The ancients were
those who gave up all
learning and mastered
the wu wei idleness
of tao.
The ancients were
those who gave up all
learning and mastered
the wu wei idleness
of tao.
What do sad people
have in common? It seems they
have all built a shrine to the past and
often go there and do a strange
wail and worship.
What is the
beginning of happiness?
It is to stop being
so religious
like that.
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 steadiness comes a right action
which in turn balances the
intelligence.
They asked me
why prophets were given hardships.
I said it helps to have clear indications. And I added
silently to myself, Be more humble like someone
held captive. Bow to the one who
can free you.
Frankly speaking,
you simply must manage
to keep concentrating even in the midst
of clamor and tumult, acting as though there were not
a single thing happening, penetrating all the way through from
the heights to the depths. You must become perfectly complete,
without any shapes or forms at all, without wasting effort,
yet not inhibited from acting. Whether you speak
or stay silent, whether you get up
or lie down, it is never
anyone else.
Awareness
is inherently pure like
the empty sky. Stress, annoyance,
and anger can temporarily
occupy its space but can
never pollute
it.