STABILITY & FEAR

“13

Success is as dangerous as failure.

Hope is as hollow as fear. What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?

Whether you go up the ladder or down it,

your position is shaky.

When you stand with your two feet on the ground,

you will always keep your balance. What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?

Hope and fear are both phantoms

that arise from thinking of the self.

When we don't see the self as self,

what do we have to fear? See the world as your self.

Have faith in the way things are.

Love the world as your self;

then you can care for all things.

(...)One can be stable and efficient when one avoids ambition. This does not mean to not take opportunities which arise of themselves, but more to not try and raise those opportunities artificially. (...)

Hope and fear run contrary to the 'as such-ness' of events. Hoping, as it were, is to prefer one way to another; fear is that the not preferred way will come about. In both cases, it is the skin-contained ego trying to impose itself on Nature.

(...)When we can accept and love all things the Universe is doing, all of its 'wiggles', there is no need for ambition, hopes or fears (...). We do not need advantages, for everything and everyone is 'advantaged'. And one does not apply one's stability toward an isolated security, but to the well-being of all.”

SOURCE:
Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation) & commentary : Tao I


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 HEALTH & SMILE

www.prevention.com

“- Doctor Ho is treating only healthy people? - I wanted to be sure.

- Yes. Like every good doctor.

- So, who is treating sick people? - I asked, feeling a bit lost.

- A bad doctor – the girl said – so the one who couldn't recognize the sickness coming.

(…)

I have been observing him from the corner of the room for more than two hours. Patient after patient, without any rest, concentrated, with amazing energy and smile.

Smiling to people during one hundred years of life. Isn't it brilliant?

I was about to quit the Jade Dragon Clinic when suddenly I heard doctor Ho talking to a patient:

- Are you worried? Do you have a lot of problems?

- Oh yes, yes – she agreed, her voice sounding very tired. - A lot of problems.
- You can't sleep?
- I can't sleep.
- You worry too much – said doctor Ho.
- Yeah, I do worry, troubles at work, always something happening...

- Don't worry – doctor Ho interrupted. - Stop worrying about everything. Start feeling happy. Happiness is the best remedy in the world.

The rules of doctor Ho
(...)

The most important rules that I follow in my life and when treating my patients are:

1. Be honest and hard-working. Learn, expand your knowledge about the world. Never stop making an effort to achieve respect for yourself, trust in your power, care of yourself, independence and aspiration of self – improvement. Take care of yourself and your health.
2. Medicine has always to serve the welfare of people.
3. To make a treatment effective, a patient has to trust it, has to have optimistic, positive attitude, lead healthy, sane lifestyle and follow the rules of western or Chinese medicine – depending on needs and recommendations. Life and sickness exist beside each other, making an everlasting couple. The best remedy is optimism and positive attitude. Avoid drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Eat simple food, lead simple life and above all think positively and be optimistic.

(…)

4. Doesn't matter if you live in the times of war or peace, be honest to yourself.”

SOURCE:
My own translation & interpretation of: Blondynka w Chinach, Beata Pawlikowska, National Geographic 2012



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 BASIC NEEDS & ENDLESS WANTS

"When we returned later to the office, I asked Soc whether he thought rich people are any happier than 'poor stiffs like us'.

His response, as usual, shocked me. 'As a matter of fact, Dan, I'm quite wealthy. One must become rich to be happy.' He smiled at my dumbfounded expression, picked up a pen from his desk, and wrote on a clean white sheet of paper:

'You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires. So there are two ways to be rich: You earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet all your desires; or, you cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have enough money.

'A peaceful warrior has the insight and discipline to choose the simple way – to know the difference between needs and wants. We have few basic needs but endless wants. Full attention to every moment is my pleasure. Attention costs no money; your only investment is training. That's another advantage of being a warrior, Dan – it's cheaper! The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.'”

SOURCE:
Way of the peaceful warrior, Dan Millman; HJ Kramer, New World Library, California 2000



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TRUE KNOWLEDGE

“71

Not-knowing is true knowledge.

Presuming to know is a disease.

First realize that you are sick;

then you can move toward health. The Master is her own physician.

She has healed herself of all knowing.

Thus she is truly whole.

(...)

By 'knowing that one does not know' : that causality is not evidently clear, that the future may not resemble the past and that everything is a process – nothing is static – one may free oneself from the illusions which infect the mind, the body and the soul. By remaining centered, by keeping a genuine trust or faith in Tao (the Force), by going with the current toward the low place, one heals the wounds that those illusions inflict.”

SOURCE:
Tao Te Ching - Stephen Mitchell translation & commentary : Te III

RSA VIDEO:

General Ignorance: It's all about what you don't know.

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SOUL

"Soul should be present in our everyday life. We should feel, love, admire not only with our mind but also with our soul. When we have the impression that we are finding ourselves in our life, it is not only the result of our destiny. We are climbing a ladder with difficulty and when we are already at the top, it turns out that the ladder was standing by the wrong wall. Some people spend all their lives looking for the right wall. While searching we should be listening to ourselves and not be afraid to be ourselves. People are too afraid of being different than the others. Otherness is being decried. Luck of tolerance for being different is causing aggression, rejection; we usually feel safer while being among the people. However, while being in the crowd we might not notice that every single moment is bringing changes, something new. Very often we think that everything is going by. It is good to realize that it is also the other way around: we are changing. So maybe what we considered as less important yesterday, will today become the most important thing in our life?"

SOURCE:
My own translation & interpretation of: Urodziłam się nad Bajkałem, Bełla-Chan Skwarska, MWK 2012



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HERE & NOW

“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.” 

Masaru Emoto, The Secret Life of Water

'“We walked in silence for a block or two, then he asked, “What time is it?”

“Oh, it's about...” Then I caught myself. “...about now.”

“And where are we?”

“Here.”

He said nothing else, and I felt like talking so I told him about my new feelings of freedom, my plans for the future.

“What time is it?' he asked.

“Now,” I sighed. “You don't have to keep...”

“Where are we?” he asked innocently.

“Here, but...”

“Understand this above all”, he interrupted. “You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you expect or hope for. There have never been past warriors, nor will there be future ones. The warrior is here, now. Your sorrow, your fear and anger, regret and guilt, your envy and plans and cravings live only in the past, or in the future.”

“Hold on, Socrates. I distinctly remember being angry in the present.”

“Not so,” he said. “What you mean is that you acted angry in a present moment. Action always happens in the present, because it is an expression of the body, which can only exist in the here and now. But the mind is like a phantom that lives only in the past or future. Its only power over you is to draw your attention out of the present.”'

SOURCE:
Way of the peaceful warrior, Dan Millman; HJ Kramer, New World Library, California 2000


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