trying to take the place of god

this is how it ends

 

If people don’t love life,

they won’t fear death, and threatening

them with it won’t work. If people have lives worth

living, then the threat of death is meaningful,

and they’ll do what is right

to avoid it.

 

Killing

should be the province

of the great executioner alone.

Trying to take his place and kill is like

cutting wood in the place of the

master carpenter: chances

are you’ll hurt your

own hand.

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 74

 

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the spiritual athlete

be quiet

 

The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,
and his mind remains gray and loveless.

He sits inside a shrine room all day,
so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.

Or he drills holes in his ears, his hair grows
enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat…
He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,
and makes himself neither male nor female…

He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad-Gita, and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse
to the country of death,
bound hand and foot!

Kabir

translated by robert bly

 

a power greater than any other

careful, fellas

 

Inside,

the strength of

simplicity and self-knowledge.

Outside, the beauty of

acceptance and

gentleness.

 

This hexagram encourages you to cultivate a quality of grace in your relationships and in your general way of being. In this way you gain a power greater than any other to open a way through obstructions in your dealings with others. Good fortune is yours if you concentrate on bringing more grace to your thoughts and actions now.

It is human nature to want to use forceful ways to try to get what we want from others and from life. Our egos encourage us to act aggressively, to speak boldly, to intimidate others, to “buffalo” our way through difficult situations. This false power can be momentarily satisfying to our ego, and temporary victories can be won in this way, but genuine power and lasting progress come from a different kind of strength altogether.

They come from inner strength, which is characterized by a steadfast devotion to the principles of humility, simplicity, equanimity, and acceptance. By gradually letting go of the vain, bullying energy of the ego and accepting the quiet guidance of the Higher Power, one acquires the substance that makes ongoing good fortune a possibility.

This is a time to relinquish self-important maneuvering. Instead, return to stillness and contemplate the inherent wisdom of the principles of the Sage. By practicing quiet strength within and gentle acceptance without, you acquire a grace that dissolves all barriers to progress.
 

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 22, Pi / Grace

to still the mind

 

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