the way to enlightenment

gregory colbert

 

The way

to enlightenment

is through emptiness.

 

Quiet the senses,

forget the body, abandon

concepts and control and contention.

Transform the mind into a pile of cool

ashes, and then do non-doing until

stillness permeates inside

and out.

 

In this

way you can be

illuminated by the clarity

and silence of the

Oneness.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 1

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the proper response to conflict

banksy

 

The proper response

to conflict, whether it lies within or

without us, is disengagement.

 

Whenever we allow ourselves to be drawn off balance, away from the strength of quiet integrity, we are in conflict. It matters not whether the confrontation is between competing values in one’s own mind or with another person: it is the inner departure from clarity and equanimity that leaves us with feelings of despair and vulnerability. The only remedy is to disengage from the problem and return to quiet contemplation of what is correct.

Conflict provokes strong feelings of doubt, fear, anxiety, and impatience to resolve the situation. If you act under the influence of these inferior emotions, you will severely complicate the misfortune. By following the prescription of the Sage and returning to a position of neutrality, acceptance, and detachment, you are able to meet opposing forces halfway: not recoiling in anger and condemnation, not pressing forward for some unnatural change in things, but waiting calmly in the center until the Higher Power provides the correct solution.

The I Ching teaches us that all conflict is, in the end, inner conflict. When you see it beginning, you are obliged not to pursue it, for this only compounds your own misfortune. If you cannot regain your equanimity on your own, then seek the assistance of a just and impartial person in resolving the difficulty. The only way to live free of conflict is to hold steadfastly to proper principles in all things. Through balance, patience, and devotion to inner truth we rise above every challenge.

 

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 6, Sung / Conflict

 

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try to praise the mutilated world

travel light

 

Try

to praise

the mutilated world.


Remember June’s long days,


and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.


The nettles that methodically overgrow


the abandoned homesteads

of exiles.


 

You

must praise

the mutilated world.


You watched the stylish yachts

and ships;
 one of them had a long trip

ahead of it,
 while salty oblivion awaited others.


You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,


you’ve heard the executioners

sing joyfully.


 

You

should praise

the mutilated world.


Remember the moments when

we were together 
in a white room and

the curtain fluttered.
 Return in thought to

the concert where music flared.
You

gathered acorns in the park in

autumn 
and leaves eddied

over the earth’s

scars.


 

Praise

the mutilated world


and the gray feather a thrush lost,


and the gentle light that strays

and vanishes
 and

returns.

 

Adam Zagajewski

 

i have arrived, i am already home

miguel claro

 

All we have to do is

be ourselves, fully and authentically.

We don’t have to run after anything. We already

contain the whole cosmos. We simply return to ourselves

through mindfulness, and touch the peace and joy

that are already present within us

and all around us.

 

I have arrived.

I am already home. 

There is nothing to do.

Aimlessness, nonattainment,

 is wonderful practice.

 
Thich Nhat Hanh

 

one who meets daito face to face

your old home town

 

As with the classical

Chinese teachers of the Tang dynasty,

Shuho maintained that awakening was central to

Buddhist practice. In a document called Daito’s Testament, he

reminded his students, “You have come here not for food or clothing

but for religion. As long as you have a mouth, you will have food;

as long as you have a body, you will have clothes. Don’t concern

yourself with these. Be mindful throughout your waking

hours; time flies like an arrow, don’t waste it with

concern over worldly matters.”

 

He went on to tell his disciples

that even if they were to become the abbots

of wealthy monasteries and received the respect of

the laity and nobility, even if they were rigorous in their practice

of meditation and ritual activities, but they lacked awakening, they were

no more than members of the “tribe of evil spirits.” Conversely, if they

were poverty stricken, lived in a ramshackle hermitage, and ate

only what wild food they gathered in the forests and

yet they were awakened, then they would be

“one who meets me face to face

and repays my kindness.”

 

Daito Kokushi

years of hunger beneath gojo bridge