The old temple nestles quiet
in the green mountains.
The double brushwood gate
opens and closes in the clouds.
A gourd of water
and a staff are all I possess.
No one here ever heeds
the coming and going of years.
"Love awaits us as we go to Love. Love walks beside us, showing us the way. Love is the end we seek and Love is the means by which we go to Love."...from Pathways of Light, A Course in Miracles Workbook commentary
What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart;
Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse
Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.
He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:
In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.
The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn
Guard Beauty's palace-gate and curtained bower,
Give way before him, unafraid he passes,
And showing the King's arrow, enters in.
If you want it to appear,
Be neither for nor against.
For and against opposing each other--
This is the mind's disease.
Without recognizing
The mysterious principle,
It is useless to practice quietude.
A winding path leads deep into bamboo
where a friend has a hidden retreat.
Meditating poems, we sit as rain comes down;
we can discuss them with these mountains of green.
Truthful words are not beautiful;
Beautiful words are not truthful.
Good words are not persuasive;
Persuasive words are not good.
He who knows has no wide learning;
He who has wide learning does not know.
The sage does not hoard.
Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more;
Having given all he has to others, he is richer still.
The way of heaven benefits and does not harm;
The way of the sage is bountiful and does not contend.
The Way is perfect like great space,
Without lack, without excess.
Because of grasping and rejecting,
You cannot attain it.
Do not pursue conditioned existence;
Do not abide in acceptance of emptiness.
In oneness and equality,
Confusion vanishes of itself.
Solitude is not
A condition of the body.
Instead, it is
A condition of the mind.
Solitude may be found
In the busy market or
May be elusive in the forest.
Those whose desires are never satiated
Would find it hard to share this residence.
Roasting on the brazier--"Young Maids" herbs;
On the desk, the book of the Old Master.
With flowers and bamboo
The courtyard steps are freshened;
With wind-blown mists
The windows are purified.
This man of Tao follows what lies beyond;
He sits here in peace, seeking nothing more.
Stop activity and return to stillness,
And that stillness will be even more active.
Only stagnating in duality,
How can you recognize oneness?
If you fail to penetrate oneness,
Both places lose their function.
Banish existence and you
Fall into existence.
Follow emptiness
And you turn your back on it.
Excessive talking and thinking
Turn you from harmony with the Way.
Cut off talking and thinking,
And there is nowhere you
Cannot penetrate.
Living on Cold Mountain,
I got free of the world,
Not even a mantra hung on my heart.
Maybe a line of a poem
Might get scribbled on a rock wall.
Me, drifting home,
Like the unmoored boat
...
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