Tag: balance

Not this nor that

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Vallee de Valserine 2

Some teachers say that God is pure being.  
But he is as high above being as the highest angel is above a gnat.  
I would be speaking as incorrectly in calling God a being as if I called the sun pale or black.

God is neither this or that.

Meister Eckhart, 1260 – 1328, Dominican Theologian and Preacher,

With enlightenment there is no liking and disliking: Such dualities come from ignorant inference. They are like dreams or flowers in the air. Gain and loss, right and wrong: such thoughts must finally be abolished at once. If the mind makes no discriminations, the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence. To understand the mystery of this One-essence is to be released from everything that holds you back. When all things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached.…To come directly into harmony with this reality,  just simply say when any doubts arise, “There are not two.” In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth.

Seng T’san,  6th Century, Third Chinese Zen patriarch.

Once again, thanks to Ellen van Kalmthout for the beautiful photo

I don’t mind

Karl Duffy5 Comments
peach blossom river
J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, spoke and travelled almost continually all over the world for more than fifty years attempting to convey through words…that which is beyond words. At one of his talks in the later part of his life, he surprised his audience by asking, “Do you want to know my secret?”

Everyone became very alert. Many people in the audience had been coming to listen to him for twenty or thirty years and still failed to grasp the essence of his teaching. Finally, after all these years, the master would give them the key to understanding.

“This is my secret,” he said.   “I don’t mind what happens.”

Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth – Awakening to your Life’s Purpose’

Using few words

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File:050908 Paris 140l1 ButtesChaumont-arcobaleno.JPG
Nature uses few words:
when the gale blows, it will not last long;
when it rains hard, it lasts but a little while;
What causes these to happen? Heaven and Earth.

Why do we humans go on endlessly about little
when nature does much in a little time?
Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching, 23

More about non-forcing

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Statue representing the portrait of Buddha in meditation. Copy space.

Another reflection on the value of not forcing (wu-wei)  in our lives, and the benefits that come from trusting and letting go:

The ten directions converging,

Each learning to do nothing

This is where we learn the Buddha’s training;

Mind’s empty, all’s finished.

P’ang Yun, 740 – 808

 

 

A place of compassion

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File:Monkey baby 3.jpg

The mind isn’t always a shining light, is it? Even if you don’t act upon them, becoming aware of jealous, moaning, manipulative, greedy or fearful states of mind is uncomfortable. We tend to ignore such moods or bury them under activity or distraction, but as long as they’re not dealt with, we’re divided internally. So what would it take to become whole and peaceful? Isn’t that about relating to how it is right now from a place of compassion and non-identification? Isn’t that the faculty that could be developed to a lasting excellence, which would provide us with a good perspective and attitude?

Ajahn Sucitto, Good Enough

photo Shawn Allen California USA

Learning when not to force

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File:Meandering stream - geograph.org.uk - 220050.jpg

In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.

In the pursuit of the Way, every day something is dropped.

Less and less is done until non-action is achieved.

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

 Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 48

“Non-doing”  – Wu-wei, – meaning “not to force”,  refers to what we understand of one’s acting accordingly to one’s nature, of one’s swimming downstream, sailing before the wind, rolling like the waves or one’s bending in order to win.

 Alan Watts,  Tao: the Watercourse Way

photo sharon loxton