meet difficulty with acceptance

fabio furlotti

Through openness

and gentleness the correct

solution is reached.

Arriving

at the correct solution

to a difficult situation requires a

receptivity to inner truth. Unless we are

willing to put aside the strong emotions of

our egos and devote ourselves to discovering

what is right, there can be no hope of

progress at this time. Help only

comes when we invite it with

a sincere and innocent

attitude.

The

I Ching teaches

a simple but effective

method of influencing difficult

people and arduous situations. It advises

us first to lay aside our prejudices — our feelings

of being wounded, angry, or in the right —

and second to seek to understand the

positions of others and the lesson

that the Sage is teaching

us with the

situation.

Even

when another is

truly out of line, it is only by

accepting this and remaining balanced

that you make it possible for positive change

to occur. Gentleness and understanding

create in others an unconscious

willingness to

be led.

The

superior person

therefore avoids the use of anger

and force in trying times, knowing that they

only prolong conflict. It is far wiser to accept that

each experience we have is necessary for us to learn

something about ourselves and about the higher

laws of life. The greatest openings come when

we meet difficulty with acceptance,

gentleness, and a desire to

understand the lesson

underneath.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 61, Chung Fu / Inner Truth

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for what reason do you pass this way?

this world

Humans born into

this floating world  quickly become

like the roadside dust:  at dawn small children, 

by sunset already grown white-haired,  without inner

understanding,  they struggle without cease. 

I ask the children of the universe: 

for what reason do you

pass this way?

Ryokan

dewdrops on a lotus leaf

there is one clear truth

Anyone

can say anything.

Eyes look without obstruction,

And the nose, it sniffs everything.

Legs go where they want to. Hands reach.

The mind respects nothing. Even the heart

Is unsure where to stand. This is how

Things are. Is something missing?

A human being can walk in different ways,

Deliberately, as though going somewhere,

Or strolling with no purpose, or marching,

Or limping, or pretending to be a gorilla

With arms hanging down.

He or she can curse you or trust you, comfort you,

Or act without considering anything or anyone.

Truth and lies, both glitter in the eyes.

He or she can hear and enjoy and embrace

The language coming in, but to understand everything

With divine wisdom is hard.

There is one clear truth, the pure loving.

When people do not have that, they are

Disconnected. Words are just words,

And good actions are done for wrong reasons.

Paint on a red dot like the dancing Shiva,

But if you don’t know how to open your heart

With modesty, dignity, and respect for others,

It’s just collecting more honors and robes.

It’s easy to explain the condition of being human,

What’s missing and what’s here, but if

You don’t know God exists,

It’s foolishness.

To know this and act accordingly is difficult.

Saying the words is easy.

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

beautiful things grow out of shit

“What would be really interesting for people to see is how beautiful things grow out of shit, because nobody ever believes that, you know. Everybody thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head, they somehow appeared there and formed in his head, and all he had to do was write them down and they would be kind of manifest to the world.

“But what I think what’s so interesting, and what should be a lesson everybody should learn, is that things come out of nothing. Things evolve out of nothing. You know, the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest. And then the most promising seed, in the wrong situation, turns into nothing.

“And I think that this would be important for people to understand because it gives people confidence in their own lives to know that that’s how things work. If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted, they have these wonderful things in their head, but you’re not one of them, you’re just sort of a normal person, you could never do anything like that, then you live a different kind of life, you know.

“You could have another kind of life where you can say, where you say, ‘Well, I know that things comes from nothing very much and start from unpromising beginnings, and I’m an unpromising beginning, and I could start something.'”

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