Remember, what
is important in practice
is perseverance and
consistency.
were snowed in on Tortoise Mountain.
Day after day, Yantou slept while Xuefeng sat up
and meditated. On the third day, Yantou sat up
too and said, “Get some sleep. What do you
think you are — a roadside shrine?”
Xuefeng touched his chest and
said, “My heart isn’t at peace.
I can’t fool myself.”
Yantou grave a great yell.
“Don’t you know the family treasure doesn’t
come in through the gate?” he said. “Let the teaching
flow out from your own breast to cover
the sky and the earth.”
Xuefeng was suddenly enlightened
and cried out, “Today Tortoise Mountain
has finally awakened!”
One day while
editing a transcription of
Suzuki Roshi’s first lecture on the Sandokai,
I came upon the phrase “things as it is.” I asked him
if perhaps he had not meant to say “things
as they are,” which I thought to be
proper syntax.
“No,” he said,
“what I meant is ‘things
as it is.'”
To Shine One Corner of the World
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
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Hua hu Ching, Wei wu Wei Ching,
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Even if, bright as
a flash of lightning, death
were to strike you today, be prepared
to die without sorrow or regret, giving up
attachment to what you are leaving behind.
Without ever ceasing to recognize
the authentic view of the real,
leave this life like the eagle
that soars into the
blue sky.