Category: B

15. Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Sunrise/Afternoon July 4, 2015

7/4/2015

This is #15 (Tao #11) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

WHILE WAITING
BE ALL THAT YOU ARE
BUT
DO NOTHING…

.....ALLOWING THE VAST CURRENT OF AUTHENTIC LIFE
TO GLIDE DESTINY’S CO-CREATION
ew
5:28 AM - 7/4/15

∞

To act without needing a reason,
to sit still without knowing how,
to ride the current of what is--
this is the primal virtue.
The Second Book of The Tao
#36
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More at end for Note re: the above

#11

The Master doesn’t aim for success,
doesn’t avoid failure,
doesn’t act with a motive,
doesn’t try to follow the Tao.

She speaks when she is silent,
says nothing when she speaks,
and remains pure
amid the world’s dust and grime.

The Master soars past the sun and moon,
tucks the universe under her arm,
and is one with the ten thousand things.

She lets the confused stay confused
if that is what they want
and is always available
to those with a passion for the truth.

In the welter of opinions,
she is content with not-knowing.
She makes distinctions
but doesn’t take them seriously.

She sees the world constantly breaking
apart, and stays centered in the whole.

She sees the world endlessly changing
and never wants it to be
different from what is is.
#11
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

There’s nothing special about the Master.
She doesn’t know any secrets,
and she doesn’t live in some state of exalted consciousness.

She’s just like you,
except that she no longer believes her own thoughts.

“When I attained unexcelled perfect enlightenment,” the Buddha said,
“there was nothing that I attained.”

The mind at peace with itself needs only what it has,
wants only what it is.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The Great Way has no gate;
there are a thousand paths to it.

If you pass through the barrier,
you walk the universe alone.
–Wu-Men
The Enlightened Heart
Stephen Mitchell
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/07/no-gate.html

Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Suffice
ew
GODSEED
2003

0 Comments

14. Radical Ignorance - Original Remembrance Sunrise/Afternoon July 3, 2015

7/3/2015

0 Comments

This is #14 (Tao #21) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

Setting Moon this morning....she was Full July 1, 2015

∞

REPLACE CACOPHONY'S POSSESSION OF EXPECTATION
EDICTS & LABELS
WITH A CALM CORE THAT ONLY
IS
SPONTANEOUS JOY AND PEACE

THE ORIGINAL REMEMBRANCE

ew
4:50 AM - 7/3/15

∞

#21
The Master treads lightly on the earth.
Life is not serious for him,
and death is not serious.

Even if the whole world
collapsed, it would not disturb him.

He realizes what is essential.
He has returned to the source.
The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

The more we move beyond our ideas about life and death,
the more open we are to life.

This radical ignorance is not a path to wisdom:
it is wisdom itself.

There a current that is deeper than we are.
It will carry us off whether we want it to or not.
When we resist it, we suffer.
Only when we let it take us can we begin to sense its intelligence.

The Master knows how to die,
because he knows how to deal with the everyday losses
that form the texture of our life.

He deals with them by understanding that loss is just a concept.
He looks into the abyss as into the eyes of the beloved.

He knows nothing about death:
he knows everything he needs to know about dying.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More Below for additional photos, and quotes...

0 Comments

13. Primal Virtue - ("to ride the current of what is") Sunrise/Afternoon July 2, 2015

7/2/2015

0 Comments

This is #13 (Tao #36) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

FullMoonSet in the West

#36

Whatever happens or doesn’t happen,
can you center yourself in the Tao?

Can you stop looking to others
and focus on your innermost self?

Can you return to the beginning of the world
and be like a newborn baby?

It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse.

It can clench its fist for hours,
yet its fingers never get cramped.

It can stare all day without blinking,
yet its yes never grow tired.

Free from concerns and worries,
unaware of itself,

it moves without thinking,
doesn’t know why things happen,
doesn’t need to know.

To act without needing a reason,
to sit still without knowing how,

to ride the current of what is--
this is the primal virtue.

The Second Book of The Tao
#36
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

People think that entering the kingdom of heaven
has something to do with good and evil.
But as Jesus implied,
every mother’s child wakes up in the kingdom of heaven.

Heaven is intimacy: the world before separation.
It looks exactly like earth,
but without the thoughts that branch out in a thousand directions
too heavy for us to bear.

Our first parents were not the good children in a morality tale.
They were enchanted with each other and with themselves,
Adam staring into the mirror of phenomena,
Eve singing as she plaited a wreath.

The tree they ate from was not called the Tree of Evil:
it was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
They become mere grown-ups the moment they bit into that bitter fruit.
They opened their eyes and thought that they knew something.

They heard the voice of guilt and punishment
walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

They imagined that they were naked,
when all the while they were clad in all earthly abundance,
and crowned with the moon and stars.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The Life-Energy and
Awareness arrive.
In due course,
The instrument’s purpose is fulfilled
The Life-Energy and
Awareness depart.
The cycle is completed.
Understand this thoroughly and
There is nothing else to do.

–Wu Hsin

0 Comments

12. "Selfishness as an Act of Pure Love" - "Perfect Sustenance" Sunrise/Afternoon July 1, 2015

7/1/2015

0 Comments

This is #12 (Tao #24) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

All Sunrise Photos today from 11/26/14

∞

THE SOLITUDE OF ORIGIN'S REMEMBRANCE
IS “OLDER THAN GOD” COMFORT
AND
PERFECT SUSTENANCE

ew
5:49 AM - 7/1/15
∞

#24

To find the Tao,
there is nowhere you need to search.
If it is not inside you,
it is not the Tao.

The Book of Songs says,
When you make the handle of an ax
by cutting wood with an ax,
the model is near at hand.

Thus, in dealing with people,
you already have the perfect
model of behavior inside you.

Just act with integrity,
according to your true nature.

"I am only a Loose Garment of the Great Breather" ew 11/26/14 Afternoon

Don’t do to others
what you wouldn’t want done to you.

The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

We talk of inside and outside,
but it’s as impossible to locate the Tao in the mind as in the world.
Anything here or there isn’t it.
Can your eyes see themselves?
When the answer searches for the answer,
what can it ever find?

That’s why even the most gold rules of behavior don’t work,
if they’re only rules.
What is genuine has no models or rules.
It’s spontaneous, self-generating, free.
Nothng can stand against it.
It doesn’t depend on motivation and isn’t concerned with effect.
It just wants to be itself,
to express itself,
to give itself utterly away.
Its nature is kindness,
but there’s nothing moral about it.

In dealing with people, you’re always dealing with yourself.
The apparent other is you in disguise,
the mirrored impulse,
the reflection of your own mind,
brilliant or confused.

Unkindness to the other is literally unkindness to you.
When you realize this, you naturally stop hurting yourself.

And in the end,
you come full circle, where 0° equals 360°
and
selfishness is an act of pure love.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

Be with those who help your being.
Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.

Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.
A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don't try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

–Rumi
Ode 2865
Coleman Barks translation
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/your-work-is-deeper.html

You are a sinner,
You are a saint.
You are a murderer and
You are a monk.

The entire world
You experience is
Inside yourself.

To fix the problems of
The world,
You need only
Fix yourself.

–Wu Hsin

the mad world
of earthbound creatures
must first diagnose
before it can kill
ew
GODSEED
2003

0 Comments

15. Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Sunrise/Afternoon July 4, 2015

14. Radical Ignorance - Original Remembrance Sunrise/Afternoon July 3, 2015

13. Primal Virtue - ("to ride the current of what is") Sunrise/Afternoon July 2, 2015

12. "Selfishness as an Act of Pure Love" - "Perfect Sustenance" Sunrise/Afternoon July 1, 2015

Categories

Archives