Course Reading Wednesday

"Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness."

A.N. Whitehead

Course Reading Wednesday

Rule a big country
the way you cook a small fish.

If you keep control by following the Way,
troubled spirits won't act up.
They won't lose their immaterial strength,
but they wont harm people with it,
nor will wise souls come to harm.
And so, neither harming the other,
these powers will come together in unity.

Course Reading Wednesdays: Confucius

The Master said, "What the gentleman seeks, he seeks within himself; what the small man seeks, he seeks in others."

Course Reading Wednesdays

I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.

Course Reading Wednesday

Cease to do evil
Learn to do good,
search for justice,
help the opressed,
be just to the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Course Reading Wednesdays

His trail glows clear -- like a track of fire.
Invisible and silent -- the spoor
Of the polluted man.
The smell of his mother's womb clings to his heels
And sweats from his instep.
Plain as the blood-slashed route of a wounded stag
In the noses of the hounds.

Course Reading Wednesday Thursday!

But your mother heard the lowing of our horned herds, and springing to her feet, gave a great cry to waken them from sleep. And they, too, rubbing the bloom of soft sleep from their eyes, rose up lightly and straight -- a lovely sight to see: all as one, the old women and the young and the unmarried girls. First they let their hair fall loose, down over their shoulders, and those whose straps had slipped fastened their skins of fawn with writhing snakes that licked thier cheeks.

Course Reading Wednesdays

Ok, if I'm going to be posting every day in October, I need some built-in multitasker slacker time. So: a new Wednesday tradition, in which I post a sample passage from the reading I've foisted on my poor students for today's class:

(From Basic Teachings of the Buddha: A New Translation and Compilation, with a Guide to Reading the Texts, by Glenn Wallis

Parayana Suta; Samyuttankiaya:

The Buddha spoke as follows:

I will teach the destination and the path leading to the destination. Listen to what I say. What is the destination? The eradication of infatuation, the eradication of hostility, and the eradication of delusion are what is called the destination. And what is the path leading to the destination? Present-moment awareness directed toward the body. This awareness is what is called the path leading to the destination.

In this way, I have taught you the destination and the path leading to the destination. That which should be done out of compassion by a caring teacher who desires the welfare of his students, I have done for you.

There are secluded places. Meditate, do not be negligent! Don't have regrets later! This is my instruction to you.