Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable.
You
could become a
great horseman and help
to free yourself and this world though
only if you and prayer become sweet lovers.
It is a naive man who thinks we are not engaged in a
fierce battle, for I see and hear brave foot soldiers
all around me going mad, falling on the ground
in excruciating pain. You could become a
victorious horseman and carry your
heart through this world like a
life-giving sun though only
if you and God become
sweet lovers.
The
best effort
one can make is the
gentlest effort: wei wu wei.
Quietly, persistently direct the
mind toward emptiness. When
all thoughts and ideas have
dissipated, then make no
further effort. Just
breathe.
This
is the only
practice required of a
human, the best one, the one
that perfectly purifies
our lives.
You
can now buy
Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
One day
Yanguan called to his assistant,
“Bring me the rhinoceros fan.”The assistant said,
“It is broken.” Yanguan said, “In that case,
bring me the rhinoceros.”
Why,
sometimes I’ve believed
as many as six impossible things
before breakfast.
We sometimes think
of consciousness as a lamp, making
a golden cone of light on the surface of a desk.
Outside the yellow circle everything is dark and unknown.
The usual way of approaching things is to try to extend the yellow
circle into the darkness. Or perhaps to drag objects in from the dark.
That is working out of what you can conceive of, the bright area of what
you already know. This koan takes things the other way. Here you depend on
what is unknown and inconceivable to sustain you. Most of life is inconceivable;
even your left hand can’t be fully conceived of though it can be very useful.
And if you try hard to conceive of what your hand does, it won’t play
the piano very well. The inconceivable is the source of all that
comes into being. This koan is not about making what is
unknown, known. Instead it as exercise in relying on
and making friends with the inconceivable,
using a casual event to start an
exploration into the
unlit realms.