Receiving

this hexagram is a sign

that you have reached a turning point.

This moment is akin to the winter solstice: the

greatest adversity is past, and the light is beginning

to return. Nonetheless, one cannot force the

completion of the change, and it is wise

to rest. Act only when you can move

gently and innocently, and all

will be well.

Fu also comes

as a reminder to return

to the light in yourself. Growth is only

possible when we relinquish the expressions of

the ego: pride, impatience, anger, and desire.

To act forcefully or ambitiously

now will only generate

misfortune.

Let things

develop naturally, in their

own way. Simply observe and accept

changes as you observe and accept the rising

of the sun. Allow yourself to rest and gather strength

for a time of growth ahead. By holding to modesty,

gentleness, and correct conduct, you prepare

the ground for a fruitful blossoming

when the light fully

returns.

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 24, Fu / Return

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the compassions of Thích Quảng Đức and Malcolm Browne

It’s not Me

that’s glorified in acts

of worship. It’s the worshipers!

I don’t hear the words they say. I look inside at

the humility. That broken-open lowliness is the Reality,

not the language! Forget phraseology. I want burning,

burning. Be friends with your burning. Burn up

your thinking and your forms of expression!

Moses, those who pay attention to ways

of behaving and speaking are one

sort. Lovers who burn are

another.

Rumi

Do

you wish

to realize the Way?

Dissolve everything instantly,

like a drop of water

hitting a red-hot

coal.

Forget

thoughts and

feelings and ideas of self.

Remaining ordinary, foregoing airs,

persevering in simplicity for years

and decades, you enter

into the Oneness,

and it into

you.

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 47

Paperback / Kindle here

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iBooks

We are

in the habit of saying

that it was not in our power

to choose the parents who were

allotted to us, that they were given

to us by chance. But we can choose whose

children we would like to be. There are households

of the noblest intellects: choose the one into which you wish

to be adopted, and you will inherit not only their name

but their property too. Nor will this property

need to be guarded meanly or grudgingly:

the more it is shared out,

the greater it will

become. 

Seneca

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay.  Want more 

of everything ready-made.  Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery 

any more.  Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you.  When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute.  Love the Lord.

Love the world.  Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag.  Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot 

understand.  Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium.  Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into mold.

Call that profit.  Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion – put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering 

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world.  Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable.  Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade.  Rest your head

in her lap.  Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it.  Leave it as a sign 

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go.  Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary, 

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Wendell Berry

May all

beings discover that

awakening brings real

happiness.

@BuddhismNow