Outside the door I made but don't close
I glimpse the movements of unfamiliar birds
A handful of jade is worth a whole mountain
But gold can't buy a lifetime of freedom
The sound of icy falls on a dawn-lit snowy ridge
The sight of distant peaks
Through leafless autumn woods
Mist lifts from ancient cedars
And days last forever
Right and wrong don't get past the clouds
- Stonehouse (1272-1352)
THE FOURTH SIGN OF THE ZODIAC (PART 3)
I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.
So why not get started immediately.
I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.
And to write music or poems about.
Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.
You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.
~Mary Oliver
tao-te-ching
Sixty-two
Tao is source of the ten thousand things.
It is the treasure of the good man, and the refuge of the bad.
Sweet words can buy honor;
Good deeds can gain respect.
If a man is bad, do not abandon him.
Therefore on the day the emperor is crowned,
Or the three officers of state installed,
Do not send a gift of jade and a team of four horses,
But remain still and offer the Tao.
Why does everyone like the Tao so much at first?
Isn't it because you find what you seek and are forgiven when you sin?
Therefore this is the greatest treasure of the universe.
People are a country's foundation;
Just like a tree depends on the ground.
If the soil is deep,
It supports the spreading branches.
If the soil is poor,
The tree will decline
Do not expose its roots,
Or the branches will wither
And the fruit will fall.
To get fish by destroying a dam
Benefits you just one time
- Han shan
@ghost-of-a-duke saidI don’t think Plato ever said that, but it’s a good idiom anyway.
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Plato
a lesson for rookie
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The prerequisite for Ch'an practice is to eradicate wrong thinking. Sakyamuni Buddha taught much on this subject. His simplest and most direct teaching is the word "stop" from the expression "stopping is Bodhi." From the time when Bodhidharma transmitted Ch'an teachings to today, the winds of Ch'an have blown far and wide, shaking and illuminating the world. Among the many things that Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch taught to those who came to study with them, none is more valuable than the saying, "Put down all entangling conditions, let not one thought arise."
- Hsu-yun (1840-1959)