Originally Posted by
Jundo
"Every day is a good day" ... 日々是好日 ...
Might I respectfully suggest that it is not really a matter of "looking for the bright side" in the hard days, the "silver lining" in the clouds. It is not merely saying that "hard times build character" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (even if true sometimes). Toss such bumper sticker, fortune cookie crap in the crapper!
Rather, what happens when you drop all thought of "good" "bad" "how things should be" or "I wish they would be"? What happens when you drop "you" clean away? What is beyond your little self and its demands on the world, on life? What happens when the walls come tumbling down holding this self-life-world apart, both the sunny days and the rain?
Nishijima Roshi, and countless other teachers, say that Buddhism is a positive, even optimistic philosophy (despite all the talk of "suffering", the real focus is not that ... but "Liberation"). When we drop thoughts and selfish judgments and appraisals, what remains is ... not an empty nihilistic hole, not directionless chaos, not greyness, not darkness ... but peace, freedom and fertile possibility! Not an empty hole ... there is Wholeness. Even a Wholly Holy Wholeness.
There is something about this reality that is positive, not negative, going in the direction all needs to go, so Beautiful ... even though ugly sometimes. It is a Beauty encountered when we drop all small human judgments and demands of "beautiful" (small 'b') and ugly.
And, while it is not always us, we are just that.
I sometimes compare our attitude to that of innocent babes with a deep trust in this source and world that birthed us, that feeds us and which somehow allows us air to breathe. Sure, it is not a perfect place as we might always wish it to be (and certainly, if I were in charge of its making, I might choose to do things a bit differently), but it is an amazing place and a miracle that we are here. Do you know all that was involved in allowing that to be, in allowing you to be ... from the stars ... to the flowers and trees ... every twist and turn of history and natural conditions that allowed you to be?
No, as the spring time comes following the winter, and life returns ... I say that we are grateful to that which allows it all to be, and us to be. Thank you.
In dropping our sense of separate self, we trade our limited perspective (as but tiny cogs, pointlessly spinning) for a vision of the whole "Universal Machine" ... 'tis precisely us, and we are that. Amazing!! AMAZING!
Gassho, Jundo