“our greatest blessings come when we are able to improve the lives of others”
Every breath,
each movement, all activity
is completely, inseparably interwoven
with enlightenment. Complete realization
is bound into every petty difficulty, and
wholly liberated and illuminated
through quiet awareness
of that fact.
While you are eating
a piece of bread, try to recall
the events that collaborated to let
this take place. The ovens heat that baked
the bread, the plowed earth before that, sunlight,
rain, harvest, the winnowing, the being carried to and
from the mill, the complex idea and the building of the mill
itself. The many motions of weather in the turning of four seasons.
And don’t forget the knife that cuts the bread, the metallurgy and the skill of
forging that blade, and your teeth, those original grinding devices. Then there’s
your stomach digesting the crust and there’s the rest of your body being
nourished, each part in unique ways. Two hundred and forty-eight
bones, five hundred and thirty muscles, three hundred
arteries, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, your organs
and limbs, your brain. As the bread dissolves,
many intelligences within you are deciding
and peacefully agreeing on how to
divide the benefits. If there were
discord, you would feel pain
and cry out, but
you don’t.
Now notice the unified
human awareness thoughtfully
living inside your body with a soul
in communion with other spirit-intelligences.
Observe how it sits at the junction of two worlds as
a human being looking with kindness on other human
beings. Some say this is the culmination of the body’s long
development and the beginning of the next transformation,
that you that live with gratitude for food and thankfulness
also for any difficulty, pain, or sudden disappointment,
seeing those too as grace, that you live inside and
outside time as an angelic breadeating witness
taking in this myriad convergence of
providential motions and that you
are in yourself an individual
soul being made from
divine wisdom.
Yes, I am
truly a dunce. Living
among the trees and plants,
don’t question me about illusion and
enlightenment. This old fellow just likes to smile to
himself. I wade across streams with bony legs,
and I carry a bag about in fine spring
weather. That’s my life, and
the world owes me
nothing.
In times of war it is desirable
to be led by a cautious
and humane
general.
The hexagram Shih is a guide to proper conduct in the face of adversity. It is inevitable that we sometimes face trials and challenges in life. How we prepare ourselves, by whom we are led, and how we conduct ourselves during these “wars” determines whether we are victorious or not. The I Ching counsels us to follow the example of a first-rate army.
A truly powerful army always consists of a number of devoted soldiers who discipline themselves under the leadership of a superior general. If he has achieved his position through force, the general will not last for long and he will lose the support of his army when he needs it most. If on the other hand he has become a leader through superior conduct and even-handed treatment of this fellow soldiers, then his power is well consolidated and it endures.
So it is with us. Only by conducting ourselves humanely and with persevering balance can we have a genuine influence in trying times. There is always the temptation to be led into battle by our egos, but we are guaranteed a humiliating defeat if we turn our inferiors loose in this way. A superior person achieves victory in the same fashion as a superior army: by putting his inferior emotions under the guidance of his superior emotions, and by proceeding cautiously, modestly, and with the continual goal of achieving peace and detachment.
You are advised to prepare for a trial now. Your chances of success will be determined by how you conduct yourself within and without. If you remain alert, modest, just, and independent, all will go well. If you are gentle and humane, you will have the allegiance of those around you. Advance cautiously when the time is right, and when it is not, do not allow your ego to stand in the way of retreat and disengagement.
Remember that the ultimate victory in any battle comes when we regain our inner independence, our neutrality, and our equanimity. These can only be won by placing our inferiors under the leadership of our superiors. Do this now, and success will be yours.
The I Ching, or Book of Changes
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When we reach
the ultimate stillness, we
joyfully become aware that this mind
of ours is empty, without any things,
and extends infinitely in
all directions.