Angel Roberto Puente:
As a trained warrior I know about using a shield.

I'm new to this forum and have posted very little. But I have witnessed the endless semantical discussions, they blow my mind. When most people hear, "
I think it's worth focusing on finding a simple way to practice daily. Consistent, simple, non-heroic practice." ( yea, I picked up the shield again) they don't believe it. It takes a lot of time to really internalize that practice is "enlightenment". It will probably be highly controversial for me to say that, although sitting may be the best way to establish the conditions for learning, you eventually have to let go the attachment to it. By this point, living and practice are one. I've noticed your ability to quote from literature and songs, can you find an ode to everyday practice I can sing?a lotta guys chant the heart sutra...
more better the sound of one hand clapping, or the wind through the woods when the trees are perfectly still...
I don't sing when I sit, I don't have insights, and in my practice the act of sitting itself internalizes that "practice is enlightenment," or as close to it as I am likely to get.
Sitting establishes the conditions for unlearning. Meditation is the practice of not knowing, and it helps establish the conditions for the acceptance of not-knowing in all situations, the letting go of attachment to knowing,
What I say is not meant to be authoritative or even true, only to stimulate a campfire of dialog from which truth may arise like the aroma of smoke.
If you really want something to sing, just as a peg, you can't do much better than the mantra:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svahat
The Heart Sutra
(as recited in the Triratna Buddhist Community)
The Bodhisattva of Compassion,
When he meditated deeply,
Saw the emptiness of all five
skandhas
And sundered the bonds that caused
him suffering.
Here then,
Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only emptiness,
Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought, and choice,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same as this.
All things are by nature void
They are not born or destroyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane
So, in emptiness, no form,
No feeling, thought, or choice,
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body,
mind;
No colour, sound, smell, taste,
touch,
Or what the mind takes hold of,
Nor even act of sensing.
No ignorance or end of it,
Nor all that comes of ignorance;
No withering, no death,
No end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain,
Or cease in pain, or noble path
To lead from pain;
Not even wisdom to attain!
Attainment too is emptiness.
So know that the Bodhisattva
Holding to nothing whatever,
But dwelling in Prajna wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fear bred by it,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,
Using this Prajna wisdom,
Come to full and perfect vision.
Hear then the great dharani,
The radiant peerless mantra,
The Prajnaparamita
Whose words allay all pain;
Hear and believe its truth!
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha