
Keep practicing even when
there seems no hope
of success.

Keep practicing even when
there seems no hope
of success.

A great country is like
a low-lying land into which many
streams flow. It draws powerful energies
to it as a receptive woman draws
an eager man.
The feminine can always
conquer the masculine by yielding
and taking the lower position. In this way
she becomes as low-lying land:
in time, everything comes
her way.
Therefore a great country
can win over a small country by practicing
humility. A small country can also win over
a great country by practicing
humility.
One wins by
willingly taking the lower
position. The other wins by
willingly acknowledging
its lower position.
The great country
wants to embrace and nourish
more people.The small country wants
to ably serve its benefactor. Both
accomplish their ends
by yielding.
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Humans born into
this floating world quickly become
like the roadside dust: at dawn small children,
by sunset already grown white-haired, without inner
understanding, they struggle without cease.
I ask the children of the universe:
for what reason do you
pass this way?

Revise the story
you tell yourself about failure.
Consider yourself an apprentice in the world.
Learn all you can. Gain experience.
Keep moving.
Don’t
seek a Buddha,
don’t seek a teaching,
don’t seek a community.
Don’t seek virtue, knowledge,
intellectual understanding, and
so on. When feelings of defilement
and purity are ended, still don’t hold
to this non-seeking and consider it right.
Don’t dwell at the point of ending, and
don’t long for heavens or fear hells.
When you are unhindered by
bondage or freedom, then
this is called liberation
of mind and body in
all places.