Posts Tagged → meditation

why prophets were given hardship

this whole universe is the Beloved

 

Soul guides and prophets

have an innate innocence, but they are

subject to the same consequences as everyone.

If a donkey veers off-course, he will be hit with a stick.

If you do wrong, you will be punished. Abu Bakr said

that steadiness is the central virtue. From the

mind’s stability comes right action

which in turn balances the

intelligence.

 

They asked me why

prophets were given hardship.

I said it helps to have clear indications.

And I added silently to myself, Be more

humble like someone help captive.

Bow to the one who

can free you.

 

Bahauddin, father of Rumi

the drowned book

 

hold to the good at every turn

adrienne kammerer

 

Don’t rely on

others to direct your

conduct. Be determined in

holding to the good

at every turn.

 

third changing line

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 16, Yü / Enthusiasm

 

☯️

 

Keep yourself simple,

good, guileless, dignified, unpretentious,

devoted to justice, pious, kind, affectionate to others,

and resolute in carrying out your proper tasks. Strive to be and

remain the kind of person philosophy would have you be.

Revere the gods and keep men safe. Life is short.

There’s only one crop to be reaped from your

time on earth, and that is a reverential

disposition and socially

useful actions.

 

Marcus Aurelius

the annotated marcus

 

mobilize and focus your energy

transcend every thing

 
You should spend twenty or thirty years doing dispassionate and tranquil meditation work, sweeping away any conditioned knowledge and interpretive understanding as soon as it arrives, and not letting the traces of the sweeping itself remain either. Let go on That Side, abandon your whole body, and go on rigorously correcting yourself until you attain great joyous life. The only fear is that in knowing about this strategy, the very act of knowing will lead to disaster. Only when you proceed like this will it be real and genuine practice.

…But tell me, where were the ancestral teachers of Zen operating? It’s evident that the unique transmission outside of doctrine was not a hurried undertaking. They looked to the void and traced its outline: each and every one penetrated through from the heights to the depths and covered heaven and earth. They were like lions roaming at ease, sovereign and free. When they were empty and open, they really were empty and open, and when they were close and continuous, they really were close and continuous.

Although it is just this one thing that we all stand on, ultimately you yourself must mobilize and focus your energy. Only then will you really receive the use of it.
 

Yuanwu

zen letters