all forms are ephemeral

shoen uemura

 

Heaven and

Earth are not sentimental;

they regard all things as dispensable.

The sage isn’t sentimental, either;

He views all forms as

ephemeral and

transitional.

 

Tao is

like a bellows:

empty but inexhaustible.

The more you move it the more it makes.

Too much talk about it evaporates

your understanding, though.

Simply stay at the center

of the circle.

 

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 5

 

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accepting responsibility for one’s energies

 
A

superior person

cares for the well-being of all things.

She does this by accepting responsibility for the energy

she manifests, both actively and in the subtle realm. Looking at a tree,

she sees not an isolated event but root, leaves, trunk, water,

soil and sun: each event related to the others,

and “tree” arising out of their

relatedness.

 


Looking

at herself or another,

she sees the same thing. Trees and

animals, humans and insects, flowers and birds:

These are active images of the subtle energies that flow

from the stars throughout the universe. Meeting

and combining with each other and

the elements of the earth, they

give rise to all living

things.

 

The

superior person

understands this, and understands

that her own energies play a part in it. Understanding

these things, she respects the earth as her mother, the heavens

as her father, and all living things as her brothers and sisters.

Caring for them, she knows that she cares for herself.

Giving to them, she knows that she gives to

herself. At peace with them, she is

always at peace with

herself.

 

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 37

 

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become pure light


 

Darkness

has been given as

a nightshirt to sleep in.

Remember how human beings

were composed from water and dust

for blood and flesh with oily resins heated

in fire to make a skeleton. Then the soul, the divine

light, was breathed into human shapes. The work now is

to help our bodies become pure light. It may look like

this is not happening. But in a cocoon every bit

of worm-dissolving slime becomes silk.

As we take in light, each part

of us turns to

silk.

 

We

made the night

a darkness, but we bring

shining dawnlight out of that.

In the same way the mound of your

grave will bloom with resurrection. Sufis

and those on the path of the heart use darkness

to go within. During the night vigil the universe

is theirs. With all the kings and sultans and

their learned counselors asleep, everyone

is unemployed, except those wakeful

few and the divine

presence.

 

Bahauddin