Zen Gate At The Snake Temple

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 Gate At The Snake Temple, Penang, Malaysia

“In Zen they say: “Don’t seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions”. What does that mean? Let go of identifications with your mind. Who you are beyond the mind then emerges by itself “.

– Eckhart Tolle, from ‘A New Earth’.

We love our opinions and our right to have them .

To hang on to them, defend them, fight others over theirs.

We sometimes identify with our opinions, forgetting that they are not actually us.

I think of opinions I have held strongly, then later discarded.Who I am didn’t actually change.`

Some thoughts and opinions I have are kind and beautiful; others, like the snakes who inhabit the Buddhist temple where I took this photo, are just a bit twisted and scary!