When your tasks
are few, naturally your pains are few.
When your words are few, naturally your troubles
are few. When you eat little, naturally you get sick less.
When you have few desires in your heart,
naturally you have few
worries.
Posts Tagged → The Cultivator of Realization
quietude whatever you are doing
Return the mind
to quietude whatever you are doing,
not imagining what is yet to come and not thinking
about what has already passed. After a long time at this, spirit and
energy merge, feelings and objects are forgotten; spirit solidifies,
energy congeals, and there is just one breath in the belly,
revolving without going out or in.
This is called womb
breathing.
a method of peace and happiness
No happiness is
greater than attaining the Way.
A day learning the Way is a day of happiness;
every day learning the Way is everyday happiness;
a lifetime learning the Way is lifetime happiness.
Learning the Way is basically a method of
peace and happiness; that is why
sages study it tirelessly.
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.
attained upon looking within
The two things
in the world that are hardest
to do are crossing the ocean and going
into battle; yet people will do these things without
fearing their difficulties. When it comes to the Way, it has
the ease of being so easy that it is attained upon looking
within, not like the danger of crossing the ocean;
it has the security of the naturalness of
celestial design, not like the peril of
going into battle: yet people
rarely practice it —
why is that?