Chapter 16
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning is the source of serenity.
If you don't realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kind hearted as a grandmother,
dignified as a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you cn deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death comes, you are ready.
Audio of the Meeting
- July 17, 2016: Click Here>>
Commentary
Empty your mind: This doesn't mean "suppress your thoughts," but "step back from them." Insight into the Tao has nothing to do with the intellect and its abstractions. When we step out of self-consciousness, we step into the Tao. Lin Ching-hsi said,
The mind is originally empth, and only when it remains empty, without grasping or rejecting, can it respond to natural things, without prejudice. It should be like a river gorge with a swan flying overhead; the river has no desire to retain the swan, yet the swan's passage is traced by its shadow, without any omission. The mind should be as open as this.
Bhagavad Gita, 9.17 - 19
I am the father of the universe and its mother,
essence and goal of all knowledge,
the refiner, the sacred Ôm,
and the three Vedas.
I am the beginning and the end,
origin and dissolution,
refuge, home, true lover,
womb and imperishable seed.
I am the heat of the sun.
I hold back the rain and release it.
I am death, and the deathless,
and all that is and is not.
Zen Master Hsueh-feng asked a monk where he had come from. The monk said, "From the monastery of Spiritual Light."
The Master said, "In the daytime, we have sunlight; in the evening, we have lamplight. What is spiritual light?"
The monk couldn't answer.
The Master said, "sunlight, lamplight."
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