Posts Tagged → death

abandoning things is superior

win the world by letting go

Yantou said, “Abandoning things is superior, pursuing things is inferior.” If your own state is empty and tranquil, perfectly illuminated and silently shining, then you will be able to confront whatever circumstances impinge on you with the indestructible sword of wisdom and cut everything off — everything from the myriad entangling objects to the verbal teachings of the past and present. Then your awesome, chilling spirit cuts off everything, and everything retreats of itself without having to be pushed away. Isn’t this what it means to be well endowed and have plenty to spare?

If the basis you establish is not clear, if you are the least bit bogged down in hesitation and doubt, then you will be dragged off by entangling conditions, and obviously you will not be able to separate yourself from them. How can you avoid being turned around by other things? When you are following other things, you will never have any freedom.

The Ultimate Path is simple and easy — it is just a matter of whether you abandon things or pursue them. Those who would experience the Path should think deeply on this.

People in ancient times gave up their whole bodies for the sake of this one matter. They stood out in the snow, worked as rice pounders, sold off their hearts and livers, burned their arms, threw themselves into roaring fires, got dismembered and cut to pieces, fed themselves to tigers and birds of prey, gave away their heads and eyes, endured a thousand kinds of pain and suffering.

In sum, if you do not suffer hardship, you will not arrive at deep realization. Those with the will for the Path must certainly consider the ancients as their comrades and aspire to equal their standard.

Yuanwu

zen letters

 

allowing nature to manifest

hexagram 43, kuai / breakthrough (resoluteness)

 

Forget all ideas 

of accomplishing something — 

in your practice and everywhere 

else. Everything is already 

accomplished. 

 

If this sounds 

like a tricky idea to you, 

the flaw is in your understanding 

of reality, not in reality 

itself.

 

Allowing nature 

to manifest is the way 

of the Way. By setting aside 

our ambitions and leaving

the Way to the Way, 

we perfect the

Way.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 43

Paperback / Kindle here

iPad/iPhone

iBooks

 

brian browne walker taoist app bundle ios ipad iphone

You

can now buy

Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a

five-app bundle of Taoist classics 

for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

 

jim harrison: i believe

now that I have you I’ll never forget what I owe you

 

I believe in steep drop-offs, the thunderstorm across the lake

in 1949, cold winds, empty swimming pools,

the overgrown path to the creek, raw garlic,

used tires, taverns, saloons, bars, gallons of red wine,

abandoned farmhouses, stunted lilac groves,

gravel roads that end, brush piles, thickets, girls

who haven’t quite gone totally wild, river eddies, 

leaky wooden boats, the smell of used engine oil,

turbulent rivers, lakes without cottages lost in the woods,

the primrose growing out of a cow skull, the thousands

of birds I’ve talked to all of my life, the dogs

that talked back, the Chihuahuan ravens that follow

me on long walks. The rattler escaping the cold hose,

the fluttering unknown gods that I nearly see

from the left corner of my blind eye, struggling

to stay alive in a world that grinds them underfoot.

 

Jim Harrison

he met the world in darkness and in light

 

the locusts who descend and eat crops

“now we terminate those who oversee the nuclear weapons, my lord”

 

I have said to the

crude-minded Fakhruddin Razi

and the dull King Khwarazmshah and

several other joyless philosophers, With your way

you leave behind the beauty of flowers and peacefulness

and walk steadily into darkness. You ignore the obvious miracles

in favor of smoke and ghosts. The false self of ego makes your

decisions. You feel confused and blocked, but wisdom

knows that this material world is a door to spirit.

Specific actions are required, and careful

attention must be given

to friendship.

 

We live in a place where

thorns and poisonous plants grow wild,

but fruit trees, roses, and vegetables need tending.

The diligent farming work is virtue. Fakhruddin and Khwarazmshah

disagree. They’re like the locusts who descend and eat crops rather than help

them grow. I wrap myself like Muhammad in this robe of torso, limbs,

and face, this splendid covering of phenomenal existence,

where I grow toward some destiny I know not,

only that I must live fully here

to reach the next.

 

Bahauddin, father of Rumi

the drowned book

 

daniel chatard