Laozi. Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way
(Translated by Moss Roberts. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.)
Stanza 10
The new-moon soul aborning holds to oneness;
Can you keep it from being divided?
To centre all breath-energy, to work gently
Can you keep as if newborn?
To purify the eye within
Can you keep without stain?
To care for the people and rule the kingdom
Must you not master under-acting?
Midst ebb and flow from heaven’s gates
Must you not play the female part?
For your vision to reach all quarters
Must you not be unknowing?
Through giving birth and care
Dao gives life without possessing,
Performs without obligating,
Presides without controlling:
Such is the meaning of “hidden power.”
STANZA 37
The Dao in constant circum-motion,
Pursuing no end leaves nothing not done —
Let lords and kings to this conform
And all shall turn to them in trust.
Should then desires assert themselves,
We shall humble them with stark no-naming —
Yes, humble them with the starkness of no-naming,
And thus there shall be no-desire;
And out of the repose of no-desire,
The world on its own will come to order.
STANZA 43
In this world below the sky
The gentle will outdo the strong,
And the nonmaterial are able
To enter the impregnable.
Thus I know and know for sure
The gains that under-acting yields.
But teaching by the word unspoken
In this world few can master;
The gains that under-acting yields
In this world few realize.
STANZA 48
To pursue learning, learn more day by day;
To pursue the Way, unlearn it day by day:
Unlearn and then unlearn again
Until there is nothing to pursue:
No end pursued, no end ungained.
Whoever means to win this world below
Never undertakes that task;
Whoever does make that his task
Is not fit to win this world below.
Stanza 52
The world below has its gestation;
We hold there's a mother of all below.
The mother gained
The children known;
The children known,
The mother regained;
Then your life will not miscarry.
Interdict all interactions;
Seal and bar all gates and doors;
Thus prevent debility.
Open paths of interaction;
Busy furthering your ends;
Then never make recovery.
True vision marks the smallest signs;
Real strength keeps to the gentler way.
Apply your view,
But regain true vision's inner home.
Fall not into life's misfortunes;
Strive for the common lasting norm.
The Classic of the Way and Virtue: A New Translation of the Tao-te ching
of Laozi as
Interpreted by Wang Bi.
(Translated by Richard John Lynn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.)
Section 2
...Therefore, the sage tends to matters without conscious effort
That which by nature is already sufficient unto itself will only end
in defeat if one applies
conscious effort [wei] to it.
And practices the teaching that is not expressed in words. The myriad folk model their behaviour
on him, yet he does not tell them to do so. He gives them life, yet he possesses them not. He acts,
yet they do not depend on him.
Because such intelligence is complete in itself, conscious effort would
result in falsehood.
And he achieves success yet takes no pride in it.
Because he acts in accordance with things, success is achieved through
them, and this is
why he takes no pride in it.
It is just because he is not proprietary that he does not lose it.
If he supposed that success depended on himself, such success could
not last long.
Section 10
...Rely exclusively on your vital force, and become perfectly soft: can you play the infant?
Can you trust entirely to the vital force endowed by nature, attain
the harmony characteristic
of perfect softness, and, like the infant, be utterly without conscious desire? If so, people will
achieve their proper span of life and fully realize their natures...
Section 52
...Block up your apertures; close your door,
The apertures are where the desire for things arises. The door is where
the desire for things
enters.
And to the end of your life you will never be exhausted.
Tending to matters without conscious purpose, one remains forever at
ease. Thus to the end
of your life you will never be exhausted.
But if you open your apertures and deal consciously with things, to the end of your life you will
never have relief.
Such a one does not shut himself off from the source of desire and
tries to deal consciously
with things. Thus, although he might live his life to the end, he will never have relief.
To see the small is called perspicacious. To hold on to softness is called strength.
...Holding on to strength does not make one strong; it is holding on to
softness that makes one
strong.
Hear Sutra
(Rochester Zen Centre)
The Bodhisattva of Compassion
from the depths of prajna wisdom
saw the emptiness of all five skandhas
and sundered the bonds that create suffering.
Know then,
form here is only emptiness,
emptiness only form.
Form is no other than emptiness,
emptiness no other than form.
Feeling, thought and choice,
consciousness itself
are the same as this.
Dharmas here are empty,
all are the primal void.
None are born or die.
Nor are they stained or pure.
Nor do they wax or wane.
So in emptiness no form,
no feeling, thought or choice.
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body, mind.
No colour, sound, smell,
taste, touch or what the mind takes hold of,
nor even act of sensing.
No ignorance or end of it,
nor all that comes of ignorance:
no withering, no death,
no end of them.
Nor is there pain or cause of pain
or cease in pain or
noble path to lead from pain.
Not even wisdom to attain.
Attainment too is emptiness.
So know that the Bodhisattva,
holding to nothing whatever,
but dwelling in prajna wisdom,
is freed of delusive hindrance,
rid of the fear bred by it,
and reaches clearest nirvana.
All buddhas of past and present,
buddhas of future time
through faith in prajna wisdom
come to full enlightenment.
Know then the great dharani,
the radiant, peerless mantra,
the supreme, unfailing mantra,
the Prajna Paramita,
whose words allay all pain.
This is the highest wisdom,
true beyond all doubt,
know and proclaim its truth:
Gate, gate
paragate
parasamgate
bodhi, svaha.
Hsing Hsing Ming (of Seng T’san)
(Rochester Zen Centre)
With single mind one with the Way,
All ego-centred strivings cease;
Doubts and confusion disappear,
And so true faith pervades our life
There is no thing that clings to us,
And nothing that is left behind.
All’s self-revealing, void and clear,
Without exerting power of mind.
Thought cannot reach this state of truth,
Here feelings are of no avail.
In this true world of Emptiness
Both self and other are no more.
To enter this true empty world,
Immediately affirm “not-two,”
In this “not-two” all is the same,
With nothing separate or outside.
The wise in all times and places
awaken to this primal truth.
The Way’s beyond all space, all time,
One instant is ten thousand years.
Not only here, not only there,
Truth’s right before your very eyes.
Distinctions such as large and small
Have relevance for you no more.
The largest is the smallest too —
Here limitations have no place.
What is is not, what is not is —
If this is not yet clear to you,
You’re still far from the inner truth.
One thing is all, all things are one —
Know this and all’s whole and complete.
When faith and mind are not separate,
And not separate are Mind and faith,
This is beyond all words, all thought.
For here there is no yesterday,
No tomorrow,
No today.
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Hui Neng)
(Translated by Philip Yampolsky. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.)
Only practicing straightforward mind, and in all things having no attachments whatsoever,
is called
the samadhi of oneness. The deluded man clings to the characteristics of things, adheres to the
samadhi of oneness, [thinks] that straightforward mind is sitting without moving and casting aside
delusions without letting things arise in the mind. This he considers to be the samadhi of oneness.
This kind of practice is the same as insentiency and the cause of an obstruction to the Tao. Tao
must be something that circulates freely; why should he impede it? If the mind does not abide in
things the Tao circulates freely; if the mind abides in things, it becomes entangled.
Dogen. Fukanzazengi.
(Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed. Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen. New York: North
Point Press, 1985.)
The real way circulates everywhere; how could it require practice or enlightenment? The essential
teaching is fully available; how could effort be necessary? Furthermore the entire mirror is free of
dust; why take steps to polish it? Nothing is separate from this very place; why journey away?
And yet, if you miss the mark even by a strand of hair, you are as distant as heaven
from earth. If
the slightest discrimination occurs, you will be lost in confusion. You could be proud of your
understanding and have abundant realization, or acquire outstanding wisdom and attain the way
by clarifying the mind. Still, if you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path
of letting your body leap.
Dogen. Actualizing the Fundamental Point.
(Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed. Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen. New York: North
Point Press, 1985.)
To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the
self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind
as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this
no trace continues endlessly.
When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. At the
moment
when dharma is correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original self.
Dogen. Zazenshin.
(T.P. Kasulis. Zen Action, Zen Person. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981, pp. 71-72.)
Once when Master Yakusan Gudo (Yueh-Shan Hung-tao) was sitting in zazan, a monk asked
him,
"When you are sitting immovably, about what do you think?" The Master replied, "I think
about not
thinking [about anything]," The monk responded, "How does one think about not-thinking?"
The
Master replied, "Without thinking."
Selected Passages on Healing from the Gospel of Mark
(NRSV)
Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at
once. He came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And
the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various
diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because
they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted
place, and there he prayed. (1:31-35)
And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting
out
demons. A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can
make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him,
"I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After
sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to
anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded,
as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word,
so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people
came to him from every quarter. (1:39-45)
"Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
(3:5)
He had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. Whenever
the
unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God!"
But he
sternly ordered them not to make him known. He went up the mountain and called to him those
whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles,
to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out
demons. (3:10- 15)
Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She
had
endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but
rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately
her
hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately
aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who
touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you;
how
can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman,
knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him
the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be
healed of your disease." (5:25-34)
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority
over the
unclean spirits....So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many
demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (6:7,12-13)
When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that
whole region
and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into
villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might
touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. (6:54-56)
They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged
him to
lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into
his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to
him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his
tongue was
released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered
them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He
has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." (7:32-37)
They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch
him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his
eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Can you see anything?" And the man looked up
and said, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands
on his
eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then
he sent him away to his home, saying, "Do not even go into the village." (8:22-26)
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and
the disciples
spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little
children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. (10:13-16)
They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho,
Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it
was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have
mercy on me!" Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind
man, saying to
him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and
came to
Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to
him,
"My teacher, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well."
Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (10:46-52)
Selections from Meister Eckhart's German Sermons.
(Translated by Oliver Davies. Penguin Books, 1994.)
Whoever seeks something from God, as you have often heard me say, does not know what
they
are looking for.
I said once that whoever possesses the world least, actually possesses it the most
... since the
soul has fallen away from time if she has fallen away from the world, there is neither pain nor
suffering there. Indeed, even tribulation turns to joy for her there. If we were to compare
everything which has ever been conceived of regarding delight and joy, bliss and pleasure, with
the delight which belongs to this birth, then it would all be as nothing.
God’s going out is his coming in. The closer I am to God, the more he
speaks himself in me.
I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and uncreatable.
I constantly
return in my sermons to this light, which apprehends God without medium, without concealment
and nakedly, just as he is in himself ... Therefore I say that when we turn away from ourselves and
from all created things, to that extent we are united and sanctified in the soul’s spark,
which is
untouched by either space or time. This spark is opposed to all creatures and desires nothing but
God, naked, just as he is in himself.
When we uncover and expose the divine light that God has naturally created in us,
then the image
of God in us is revealed ... the more and the more clearly we uncover the image of God in us, the
more clearly God is born in us ... the revealing of God’s image within us makes us like
God, for
through this image we are like God’s image, which God is according to his naked essence.
Therefore the more we reveal ourselves, the more we are like God, and the more we are like God,
the more we are united with him ... And so when someone wholly conforms themselves to God
through love, they are stripped of images and are in-formed and transformed into the divine
uniformity in which they are one with God. All this they possess by remaining within.
There is no process of becoming in God, but only a present moment, that is a becoming
without
becoming, a becoming-new without renewal and that this becoming is God’s being. There is
in
God something so subtle that no renewal can enter there. There is something subtle in the soul too
that is so pure and fine that no renewal can enter it either, for all that is in God is an eternal
present-time without renewal.
This is the Now of eternity in which the soul knows all things new and fresh and present
in God
with the same delight which I have in those things that are present to me now. I recently read in a
book (who can fathom this?) that God is creating the world even now as he did on the first day
when he created the world. Here God is rich, and here is God’s kingdom. The soul which is
to be
born in God must fall away from time as time must fall away from her. She must rise up and must
linger in contemplation of this wealth of God, where there is length without length and breadth
without breadth. There the soul knows all things and knows them in perfection.
How can we be directly in God, neither striving nor seeking for anything other than
him, and how
can we be so poor and give up everything? It is hard counsel that we should not desire any
reward. Now be certain of this: God never ceases to give us everything. Even if he had sworn not
to, he still could not help giving us things. It is far more important to him to give than it is for
us to
receive, but we should not focus upon this, for the less we strive for it, the more God will give us.
God intends thereby only that we should become yet more rich and be all the more capable of
receiving things from him.
‘They will thirst the more who drink me and hunger the more who eat me.’
These people hunger so
much for the will of God, and it gives them such delight, that they are so content with whatever God
sends them that they cannot desire or will anything else ... Everything that befalls them, whether
illness or poverty or whatever, is preferable to them to anything else. It pleases them better than
anything else precisely because it is God’s will. Now I hear you ask: ‘How do I know that
it is
God’s will?’ My answer is that if it were not God’s will even for a moment, then it
would not exist.
Whatever is must be his will. If God’s will is pleasing to you, then whatever happens to you,
or
does not happen to you, will be heaven.
‘Love God equally in all things’. This means to say that we should
love him just as willingly in
poverty as in wealth, in sickness as in health. We should love him just as much when we are living
through a time of trial as when we are not, when we suffer as when we do not. Indeed, the greater
the suffering, the less we suffer, as with two buckets. The heavier one bucket is, the lighter the
other, and the more we give, the easier giving becomes. For someone who loves God, it would be
just as easy to give up the whole world as it would be to give up an egg. The more we give, the
easier it is to do so, as was the case with the apostles. The greater the suffering which befell them,
the easier it was for them to endure.
This is how the Son is born in us - when we live without a Why and are born again
into the Son ...
the less we turn our intention and attention to things other than God and the more we turn to
nothing external, all the more shall we be transformed in the Son and all the more shall the Son be
born in us and we be born in the Son and become one Son ... Thus we become one in him when
he is the one object of our attention. God always wishes to be alone. This is a necessary truth, and
it must always be the case that we should have only God in our thoughts.
The just person seeks nothing through their works, for those whose works are aimed
at a particular
end or who act with a particular Why in view, are servants and hirelings. If you wish to be formed
and transformed into justice then, do not intend anything particular by your works and do not
embrace any particular Why, neither in time nor in eternity, neither reward nor blessedness,
neither this nor that; such works in truth are dead. Indeed, even if you make God your goal, all the
works you perform for his sake will be dead, and you will only spoil those works which are
genuinely good ... And so, if you wish to live and wish your works to live too, then you must be
dead to all things and be reduced to nothing. It is a property of creatures to make one thing from
another, but it is a property of God to make something from nothing. And so if God is to make
something of you or in you, then you must first yourself become nothingness. Enter your own
inner ground therefore and act from there, and all your works shall be living works.
The just person loves neither this nor that in God, and if God were to give them the
whole of his
wisdom together with everything which he can give other than himself, they would pay no attention
to it and it would not please them. For such people desire nothing and seek nothing, knowing no
Why to justify their actions, just as God acts without a Why and knows no Why. The just person
acts precisely as God acts, without a Why, and so as life lives for its own sake, seeking no Why
to justify itself, in the same way the just person knows no Why to justify what they do.
Turn away from everything therefore and exist in your naked being, for whatever is
outside being
is ‘accidence’ and all forms of ‘accidence’ create a Why.
1. What is CFQ?
