let the lover be crazy


 

A certain

young man was asking

around.  “I need to find a wise person.

I have a problem.” A bystander said, “There’s

no one with intelligence in our town except that man

over there playing with the children, the one riding

the stick-horse. He has keen, fiery insight and

vast dignity like the night sky, but he

conceals it in the madness of

child’s play.” 

 

The young

seeker approached the

children. “Dear father, you who

have become as a child,

tell me a secret.”

 

“Go away.

This is not a day for

secrets.” “But please! Ride your

horse this way, just for a minute.” The sheikh

play-galloped over. “Speak quickly. I can’t hold this one

still for long. Whoops. Don’t let him kick you. This is a wild

one!” The young man felt he couldn’t ask his serious

question in the crazy atmosphere, so he

joked, “I need to get married. Is

there someone suitable on

this street?”

 

“There are

three kinds of women

in the world. Two are griefs, and

one is a treasure in the world. The first,

when you marry her, is all yours. The second

is half-yours, and the third is not yours at all. Now get

out of here, before this horse kicks you in the head!

Easy now!” The sheikh rode off among the

children. The young man shouted,

“Tell me more about

the kinds of

women!”

 

The sheikh,

on his cane horsey,

came closer, “The virgin of

your first love is all yours. She will

make you feel happy and free. A childless widow

is the second, she will be half yours. The third, who is

nothing to you, is a married woman with a child. By her first

husband she had a child, and all her love goes into that child.

She will have no connection with you. Now watch out.

Back away. I’m going to turn this rascal around!”

He gave a loud whoop and rode back,

calling the children

around him.

 

“One

more question, Master!”

The sheikh circled, “What is it? Quickly!

That rider over there needs me. I think I’m

in love.” “What is this playing that

you do? Why do you hide

your intelligence

so?”

 

“The people

here want to put me

in charge. They want me to be

judge, magistrate, and interpreter of all the texts.

The knowing I have doesn’t want that. It wants to enjoy

itself. I am a plantation of sugarcane, and at the same time

I’m eating the sweetness.” Knowledge that is acquired is not like

this. Those who have it worry if audiences like it or not. It’s a

bait for popularity. Disputational knowing wants customers.

It has no soul. Robust and energetic before a responsive

crowd, it slumps when no one is there. The only

real customer is God. Chew quietly your

sweet sugarcane God-love, and stay

playfully childish. Your face  will

turn rosy with illumination

like the red bud

flowers.

 

Let the lover

be disgraceful, crazy,

absent minded. Someone sober

will worry about things going

badly. Let the lover

be.

 

All day

and night, music,

a quiet, bright reed song.

If it fades, we

fade.

 

Jalal al-din Rumi

translated by coleman barks

 

awaken to your own mind

tsukioka yoshitoshi

 

The unenlightened person

does not understand his own true nature,

does not realize the Pure Land in his own body,

and thus petitions all over. The enlightened person

never differs no matter where he is. For this reason

the Buddha says, “Wherever I may be I am always

in comfort and bliss…If only your mind is pure,

your own nature is itself the Pure

Land of the West.”

 

Platform Sutra

 
 

mark gleason

 

Being in tremendous turmoil,

the unoriented do not know that their own

mind is Buddha. They search about, outside of themselves,

spending the whole day contemplating the Buddha and paying

homage. But where is the Buddha? Do not entertain any

such false views. Awaken to your own mind:

outside the mind there can

be no Buddha.

 

Bodhidharma

 

the truth of tao is everywhere

dragon aurora over iceland

 

Just as

the world can reveal itself

as particles, the Tao can reveal itself

as human beings. Though world and particles

aren’t the same, neither are they different.

Though the cosmic body and your

body aren’t the same, neither

are they different.

 

Worlds and particles,

bodies and beings, time and space:

all are transient expressions of the Tao.

Unseeable, ungraspable, the Tao is beyond

any attempt to analyze or categorize it.

At the same time, its truth is

everywhere you

turn.

 

If you

can let go of it

with your mind and

surround it with your

heart, it will live

inside you

forever.

 

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 33

 

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hexagram 38 ䷥ opposition

michael dumontier / neil farber

 
There are many occasions in life which tempt us into negative thoughts. Anxiety about the future, mistrust of another person, bodily pain, fear of failure or even success—all of these tempt us into mistrusting life and believing that life is against us. When we fall into this trap, we are in opposition to the workings of the Creative and success becomes impossible.

The simple truth is that every moment in every person’s life contains the teaching he or she most needs at the time. It is not always immediately apparent why a thing is happening because the Sage is often inclined to work in a roundabout fashion. Nonetheless, whatever is happening now is what must happen. Our only task is to trust the process and allow the lesson to seep in.

This hexagram comes as a signal that you are resisting life and preventing your own progress. Nonetheless, success is still possible, for every opposition carries within it the seeds of agreement. Cease resisting yourself, others, life, the Sage. Let go of dark thoughts and aggressive actions. By returning to acceptance, neutrality, and devotion to the way of the Sage, you dissolve the opposition within yourself and open the way for understanding and good fortune to arrive.

 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 38 / K’uei (Opposition)

 

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 ☯️

 

Further guidance from the
Wei Wu Wei Ching

 

☀️

 

If you haven’t

attained the Way,

don’t admonish others.

Don’t waste time blaming

yourself, either. Just

attain the Way.

 

🌿

 

You

can now buy

both books as part of a

five-app bundle of Taoist classics 

for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

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