Posts Tagged → stillness

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

 

quiet strength insures success

joel rea

 

An

unavoidable time of adversity.

 Quiet strength insures a

later success.

 

It is a time

of oppression and exhaustion.

None of us escapes such moments; they are simply

a part of living. By meeting them in the correct spirit and

cheerfully bending instead of breaking, you weather

the adversity and meet with success

at a later time.

 

Inferior elements,

either in one’s self, another,

or the larger world, interfere now to

restrain the superior person. It is foolish to fight

against the restraint; success is simply not possible now.

Rid yourself of the desire to progress and return

to neutrality and acceptance. The stubborn

pursuit of results will bring

misfortune.

 

With others,

quietness and equanimity are

the watchwords of the moment. Say little,

and say it gently. A similar reticence and gentleness

should be applied to yourself. Do not lapse into

impatience or mistrust of the Deity. Accept

that the Creative often works in a way

that we cannot see or

understand.

 

A feeling of

despair or depression is a sign

that you are holding a false belief.

To perpetuate an untruth about yourself,

another, or the Sage is to block your own

happiness. Root out and remove any

idea or attitude which

causes negative

feelings.

 

By opening

your mind, quieting your heart,

and calmly holding to proper principles,

you make it possible for the Creative

to eliminate the oppression

that currently

exists.

 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 47, K’un / Oppression (Exhaustion)

 

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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