The point we emphasize is
strong confidence in our
original nature.
Posts Tagged → happiness
agitated effort is not necessary
If you go
searching for the Great Creator,
you will come back empty-handed.
The source of the universe is ultimately
unknowable, a great invisible river
flowing forever through a vast
and fertile valley. Silent and
uncreated, it creates
all things.
All things
are brought forth from the
subtle realm into the manifest world
by the mystical intercourse of yin and yang.
The dynamic river yang pushes forward,
the still valley yin is receptive, and
through their integration things
come into existence. This is
known as the Great
Tai Chi.
Tai chi
is the integral truth
of the universe. Everything is
a tai chi: your body, the cosmic body,
form, appearance, wisdom, energy, the unions
of people, the dispersal of time and places.
Each brings itself into existence through
the integration of yin and yang,
maintains itself, and disperses
itself without the direction
of any creator.
Your creation,
your self-transformation, the
accumulation of energy and wisdom,
the decline and cessation of your body:
all these take place by themselves
within the subtle operation
of the universe.
Therefore
agitated effort is
not necessary. Just be
aware of the Great
Tai Chi.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
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forget all about yourself
Concentration is not
to try hard to watch something.
In zazen, if you try to look at one spot,
you will be tired in about five minutes. This is
not concentration. Concentration means freedom.
So, your effort should be directed at nothing. You should
be concentrated on nothing. In zazen practice we say that
your mind should be concentrated on your breathing,
but the way to keep your mind concentrated
on your breathing is to forget all about
yourself and just to sit and feel
your breathing.
…If you
continue this practice,
eventually you will experience the
true existence which comes
from emptiness.
tao makes the whole world one
Tao is a
whirling emptiness, yet
when used it cannot be exhausted.
Out of this mysterious well
flows everything in
existence.
Blunting
sharp edges, untangling
knots, softening the glare, it
evolves us all and makes
the whole world
one.
Something is
there, hidden and deep.
But I do not know whose
child it is — it came
even before
God.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
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.
real happiness is in the heart
Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man. But man does not look for it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure. Anything that is passing and anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness.
In reality very few in this world know what happiness means. Pleasure is the shadow of happiness, for pleasure depends upon things outside ourselves; happiness comes from within ourselves. Happiness belongs to the heart quality; pleasure to the outer world. The distance between pleasure and happiness is as vast as that between earth and heaven. As long as the heart is not tuned to its proper pitch one will not be happy. That inner smile which shows itself in a man’s expression, in his atmosphere, that belongs to happiness. If position were taken away and wealth were lost in the outer life, that inner happiness would not be taken away. And the smiling of the heart depends upon the tuning of the heart, the heart must be tuned to that pitch where it is living.
There are a thousand excuses for unhappiness that the reasoning mind will make. But is even one of these excuses ever entirely correct? Do you think that if these people gained their desires they would be happy? If they possessed all, would that suffice? No, they would still find some excuse for unhappiness; all these excuses are only like covers over a man’s eyes, for deep within is the yearning for the true happiness which none of these things can give. He who is really happy is happy everywhere, in a palace or in a cottage, in riches or in poverty, for he has discovered the fountain of happiness which is situated in his own heart. As long as a person has not found that fountain, nothing will give him real happiness.
If there is any source from where one can get the direction on how to act in life, it is to be found in one’s heart. The exercises of the Sufi help to get to the source where one can get the direction, the right direction, where there is a spark of the Spirit of Guidance. Those who care to be guided by the spirit, they are always guided, but those who know not whether such a spirit exists or does not exist, they wander through life as a wild horse in the woods, not knowing where it goes, why it runs, why it stands. It is a great pity to be thirsty and remain thirsty when the spring of fresh water is within one’s reach. There can be no loss so great in life as having the spark glittering in one’s heart and yet groping in the darkness through life.