Topic: More From the Tao

[Nichi]

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

[Builder]

Observe people with cool eyes, listen to their words with cool ears. Confront feelings with cool emotions, reflect on principles with a cool mind.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

Once mature, a person prefers substance to appearance, fruit to flowers.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

Deal with difficult tasks while they are easy.
Act on large issues while they are small.

[Builder]

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)

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

Look into the morning dew
Finding a soul’s shape
Reflected in your footsteps

[Builder]

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.