Topic: More From the Tao

[Nichi]

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/

[Nichi]

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

[Nichi]

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

[Qarille]

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

[Qarille]

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

[Nichi]

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