The Great Ocean

“Do not think there is anything outside the Great Ocean and do not think there is anything more than the Great Ocean… the Great Ocean just is.

Reverend Master Jiyu Kennett, Founder of Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery

This boundless sea contains all of existence. Within it, life and death float together formlessly. When thoughts arise, forms appear. They abide, change and then disappear, over and over, again and again.

“Going on, going on, always going on, always becoming…”

The Scripture of Great Wisdom

"That which looks like anything. But in time exposes its jewel."
Mark Tobey

You are like someone who fails to see a boundless ocean a hundred miles across, and is aware of a single floating bubble.”
The Surangama Sutra

"Out of darkness, a mental void appears, and this dark void condenses to create a subtle object of mind. What characterizes this distorting mental activity is that it leads to the coming into being of the embryonic body."
The Surangama Sutra

"…the primary element consciousness…contains all space throughout the Dharma-Realm. "
The Surangama Sutra

Springing Up From the Earth 60X60 Oil on Linen NFS

"Thereat, the Buddha pressed the toes of his right foot on the ground and the world was suddenly adorned with hundreds and thousands of rare and precious gems of the great chiliocosm, like the Precious Majestic Buddha’s pure land adorned with countless precious merits which the assembly praised as never seen before: in addition each person found himself seated on a precious lotus throne."
Vimilakirti Nirdessa Sutra

"For every negative thought, he painted a black mark on his cave wall…"
Attributed to the Dalai Lama

"Please clearly understand that when the mind is still, it’s in its natural state. As soon as the mind moves, it becomes conditioned. When the mind is attracted to something. It becomes conditioned. When aversion arises, it becomes conditioned. The desire to move here or there arises from conditioning. If our awareness doesn’t keep pace with these mental proliferations as they occur, the mind will chase after them and be conditioned by them. And whenever the mind moves, at that moment, it becomes a conventional reality."
Ajahn Chah