Put aside the
crazy and false mind that
has been concocting your knowledge
and understanding, and make it so that
nothing whatsoever is weighing
on your mind.
🪷
Posts Tagged → tao te ching
cling to the power of higher truth
It is in the nature of being human that we are dependent in many ways: dependent on water, air, and food for nourishment; dependent on shelter for warmth and protection; dependent on each other for family life and friendship. We are also spiritually dependent: when challenges arise, each of us must have some place to turn for guidance and support.
The image of the hexagram Li is that of a fire clinging to the wood that it burns. Without a supply of fuel, there can be no fire. Likewise, a person without a source of spiritual sustenance cannot give off light in dark and challenging times.
Difficult situations tempt us to doubt the power of humility, acceptance, and correct behavior. We long to abandon our inner balance and lash out. It is just at such moments that it is most important to cling to what we know to be good and true and correct—like fire clings to the log it burns. By doing this we obtain the aid of the Higher Power.
You are advised to cling to proper principles now. Quietly, willfully, joyfully cling to what is superior in yourself; cling to the possibility of a positive outcome in the situation that faces you, no matter how unlikely it may seem; cling to the good in others, even when it is obscured by inferior influences; and cling to the power of the Deity to deliver truth where it is needed.
Trying times bring us the gift of showing where our devotion to proper principles ends. Deepen that devotion now, cling to truth and acceptance and independence, and you will meet with success.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 30, Li / The Clinging (Fire)
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love, faithfulness, and correctness
joan radcliffe walker embodied all these
as did her partner in all bud walker
A healthy family,
a healthy country, a healthy
world — all grow outward from
a single superior
person.
The hexagram Chia Jen concerns the proper foundation of human communities. The I Ching teaches that all clans must have a superior person at their center if they are to prosper and succeed. Therefore, in order to improve our family, company, nation, or world community, we must begin by improving ourselves.
If you will observe healthy families you will always see present in them three qualities: love, faithfulness, and correctness. When we truly love others, we are naturally kind, gentle, and patient with them. When we are faithful to others, we place proper principles and conduct above temporary influences like anger, desire, or greed. And when we practice correctness, we spiritually nourish ourselves and all those around us. When all three qualities are cultivated, a healthy clan springs naturally into being.
The difference between paying lip service to these ideals and practicing them is profound. If you advocate high ideals and actions to others but do not embody them yourself, your influence will disintegrate for lack of a proper foundation. Therefore, in order to inspire superior qualities in others, you must first instill them in yourself.
Concentrate not upon influencing others or external events but upon strengthening your inner devotion to proper principles. When modesty, acceptance, equanimity, and gentleness become deeply ingrained in your character, they will flow steadily out from from you.
Soon you will find yourself enmeshed in a web of healthy relationships, and in this there is great good fortune.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 37, Chia Jén / The Family (The Clan)
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book.
return to celestial design
A sage said, “In learning, you increase daily; for the Way, you decrease daily.” This “decrease” means decreasing excess to attain centered balance, decreasing trivialities to return to basics, and reducing human desires to return to celestial design.
There may be a hundred human desires, but it is imperative to master oneself first. Mastering yourself is like overcoming an enemy; first you must know where the enemy is before you can send in your troops.
Self-government should be strict, like a farmer weeding, who must remove weeds by the roots before he can be free of concern that they will grow back.
Self-examination is like arresting a robber — you cannot relax at any time.
Self-government is like executing a rebel — you must cut through with one stroke of the sword. Attacking human desire must be like this before it can be successful.
Self-government is a matter of getting rid of what was originally not in us. We should realize this was originally not there by nature and does not become nonexistent only after being overcome.
Conscious development is a matter of preserving what is originally in us. We should realize it is originally there of necessity and does not come to be there by conscious development.
the work now is to become pure light
Darkness
has been given as
a nightshirt to sleep in.
Remember how human beings
were composed from water and dust
for blood and flesh with oily resins heated
in fire to make a skeleton. Then the soul, the divine
light, was breathed into human shapes. The work now is
to help our bodies become pure light. It may look like
this is not happening. But in a cocoon every bit
of worm-dissolving slime becomes silk.
As we take in light, each part
of us turns to
silk.
We
made the night
a darkness, but we bring
shining dawnlight out of that.
In the same way the mound of your
grave will bloom with resurrection. Sufis
and those on the path of the heart use darkness
to go within. During the night vigil the universe
is theirs. With all the kings and sultans and
their learned counselors asleep, everyone
is unemployed, except those wakeful
few and the divine
presence.