go all the way

you’re going to try,

go all the way. Otherwise, don’t

even start. This could mean losing girlfriends,

wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean

not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a

park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could

mean mockery — isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the

others are a test of your endurance, of how much

you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it,

despite rejection and the worst odds.

It’s the only good fight

there is.

Charles Bukowski

note

Please

let me remind you,

who study the inconceivable:

Your time is running fast.

Don’t ignore

it.

Shitou

fedha si mungu

Reconsider

your definitions.

We are prone to judge success

by the index of our salaries or the size

of our automobiles rather than by

the quality of our service

and relationship to

mankind.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

proper principles

A healthy family, a healthy country,

a healthy world – all grow

outward from a single

superior person.

The hexagram Chia Jen concerns the proper foundation of human communities. The I Ching teaches that all clans must have a superior person at their center if they are to prosper and succeed. Therefore, in order to improve our family, company, nation, or world community, we must begin by improving ourselves.

If you will observe healthy families you will always see present in them three qualities: love, faithfulness, and correctness. When we truly love others, we are naturally kind, gentle, and patient with them. When we are faithful to others, we place proper principles and conduct above temporary influences like anger, desire, or greed. And when we practice correctness, we spiritually nourish ourselves and all those around us. When all three qualities are cultivated, a healthy clan springs naturally into being.

The difference between paying lip service to these ideals and practicing them is profound. If you advocate high ideals and actions to others but do not embody them yourself, your influence will disintegrate for lack of a proper foundation. Therefore, in order to inspire superior qualities in others, you must first instill them in yourself.

Concentrate not upon influencing others or external events but upon strengthening your inner devotion to proper principles. When modesty, acceptance, equanimity, and gentleness become deeply ingrained in your character, they will flow steadily out from from you.

Soon you will find yourself enmeshed in a web of healthy relationships, and in this there is great good fortune.