25 Jun 2010 @ 15:03
CULTIVATION
Imagine a sculpture
You work on every day.
If you stop, the beauty
Will slowly go away.
What if you were at work on a beautiful sculpture but your material
reverted or decayed if you ever ceased to progress? This is the
unfortunate nature of spiritual efforts.
You can never stop trying to purify yourself, improve yourself,
strengthen yourself, and cultivate the sacred that is inside you. If you
do well one day, that is good. But if you cease your efforts, you will
slide backwards. That is why you must strive on every level, from the
physical to the mental to the spiritual. Your vigilance must never flag.
Your determination must never waver.
Paradoxically, there is nothing to achieve. It is only our minds
that convince ourselves that we must do something. We are already pure,
already sacred. But we live in a polluted world, we have egotistical
thoughts that constantly divide us from the true Tao, and we cannot
remain forever in a pure state and still function in the world. If you
attained the higher levels of Tao, you would appear to an outsider as if
in a trance, and it would be impossible to interact with others. So if
you are trying to be spiritual in today's world, you must never cease
striving to keep yourself pure. Once you are not with Tao, you must
constantly struggle with the impurity of the world.
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao
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