All craving or hatred
is forgetfulness of life. When accumulated
illusions are not cleared up, they interfere with perception
of the Way. This is why we need to give up cravings and abide in
nothingness, so that we have a basis for gradual clarification.
If we look back at our former cravings after that,
then we will naturally find them
unappealing…
If you still the body and quiet
the mind, myriad illnesses
will all vanish.
Treatise on Sitting Forgetting
Day will
be erased in night.
The ground’s surface will
extend outward. The new moon
will be swallowed in eclipse, and
the mind in meditation will be
completely absorbed by
the Void inside it.
There is something bright and clear, without falsity, without biases, tranquil and unmoving, possessed of vast consciousness, fundamentally without birth and death and discrimination, without names and forms and words. It engulfs space and covers all of heaven and earth, all of form and sound, and is equipped to function.
If we speak of its essence, it is so vast it embraces everything, so that nothing is outside of it. If we speak about its function, then it goes beyond the abilities of the samadhi of the spiritual powers of the wisdoms numerous as the dusts in the buddha-lands: it is at once hidden and manifest, sovereign and free in all directions, with great spiritual powers. Even great sages cannot get to the end of it.
This one thing is always with each and every person. Whether you move or not, whenever you encounter circumstances and objects, it is always very obvious and clear, clear everywhere, revealed in everything. It is quietly shining in all activities. As an expedient, it is called Mind. It is also called the Path, and the king of the myriad dharmas, and Buddha. Buddha said that whether walking, sitting, or lying down, we are always within it.
In governing
people and serving heaven,
there is nothing better
than moderation.
To be moderate is to
follow tao without straying.
To follow tao without straying
is to become filled with good energy.
To be filled with good energy is to
overcome all things. To overcome
all things is to know that all
things are possible.
She who
knows that all things
are possible is fit to govern people.
Because she is one with the mother,
her roots go deep, her foundation
stands firm, her life lasts long,
her vision endures.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Wei wu Wei Ching, Hua hu Ching, and
Art of War for iPad/Phone, Kindle,
You
can now buy
Tao te Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
Suffering is a
special kind of knowledge.
There is something in human life
that it is impossible to convey and preserve
in any other way, especially among us.
That is how the world is made;
that is how we are
made.