Quotations from My Reading

–from Septology, by the 2023 Nobel Prize laureate Jon Fosse, a Catholic convert:

“and when I wasn’t painting I often spent hour after hour just sitting and staring into space, yes, I can sit for a long time and just stare into empty space, at nothing, and it’s sort of like something can come from the empty nothingness, like something real can come out of the nothingness . . . either that or I can stay sitting there staring into empty space and become completely empty myself, completely still, and it’s in that empty stillness that I like to say my deepest truest prayers, yes, that’s when God is closest, because it’s in the silence that God can be heard, and its in the invisible that He can be seen . . . it’s probably these moments when I’m sitting and staring into empty nothingness, and becoming empty, becoming still, that are my deepest truest prayers, and once I get into the empty stillness I can stay here for a long time, sit like that for a long time, and I don’t even realize I’m sitting there, I just sit and stare into the empty nothingness, and probably in a way I am the empty nothingness I’m looking at, I can sit like that for I don’t know how long but it’s a long, long time, and I believe these silent moments enter into the light in my paintings, the light that is clearest in darkness, yes, the shining darkness . . .

From Seeing One Thing Through: The Zen Life and Teachings of Sojun Mel Weitsman:

“Of all the things that we do in this special place, zazen is the one thing that we really take care of most single-mindedly.  So it seems like a very special practice to us.  When we sit, our body, mind, and breath become unified, become one.  We call this unification shikantaza.  In the morning we get up and come to the zendo, unifying body and mind, dropping all barriers.  That becomes our starting point, our zero point.  From this zero point we step out into the world.

“. . . This is the most basic kind of religious practice.  I feel very fortunate to have this most basic religious practice, which is verified by our own effort and experience.  I think the reason most of us come to this practice is because of its truthful simplicity.  There are people here from different cultures and backgrounds, and yet every person here can meet in this space.  Every person here can meet and find a unity in this space.

“I began to practice Zen for this reason.  It became obvious to me that zazen was a universal religious practice that everyone could enter into.  Even though zazen is a so-called Buddhist practice, you do not have to be a Buddhist to practice this unification of body and mind with everyone. . . .

When we enter the zendo, whether we are Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, or any religion, when we sit down, everything falls away; there is no Buddhist or Christian or Jewish person.  There is just sitting.  Everything is one.  When we get up and take a step, we become Christian, or Buddhist, or Jewish, or man, or woman, or Black, or white, and then we can fight and kick and argue with each other.  But when we sit, it does not make any difference.  So I feel that zazen is the basic religious practice before religious practice.”