
Awareness cleaned
my mind to a polished mirroring.
The presence came near, and I knew
that That was everything,
and I nothing.

Awareness cleaned
my mind to a polished mirroring.
The presence came near, and I knew
that That was everything,
and I nothing.

Those who follow
Tao strive for perfection,
but they are wary about being called
prophets. That is a limited role. Being a prophet
represents a great trap baited with the temptation of
self-importance. The ultimate aim of following
Tao is to transcend identity. Those who call
themselves prophets or even masters
maximize their identities.
It is far better
not to be a prophet, and to
eschew the responsibilities, limitations,
and temptations. It is far better to be obscure
and to be thought stupid. Having someone call you
by a title is an interference that you don’t need.
When you are seeing the greatest wonder
of your life, the last thing you want
is to have someone blocking
the light.

She
who is filled with
goodness is like a newborn child:
wasps and snakes will not bite it, fierce
beasts will not attack it, birds of
prey will not pounce
on it.
Its
bones are soft
and its muscles weak,
but its grip is firm. It hasn’t yet
known the union of male and female,
yet its organ stirs with vitality.
It can howl all day without
becoming hoarse,
so perfect is its
harmony.
To
know harmony is to
know the eternal. To know
the eternal is to be
inspired.
Prolonging
life is not harmonious.
Coercing the breath is unnatural.
Things which are overdeveloped must
decay. All this is contrary to Tao,
and whatever is contrary
to Tao soon ceases
to be.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
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Whip
and tether, self
and bull, every thing
is no thing. The clear blue
sky is unmarked by a message.
Could a snowflake persist
in a flaming fire? This
is the place of
masters.

This
is an absolute necessity
for anybody today. You must have a room,
or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know
what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know
who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody,
you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where
you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and
what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation.
At first you may find that nothing happens there.
But if you have a sacred place and use it,
something eventually will
happen.