Your inner power
makes influence possible.
There is danger in ambition and
agenda-making. The truly beneficial
influence is that which flows
naturally from your
attention to what
is correct.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
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Stabilization is the final stage of escape from the profane, the foundation of attaining the Way, the accomplishment of cultivated stillness, the consummation of maintaining calm.
When the body is like a withered tree, the mind like dead ashes, without reactivity, without seeking anything, this is the epitome of tranquility. There is no mindfulness of stabilization, yet there is stability. Thus it is called tranquil stabilization.
Chuang-tzu said, “One whose capacity is tranquilly stabilized radiates natural light.” Capacity refers to the mind, natural light is active insight. The mind is a capacitor of the Way; when it is as uncluttered and quiet as can be, then the Way stays there and insight emerges.
Insight comes from original nature; one does not just come to have it now. That is why it is called natural light. It is just because of the muddling confusion caused by craving that it comes to be obscure. Clean it, make it flexible, rectify it, and restore it to purity and calm, and the original real conscious spirit will gradually become clear of itself; this does not mean that you are just now producing that insight.
Once insight has emerged, treasure it and do not compromise stability by too many concerns.
Treatise on Sitting Forgetting
Patch-robed monks
practice thoroughly without carrying
a single thread. Open-mindedly sparkling and pure,
they are like a mirror reflecting a mirror, with
nothing regarded as outside, without
capacity for accumulating
dust.
Those who are determined to practice the Way practice self-awareness and self-understanding twenty-four hours a day. They think of this and focus on this. They know that the one Great Cause is there right where they stand, that it is in sages without being augmented and in ordinary people without being diminished. They know that it stands alone free of senses and sense objects, and that it far transcends material things.
Wayfarers don’t set up fixed locations in anything they do. They are clear and tranquil, with solid concentration, and the myriad transformations never disturb them. They appear in response to conditions and go into action as they encounter events, leaving nothing incomplete.
You should just be empty and quiet, transcending everything. Once the main basis is clear, all obscurities are illuminated. “Ten thousand years — a single thought. A single thought — ten thousand years.” Passing through from the heights to the depths, the great function of the whole potential is in operation. It is like when a strong man flexes his arm: he doesn’t depend on anyone else’s strength. Then the illusory blinders of birth and death vanish forever, and the true essence indestructible as a diamond is all that shows. Once realized, it is realized forever — there is no interruption.
All that the enlightened teachers, ancient and modern, have said and done — the scriptural teachings, the enlightenment stories, the meditation stories, the question-and-answer sessions, all their teaching functions — all of this illuminates this true essence alone.
If you can be free and clear in actual practice for a long time, naturally you will come to meet the Source on all sides and become unified and whole.
Haven’t you seen Fadeng’s verse?
Going into a wild field, not choosing,
Picking up whatever plant comes to hand,
Rootless but finding life,
Apart from the ground but not falling.
Right before your eyes, it has always been there. Facing the situation, why don’t you speak? If you don’t know it in your daily life, where then will you look for it? Better find out.
Why scurry
about looking for the truth?
It vibrates in every thing and every
not-thing, right off the tip of your nose.
Can you be still and see it in the
mountain? the pine tree?
yourself?
Don’t imagine
that you’ll discover it by accumulating
more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt,
and doubt makes you ravenous for more
knowledge. You can’t get full
eating this way.
The wise person
dines on something more subtle:
He eats the understanding that the named
was born from the unnamed, that all being flows
from non-being, that the describable world emanates
from an indescribable source. He finds this subtle
truth inside his own self, and becomes
completely content.
So
who can be
still and watch the
chess game of the world?
The foolish are always making
impulsive moves, but the wise know
that victory and defeat are decided by
something more subtle. They see
that something perfect exists
before any move
is made.
This
subtle perfection
deteriorates when artificial
actions are taken, so be content not
to disturb the peace. Remain quiet.
Discover the harmony in
your own being.
Embrace it.
If you
can do this, you will
gain everything, and the world
will become healthy again.
If you can’t, you will be
lost in the shadows
forever.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
☯️
You
can now buy
Hua hu Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.