In times past
there was a monk who asked
an old adept, “The world is so hot, I don’t know
where to escape.” The old adept said, “Escape into a
boiling cauldron, into the coals of a furnace.
The multitude of sufferings cannot
reach there.”
This is my
own prescription for
getting results.
Haven’t you
read the ancient worthy’s saying?
“The white clouds are clear and still, and the rivers
flow into the blue sea. The myriad things are
originally peaceful, but people
make trouble for
themselves.”
After all,
this statement is completely
accurate and true. If you know what it means
as soon as you hear it mentioned, you can use it to pass
through birth and death to freedom and no longer be obstructed
by the psycho-physical nexus. You will be like a bird getting
out of a cage — independent and free. With a single
stroke you put a stop to all other actions and
talk, and you no longer fall into
secondary views.
Gently I weep for my mind,
caught in its illusion of ownership.
Mind, you’re not who you think you are.
You’re dancing over a pit. Soon you’ll fall through,
and these things you’ve valued and collected will
be left behind. My sweet dear, do you
understand this, and if you do,
how does your food
taste?
We say
to practice zazen
without any gaining idea,
without any purpose. Let things work
as they do, supporting everything as your own.
Real practice has orientation or direction, but it has
no purpose or gaining idea, so it can include everything
that comes. Whether it is good or bad doesn’t matter.
If something bad comes: “Okay, you are a part
of me;” and if something good comes,
“Oh, okay.” Because we don’t have
any special goal or purpose
of practice, it doesn’t
matter what
comes.
If you try
to grab hold of the
world and do what you want
with it, you won’t
succeed.
The world
is a vessel for spirit,
and it wasn’t made to be manipulated.
Tamper with it and you’ll spoil it.
Hold it, and you’ll
lose it.
With tao,
sometimes you move ahead
and sometimes you stay back; sometimes
you work hard and sometimes you rest; sometimes
you’re strong and sometimes you’re weak;
sometimes you’re up; sometimes
you’re down.
The sage
remains alert, avoiding
extremes, avoiding extravagance,
avoiding excess.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, Wei wu Wei Ching,
You
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