Deluded a buddha is a being
Enlightened a being is a buddha
A foolish buddha is a being
A wise being is a buddha
A biased buddha is a being
An unbiased being is a buddha
As long as your mind is biased
The buddha dwells in a being
The moment you wake up unbiased
A being becomes a buddha
Your buddha is the real one
If you didn’t have the buddha-mind
Where would you go to find a buddha?
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
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do your work, then quietly step back
When there is
a pleasant state, there is
an unpleasant state in contrast.
When there is a good situation, there
is one that is not good to replace it.
Only an ordinary, simple life
is a comfortable
nest.
Sattva, the activity that always results in good, is the controlled activity, when we have a rein over it. This is the most difficult to attain, and needs the work and effort of a whole lifetime. All the saints and sages have had to journey through these grades and learn from experience, and they understand how difficult it is to attain control over our activity in life.
There are two ways in which we may attain control over our activity. The first is confidence in the power of our own will; to know that if we have failed today, tomorrow we will not do so. The second is to have our eyes wide open, and to watch keenly our activity in all aspects of life. It is in the dark that we fall, but in the light we can see where we are going.
What good
is it to spend your life
accumulating material things?
It isn’t in keeping with the Tao. What
benefit in conforming your behavior to someone’s
conventions? It violates your nature and dissipates
your energy. Why separate your spiritual life
and your practical life? To an integral
being, there is no such
distinction.
Live simply
and virtuously, true to
your nature, drawing no line
between what is spiritual and what is
not. Ignore time. Relinquish ideas and
concepts. Embrace the Oneness.
This is the Integral
Way.
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Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
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