Posts Tagged → good

the guardian spirit lodged within

rannveig aamodt

 

If you find anything

better in human life than justice,

honesty, moderation and courage — if,

to put it generally, you find anything better

than the self-sufficiency of your mind on those

occasions that your actions are compatible with

right reason, as well as when something is allotted

to you by fate without your having chosen it —

if, I say, you’re aware of anything better

than this, turn to it with all your heart

and enjoy the supreme good

you’ve discovered.

 

But if you find

nothing better than the

guardian spirit lodged within you,

which has brought all your particular

impulses under its control, which scrutinizes

your thoughts, which, as Socrates used to say, has

withdrawn itself from sensations, which has put itself

in the gods’ hands, and which cared providentially for

other people — if everything else turns out to be

trivial and worthless by comparison,

then make room for

nothing else.

 

Marcus Aurelius

the annotated marcus

 

how can it be taken by force?

one robe, one bowl

 
Having left the Fifth Ancestral Teacher’s place, Hui Neng traveled south for two months, and had reached the Ta Yu Range. He was pursued by the monk Hui Ming, who was originally a general, accompanied by several hundred men, who wanted to seize the robe and bowl (emblematic of succession to the ancestral teachers).

Ming was the first to overtake him. The Sixth Ancestral Teacher threw down the robe and bowl on a rock and said, “This robe signifies faith: how can it be taken by force?” Ming tried to pick up the robe and bowl, but was unable to move them. At that point he said, “I have come for the Dharma, not for the robe.”

The Ancestral Teacher said, “Since you’ve come for the Dharma, you should put to rest all your motivations, and don’t give rise to a single thought, and I will explain for you.” After a silence, he said, “Without thinking of good, and without thinking of evil, at just such a time, which is your original face?”

At these words, Hui Ming was greatly enlightened. He also asked, “Besides the intimate words and meaning that struck home a moment ago, is there any further intimate message?”

The ancestral teacher said, “If it were said to you, it wouldn’t be intimate. If you turn around and reflect, what’s intimate is in you.”

 

Dahui

i don’t know

🪷

 

the sage does what is right

one clear truth

 

When the government is

dull and sleepy, people are wholesome

and good. When the government is sharp and

exacting, people are cunning

and mean.

 

Good rests upon bad.

Bad hides within good.

Who knows where the

turning point is?

 

Whether government or 

person,  if you aren’t tranquil and honest, the 

normal flips to the abnormal, the auspicious reverts 

to the bizarre, and your bewilderment

lasts for a long time.

 

Therefore the sage

does what is right without acting

righteous, points without piercing,

straightens without straining,

enlightens without

dazzling.

 

Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 58


 

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the practice of repaying wrongs

enzo massa micron

 

What is the

practice of repaying wrongs?

When receiving suffering, a practitioner

who cultivates the Path should think to himself:

“During countless ages past I have abandoned the root

and pursued the branches, flowing into the various states

of being, and giving rise to much rancor and hatred—the

transgression, the harm done, has been limitless.

Though I do not transgress now, this suffering

is a disaster left over from former lives —

the results of evil deeds have ripened.

This suffering is not something

given by gods or

humans.”

 

You should willingly

endure the suffering without anger

or complaint. The sutra says: “Encountering

suffering, one is not concerned. Why? Because one

is conscious of the basic root.” When this attitude toward

suffering is born, you are in accord with inner truth,

and even as you experience wrongs, you advance

on the Path. Thus it is called “the practice

of  repaying wrongs”.
 

Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka

full text here