Late in life I’ve lost my country.
Everywhere there is the malice of unearned
power, top to bottom, bottom to top,
nearly solid scum. Very few can read or write.
Lucky for me we winter in this bamboo thicket
near a creek with three barrels of bird food.
With first light things seem a little better.
The tendency of human beings is to rely on the strategies of the ego: desiring, plotting, and striving. When we exercise the ego, our spiritual development stops, and the universe must use shocking events to move us back onto the path. The appearance of the hexagram Chên indicates an immediate need for self-examination, self-correction, and a redevotion to following the path of the Sage. In Chinese, the hexagram translates to mean “thunder over thunder”: a continuing series of shocks occurs until the obstruction in our attitude is removed.
It is important not to react against these shocks.Instead, quiet and open your mind, accept that what is happening has come to teach you a specific and necessary lesson, and look inside to see where you are resisting the will of the Higher Power. The sooner you return to innocence and acceptance, the sooner the shocks will subside.
Those who maintain a reverence for proper principles and an inner commitment to higher things are unperturbed by shocking events; they simply concentrate on deepening their understanding. If you find yourself feeling threatened by circumstances, withdraw into stillness and meditation. The only remedy for doubt and fear is a reconnection with higher truth.Shock is an important and beneficial teacher to those who follow the path of the Sage. Make good use of this new beginning and good fortune results.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 51, Chen / The Arousing (Shock)
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Some people,
not knowing the essential emptiness
of good and evil, think practical cultivation of mind
means to sit rigidly immobile, subduing mind
and body, like a rock placed
on top of grass.
This is ludicrous.
That is why it is said that followers
cut off confusion in every state of mind,
yet the mind that does the cutting
off is a brigand.
enlightenment is not apart from the world
To be unstained
in all environments is called no-thought…
If you stop thinking of the myriad things, and cast aside
all thoughts, as soon as one instant of thought is
cut off, you enter another realm.
The Dharma of no-thought means:
even though you see all things, you do not
attach to them, but, always keeping your own nature
pure, cast the six thieves of the senses to
exit through the six gates.
Even though you are
in the midst of the six dusts,
you do not stand apart from them,
yet are not stained by them, and
are free to come and go.
We say
to practice zazen
without any gaining idea,
without any purpose. Let things work
as they do, supporting everything as your own.
Real practice has orientation or direction, but it has
no purpose or gaining idea, so it can include everything
that comes. Whether it is good or bad doesn’t matter.
If something bad comes: “Okay, you are a part
of me;” and if something good comes,
“Oh, okay.” Because we don’t have
any special goal or purpose
of practice, it doesn’t
matter what
comes.