Posts Tagged → love

as soft and yielding as water

like streams flowing into the sea

 

Nothing

under heaven is as

soft and yielding as water.

Yet for attacking the hard and

strong, nothing can

compare with

it.

 

The weak

overcomes the strong.

The soft overcomes the hard.

Everyone knows this, but none

have the ability to

practice it.

 

Therefore

the sage says: one who

accepts the dung of the nation

becomes the master of soil and sustenance.

One who deals with the evils of the

nation becomes king under

heaven.

 

True words seem paradoxical.

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu

Chapter 78

 

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

Hua hu Ching, Wei wu Wei Ching,

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

 

hexagram 6 ☯️ sung / conflict

banksy

 

The proper response

to conflict, whether it lies within or

without us, is disengagement.

 

Whenever we allow ourselves to be drawn off balance, away from the strength of quiet integrity, we are in conflict. It matters not whether the confrontation is between competing values in one’s own mind or with another person: it is the inner departure from clarity and equanimity that leaves us with feelings of despair and vulnerability. The only remedy is to disengage from the problem and return to quiet contemplation of what is correct.

Conflict provokes strong feelings of doubt, fear, anxiety, and impatience to resolve the situation. If you act under the influence of these inferior emotions, you will severely complicate the misfortune. By following the prescription of the Sage and returning to a position of neutrality, acceptance, and detachment, you are able to meet opposing forces halfway: not recoiling in anger and condemnation, not pressing forward for some unnatural change in things, but waiting calmly in the center until the Higher Power provides the correct solution.

The I Ching teaches us that all conflict is, in the end, inner conflict. When you see it beginning, you are obliged not to pursue it, for this only compounds your own misfortune. If you cannot regain your equanimity on your own, then seek the assistance of a just and impartial person in resolving the difficulty. The only way to live free of conflict is to hold steadfastly to proper principles in all things. Through balance, patience, and devotion to inner truth we rise above every challenge.

 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 6, Sung / Conflict

 

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

Wei wu Wei Ching, Hua hu Ching, and

Art of War for iPad/Phone, Kindle,

Nook, or Android

 

You

can now buy

the I 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

 

being in harmony is the true way

arthur morris

 

You disciples and apostles,

you all do the same work, yet you try

to determine who’s above and who’s below.

Each of you thinks you’re special, and in that

vanity you irritate each other mightily.

You think there will not be enough,

so you fight for your portion

like dogs in the street.

 

Being in harmony

is the true way, not this itch

of greed, this constricted stall where

you and other donkeys get beaten with a stick.

Move instead to the praise-place, inside the

mystery, where prayer is unlimited,

and you feel the delight of

giving homage.

 

Bahauddin, father of Rumi

the drowned book

he helps all beings become themselves

what would papa do

 

What has equilibrium

is easy to maintain. What hasn’t

begun is easy to plan. What is fragile

is easy to shatter. What is small

is easy to scatter.

 

Deal with things

before they arise. Cultivate

order before confusion

sets in.

 

The tallest tree

springs from a tiny shoot.

The tallest tower is built from a pile of

dirt. A journey of a thousand miles

begins at your feet.

 

Interfere with things,

and you’ll be defeated by them.

Hold on to things, and you’ll lose them.

The sage doesn’t interfere, so he

doesn’t fail; doesn’t hold on,

so he doesn’t lose.

 

Because projects

often come to ruin just before

completion, he takes as much care at

the end as he did at the beginning,

and thereby succeeds.

 

His only desire

is to be free of desire.

Fancying nothing, learning not

to know, electing not to interfere,

he helps all beings become

themselves.

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 64

 

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

Wei wu Wei 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

 

ada limon: the end of poetry

what you should know to be a poet

 

Enough of osseous and chickadee and sunflower

and snowshoes, maple and seeds, samara and shoot,

enough chiaroscuro, enough of thus and prophecy

and the stoic farmer and faith and our father and tis

of thee, enough of bosom and bud, skin and god

not forgetting and star bodies and frozen birds,

enough of the will to go on and not go on or how

a certain light does a certain thing, enough

of the kneeling and the rising and the looking

inward and the looking up, enough of the gun,

the drama, and the acquaintance’s suicide, the long-lost

letter on the dresser, enough of the longing and

the ego and the obliteration of ego, enough

of the mother and the child and the father and the child

and enough of the pointing to the world, weary

and desperate, enough of the brutal and the border,

enough of can you see me, can you hear me, enough

I am human, enough I am alone and I am desperate,

enough of the animal saving me, enough of the high

water, enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease,

I am asking you to touch me.

 

24th Poet Laureate of the United States