what is needed now is resoluteness

tjitske kamphuis

 

A breakthrough.

Do not be drawn back

into bad habits.

 

The arrival of the hexagram Kuai indicates that a long-awaited change is at hand. A difficulty that has oppressed you over a long period is now about to dissolve. It is important to respond in the proper way.

There is a temptation on obtaining relief to fall into the traps of the ego: pride at having dispersed the trouble, self-righteousness about having triumphed through correctness, anger at one who we think was the source of the problem, or a desire to remain free of all difficulty in the future. None of these responses is appropriate to the situation at hand.

What is needed now is resoluteness: a firm commitment to continuing the battle for good and to the self-examination that makes all good things possible. This is not a time to lapse back into negative mental habits and enjoy the “vacation” provided by the breakthrough. Do not rest on your laurels, but push forward, deepening your inner strength and your resistance to the influence of inferiors, both in yourself and others.

Strengthen those around you by setting an example of self-improvement and self-correction. Great progress and good fortune are available now to one who makes proper use of the opening.
 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 43, Kuai / Breakthrough (Resoluteness)

 

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tunneling into secret depths

the singular victo ngai

 
With greatest respect and reverence, I encourage all you superior seekers in the secret depths to devote yourselves to penetrating and clarifying the self as earnestly as you would put out a fire on the top of your head. I urge you to keep boring your way through as assiduously as you would seek a lost article of incalculable worth.

I enjoin you to regard the teachings left by the Buddha-patriarchs with the same spirit of hostility you would show toward a person who had murdered both your parents. Anyone who belongs to the school of Zen and does not engage in the doubting and introspection of koan must be considered a deadbeat rascal of the lowest kind, someone who would throw aside his greatest asset. As a teacher of the past said, “At the bottom of great doubt lies great enlightenment … From a full measure of doubt comes a full measure of enlightenment.”

Don’t think the commitments and pressing duties of secular life leave you no time to go about forming a ball of doubt. Don’t think your mind is so crowded with confused thoughts you are incapable of devoting yourself singlemindedly to Zen practice. Suppose a man was in a busy market place, pushing his way through the dense crowd, and some gold coins dropped out of his pocket into the dirt. Do you think he would just leave them there forget about them and continue on his way because of where he was?

Do you think someone would leave the gold pieces behind because he was in a crowded place or because the coins were lying in the dirt? Of course not. He would be down there frantically pushing and shoving with tears in his eyes trying to find them. His mind wouldn’t rest until he had recovered them. Yet what are a few pieces of gold when set against that priceless jewel found in the headdresses of kings — the way of inconceivable being that exists within your own mind? Could a jewel of such worth be attained easily, without effort?
 

Hakuin Ekaku

mas hakuin

 

butter pill that removes all ills

a brief biography of hakuin ekaku

 

One part of

“the real aspect of things,”

one part each of “the self and all things”

and “the realization that these are false,” three parts

of “the immediate realization of nirvana”, two parts of

“without desires,” two or three parts of “the non-duality of

activity and quietude,” one and a half parts of sponge-gourd skin

and one part of “the discarding of all delusion”. Steep these

ingredients in the juice of patience for one night, dry in

the shade and then mash. Season with a dash of

prajna-paramita, then shape everything

into a ball the size of a duck’s egg

and set it securely on

your head.

 

Hakuin Ekaku

more hakuin

 

welcoming flies at the picnic


mighty joe henry

 

I don’t call

any song finished if I don’t

think that it somehow is vibrating with

the awareness of how we live in spite of the inevitable.

Which is what all spirituality is, is how do we come into being,

how do we live fully in the constant, conscious knowledge

that we won’t always? How do you invest in the idea

of any real commitment in the face of

everything being finite?

 

…We’re sort of

seduced into thinking that here’s life,

and there’s these bad things that can happen,

obstacles that just fall into your road, as if the obstacle

is not the road. You know? We want to think that all things

being equal, we should be content all the time, and would

be, except for these pesky flies that want to ruin

every picnic. As if that isn’t what

the picnic is.

 

Joe Henry

 

❤️

have a listen to

Welcoming Flies at the Picnic,

it will gladden your

💜