meet the source on all sides

quiet, still, at home

 

Those who are determined to practice the Way practice self-awareness and self-understanding twenty-four hours a day. They think of this and focus on this. They know that the one Great Cause is there right where they stand, that it is in sages without being augmented and in ordinary people without being diminished. They know that it stands alone free of senses and sense objects, and that it far transcends material things.

Wayfarers don’t set up fixed locations in anything they do. They are clear and tranquil, with solid concentration, and the myriad transformations never disturb them. They appear in response to conditions and go into action as they encounter events, leaving nothing incomplete.

You should just be empty and quiet, transcending everything. Once the main basis is clear, all obscurities are illuminated. “Ten thousand years — a single thought. A single thought — ten thousand years.” Passing through from the heights to the depths, the great function of the whole potential is in operation. It is like when a strong man flexes his arm: he doesn’t depend on anyone else’s strength. Then the illusory blinders of birth and death vanish forever, and the true essence indestructible as a diamond is all that shows. Once realized, it is realized forever — there is no interruption.

All that the enlightened teachers, ancient and modern, have said and done — the scriptural teachings, the enlightenment stories, the meditation stories, the question-and-answer sessions, all their teaching functions — all of this illuminates this true essence alone.

If you can be free and clear in actual practice for a long time, naturally you will come to meet the Source on all sides and become unified and whole.

Haven’t you seen Fadeng’s verse?

 

Going into a wild field, not choosing,

Picking up whatever plant comes to hand,

Rootless but finding life,

Apart from the ground but not falling.

 

Right before your eyes, it has always been there. Facing the situation, why don’t you speak? If you don’t know it in your daily life, where then will you look for it? Better find out.

 

Yuanwu

zen letters

🪷

the value of emptiness

dean potter

 

Thirty spokes

meet at a hollowed-out hub; 

the wheel won’t work without its hole. 

A vessel is moulded from solid clay; its inner

emptiness makes it useful. To make a room, you

have to cut doors and windows; without

openings, a place isn’t livable. 

To make use of what is here, 

you must make use of

what is not.

 

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 11

 

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discover the harmony in your own being

alfred eisenstaedt

 

Why scurry

about looking for the truth?

It vibrates in every thing and every

not-thing, right off the tip of your nose.

Can you be still and see it in the

mountain? the pine tree?

yourself?

 

Don’t imagine

that you’ll discover it by accumulating

more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt,

and doubt makes you ravenous for more

knowledge. You can’t get full

eating this way. 

 

The wise person

dines on something more subtle:

He eats the understanding that the named

was born from the unnamed, that all being flows

from non-being, that the describable world emanates

from an indescribable source. He finds this subtle

truth inside his own self, and becomes

completely content. 

 

So 

who can be

still and watch the

chess game of the world?

The foolish are always making

impulsive moves, but the wise know

that victory and defeat are decided by

something more subtle. They see

that something perfect exists

before any move

is made.

 

This

subtle perfection

deteriorates when artificial

actions are taken, so be content not

to disturb the peace. Remain quiet.

Discover the harmony in

your own being.

Embrace it.

 

If you

can do this, you will

gain everything, and the world

will become healthy again.

If you can’t, you will be

lost in the shadows

forever.

 

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 38

 

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Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for

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☯️

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