Our bodily food changes
into us, but our spiritual food
changes us into itself.
Our bodily food changes
into us, but our spiritual food
changes us into itself.
If you try
to grab hold of the
world and do what you want
with it, you won’t
succeed.
The world
is a vessel for spirit,
and it wasn’t made to be manipulated.
Tamper with it and you’ll spoil it.
Hold it, and you’ll
lose it.
With tao,
sometimes you move ahead
and sometimes you stay back; sometimes
you work hard and sometimes you rest; sometimes
you’re strong and sometimes you’re weak;
sometimes you’re up; sometimes
you’re down.
The sage
remains alert, avoiding
extremes, avoiding extravagance,
avoiding excess.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, Wei wu Wei Ching,
You
can now buy
Tao te Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.
Try
to praise
the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads
of exiles.
You
must praise
the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts
and ships; one of them had a long trip
ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners
sing joyfully.
You
should praise
the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when
we were together in a white room and
the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to
the concert where music flared. You
gathered acorns in the park in
autumn and leaves eddied
over the earth’s
scars.
Praise
the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays
and vanishes and
returns.
The world is
like a ride at an amusement park,
and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real,
because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up
and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills
and it’s very brightly colored and it’s very loud.
And it’s fun, for a
while.
Some people
have been on the ride
for a long time, and they begin to
question: ‘Is this real? Or is this just a ride?’
And other people have remembered, and they come
back to us and they say ‘Hey! Don’t worry, don’t
be afraid — ever — because this is just a
ride.’ And we kill those
people.
…We always kill
those good guys who try and
tell us that — ever notice that? — and we
let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter,
because it’s just a ride, and we can change it any time we want.
It’s only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings
and money. Just a choice, right now, between fear and
love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks
on your door, buy bigger guns, close yourself
off. The eyes of love, instead, see all
of us as one.
now, into a better ride. Take all that money
we spend on weapons and defense each year and, instead,
spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world,
which it would do many times over — not one human being
excluded — and we can explore space together,
both inner and outer, forever.
In peace.
Every
little thing is
sent for something,
and in that thing there should be
happiness and the power to make happy.
Like the grasses showing tender faces
to each other, thus we should do,
for this was the wish of the
Grandfathers of the
World.