Dangerous Plaything

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
 -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Success

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous, on the contrary, it makes them for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
-- Maugham, W. Somerset

How very quickly life itself is pressed along its course

The sound of a swollen
Mountain stream rapidly rushing
Makes one know
How very quickly life itself
Is pressed along its course.

-- Saigyo (1118-1190)

Sages’ minds are luminous

Because they have no high
Opinions of themselves,
The sages' minds are luminous;
Not caring for status,
They become illustrious;
Being without pride,
They achieve success;
Unassertive, they are supreme.
Because they do not contend,
No one contends with them.

-- Lao-tzu

Bible Humour

Dec 25 reading Malachi 1-4	Study Guides and Commentary Archive	* Malachi on the Messiah and Faithfulness written about 430-420 BC - contemporary of Nehemiah
"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me", says the LORD Almighty. (3:5) "Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. But you ask, "How are we to return?" (3:7b)
Although Malachi was NOT the one who said "God's ways are not man's ways", that truth fits the prophesy he was given. But many of God's chosen people still didn't get it. The prophesy is largely an argument between the Lord and Israel, like: "I have loved you," the Lord says. "How?" asks Israel "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland.." "You have said harsh things against me," says the Lord. Like what? asks Israel. "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements? ... Certainly the evildoers prosper and even those who challenge God escape." (3:13-15) What king is pleased with disrespectful citizens? What father wouldn't punish disobedient children? And the Lord is both King and Father. The Lord continues his plan to make his Name great among all nations. (1:11) His plan for his people is "the way", and many of the priests had already turned away to do and teach other ways, like being unfaithful. Your faithfulness to your wife effects your faithfulness to God. How you live your life has direct effect upon your life with God. Obey Him; give Him your best in your sacrifices and your whole tithe. In this last book of the Jewish Bible, written about 430-420 BC, the Lord gives more details about His long promised messenger of the covenant who, before He comes to His temple, will be announced by another messsenger preparing the way before Him. "Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when He appears?" This will not be an easy process. Faithful Levites, Judah, and Jerusalem will be refined and purified. (3:1-4) In conclusion, the day is coming when the arrogant and evildoers will be cut off. Remember the law of the Lord's servant Moses. Watch for Elijah before the dreadful day of the Lord. Either the hearts of fathers will be to their children and vice versa, or the land will be cursed.

Happy

You are happy, happy, but I am a thousand times happier!
Whom have I encountered in my dream last night? I know not.
I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;
For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.

(Divan 1740:1-3)

clouds and fog everywhere

When there are clouds and fog everywhere, the world is dark, but that does not mean the sun has decomposed. Why is there no light? The light is never destroyed; it is just enshrouded by clouds and fog. The pure mind of all living beings is like this, merely covered up by the dark clouds of obsession with objects, arbitrary thoughts, psychological afflictions, and view and opinions. If you can just keep the mind still so that errant thought does not arise, the reality of nirvana will naturally appear. This is how we know the inherent mind is originally pure.

-- Hongren (602-675)

Work and the Way

People who really have
Their minds on the Way
Do not forget work on the fundamental
No matter what they are doing.
Yet if they still distinguish this work
>From ordinary activities
Even as they do them together,
They will naturally be concerned
About being distracted by activities
And forgetting the meditation work.
This is because of viewing
Things as outside the mind.

-- Muso (1275-1351)

Stranger Than Fiction

See "Stranger Than Fiction".
My take on it:
About mid-life crisis and addressing life in a purely existential manner, heavily influenced by JP Sartre and literary conceit (in a manner).
Facing one's own death willingly and with fore-knowledge.
The "redemption" (not really, but in a manner of speaking only) of realising that life is created every second and is not directed or ordained or inevitable.
A very modern darwinian view on life - that nothing is impossible - only improbable: some things may be very very very highly improbable yet nothing is ever impossible. Life is, in fact, purely statistical - which makes life glorious and worthwhile and ultimately meaningful.

Wordy non-attachment

The way of buddhas is wide open, without any stages.  The door of nothing is the door to liberation; having no intention is the will to help others.  It is not within past, present, and future, so it cannot rise and sink; setups are counter to reality, because it is not in the realm of the created.  Move, and you produce the root of birth and death; be still, and you get drunk in the village of oblivion.  If movement and stillness are both erased, you fall into empty annihilation; if movement and stillness are both withdrawn, you presume upon buddha nature.  You must be like a dead tree or cold ashes in the face of objects and situations while acting responsively according to time, without losing proper balance.  A mirror reflects a multitude of images without their confusing its brilliance; birds fly through the air without mixing up the color of the sky.

- Hsuan-sha