David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Prayer

  • Do Not Think Good, Do Not Think Not-Good

    When he became emancipated the sixth patriach received from the fifth patriach the bowl and robe given from the Buddha to his successors, generation after generation.
    A monk named E-myo out of envy pursued the patriach to take this great treasure away from him. The sixth patriach placed the bowl and robe on a stone in the road and told E-myo: `These objects just symbolize the faith. There is no use fighting over them. If you desire to take them, take them now.’

    When E-myo went to move the bowl and robe they were as heavy as mountains. He could not budge them. Trembling for shame he said: `I came wanting the teaching, not the material treasures. Please teach me.’

    The sixth patriach said: `When you do not think good and when you do not think not-good, what is your true self?’

    At these words E-myo was illumined. Perspiration broke out all over his body. He cried and bowed, saying: `You have given me the secret words and meanings. Is there yet a deeper part of the teaching?’

    The sixth patriach replied: `What I have told you is no secret at all. When you realize your true self the secret belongs to you.’

    E-myo said: `I was under the fifth patriach for many years but could not realize my true self until now. Through your teaching I find the source. A person drinks water and knows himself whether it is cold or warm. May I call you my teacher?’

    The sixth patriach replied: `We studied together under the fifth patriach. Call him your teacher, but just treasure what you have attained.’

    Mumon’s Comment: The sixth patriach certainly was kind in such an emergency. If was as if he removed the skin and seeds from the fruit and then, opening the pupil’s mouth, let him eat.

    You cannot describe it, you cannot picture it,
    You cannot admire it, you cannot sense it.
    It is your true self, it has nowhere to hide.
    When the world is destroyed, it will no be destroyed.

  • Nine of Cups

    a sense of inner fulfilment and bliss, which radiates outward to touch everybody with whom you come into contact.

    inner harmony, contentment and tranquillity

    to mark periods of high achievement, and the resulting sense of pleasure and satisfaction

    enjoy your own feelings, to revel in your sense of calmness and joy.

    open ourselves to the infinite blessings of the Universe, and we will be surrounded by warm happy loving energy

    love IS all around us.

    look until you find something perfect; seek till you discover something beautiful;

  • Kashapa’s Preaching Sign


    Anada asked Kashapa: `Buddha gave you the golden-woven robe of successorship. What else did he give you?’
    Kashapa said: `Ananda.’

    Ananda answered: `Yes, brother.’

    Said Kashapa: `Now you can take down my preaching sign and put up your own.’


    Mumon’s Comment: If one understands this, he will see the old brotherhood still gathering, but if not, even though he has studied the truth from ages before the Buddhas, he will not attain enlightenment.


    The point of the question is dull but the answer is intimate.
    How many persons hearing it will open their eyes?
    Elder brother calls and younger brother answers,
    This spring does not belong to the ordinary season.

  • Three of Swords

    Affirmation: I trust myself to feel my own pain

    loss of balance and disharmony.

    a big blow to the self-esteem

    always come up during a period of unhappiness, confusion or disturbance.

    agree to give yourself a break!

    start of the recovery period

    It helps a little to know when the tide is going to begin to turn in your favour.

    indecision leads to sadness and frustration.

    don’t advocate suffering as an efficient spiritual tool, but there are times when, since you hurt anyhow, you can direct the deep emotional experience into new insight. And in so doing, you might well find your way through your pain with fewer after-effects and dark memories.

  • Dried Dung

    A monk asked Ummon: `What is Buddha?’ Ummon answered him: `Dried dung.’


    Mumon’s Comment: It seems to me Ummon is so poor he cannot distinguish the taste of one food from another, or else he is too busy to write readable letters. Well, he tried to hold his school with dried dung. And his teaching was just as useless.


    Lightning flashes,
    Sparks shower.
    In one blink of your eyes
    You have missed seeing.

  • Ten of Swords

    presage a painful, even devastating event

    the power in our own minds.

    we pay too little attention to ensuring that we make only good things for ourselve

    an unexpected, shocking and traumatic upheaval.

    what we think today creates tomorrow.

    Positive thinking is a habit.

    We need to monitor our thoughts and feelings VERY carefully.

    Now, carefully go back over the last few months (or years) looking for something in your own actions, thoughts, feelings that seems connected with this unhappy situation. And take a hard look at how your thoughtforms might have created it.

    rule number 1 is to refuse to be judgmental, guilty or angry with yourself

    Rule number 2 is to accept what you find, do what you need to do to mend it, and then enjoy the sense of positive energy that comes from treating yourself and life with love and respect.

  • Mariners Prayer List

  • The Enlightened Man


    Shogen asked: `Why does the enlightened man not stand on his feet and explain himself?’ And he also said: `It is not necessary for speech to come from the tongue.’

    Mumon’s Comment: Shogen spoke plainly enough, but how many will understand? If anyone comprehends, he should come to my place and test out my big stick. Why, look here, to test real gold you must see it through fire.

    If the feet of enlightenment moved, the great ocean would overflow;
    If that head bowed, it would look down upon the heavens.
    Such a body hsa no place to rest….
    Let another continue this poem.


  • Five of Cups

    disappointed – we feel that way because an expectation we had is not fulfilled, whether by ourselves or by somebody else.

    failed to resolved an old difficulty, or that – realistic or not – our expectations are about to be disappointed.

    disappointment itself is an emotion and therefore belongs to Cups. Aside from locating where the problem lies, there’s rarely much that can be done except preparing ourselves to accept the inevitable consequence of being alive – into each life a little rain must fall etc.etc.

    internal beliefs and expectations.

    Hope is a fighter.no matter how much we try to squash it down,

    spend some time assessing your expectations.

  • Everyday Life is the Path

    Joshu asked Nansen: `What is the path?’
    Nansen said: `Everyday life is the path.’

    Joshu asked: `Can it be studied?’

    Nansen said: `If you try to study, you will be far away from it.’

    Joshu asked: `If I do not study, how can I know it is the path?’

    Nansen said: `The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless. If you want to reach the true path beyond doubt, place yourself in the same freedom as sky. You name it neither good nor not-good.’

    At these words Joshu was enlightened.



    Mumon’s Comment: Nansen could met Joshu’s frozen doubts at once when Joshu asked his questions. I doubt that if Joshu reached the point that Nansen did. He needed thirty more years of study.

    In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon;
    In the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter snow will accompany your.
    If useless things do not hang in your mind,
    Any season is a good season for you.