The ancients were
those who gave up all
learning and mastered
the wu wei idleness
of tao.
Posts Tagged → ebooks
serve as an example to others
You serve
as an example to others by
sacrificing your ego and accepting
the guidance of the Higher
Power.
The hexagram
Ting concerns the nourishment
and guidance one must have in order to fully
succeed. While the culture around us often encourages
us to “take charge” and make aggressive demands on life, the
I Ching offers far wiser counsel. Here we are encouraged
to give up the incessant demands of our ego —
to deepen our humility and acceptance
and to listen carefully to the
instructions of the
Sage.
The image
of the caldron concerns
your inner thoughts: whatever you hold
in the “caldron” of your mind is your offering
to the Higher Power. The quality of assistance you can
receive from the universe is governed by the quality of your
offering. If you constantly indulge in the concerns of the ego —
fears, desires, strategies to control, harshness toward others —
you repel the Higher Power and block your own nourishment.
If, on the other hand, you consciously let go of your
resistance to life and hold quiet and correct
thoughts, you become receptive to the
Creative and your continual
nourishment is
assured.
Ting comes
to suggest that the wisest
thing that you can do now is to still
your ego and conscientiously enter into a
conversation with the Sage. To influence others, or to
achieve a proper goal, follow the same path. By cultivating
humility and acceptance, purifying your inner thoughts,
and concentrating on that which is good and innocent
and true, you summon the power of the Creative
and meet with good fortune in
the outer world.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 50, Ting / The Caldron
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
the I Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
not inhibited from acting
Frankly speaking,
you simply must manage
to keep concentrating even in the midst
of clamor and tumult, acting as though there were not
a single thing happening, penetrating all the way through from
the heights to the depths. You must become perfectly complete,
without any shapes or forms at all, without wasting effort,
yet not inhibited from acting. Whether you speak
or stay silent, whether you get up
or lie down, it is never
anyone else.
win the world by letting go
Govern a nation
by following nature.
Fight a war with unexpected
moves. Win the world by
letting go.
How do I know this?
From seeing these things:
The more prohibitions there
are, the poorer people
become.
The more
weapons there are,
the darker things
become.
The more cunning
and cleverness there is,
the crazier things
become.
The more laws there are,
the greater the number
of scoundrels.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action, and people transform
themselves. I love tranquility, and people
naturally do what is right. I don’t interfere,
and people prosper on their own. I have
no desires, and people return
to simplicity.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Wei wu Wei Ching, Hua hu Ching, and
Art of War for iPad/Phone, Kindle,
You
can now buy
Tao te Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
the calm light from the spirit
Do not
do anything (good or bad)
and do not even do this not-doing;
then straightaway one reaches that place where
there is no concern for external affairs, that
vast and peaceful place where there
are absolutely no obstructing
thoughts.
There,
all thoughts of the past
are extinguished, all thoughts of
the future do not arise, and
all present thoughts
are void.
Nevertheless,
this void-ness is also not
to be maintained. This non-maintenance
(of the void) is also to be forgotten, and this forgetting
is also not to be legitimized; further, free yourself from this
non-legitimizing. At the time when even the idea of
getting free is not preserved, only the alert
yet calm light from the spirit will
appear prominently before
oneself.