adversity is a stimulant to our growth

remain free and uninvolved

 

Do not attempt to intervene now.

 
A period has been entered when inferior influences will prevail. Even a superior person who seeks to act now will be undermined by the time. There is no reason to resist this state of affairs; indeed, it is natural that the inferior elements periodically come to the fore. Adversity is often a stimulant to our spiritual growth, and what is important is the spirit in which we meet it.

When challenging situations come to call, we are often overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety, doubt, and fear. We fear that if we do not act immediately and vigorously, we will be ruined, we doubt the power of the Creative to resolve the situation favorably.

It is when we act upon these feelings that we engage in “splitting apart”: we split apart from our spiritual path, our devotion to the Higher Power, and the wisdom of patient nonaction in the face of difficulty. If you take this course now, you will prevent the Creative from coming to your aid and unnecessarily increase your own misfortune.

The guide to proper behavior at such times lies in the image of the hexagram, which is “mountain over earth”. By keeping as still and quiet as a mountain, by resting firmly on your foundation of proper principles, by accepting the nature of the time and not resisting it, you weather all storms. By trusting in nonaction, acceptance, and patience, you gain the strength of the very earth.
 

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 23, Po / Splitting Apart

see also Wei wu Wei Ching 23

 

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you are the living expression of this

the living expression

 

If

the Way

were about being

a student of something,

it wouldn’t be alive in the world.

It lives because certain people say to 

themselves, “All this teaching is

just for me. I am the living 

expression of

this.”

 

This

isn’t arrogant.

This is humbly keeping the

buddhasLao Tzu, Lalla, Rumi, Suzuki,

BahauddinYuanwu, all of them, alive in the

world. Only you can accomplish this. 

You are the only

one.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 13

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this is what you shall do

fluid awareness

 

This

is what you

shall do: Love the earth

and sun and the animals, despise riches,

give alms to every one that asks, stand up for

the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor

to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have

patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat

to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,

go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young

and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open

air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you

have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss

whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall

be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only

in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and

face and between the lashes of your eyes

and in every motion and

joint of your

body.

 


Walt Whitman

 

don’t use the mind to invoke a buddha

kazuhiko okushita

 

Buddhas don’t save buddhas.

If you use your mind to look for a buddha,

you won’t see the buddha.

 

As long as you look

for a buddha somewhere else,

you’ll never see that your own mind

is the buddha. And don’t use a

buddha to worship

a buddha.

 

And don’t use the mind to invoke a buddha.

Buddhas don’t recite sutras.

Buddhas don’t keep precepts.

 

And buddhas don’t break precepts.

Buddhas don’t keep or break anything.

Buddhas don’t do good or evil.

 

Bodhidharma

bodhimorema