Don’t
love sagehood;
sagehood is an empty name.
There is no special truth but this radiant
spiritual openness, unobstructed
and free. It is not attained by
adornment and cultivated
realization.
wait with a proper attitude
To wait with
a proper attitude invites
the assistance of the
Higher Power.
There is
a situation at hand that
cannot be corrected by force or
external effort. The Creative will provide
the solution to one who waits with a correct
attitude. This is a time for patience
and careful attention to
inner truth.
Do not
give in to doubt and
agitation now. You are not meant
to wait in a state of desperate longing but
in one of patient inner strength. Without certainty
in the power of the truth, success is impossible.
Attempts to force a change, rather than
allowing it to mature naturally,
will only cause
misfortune.
You would be
wise to strengthen and reaffirm
your reliance on the Creative. When you indulge in
fear and doubt, you flood the arena where the Higher Power
is attempting to work. Your principal responsibility in life
is to keep this arena—your own consciousness—
free of negative influences.
By accepting things
as they are and not making fruitless
comparisons to the situations of others or some
imagined ideal, one engages the power of the Creative.
If one remains balanced, modest, and
independent, good fortune will
come to hand.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Maintaining
quiet awareness from
moment to moment, you’ll see
that your enlightenment is not separate
from the ordinary world but one with it.
It doesn’t come from some distance to
get to you and it doesn’t go away
when you stop attending to it.
Make awareness continuous,
though, and it will
surround
you.
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when you are sitting in meditation
When you are
sitting in meditation,
watch carefully to know when
your consciousness starts to move.
Consciousness is always moving and flowing.
According to its coming and going, we must
all be aware of it. To know there is
nothing to know is the wisdom
to know everything. This
is the Dharma-gate
of a Bodhisattva.
you only have to set it down
You
don’t have to
straighten anything out
in your mind. You only have
to set it down if it
isn’t good.
Your
enlightenment is
fully present at every moment
of your life. If you perceive something
between you and that, nothing more
need be done other than
to let go of it upon
observing
it.
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seek the direction of the sage
Surrounded by obstructions,
one must first retreat, then
seek the direction of
the Sage.
There is an old saying which fits this hexagram: “You are caught between a rock and a hard place.” In other words, you are surrounded by obstructions. As much as you may want to blame others for the difficulty, in all likelihood the true obstruction is in your own thinking. What is called for now is a retreat into self-examination and self-correction.
Emotions of desire, fear, or anger may tempt you to take action now, but do not be seduced. The presence of these strong feelings is proof that your are off balance and need to steady yourself. As long as you try to forcibly achieve results—rather than carefully following higher truth step by step—you will be obstructed from making personal progress.
Whenever we indulge in judgements about others, we obstruct our own peace of mind and progress. We should choose instead to see the best in others, allow them to come and go as they will, and turn our energies inward, toward self-improvement.
Often the faults in our own thinking are revealed only with the aid of others. You would be wise now to seek the advice of a qualified counselor or truth-minded friend. Retreat, self-examination, and self-correction will remove the obstructions that block your path now.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 39, Chien / Obstruction
FIRST LINE
Do not resist difficulties
or advance against them. By retreating
and observing, you learn an important lesson.
Then moving forward becomes easy.
FIFTH LINE
The obstructions can only be
overcome by the strength of proper principles.
Through perseverance and correctness you
obtain the aid you need
to succeed.
Want
to study with
an enlightened teacher?
Just stop giving rise to thoughts
and divisions and distinctions. When
self and other, good and bad, right
and wrong are replaced with
emptiness, you are your
own master.
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