: They are ”more cocky and judgmental than any group of people in the world.”

Quotes

”Ike aku; like mai; kokua aku, kokua mai.” – Recognize others, be recognized; help others, be helped. – Hawaiian proverb

”In the beginner`s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are a few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

I get that…

”It was perfect: free yoga classes every morning, three all-you-can-eat vegetarian feasts per day, a pool, and a bunch of lots ouls like us trying to forget that they were lost”

”I took a lifelong vow against killing (and fighting) that I’d upheld thus far – with the exception of a few mosquitoes, which I regret”

”The wave always ended. the special meditative state always ended. Impermanence was inescapable, omnipresent.”

”Because in all my bliss-following I’ve also learned something else – My bliss doesn’t pay too well.”

”The extremely good stuff – chocolate and great sex and weddings and hilarious jokes – fills a minute portion of an adult lifespan. The rest of life is the paddling: work, paying bills, flossing, getting sick, dying. I started to entertain the thought that maybe I could start to deal better with that kind of paddling too.”

”The problem is that most of us don’t want to be monks or nuns. We probably want a romantic relationship, not to mention an occasional good movie, and a nice new surfboard once a year. And that means we have to work.

… If you are not going to be a monk, you need a Right Livehood, meant doing something for a living that does not harm others.”

”Universal principle: confront your fears and they transform.”

”I could list a thousand others rises and falls – such things are, after all, what is to be human. We all love the highs, the rush, the perfect rides. But here’s the thing I’ve learned: listen to the low tides too, accept them, surrender to them – and cherish them as well. They too are rich.”

”Most surf spots are best at low tide when the ocean’s ribs are exposed and vulnerable. People are like this too. When we’re hurting, when we feel rejected or unloved, our usual complacent approaches and all our hard-shelled survival mechanisms no longer seem to work. But lotus grows from mud – and from brokenness, in my experience, beautiful things emerge…We’re forced to go on retreat, into silence, into the realization that this feeble body and brain can’t do it all.”