Heartbreak
asks us not to look for
an alternative path, because there
is no alternative path. It is an introduction
to what we love and have loved, an inescapable
and often beautiful question, something
and someone that has been with
us all along, asking us to be
ready for the ultimate
letting go.
Solitude is an art.
Mental training is needed to refine
and stabilize it. When you practice solitude,
you dedicate yourself to the
care of the soul.
My heart has
become capable of every form:
It is a pasture for gazelles and a cloister
for Christian monks, a temple for idols and
the pilgrim’s Ka’ba, and the tables of
the torah and the book of
the Qur’an.
I follow
the religion of love:
whatever way love’s camels take,
that is my religion and
my faith.
Evening
and nighttime are
times of rest for cultivated people.
Accordingly you should withdraw into the
chamber of spirit and embrace oneness without
parting. Since there are no worldly feelings enveloping
you, neither is there an original sublime truth —
when you are like a dead man for the time
being, that is called great rest. After you
get to the point of dreaming and
sleeping without becoming
muddled, you see the
effect of mastering
seriousness.
Then
the following morning
is the time for the cultured person’s
“daily renewal”. Accordingly, you should rise
early and daily seek what you have yet to attain,
with the determination to do ten times or a hundred
times what others do. The days become months, the months
become years; those who study without question of how
long it takes, be it three years or five years, never
fail to reach sagehood. When you are mindful
at every moment, nurturing it with each
breath, the work is never interrupted;
perfected day after day and month
after month, learning will
shine with light.
There is
no one method for
attaining realization of the Tao.
To regard any method as the method is
to create a duality, which can only delay your
understanding of the subtle truth. The mature
person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid,
external methodologies; remembering this,
she keeps her attitude unstructured at
all times and thus is always free
to pursue the Integral
Way.
She studies the
teachings of the masters.
She dissolves all concepts of duality.
She pours herself out in service to others. She
performs her inner cleansing…gently eliminating all
obstacles to her own understanding, she constantly
maintains her unconditional sincerity. Her
humility, perseverance, and adaptability
evoke the response of the
universe and fill her
with divine
light.
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