Before the night
is even through, I rise and sit,
watching fireflies. The night air clear as
water, the meditating mind is light as a reed.
The moon outlines trees on the western ridge;
a bell arouses homes up above. There may
be those in the dark who know
just how fine is what
I have found.
Should you desire the great tranquility,
prepare to sweat white beads.
In the
reconciling of resentments,
ill will often lingers. What’s the good
in that? The person who is truly good concerns
herself with what she owes others, never
with what they owe her. The tao of
heaven is impartial. If you
perpetuate it, it
perpetuates
you.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
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Thought of worldly things
is an enemy to the sweetness of spiritual
consciousness. Silence your thoughts. Bewilder
yourself with God. Your mind will fall away
and your heart will open.
Forwardness in worldly
ways is backwardness in reality.
When the herd turns back toward God,
its leaders end up in the rear! The lame goat
that was hindmost finds herself in front, and the
ones who worried about her are ecstatic now.
How do saints and prophets get to
be that way? By breaking
their own legs.
They make themselves
lame by renouncing expertise in
the ways of the world. Understanding that
it’s not the way home, they wash their hearts clean
of such knowledge. If you want to reach heaven,
follow the branches that lead to that root.
Be the lame goat here, and
lead the herd home.
Repeatedly undergoing
birth and death is just due to grasping
at objects. When we reflect back on the mind that
grasps at objects, we see that the real identity of mind
is originally pure. Within this purity, grasping mind
does not exist. Within nirvana, fundamentally
there are no thoughts moving; the
movement is ever still. Being
still, there is no
seeking.
Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka