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One who understands won't be willing to use words; One who uses words won't be willing to understand. Shut off your dissipation. Seal up your door. Harmonize with your brightness. Adapt to the dust in your life. Blunt your sharpness. Untangle your disorder. This is correctly described as the mystery of putting the pieces together. Therefore, What can't be obtained and held closely also can't be obtained and cast off. What can't be obtained and used for profit also can't be obtained and used for harm. What can't be obtained and valued also can't be obtained and cheapened. Therefore every action in the world is precious.   Commentary: 56 ~ Meditation And Contemplation Very rarely during their busy lives do people take time out to be alone with themselves. It seems like we're always being called upon to make some decision, give an opinion or tend to tasks that involve using our intellect. Even in moments when we do have time to relax, we feel a compulsion to stay active in some way. We fill our vacation time with activity and spend our quiet moments reading newspapers or watching television. It's no wonder life seems unsettled and frantic. You might be wondering what meditation is. Most people who speak about it make it sound very mystical and involved. It can be, if that’s the way you choose to approach it. But it can also be as simple as sitting quietly and comfortably. and allowing all thoughts to leave your mind. Then what is contemplation? Meditation is releasig thoughts, whereas contemplation is sitting quietly and comfortably with a specific thought in your mind. It could be some problem you need to solve or looking into your feelings about something you’re going through. The main idea is to keep your mind on that one issue and not let it wander to other stuff. Here are some ideas for meditation as well as the benefits you can get from it. -One who understands won't be willing to use words; -One who uses words won't be willing to understand. The most intense understandings we discover within ourselves are very hard to communicate to others. When we try to put those feelings into words, we find they're somehow lacking so we might try to elaborate on them to the point that we can eventually confuse even ourselves. Some of the sensations we can experience during quiet times of meditation are really so personal that there's no way to express them. By trying to form those sensations into words it's easy to lose the essence of the messages we received. -Shut off your dissipation. -Seal up your door. When you first start meditating, it might seem that your thoughts are running all over the place. You're not used to NOT thinking, and it seems like a strange and alien thing do do. Gently rein your thoughts back in by telling yourself that there's absolutely nothing you have to do for the time you've allotted for your meditation. You don't have to solve any of those nagging problems you deal with the rest of the time. Close off a little door in your mind to seal out any consciousness of what's going on in the rest of the world. -Harmonize with your brightness. -Adapt to the dust in your life. You'll find a sense of calmness, and along with that peace appears a bright light of reassurance that everything is just as it's meant to be. It's okay to let go of the obstacles and just merge with the glow that's within you. You know that the obstacles and confusion will still be there after you've finished meditating, but don't let that bother you for the time being. If you can truly connect with your own brightness in these moments, you'll be able to carry that glow with you through any trials your daily life might bring. -Blunt your sharpness. -Untangle your disorder. Try to forget all your opinions about yourself and others. Let go of the idea that you might know what you or any other person SHOULD be doing, and that you have to be hard on yourself to get anything done. Let everything become soft and blurred rather than harsh and glaring. Release the tension in your body and muscles. As you release that physical tension, you'll find that your mind will release its tension as well. What was once a gnarled mass of tangles eventually becomes more clear and smooth. -This is correctly described as the mystery of putting the pieces together. Meditation isn't a method for escaping from the trials of life, but by softening the harshness of an overly critical and confused mind all the pieces of life seem to fit together more smoothly without jabbing against each other. It's mysterious how that can happen, especially when we've been so used to the idea that we have to work diligently on solving problems. -Therefore, -What can't be obtained and held closely also can't be obtained and cast off. -What can't be obtained and used for profit also can't be obtained and used for harm. -What can't be obtained and valued also can't be obtained and cheapened. As energy and thoughts freely flow in and out of you, there's a realization that there's no need to obtain anything. Meditation doesn't have a goal - it's a process. Whatever experiences you have during meditation don't need to be held on to so tightly that you feel disappointed if you don't have the same experiences every time you meditate. And even those times when you don't feel you've gotten any special messages during meditation, that's no reason to abandon it. Sometimes a person might get a sense of power from meditation - opening energy channels can increase sensitivity and psychic abilities. Those powers aren't the goal of meditation and shouldn't be seen as a way to control what happens to you or others. You might feel a sense of superiority with your evolving enlightenment and insights, but that's not something to praise yourself for. Neither is it something to be demeaned. -Therefore every action in the world is precious. What occurs as a gradual process after continuous meditation isn't a seclusion from the rest of the world, but an incredible integration with it. Alternate translation: Someone who feels the glow coming from within them couldn’t possibly use words to tell anyone else what it feels like. Someone who talks a lot about what it feels like probably hasn’t experienced it. If you can’t learn about it from someone else’s words, how can you find it? Stop running around all the time and listen to the silence. Turn off the phone, tv, and radio. Be happy with what you find in yourself. Don’t let every little thing that happens bug you. Stop trying to figure everything out. See if you can figure yourself out. If you do those things, you’ll see how simply all the pieces fit together just the way they’re meant to. You see..... If you don’t hold onto anything like it’s the only thing keeping you going, you wouldn’t be afraid of losing it. If you don’t hold onto anything like it’s going to allow you to get what you want, you wouldn’t try to hurt others to get it. If you don’t hold onto anything thinking it’s more special than anything else, you wouldn’t be disappointed if it wasn’t. If you take some time to find what’s precious within you, you’ll realize that after you’ve found it everything you do is precious. Dao Is Open Site Map | BY: Nina | Guodian Laozi | DDJ Concordance | Comparisons | Who was Laozi | | Return Home | Laozi's Dao De Jing | Your Dao De Jing | Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) | Links | Meditation | Dao (Tao) is Open Forum | Book List | Other Stuff | |
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