I knew no one worth my envying him


 

A day

so happy. Fog lifted

early, I worked in the garden.

Hummingbirds were stopping over

honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing

on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one

worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had

suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was

the same man did not embarrass me.

In my body I felt no pain. When

straightening up, I saw the

blue sea and

sails.

 

Czeslaw Milosz

 

scarlett hooft graafland

 

Mind is consciousness

which has put on limitations.

You are originally unlimited and perfect.

Later you take on limitations

and become the mind.

 

Ramana Maharshi

 

a time for creating union

seeds of realization

 

Seek union with others

and with the Sage.

 

“Holding together”

denotes a time for creating union

with others in order to complement and assist

one another, just as the rain complements and assists

the earth, which is an image often associated with

this hexagram. In order for your unions to bear

the greatest possible fruit, certain

requirements must

be met.

 

The first

requirement for holding

together with others is that we hold

together with our own inner truth. This means

that we adhere to proper principles as a matter of habit,

striving always to remain innocent, balanced, and

correct. In short, marry the Sage first and

faithfully, and good fortune will

come to all subsequent

marriages.

 

The second

requirement for holding

together with others is that we

steadfastly resist the clamoring of

the emotional inferiors within. Every union

meets with challenges, and if we are not resolute

against the effects of fear, doubt, despair, and anger,

no lasting success will be possible in any relationship.

This is a good time to ask yourself if you are

displaying the steadfast correctness and

strength of character that are

at the heart of all great

unions.

 

Finally,

it is the responsibility

of one who would unite to see

that it is possible for others to enjoy union

as well. The desire for community is deeply felt by

all humans, and it is the shared responsibility of all those

on the higher path to make some sort of “family”

available to those in need. In doing this,

we pay homage to

the Sage.

 

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 8, Pi / Holding Together

 

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you haven’t toiled in vain

the moral fighting shape

 

Renounce riches and jewels.

Look lightly on body and life.

Reject them as spit and phlegm, and do not hesitate!

Hold precepts purely,

Be blemishless!

In four comportments be clear as ice and pure as jade.

When scolded, don’t be angry;

When beaten, do not hate.

Bear what is hard to bear. Forget about mockery. Overlook sarcasm.

Oblivious to winter and summer,

Be ceaselessly relentless.

From start to finish, hold Amitabha Buddha’s name in mind.

Do not lapse into torpor;

Refrain from getting scattered.

Be like the pine and the cypress, never withering, evergreen.

Doubt not the Buddha.

Doubt not the Dharma.

Inherent awareness lets us know clearly what we see and hear.

Bore through the paper,

Pierce the cowhide.

Make your mind perfectly bright and free from error.

Return to the origin;

Reach liberation.

Go back to the source, retrieve your inherent innocence.

Nothing’s not nothing;

Emptiness isn’t empty:

The divine potential’s revealed; its wonder hard to imagine.

When you arrive,

You haven’t toiled in vain.

The impacts of your causal ground are finished.

Now you are known

As a Great Hero,

All ten titles fit perfectly. You are a teacher of many generations.

Ah! The same leaking shell can now manifest

As a complete body pervading ten directions!

With good and evil distinguished clearly, no more mistakes occur. 

So why rely on the false alone and fail to practice the true?

 

Hsu Yun

 

zazen perfects the human being

this is zazen

 

Scholar’s studies

can become an obstacle,

making the mind difficult to control.

The effect of zazen is to let your mind and

body really listen to you. Quiet sitting is good.

Zazen can reasonably be taken as far

as one chooses—one can advance

by the light discovered

within it.

 

There’s no deception

in it. It’s a natural need in a human

being’s life.It’s the call by the Universe

to a human being’s true nature.

Zazen perfects the

human being.

 

The mission of humans is

to cease producing the waves of thought that

have occurred up until now as a result of egotism.

When that is done, a human being is

born for the first time.

 

Katō Kōzan

everyone is originally pure, not different from the buddha