Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Daily Dharma: This is I


Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

This is I

As wax melts near a lit wick and burns, it emits light near the tip of the candle. For the most part, this place from which light is emitted remains the same and appears as a fixed shape; it is this seemingly unchanging shape that we refer to as flame. That which is called I is similar to the flame. Although both body and mind are an unceasing flow, since they preserve what seems to be a constant form, we refer to them as I. Therefore, actually there is no I existing as some substantial thing; there is only the ceaseless flow.... That there is this seemingly fixed form based on various conditions is interdependence.

~ Kosho Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought; From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.



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