Heartbreak
asks us not to look for
an alternative path, because there
is no alternative path. It is an introduction
to what we love and have loved, an inescapable
and often beautiful question, something
and someone that has been with
us all along, asking us to be
ready for the ultimate
letting go.
Returning to the root is
the movement of tao.
Quietness is how
it functions.
The ten thousand things
are born of being.
Being is born of
emptiness.
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book.
One morning in the zendo
as we were all silently sitting zazen,
Suzuki Roshi said, “Don’t move. Just die over
and over. Don’t anticipate. Nothing can save you
now, because this is your last moment. Not even
enlightenment will help you now, because
you have no other moments. With no
future, be true to yourself —
and don’t move.”
To Shine One Corner of the World
Proper enthusiasm opens every door.
The I Ching
teaches that there are
two kinds of enthusiasm: one that
leads to misfortune, and one that leads to success.
This hexagram comes as a sign that you can
proceed with confidence now if your
enthusiasm is properly
founded.
Improper
enthusiasm is fueled
by the desires of the ego.
People often desire recognition,
wealth, power, or freedom from difficulty.
Such desires can become so great that we will do
anything to achieve them. Our energy rises as we wildly
pursue our goal, but this unruly and egotistical
enthusiasm inevitably leads us into incorrect
and imbalanced behavior and
into misfortune.
Proper enthusiasm,
on the other hand, is fueled by
a devotion to attaining and expressing
inner balance and inner truth. When your aim
is not to influence others or to satisfy your ego but to
follow the guidance of the Higher Power in all that you do,
you acquire another kind of energy: a balanced and
bottomless eagerness for living in step with
what is right and good. In this there
is true power and true
grace.
This hexagram
reminds you that striving out
of your ego now will only push you further
away from your goals. Seek instead to follow proper
principles: keep to what is innocent, correct, and
kind, and the Creative will come to your aid.
The path of truth is always the path
of least resistance.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
the I Ching as part of a
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for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
A moment of kindness
can produce a mood of harmony
between heaven and earth. Purity of
heart can leave a fine example for
a hundred generations.