Discoveries, cross references, linx and the flow. Optimizing the randomness, Surfing the accelerated serendipity.
Mon
Apr
20
20
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!
Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.
Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.
I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.
Tags: 20, don’t care, don’t know, empty, expressionless, idiot, need, nothing, smile, tao te ching
14. The Detached One
Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
The Taoist sage seems strangely detached. He functions unconstrained by his own emotions. He knows that his own observations, emotions, thoughts, concepts and judgements are just ripples on the mind’s surface, inconstant and perpetually changing. He realizes that the mind can only reflect compassion clearly - like a tranquil pool the perfect moon - when it has become free of the ripples of thoughts and emotions.
Acts of mercy are not acts of passion to him: they come as naturally to him as sneezing or falling asleep.
Therefore you can rely totally on the sage: his mercy is not dependent on his emotional state, his affinity or aversion to an object, what he believes or any thoughts that might be disturbing the tranquility of his mind.
In a world of inconstancy and illusion, his compassion is constant and real.
“If you want to build a ship,
don’t drum up the men to gather wood divide the work and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Antoine de St. Exupery
