<
BEYOND AWARENESS
ew
5 AM - 7/2/17
July 2
Fear, desire, greed, and restlessness arise within the mind.
If we stir them, they will permeate our lives.
If we let them go, they will fade away.
From Tao Te Ching, Chapter 60
Let me count the ways.
Facebook, news,
clicking, surfing,
texting, chatting,
buying, fretting,
on and on I go,
keeping the hamster wheel
turning, whirring, spinning;
then it’s twirling
by its own momentum
while I’m reading, resting,
eating, even sleeping.
Stop!
The fearful, harmful, restless thoughts have such energy and power.
They are the fuel that culture demands to keep its engines running.
I am taught that I must oppose them by engaging them,
but perhaps I am only adding to the energy that keeps the wheel turning.
I have not been taught to wait long enough in silence to see what might arise when the mud settles and the water clears.
I’m all for action, but what the world needs now is action that emerges,
not from fear and restlessness,
but from stillness.
Stillness is hard to trust when the mind is filled with fear,
but fear has never conquered fear.
Bill Martin
www.taoistliving.com
and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. . . .
So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing.
T. S. Eliot
in order photographed