Posts Tagged → America

we all could use a little mercy now


 

The shock of unsettling events
brings fear and trembling.
Move toward a higher
truth and all will
be well.

 The tendency of human beings is to rely on the strategies of the ego: desiring, plotting, and striving. When we exercise the ego, our spiritual development stops, and the universe must use shocking events to move us back onto the path. The appearance of the hexagram Chên indicates an immediate need for self-examination, self-correction, and a redevotion to following the path of the Sage. In Chinese, the hexagram translates to mean “thunder over thunder”: a continuing series of shocks occurs until the obstruction in our attitude is removed.
 
It is important not to react against these shocks.Instead, quiet and open your mind, accept that what is happening has come to teach you a specific and necessary lesson, and look inside to see where you are resisting the will of the Higher Power. The sooner you return to innocence and acceptance, the sooner the shocks will subside. 

Those who maintain a reverence for proper principles and an inner commitment to higher things are unperturbed by shocking events; they simply concentrate on deepening their understanding. If you find yourself feeling threatened by circumstances, withdraw into stillness and meditation. The only remedy for doubt and fear is a reconnection with higher truth.Shock is an important and beneficial teacher to those who follow the path of the Sage. Make good use of this new beginning and good fortune results.
 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 51, Chen / The Arousing (Shock)

 

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the moral fighting shape

dean potter, skywalker

 

We

have lost the

power even of imagining what

the ancient idealization of poverty could

have meant: the liberation from material attachments,

the unbribed soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way

by what we are or do and not by what we have, the right to

fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly—

the more athletic trim, in short,

the moral fighting

shape.

 

William James

 

the arrival of a time of revolution

beautiful trouble: a toolbox

 

Devotion to truth

enables a revolution.

 

The hexagram Ko announces the arrival of a time of revolution. A set of conditions, internal or external or both, is ready to pass away in favor of a more beneficial situation. What enables this transformation is your conscious and vigorous adherence to correct thought and behavior.

No revolution in outer things is possible without a prior revolution in one’s inner way of being. Whatever change you aspire to in your affairs must be preceded by a change in heart, and active deepening and strengthening of your resolve to meet every event with equanimity, detachment, and innocent goodwill. When this spiritual poise is achieved within, magnificent things are possible without.

The revolutions of others are enabled also when we refine the fire of goodness and truth inside ourselves. Sincere commitment to higher things travels outward in powerful waves from the superior person, and all those around are affected by this. Indisputably, to lead one’s inner self to truth and peace is to lead the outer world to truth and peace. A beneficial revolution is assured to one who takes this path now.

 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 49, Ko / Revolution

 

ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,

Hua hu Ching, Wei wu Wei Ching,

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Android

 

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the highest good is like water

kadir nelson

 

The highest

good is like water,

which benefits all things and

contends with none. It flows in low

places that others disdain, and

thus it is close to

the tao.

 

In living,

choose your ground well.

In thought, stay deep in the heart.

In relationships, be generous.

In speaking, hold to the truth.

In leadership, be organized.

In work, do your best.

In action, be

timely.

 

If you compete with no one,

no one can compete with you.
 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 8

 

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Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for

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the benefit of engagement in politics

only love can do that

 

Forget the self and you’ll help others.

Deshan Xuanjian

 

The spiritual benefit of engagement in politics comes from going into rather than away from the imperfection. And if you are diving right into the heart of delusion, naturally this means into the heart of your own delusion. There’s always a chance that such a plunge might increase self-knowledge more than it increases self-righteousness.

The point here is that you have to forget all that spiritual stuff about what a good person you are or intend to be someday, something that is anyway unlikely to be attained. The spirituality in politics might not be visible to others or even to yourself. Down there in the heart of delusion you look like a demon too, just like the rest of us. You’ll have to adapt your fashion sense to having horns and fangs.

This is the force of Bismarck’s famous comment about the art of the possible: in order to bring about any sort of transformation you have to work with what is actually the case, rather than what you might have wished for or pretended — in the world, in others, in yourself.

When I accepted how the world is, I noticed that empathy is part of how it is. It’s not easy to explain; it doesn’t have a reason. Empathy seems to be a basis for spiritual work — for the bodhisattva way. Empathy also doesn’t seem to be entirely personal. We didn’t work for change because we liked each other or the people who might benefit; there was empathy even when people were behaving in ways that I might find painful.

 

John Tarrant

bring me the rhinoceros