Questioner:
How are we to treat others?
There are no
others.
Posts Tagged → enlightenment
live for your center, not your senses
The five
colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors overwhelm
the palate.
Fancy things
get in the way of one’s growth.
Racing here and there, hunting for
this and that—good ways to
madden your mind,
that’s all.
Relinquish what is without.
Cultivate what is within.
Live for your center,
not your senses.
☯️ what wondrous function is ☯️
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you are taking sides as you practice
Mindfulness is not just
watching things coming and going.
As the Buddha said, when mindfulness becomes a
governing principle in the mind, it sees things that are unskillful
and it works toward getting rid of them. It sees things that are
skillful and works toward giving rise to them. It actively
gets involved in making things arise and
making things pass away.
So you are taking sides
as you practice. Hopefully, you’re taking sides
with the right side – right view and all the way down
to right concentration – because it really
does make a difference.
set an example of self-improvement
do not even do this non-doing
on this date a buddha was born
A monk asked Chao Chou,
“Does a dog also have the Buddha nature, or not?”
Chao Chou replied, ‘Mu.’ This Mu is not the Mu of yes or no;
it is not the Mu of true nonexistence. Ultimately what is it?
To reach that place from where Chao Chou said Mu
one must straightaway lay down
the entire body.
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.
move steadily in a single direction
Consistent
correctness turns every
situation to your advantage.
The image of this hexagram is that of a gentle wind dispersing storm clouds. A wind that changes direction often, even a very powerful one, will disperse nothing—it only stirs up the sky. The wind that causes real change is the one that blows consistently in the same direction. There is an important lesson for us in this example.
When faced with a difficult problem to resolve or a goal we wish to achieve, we often are tempted to take striking and energetic actions. Though it is possible to achieve temporary results in this fashion, they tend to collapse when we cannot sustain the vigorous effort. More enduring accomplishments are won through gentle but ceaseless penetration, like that of a soft wind blowing steadily in the same direction. The truth of the Sage penetrates to us in this way, and this hexagram comes now to remind you that this is how you should seek to penetrate others.
The advice given to you by the I Ching is threefold. First, establish a clear goal; the wind that continually changes direction has no real effect. Second, apply the principle of gentle penetration to yourself; by eliminating your own inferior qualities you earn an influence over others. Third, avoid aggressive or ambitious maneuvers now; these are rooted in desire and fear and will only serve to block the aid of the Creative. The desirable influence is the one that flows naturally from maintaining a proper attitude.
In your interactions with others, bend like the willow. By remaining adaptable, balanced, accepting, and independent, and by steadily moving in a single direction, you gain the clarity and strength that make possible a series of great successes.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 57, Sun / The Gentle (The Penetrating Wind)
🪷
Right among the people coming and going
I have a place to stay
I shut the gate even in the daytime
And feel as though I had bought
Wo-chu the great mountain
And had it with me in town.
Never since I was born have I
Liked to argue, mouth full of blood.
My mouth is made fast to heaven and earth
So the universe is still.