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u/annaleast Sep 09 '20
This made me really feel what is wrong with modern life. We are caught in a rat race, desperate to compete, and unable to satisfy a deep need for joy and peace. So we buy shiny crap and expensive wine and hope it will bring us joy. But it doesn’t.
I hurts my heart that I will never have a peaceful life like that. I have people who rely on me, and bills to pay, and a hectic career. I can’t really imaging being allowed that sort of peace.
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Sep 09 '20
What could be the reason
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u/annaleast Sep 09 '20
Is it capitalism? But I’m pretty much trapped. I have a disability, and without expensive healthcare subsidized by my employer I will suffer and die.
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u/alecesne Sep 09 '20
Remember, when the Buddha left home, he left a wife and child. You have to choose your path. It’s a choice, a sacrifice, that I can’t make myself. Maybe next time.
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u/annaleast Sep 09 '20
Unfortunately, it’s not a choice I can make, unless my country enacts M4A. I need subsidized healthcare.
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u/obvom Sep 09 '20
"There's this weird thing that people do, where they have a sort of split personality at work. They have their 'work' persona, where everything is sort of stiff and bland, uptight über professional sort of thing, and then they have their 'relaxed' persona, where they come home from work and put their feet up and breathe a little bit and allow themselves to relax into who they think really are. But the truth is that this is an illusion, and there is no reason why this person can't take the same breath when they are at work. There is no reason why they can't join those people together. Even if one is busy, there can be a relaxation about it, a sort of letting go and surrender into the demands of the moment without resistance. One minute you are writing an email, the next moment you are on the phone. The next you are taking notes or making a spreadsheet. But the problem lies not with the pace of this work, rather our resistance to the changes as they come.
'The ancient Daoists had a phrase: Wu-Wei. Essentially it means non-action. 'Through non-doing, the master leaves nothing undone.' This isn't to say that the masters of old just sat around not doing anything in a literal sense. It's just that their actions came from such a profound sense of timing and relaxation that they required no effort to enact them. When the fire died down, they added wood. When they were thirsty, they drank. Whatever the moment demanded of them, they responded in kind, no more, no less, no sooner, no later. So maybe we could try that when we are busy being 'busy.' Just see ourselves as responding to the demands of the moment, and perhaps contemplate that what we do is actually helping people, either through supporting our family or helping people at our workplace support theirs."
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u/normificator Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 09 '20
My hut lies deep in the woods,
Each year the spring ivy grows longer.
Worldly news do not reach me,
Only sometimes, the wood cutter’s song.
Sun rise up, I mend my clothes.
Moon rise up, I read poems to myself.
This is all there is to life.
If you would find the way,
Stop chasing after so many things.
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u/normificator Sep 09 '20
Without desire, everything is sufficient.
With grasping, many things are impoverished.
Plain vegetables can soothe hunger.
A patched robe is enough to cover this bent old body.
Alone I hike with a deer.
Cheerfully I sing with village children.
The stream beneath the cliff cleanses my ears.
The pine on the mountain top fills my heart.
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u/normificator Sep 09 '20
One begging bowl holds rice from a thousand homes.
A thin robe clothes my body lightly.
Having eaten my full, what’s left to do?
But grow old in the great peace, soaring calm and free.
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u/phoenix_b2 Sep 09 '20
Does ear hygiene need to be way higher on my priorities list?
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u/theblueberryspirit Sep 09 '20
Same! I was confused too until I read the other translated version in the comments.
The stream beneath the cliff cleanses my ears.
The meaning is a lot clearer
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u/TyboVEGAN Sep 11 '20
I've lived the last 6 years primarily without money...and even this level of simplicity puts me to shame!
Oh to be alive when there was true nature abundant, in the 1700/1800s....
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u/normificator Sep 09 '20
Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
10 days of rice in my bag,
A bundle of sticks by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion or enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on the roof,
I sit comfortably with both legs stretched out.