Posts Tagged → happiness

the aristocracy of the heart

 

Tawazu’ in Sufic terms

means something more than hospitality.

It is laying before one’s friend willingly what one has,

in other words sharing with one’s friend all the

good one has in life, and with it,

enjoying life better.

 

When this tendency

to tawazu’ is developed, things that

give one joy and pleasure become more enjoyable by

sharing with another. This tendency comes from the aristocracy

of the heart. It is generosity and even more than generosity. For the

limit of generosity is to see another pleased in his pleasure,

but to share one’s own pleasure with another is greater

than generosity. It is a quality which is foreign

to a selfish person, and the one who

shows this quality is on the

path of saintliness.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

serving without expectation of reward

 

Tao gives

life to all beings.

Nature nourishes them.

Fellow creatures shape them.

Circumstances complete them.

Everything in existence respects tao and

honors nature — not by decree,

but spontaneously.

 

Tao gives life to all beings.

Nature watches over them, develops them,

shelters them, nurses them, grows them, ripens

them, completes them, buries them,

and returns them.

 

Giving birth,

nourishing life, shaping things

without possessing them, serving without

expectation of reward, leading without dominating:

These are the profound virtues of nature,

and of nature’s best beings.

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 51

 

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agitated effort is not necessary

oneness

 

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.

 

Hua hu Ching, Chapter 39

 

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Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for

iPad, Phone, Kindle, Nook,

or Android

 

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can now buy

Hua hu Ching as part of a

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for iPhone or iPad for less than

the cost of one hardcover

book.

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forget all about yourself

kodo sawaki roshi

 

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.

 

Shunryu Suzuki