Our task

as humans is to find

the few principles that will calm the

infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend

what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable

again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness

a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by

the misery of the century. Naturally, it is

a superhuman task. But superhuman

is the term for tasks [we] take

a long time to accomplish,

that’s all.

 

Let us

know our aims then,

holding fast to the mind, even if

force puts on a thoughtful or a comfortable

face in order to seduce us. The first thing is not to

despair. Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim

that the world is at an end. Civilizations do not die so easily,

and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have

been the first. It is indeed true that we live in tragic

times. But too many people confuse tragedy with

despair. “Tragedy,” [D.H.] Lawrence said,

“ought to be a great kick at misery.”

This is a healthy and immediately

applicable thought. There are

many things today

deserving such

a kick.

 

If we are

to save the mind we must

ignore its gloomy virtues and celebrate

its strength and wonder. Our world is poisoned

by its misery, and seems to wallow in it. It has utterly

surrendered to that evil which Nietzsche called

the spirit of heaviness. Let us not add to this.

It is futile to weep over the mind,

it is enough to labor

for it. 

 

But where

are the conquering virtues

of the mind? The same Nietzsche listed

them as mortal enemies to heaviness of the spirit.

For him, they are strength of character, taste, the “world,”

classical happiness, severe pride, the cold frugality of

the wise. More than ever, these virtues are

necessary today, and each of us can

choose the one that suits

him best.

 

Before the

vastness of the undertaking,

let no one forget strength of character.

I don’t mean the theatrical kind on political

platforms, complete with frowns and threatening

gestures. But the kind that through the virtue of its purity

and its sap, stands up to all the winds that blow in

from the sea. Such is the strength of character

that in the winter of the world

will prepare the

fruit.

 

Albert Camus 

 

 

You should be aloof

and independent — stand alone and go alone.

You should cut off sentiments and detach from perception

and make yourself empty and silent so there is not a single thing

that can be grasped. Cut off the myriad entanglements, and make

yourself free and untrammeled, and reach the stage of great

peace. When this is closely continuous without any leaks,

this is what is called standing like a wall

miles high, lofty and steep.

 

Yuanwu

 

 

But also

I say this: that light is

an invitation to happiness, and

that happiness, when it’s done right,

is a kind of holiness, palpable

and redemptive.

 

Mary Oliver

 

As my sufferings mounted

I soon realized that there were two ways

in which I could respond to my situation—either to react

with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering

into a creative force. I decided to follow

the latter course.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 
In the course of human life it is inevitable to experience things. Things are manifold, not up to one person alone.

A bird that nests on one branch in the forest would be lost in a roosting flock; an animal that fills its belly drinking from a river does not go seeking in the ocean.

Finding it in things outside and understanding it in yourself within, you realize you have your lot in life and you do not strive for what is not in your lot. You take care of things that are appropriate and do not take up things that are not appropriate.

If you take up things that are not appropriate, this damages your intellectual power. If you strive for what is beyond you, this wears out your body. If you are psychologically and physically uneasy, how can you reach the Way?

For this reason, nothing is better for people who cultivate the Way than to resolutely simplify things. Discern whether they are inessential or essential, assess whether they are trivial or serious, distinguish whether to eliminate them or take to them. Whatever is not essential and not serious should be abandoned.

It is like when people consume wine and meat, dress in silk, enjoy fame and prestige, and possess gold and jewels. These are all excess cravings of subjective desire, not good medicines to enhance life. The masses all pursue these things, bringing about their own death or ruination. If we reflect on this quietly, we see how very confused they are.

Chuang-tzu said, “Those who arrive at the truth of life do not strive for anything that has nothing to do with life.” What has nothing to do with life is anything excessive. Simple food and old clothes are enough to take care of essential life; who do you need wine, meat, and silk for your life to be complete?

So whatever is not necessary for life should be eliminated, and so should anything that is excessive beyond the needs of life. Possessions have an injurious energy, which hurts people when it builds up. Even if you have few possessions, you still worry about them; how much the more when you have a lot!

If you tried to shoot a sparrow with a jewel, people would laugh at you; how much the more ridiculous it is to turn your back on the Way and virtue, slight nature and life, and shorten your life span by pursuing inessentials!

If we compare fame and prestige to the Way and virtue, fame and prestige are artificial and base, whereas the Way and virtue are real and noble. If you can tell the noble from the base, you should get rid of the one and take the other, not hurting your body on account of fame, not changing your will on account of prestige. Chuang-tzu said, “One who loses himself by working for fame is no gentleman.”

The Scripture on the Western Ascent says, “Embrace the fundamental, keep to unity.” Spiritual immortalists who go to excess cannot keep to unity; they just sit in offices of glory. If you are not selective, everything you come in contact with will burden your mind and dull your intelligence; your practice of the Way will be defective.

As for those who deal with matters calmly and serenely, who are in the midst of things without being burdened, they are among those who have attained realization. If you say you are unburdened without really having attained it, you are really only fooling yourself.

 

Treatise on Sitting Forgetting