recognizing yourself

 

A sage is subtle,

intuitive, penetrating, profound. 

His depths are mysterious and

unfathomable. 

 

The best one can do is

describe his appearance: the sage

is alert as a person crossing a winter stream; as

circumspect as a person with neighbors on all four sides; 

as respectful as a thoughtful guest; as yielding as

melting ice; as simple as uncarved wood; 

as open as a valley; as chaotic

as a muddy torrent. 

 

Why “chaotic

as a muddy torrent”? 

Because clarity is learned by

being patient  in the

heart of chaos. 

 

Tolerating

disarray, remaining at rest, 

gradually one learns to allow muddy water to

settle and proper responses to reveal themselves. 

Those who aspire to tao don’t long for fulfillment. 

They selflessly allow tao to use and deplete

them; they calmly allow tao to renew

and complete them. 

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 15

 

 

These days, Obama spends

a lot of time talking with younger people.

With them, he is an elder refuting the notion that things

have never been worse. “I say, ‘No, you know what? Civil War—really bad.

Jim Crow—tough. You know, our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents

went through stuff that was profoundly tougher than what we’re going through,’ ”

the former President said. “And I say that not to pull rank on them but,

rather, to pull them out of any kind of hopelessness

about the situation.”

 

The New Yorker