I always forget
how important the empty days are,
how important it may be sometimes not to
expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal.
The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche,
occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in
the changing light of a room, not try
to be or do anything.
In order to
be a proper teacher to
oneself, one must be part midwife,
part executioner: sometimes rebirthing oneself,
sometimes annihilating and leaving useless bits by the
wayside, until the self soars free and clear of
attachment, obstruction, and delusion
and joins all buddhas past,
present, and
future.
Then one
can stop fracturing
reality with names and ideas
of self, other, buddha,
enlightenment,
and so on.
There,
beyond definitions
and beyond mind, reality
flows like pure
water.
You
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Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a
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The heart may be likened to soil.
Soil may be fertile or a barren desert, but the soil
which is fertile is that which bears fruit. It is that which
is chosen by living beings to dwell in, although many are lost
in the soil of the desert, and lead in it a life of grief and loneliness.
Man has both in him, for he is the final manifestation. He may
let his heart be a desert where everyone abides hungry and
thirsty, or he may make it a fertile and fruitful land
where food is provided for hungry souls, the
children of the earth, strong or weak,
rich or poor, who always hunger
for love and sympathy.
attitude is the secret of life
jacob wrestling with the enemy
One learns to understand
that there is a world in one’s self,
that in one’s mind there is a source of happiness
and unhappiness, the source of health and illness, the source of light
and darkness, and that it can be awakened, either mechanically or at will,
if only one knew how to do it. Then one does not blame his ill fortune
nor complain of his fellow man. He becomes more tolerant,
more joyful, and more loving toward his neighbor,
because he knows the cause of every thought
and action, and he sees it all as the
effect of a certain cause.
A physician would not
revenge himself on a patient in an asylum,
even if the patient hit him, for he knows the cause.
Psychology is the higher alchemy, and one must not study
it only without practicing it. Practice and study must
go together, which opens the door to
happiness for every soul.
Flowers,
sesame seed, bowls of fresh water,
a tuft of kusa-grass, all this altar paraphernalia
is not needed by someone who takes
the teacher’s words in and
honestly lives
them.
Full of
longing in meditation,
one sinks into a joy that is free of
any impulse to act and will
not enter a human
birth again.
