Do
you wish
to realize the Way?
Dissolve everything instantly,
like a drop of water
hitting a red-hot
coal.
Forget
thoughts and
feelings and ideas of self.
Remaining ordinary, foregoing airs,
persevering in simplicity for years
and decades, you enter
into the Oneness,
and it into
you.
Someone
who does not know
the Tigris River exists brings
the caliph who lives near the river a jar
of fresh water. The caliph accepts,
thanks him, and gives in return
a jar filled with gold
coins.
“Since this
man has come through
the desert, he should return by water.”
Taken out by another door, the man steps into
a waiting boat and sees the wide freshwater
of the Tigris. He bows his head, “What
wonderful kindness that he
took my gift.”
Every object
and being in the universe
is a jar overfilled with wisdom and
beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be
contained in any skin. Every jarful spills and makes
the earth more shining, as though covered in satin.
If the man had seen even a tributary of the
great river, he would not have brought
the innocence of his
gift.
Those that
stay and live by the
Tigris grow so ecstatic that
they throw rocks at the jugs, and
the jugs become perfect. They shatter.
The pieces dance, and water…
Do you see? Neither jar nor
water nor stone,
nothing.
You knock
at the door of reality,
shake your thought-wings,
loosen your shoulders,
and open.
All beings
are by nature Buddha,
as ice by nature is water. Apart
from water there is no ice;
apart from beings,
no Buddha.
To know
the masculine and yet
cleave to the feminine is to be the
womb for the world. Being the womb for
the world, never departing from the
eternal power of tao, you
become like an infant
once again:
immortal.
To know
the bright and yet
hold to the dull is to be
an example for the world.
Being the example for the world,
not deviating from the everlasting
power of tao, you return to
the infinite once again:
limitless.
To know
honor and yet keep
to humility is to be the valley
for the world. Being the valley for
the world, rich with the primal power
of tao, you return once again to simplicity,
like uncarved wood. Allow tao to carve
you into a vessel for tao. Then you
can serve the world without
mutilating
it.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
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.
With all
this talking, what has
been said? The subtle truth can
be pointed at with words, but
it can’t be contained
by them.
Take time
to listen to what is said
without words, to obey the law
too subtle to be written, to worship the
unnameable and to embrace the unformed.
Love your life. Trust the Tao. Make love
with the invisible subtle origin of the
universe, and you will give
yourself everything
you need.
You won’t
have to hide away
forever in spiritual retreats.
You can be a gentle, contemplative hermit
right here in the middle of everything, utterly
unaffected, thoroughly sustained and
rewarded by your integral
practices.
Encouraging others,
giving freely to all, awakening and
purifying the world with each movement
and action, you’ll ascend to the
divine realm in broad
daylight.
The breath of
the Tao speaks, and
those who are in harmony
with it hear quite
clearly.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
Hua hu Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
