Do not allow

someone else’s choices to ruin 

your waking hours or interrupt your sleep.

The only words and actions you can control

are your own, so focus on your own

integrity, generosity, honesty.

Rise above.

Maggie Smith

No mud, no

lotus.

 
Thich Nhat Hanh

Banish existence 

and you fall into existence; follow emptiness

and you turn your back on it. Excessive talking and thinking

turn you from harmony with the Way. Cut off talking

and thinking, and there is nowhere

you cannot penetrate.

Sengcan

Turn the caldron

of your self upside down and pour

out what is inferior. By purifying yourself

of bad habits and attitudes now you

make possible outstanding

achievements.

first changing line,

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 50, Ting / The Caldron

(full text here)

ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,

Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for

iPad, Phone, Kindle, Nook,

or Android

You

can now buy

the I Ching as part of a

five-app bundle of Taoist classics 

for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

Perfect freedom is

not found without some rules.

People, especially young people, think that

freedom is to do just what they want, that in Zen there

is no need for rules. But this does not mean always to be under

control. As long as you have rules, you have a chance for

freedom. To try to obtain freedom without being aware

of the rules means nothing. It is to acquire 

this perfect freedom that we

practice zazen.

Shunryu Suzuki