Soma

Tools of the Path => Other Paths [Public] => Topic started by: Nichi on February 26, 2009, 06:30:38 AM

Title: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on February 26, 2009, 06:30:38 AM
1.
When some put on robes
and others bow down before them,
it is already lost.

2.
When some speak endlessly,
while others sit wide-mouthed
writing in notebooks,
it is not present.

3.
When groups begin to look all alike,
and comb their hair the same way
and can be found doing identical things
at a certain hour,
nothing is happening.


~Dorothy Walters
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 14, 2010, 06:49:15 AM
Observe people with cool eyes, listen to their words with cool ears. Confront feelings with cool emotions, reflect on principles with a cool mind.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 14, 2010, 06:50:10 AM
Those who act on excitement act intermittently; this is hardly the way to avoid regression. Those whose understanding comes from emotional perceptions are as confused as they are enlightened; this is not a lamp that is constantly bright.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 14, 2010, 06:51:25 AM
The eyes and ears, seeing and hearing, are external plunderers; emotions, desires, and opinions are internal plunderers. But if the inner mind is awake and alert, sitting aloof in the middle of it all, then these plunderers change and become members of the household.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 14, 2010, 08:51:10 PM
I divined and chose a distant place to dwell
T'ien-t'ai; what more is there to say?

Monkeys cry where valley mists are cold,
My grass gate blends with the color of the crags,
I pick leaves to thatch a hut among the pines,
Scoop out a pond and lead a runnel from the spring.

By now I am used to doing without the world,
Picking ferns, I pass the years that are left.

The trail to Cold Mountain is faint
the banks of Cold Stream are a jungle

birds constantly chatter away
I hear no sound of people
gusts of wind lash my face

flurries of snow bury my body
day after day, no sun
year after year no spring.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 19, 2010, 09:15:38 PM
Once mature, a person prefers substance to appearance, fruit to flowers.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 22, 2010, 12:21:26 AM
(http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/masters/buer/buer_1.jpg)

Before our body existed,
One energy was already there.
Like jade, more lustrous as it's polished,
Like gold, brighter as it's refined.
Sweep clear the ocean of birth and death,
Stay firm by the door of total mastery.
A particle at the point of open awareness,
The gentle firing is warm.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on November 27, 2010, 07:45:06 PM
Cut brambles long enough,
Sprout after sprout,
And the lotus will bloom
Of its own accord:
Already waiting in the clearing,
The single image of light.
The day you see this,
That day you will become it.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 02, 2010, 06:59:57 AM
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom,
The water flows.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 03, 2010, 05:18:53 PM
Deal with difficult tasks while they are easy.
Act on large issues while they are small.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 10, 2010, 05:14:19 AM
The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory. (about motivating own troops)

Sun Tzu

(ancient Chinese art of war was a rather straightforward application of Taoist philosophy)
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 10, 2010, 06:55:00 PM
A person who lives correctly,
When travelling on foot, will never meet a buffalo or tiger.
How so?  Because "death" has no part of them.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 11, 2010, 09:24:44 PM
Ordinary people think the "Great Tao" is actually useless.
That everyone thinks it is useless, is proof of how great it is.
If it was the kind of thing ordinary people thought was useful,
it would have disappeared long ago.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 15, 2010, 03:27:49 PM
Look into the morning dew
Finding a soul’s shape
Reflected in your footsteps
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 19, 2010, 06:53:47 PM
Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew
Has chilled the robe she will not change
And she touches a silver lute all night,
Afraid to go back to her empty room.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on December 30, 2010, 09:06:41 AM
Before Huangshi pagoda the river flows east,
In spring’s brightness I’m tired and need the breeze.
An ownerless clump of peach blossom’s opened,
Is dark or light red more to be loved?
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on January 01, 2011, 01:27:21 AM
Brothers share five districts;
father and sons three states.
To learn where the wild ducks fly
follow the white-hare banner!
Find a magic melon in your dream!
Steal a sacred orange from the palace!
Far away from your native land
swim with fish in a stream!
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on February 16, 2011, 05:04:42 PM
I spur my horse past the ruined city;
the ruined city, that wakes the traveler's thoughts:
ancient battlements, high and low;
old grave mounds, great and small.

Where the shadow of a single tumbleweed trembles
and the voice of the great trees clings forever,
I sigh over all these common bones --
No roll of the immortals bears their names.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on February 18, 2011, 05:08:35 PM
People ask for the road to Cold Mountain,
but no road reaches Cold Mountain.
Summer sky-still ice won't melt.
The sun comes out but gets obscured by mist.
Imitating me, where does that get you?
My mind isn't like yours.
When your mind is like mine
you can enter here.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Michael on February 18, 2011, 09:03:03 PM
People ask for the road to Cold Mountain,
but no road reaches Cold Mountain.
Summer sky-still ice won't melt.
The sun comes out but gets obscured by mist.
Imitating me, where does that get you?
My mind isn't like yours.
When your mind is like mine
you can enter here.


touche
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on February 18, 2011, 09:58:23 PM
touche

It is from Hanshan, a mysterious Buddha-Tao man nobody is even sure existed. Allegedly his poems were scribbled on rocks, trees, walls, etc. Eventually, he just vanished.

Hanshan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshan_(poet))
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on February 19, 2011, 07:27:11 PM
I usually live in seclusion
but sometimes I go to Kuoching
to call on the Venerable Feng-kan
or to visit Master Shih-Te.
But I go back to Cold Cliff alone,
obeying an unspoken agreement.
I follow a stream that has no spring
the spring is dry but not the stream.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on February 22, 2011, 04:56:56 PM
In a dream I see the moon
Beams of light woven all around it
The Weaver Girl descends step by step
Not even a cloud to hold her up
She asks my name
"No one you'd know," I reply
Suddenly a pine breeze swirls by
Dazzling sunbeams flood my window
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Michael on February 27, 2011, 09:04:52 PM
I usually live in seclusion
but sometimes I go to Kuoching
to call on the Venerable Feng-kan
or to visit Master Shih-Te.
But I go back to Cold Cliff alone,
obeying an unspoken agreement.
I follow a stream that has no spring
the spring is dry but not the stream.


golden wind
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Michael on February 27, 2011, 09:08:42 PM
In a dream I see the moon
Beams of light woven all around it
The Weaver Girl descends step by step
Not even a cloud to hold her up
She asks my name
"No one you'd know," I reply
Suddenly a pine breeze swirls by
Dazzling sunbeams flood my window


That's really beautiful *
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on March 03, 2011, 12:37:40 AM
I divined and chose a distant place to dwell-
T'ien-t'ai: what more is there to say?
Monkeys cry where valley mists are cold;
My grass gate blends with the color of the crags.
I pick leaves to thatch a hut among the pines,
Scoop out a pond and lead a runnel from the spring.
By now I am used to doing without the world.
Picking ferns, I pass the years that are left.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on March 03, 2011, 12:39:59 AM
You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
Loving beauty, you caress the bloom;
Soon enough, you'll sweep petals from the floor.

Terrible to love the lovely so,
To count your own years, to say "I'm old,"
To see a flower half-buried in leaves
And come face to face with what you are.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on March 09, 2011, 05:38:23 PM
Thirty years ago I was born into the world.
A thousand, ten thousand miles I've roamed,
By rivers where the green grass lies thick,
Beyond the border where the red sands fly.
I brewed potions in a vain search for life everlasting,
I read books, I sang songs of history,
And today I've come home to Cold Mountain
To pillow my head on the stream and wash my ears.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on March 16, 2011, 08:06:18 AM
When men see Han-shan
They all say he's crazy
And not much to look at -
Dressed in rags and hides.
They don't get what I say
And I don't talk their language.
All I can say to those I meet:
"Try and make it to Cold Mountain."
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on March 29, 2011, 02:26:11 AM
(http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/masters/buer/buer_1.jpg)

Before our body existed,
One energy was already there.
Like jade, more lustrous as it's polished,
Like gold, brighter as it's refined.
Sweep clear the ocean of birth and death,
Stay firm by the door of total mastery.
A particle at the point of open awareness,
The gentle firing is warm.

Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on March 29, 2011, 02:35:27 AM
The obstacle ....is the path.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Builder on April 24, 2011, 06:20:01 PM
Amid a thousand clouds and streams
There's an idle person somewhere
Roaming the hills during the day
Sleeping below cliffs at night
Suddenly passing springs and autumns
At peace no earthly burdens
Happy clinging to nothing
Still like a river in fall
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on June 05, 2012, 03:42:17 PM
I look at the clean stream,
And sit on the great stone,
Mind depends on nothing;
All worldly tasks have gone!
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on June 05, 2012, 03:45:04 PM
The Way to Hanshan is a queer one;
No ruts or hoof prints are seen.
Valley winds into valley,
Peak rises above peak;
Grasses are bright with dew,
And pine trees sough in the breeze.
Even now you do not know?
The reality is asking the shadow the way.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 11, 2012, 11:00:45 PM
He who exercises the power of loss should be with stillness and feel the power of being lost.
He who is at one with the power of loss, the power of loss will like to be with him.

Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 11, 2012, 11:03:15 PM
...as if in spring some enjoy climbing the terrace at the park.
I alone seem unaffected and lost.
Like an innocent baby that hasn't yet learned to smile.
I alone have no place to go.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 11, 2012, 11:05:00 PM
One cannot walk if he tries to hop.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 11, 2012, 11:08:21 PM
...a good traveller leaves no wheel marks.
A good speaker utters no mistakes.
A good counter needs no counting rods.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 24, 2012, 06:08:17 PM
When people fail to connect with the power of Tao, they count only on their own Te power,
When people fail to connect with with their own power of Te, they count on being kind and hope everyone will follow the rule of being kind to each other,
When kindness is lost, there is justice and people can hope that everyone follows the same idea of justice,
When justice is lost, people can only count on social ritual to get along,
If people depend on social ritual to maintain relationships, it is a lack of faith and loyalty - the origin of the chaotic.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 24, 2012, 06:10:04 PM
People claiming to have vision only show a flowery embellishment of Tao. It is the beginning of ignorance.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on November 04, 2012, 05:54:03 AM
East from my place lives an old woman
she became rich only a few years ago
used to be even poorer than me
today she laughs because I don't have a penny
She laughs - me being worse off
I laugh - she advanced?
We will not stop laughing about each other
she from the East - me from the West
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on May 03, 2013, 03:24:13 PM
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Taimyr on May 03, 2013, 05:05:48 PM
Yes, stop digging the past.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on October 05, 2013, 02:00:48 AM
At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: erik on November 11, 2013, 04:32:17 PM
It is from Kris Raphael, but might as well be placed here -Taoists say same thing almost word for word about working with one's life energy

“We say, do you speak with your Source Energy?

Do you look at your life and tell your Source about how you are feeling, about what you are dreaming about and about what you want to become?

You forget that your Source listens. You forget that there is, in your Source, an endlessly interest that is focused on you.

Speak with your Source, if you listen and talk long enough, you will begin to receive a response. The response may be in one of many forms, depending on how you best receive. You may hear an inner sound, you may have a sense; you can suddenly know or become aware of the presence of your Source and what is being communicated.

You can practice this and it is certainly something that we teach for those who wish to pursue this.

We say, what we most want you to hear from us today is that when you speak with your Source you can ask your Source about your experience. You can become aware of what your Source is helping you become so that you may live your dreams. You can speak with your Source about a pattern or challenge you encounter and would like to move past.

You have unlimited help. Many do not realize or acknowledge this, but you can. Speak with your Source Energy often and come to know that you have a resource, a creator and a granter of all you wish to be or experience. Thus, this is the most important relationship in your life – see it as such and you will see your life shifting. You will find yourself feeling loved, gifted and more unlimited.”
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on February 10, 2014, 11:12:51 PM
An integral person cares for the well-being of all. She does this by accepting responsibility for the energy she manifests. Looking at a tree she sees not an isolated event but root, leaves, trunk, water, soil and sun: each event related to the others, and "tree" arising out of their relatedness. Looking at herself and another, she sees the same thing.

Hua Hu Ching

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu is among the most widely translated and cherished books in the world. Singular in its lucidity, revered across cultural boundaries for its timeless wisdom, it is believed among Westerners to be Lao Tzu’s only book.

Few are aware that a collection of his oral teachings on the subject of attaining enlightenment and mastery were also recorded in a book called the Hua Hu Ching (pronounced “wha hoo jing”). The teachings of the Hua Hu Ching are of genuine power and consequence, a road map to the divine realm for ordinary human beings.

Perhaps predictably, the book was banned during a period of political discord in China, and all copies were ordered to be burned. Were it not for the Taoist tradition of oral transmission of sacred scriptures from master to student, they would have been lost forever.
http://brianbrownewalker.com/hua-hu-ching/
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on March 13, 2014, 01:43:46 PM
The Way has no boundaries; words do not have constant meanings. But because people want to say, ‘this is ...’, boundaries were created. Let me tell you about these boundaries. There is left and right; there are theories and debates; there are divisions and disagreements; there are victories and defeats. The wise person does not deny these boundaries, but pays no attention to them.

Zhuangzi
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on June 20, 2014, 07:44:16 PM
Here's a message for the faithful.
What is it that you cherish?
To find the Way to see your nature?
Your nature is naturally so.
What Heaven bestows is perfect.
Looking for proof leads you astray
Leaving the trunk to search among the twigs
All you get is stupid.

- Hanshan
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Qarille on September 27, 2015, 09:56:08 AM
1.
When some put on robes
and others bow down before them,
it is already lost.

2.
When some speak endlessly,
while others sit wide-mouthed
writing in notebooks,
it is not present.

3.
When groups begin to look all alike,
and comb their hair the same way
and can be found doing identical things
at a certain hour,
nothing is happening.


~Dorothy Walters
Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Qarille on September 27, 2015, 09:56:58 AM
Here's a message for the faithful.
What is it that you cherish?
To find the Way to see your nature?
Your nature is naturally so.
What Heaven bestows is perfect.
Looking for proof leads you astray
Leaving the trunk to search among the twigs
All you get is stupid.

- Hanshan

Title: Re: More From the Tao
Post by: Nichi on December 02, 2015, 08:24:38 PM
These things from ancient times arise from one:
The sky is whole and clear.
The earth is whole and firm.
The spirit is whole and strong.
The valley is whole and full.
The ten thousand things are whole and alive.
Kings and lords are whole, and the country is upright.
All these are in virtue of wholeness.

The clarity of the sky prevents its falling.
The firmness of the earth prevents its splitting.
The strength of the spirit prevents its being used up.
The fullness of the valley prevents its running dry.
The growth of the ten thousand things prevents their dying out.
The leadership of kings and lords prevents the downfall of the country.

Therefore the humble is the root of the noble.
The low is the foundation of the high.
Princes and lords consider themselves "orphaned, "" widowed," and "worthless. "
Do they not depend on being humble?

Too much success is not an advantage.
Do not tinkle like jade
Or clatter like stone chimes.

- Lao-tzu


Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English