hold to the good at every turn

adrienne kammerer

 

Don’t rely on

others to direct your

conduct. Be determined in

holding to the good

at every turn.

 

third changing line

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 16, Yü / Enthusiasm

 

☯️

 

Keep yourself simple,

good, guileless, dignified, unpretentious,

devoted to justice, pious, kind, affectionate to others,

and resolute in carrying out your proper tasks. Strive to be and

remain the kind of person philosophy would have you be.

Revere the gods and keep men safe. Life is short.

There’s only one crop to be reaped from your

time on earth, and that is a reverential

disposition and socially

useful actions.

 

Marcus Aurelius

the annotated marcus

 

contact with good and bad

the most authentic master I ever encountered

 
Something in prolonged contact with rouge eventually becomes red, something in prolonged contact with soot eventually becomes black. What I realize as I observe this is the tao of habituation to good and bad.
 
When you live with good people, what you always hear are good words and what you always see are good actions. Hearing and seeing good words and actions over a long period of time plants good seeds in your mind, so that you spontanteously become accustomed to goodness.
 
When you live with bad people, what you always hear are bad words and what you always see are bad actions. Hearing and seeing bad words and bad actions over a long period of time plants bad seeds in your mind, so that you naturally become accustomed to badness.
 
Good and bad people are said to be so by nature, but most become so through habit. Therefore wise people choose their associates carefully.
 

Liu I-Ming

awakening to the tao

☯️

 

a truly good person


 

A truly

good person doesn’t

dwell on her goodness.

Thus she can be good.

A person of false goodness

never forgets her goodness.

Thus her goodness is

always false.

 

A truly

good person does nothing,

yet nothing remains undone.

A person of false goodness is forever

doing, yet everything remains

forever undone.

 

Those who

are interested in service

act without motive. Those who are

interested in righteousness act with

motives of all sorts. Those who are

interested in propriety act, and

receiving no response, they

roll up their sleeves

and use force.

 

When

Tao is lost,

goodness appears.

When goodness is lost,

philanthropy appears.

When philanthropy is lost,

justice appears.

When justice is lost,

only etiquette

is left.

 

Etiquette

is the faintest husk

of real loyalty and faith,

and it is the beginning of confusion.

Knowledge of the future is only

a blossom of Tao; to become

preoccupied with it

is folly.

 

Thus the

sage sets her sights

on the substance and not the

surface, on the fruit and not the

flower. Leaving the one,

she gains the

other.

 

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 38

 

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Tao te Ching as part of a

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add to goodness from your own heart

the way of jesus

 

Whenever we see

that goodness is lacking,

we may add to it from our own heart

and so complete the nobility of human nature.

This is done by patience, tolerance, kindness, forgiveness.

The lover of goodness loves every little sign of goodness.

He overlooks the faults and fills up the gaps by

pouring out love and supplying that

which is lacking. This is real

nobility of soul.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

the stream of love

 

plant yourself firmly in the tao

catherine nelson

 

Plant yourself

firmly in the Tao and 

you won’t ever be uprooted. 

Embrace Tao firmly and you won’t 

ever be separated from it. Your

children will thrive, and 

your children’s

children. 

 

Cultivate

goodness in your self, 

and goodness will be genuine. 

Cultivate it in your family, and goodness

will flourish. Cultivate it in your community, 

and goodness will grow and multiply. 

Cultivate it in your country, and

goodness will be abundant. 

Cultivate it in the world, 

and goodness will be

everywhere. 

 

How do I know

the world works like this? 

By watching.

 

Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 54

 

ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,

Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for

iPad, Phone, Kindle, Nook,

or Android

 

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.

brian browne walker taoist app bundle ios ipad iphone