Diary Entry from 2012:
I spend some time today reading Lao Tzu quotes, and have managed them in a tidy order so they make a poem of sorts. It deals with what I consider the timeless core of all mystical traditions: The meditative practice – the catch-all tool of the mystic that cuts to the root of mental/spiritual illusion and suffering.
“My teachings are older than the world.
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
The inner is foundation of the outer. If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
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?
free from desire, you realize the mystery.
caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.
If you don’t realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures.If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.
To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go.
Stop leaving and you will arrive.
Stop searching and you will see.
Stop running away and you will be found.
Stop thinking, and end your problems. Let your heart be at peace.
the unwanting soul sees what’s hidden.
Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear. Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Be still
Become totally empty.
Quiet the restlessness of the mind
As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it.
Just remain in the center; watching. And then forget that you are there.
Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness.”
Indre Styrke 