You
are the pure
awareness that illumines
consciousness and its infinite
content. Realize this and live
accordingly.
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detach the mind
Wherever and whenever
the mind is found attached to anything,
make haste to detach yourself from it. When you tarry
for any length of time it will turn again into
your old home town.
picking up whatever comes to hand
If you make slogans
based on words and sprout interpretations
based on objects, then you fall into the bag of antique curios,
and you will never be able to find this true realm
of absolute awareness beyond
sentiments.
At this stage you are free
to go forward in the wild field without choosing,
picking up whatever comes to hand: the meaning of the ancestral
teachers is clear in all that grows there. What’s more, the thickets of green
bamboo and the masses of yellow flowers and the fences and walls
and tiles and pebbles are inanimate things
teaching the dharma.
The water birds and the
groves of trees expound the truths of suffering,
emptiness, and selflessness. Based on the one true reality,
they extend objectless compassion, and from the great
jewel light of nirvana they reveal uncontrived,
surpassingly wondrous powers.
Changqing said,
“When you meet a companion
on the Path, stand shoulder to shoulder and
go on: then your lifetime of learning
will be completed.”
her quietness is the mirror of heaven and earth
The
non-action of the
wise person is not inaction.
It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.
The sage is quiet because she is not moved, not because she
wills to be quiet. Her quietness is the mirror of heaven and earth,
the glass of everything. Emptiness, stillness, tranquility,
traceless, silence, non-action: this is the level of
heaven and earth. This is the
perfect Tao.
enter into a conversation with the sage
You serve
as an example to others by
sacrificing your ego and accepting
the guidance of the Higher
Power.
The hexagram
Ting concerns the nourishment
and guidance one must have in order to fully
succeed. While the culture around us often encourages
us to “take charge” and make aggressive demands on life, the
I Ching offers far wiser counsel. Here we are encouraged
to give up the incessant demands of our ego —
to deepen our humility and acceptance
and to listen carefully to the
instructions of the
Sage.
The image
of the caldron concerns
your inner thoughts: whatever you hold
in the “caldron” of your mind is your offering
to the Higher Power. The quality of assistance you can
receive from the universe is governed by the quality of your
offering. If you constantly indulge in the concerns of the ego —
fears, desires, strategies to control, harshness toward others —
you repel the Higher Power and block your own nourishment.
If, on the other hand, you consciously let go of your
resistance to life and hold quiet and correct
thoughts, you become receptive to the
Creative and your continual
nourishment is
assured.
Ting comes
to suggest that the wisest
thing that you can do now is to still
your ego and conscientiously enter into a
conversation with the Sage. To influence others, or to
achieve a proper goal, follow the same path. By cultivating
humility and acceptance, purifying your inner thoughts,
and concentrating on that which is good and innocent
and true, you summon the power of the Creative
and meet with good fortune in
the outer world.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 50, Ting / The Caldron
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