We are born
under circumstances that
would be favourable if we did not
abandon them. It was nature’s intention
that there should be no need of great equipment
for a good life: every individual can make himself happy.
External goods are of trivial importance and without much influence
in either direction: prosperity does not elevate the sage and
adversity does not depress him. For he has always made
the effort to rely as much as possible on himself
and to derive all delight from
himself.
Venture
with love and
you win the battle.
Defend with love and you are
invulnerable. Heaven’s
secret is motherly
love.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
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Desire and mistrust
keep you from finding ease.
Peace of mind comes when we let go
of ambitions and fears and follow
the Sage from moment
to moment.
4th changing line,
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 56, Lü / The Wanderer
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
the I Ching as part of a
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book.
Courage
is the measure
of our heartfelt participation
with life, with another, with a community,
a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily
to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those
things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending
vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat
our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to
and into the necessities of relationships that often already
exist, with things we find we already care deeply
about: with a person, a future, a possibility
in society, or with an unknown that
begs us on and always has
begged us on.
