Message #4015

[flying squirrel]

Interesting book, " Little Book of Zen " , I found this :

Ummon's  " Every Day is a Good Day "

" Ummon addressed the assembly and said, "I am not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month. But what about after the fifteenth ?
Come and give me a word about those days.
And he himself gave the answer for them. " Every day is a good day "

The days before the fifteenth of the month could be the days before today, or could be the days before you were born,
or the days before your enlightenment.
Ummon is not asking about what has happened before the present moment
" What happens after the fifteenth? " is Ummon's way of asking what happens to consciousness at this point in time and in the future.
No one could answer Ummon, so he gave the answer himself -

'when you are in samadhi, every day is a good day, you don't ask about the past, nor wonder about the future. You are here, you are now.'