A FEW CONFUCIUS SAYINGS

Confucius, The Essential Confucius: The Heart of Confucius Teachings in Authentic I Ching Order: A Compendium of Ethical Wisdom, translated and presented by Thomas Cleary (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) (From Cleary's "Introduction": "Confucius believed in the regeneration of public and private conscience through education and the influence of unifying cultural ideals." "Confucius believed that the conduct of the affairs of a nation would benefit from maximum participation in government by cultivated people whose intellects and emotions had been developed and matured by conscious culture. As an educator, he helped people study a variety of subjects such as history political science, sociology, literature, music, etiquette, and philosophy to deepen the human understanding. This study, he believed, could help people prepare themselves to take on deliberate social responsibility." Id. at 1.  Confucius said: "At first the way I dealt with people was to listen to their words and trust they would act on them. Now I listen to their words and observe whether they act on them, It was within my power to change this." Id. at 21 (and again at 131). "When you are away for home, be as if meeting an important guest. When you employ people, be as if you were in charge of an important ceremony. What you do not like, do not pass on to others. Have no enmity in your land, no enmity at home." Id. at 27. "If you like humaneness but don't like learning, it degenerates into folly. If you like knowledge but don't like learning, it degenerates into looseness. If you like trust but don't like learning, it degenerates into depredation. If you like honesty but don't like learning, t degenerates into stricture. If you like bravery but don't like learning, it degenerates into disorder. If you like strength but don't like learning, it degenerates into wildness." Id. at 45. "There are those who act without knowing; I will have none of this. To hear a lot, choose the good, and follow it, to see a lot and learn to recognize it: this is next to knowledge." Id. at 67. "Ideal people are universal and not clannish. Small-minded people are clannish and not universal." "When I do something in a group of three, I always find my teacher there. I choose the good and follow it, and change what is not good." "Cultivated people harmonize without imitating. Immature people imitate without harmonizing." Id. at 91. "Learn a lot, eliminate the doubtful, and speak discreetly about the rest; then there will be little blame. See a lot, eliminate the perilous, act prudently on the rest; then there will be little regret. When your words are seldom blamed and your actions seldom regretted, employment will be there." Id. at 115. "Be an exemplary man of learning, not a trivial pedant." Id. at 121. "Don't talk about what is already done; don't remonstrate about what is already over; don't criticize what has already happened." Id. at 129. "When you see wise people, think of becoming equal to them. When you see unwise people, reflect inwardly on yourself." "Id may be possible to study together without being able to go on the way together. It maybe possible to go on the way together without being able to take a stand together. It maybe possible to take a stand together without being able to plan together." "Cultivated people are strict but do not contend; they associate with others by do not join factions." Id. at 131. "A cultivated person does not promote people on account of what they say, nor ignore what is said because of who is saying it." Id. at 145.).

SIMPLIFYING, LISTENING TO THE SOUL, AND GAINING HARMONY IN THE DANCE OF THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS

Marion Woodman, Bone: Dying into Life (New York: Viking Compass, 2000) ("March 21, 1995  Simplifying becomes my total focus. I'm noting how anxious I become when I fail to simplify or cannot simplify because of what starts happening around me--phone, TV, letters, ad infinitum. I believe that failure to simplify could lead me back into cancer because I would lose touch with my life vibration--my tone that sustains my life force. In my hours with analysands, one of my strong points has been my capacity to filter irrelevancies, to listen for their essence. Yes, we blow out anger, jealousy, fear, knowing that negative energy brought to consciousness can transform into creative energy. However, searching for garbage in the psyche is no longer relevant when soul is living its essence--being seen, being heard. Anxiety is stripped away by concentrated listening and perceiving. Concentrated vision operating in all the senses is what I mean by simplifying." "The more I listen to my soul, the more clearly I hear the truth of other people, of animals, birds, the universe. A unified field! One clear melody--like the song of a cardinal--sings out, an everything else fades away. The simplifying happens. Real issues become clear. This is why Mozart's music is so important to me now. Like a clarion, a melody comes to me in its full spectrum and opens my full spectrum. The unimportant falls away. Healing happens. The music reestablishes the healthy frequency." "I must stay in touch with whatever keeps me focused on the still point--the place of exact harmony in body and psyche. Simplify life to the point where the dance can happen--the dance between consciousness and the unconscious. So long as I constantly allow other things to interfere, I will never find the moments in each day to reach those listening points of harmony--those seeing points of perception. Concentration that can focus on the moment must come first or the others do not follow. I tend to think I'll get everything in order then. That's not it. Listen to Mozart first, come into harmony first, then clutter will fall away unnoticed." "Clarification is very important now because I know the dance is not happening. The swans have flown into the sunset; Gypsy is alive. But consciousness and the unconscious are not dancing together. The unconscious is ready to step into life; consciousness knows I can move into health, but dares not leap into the unknown. I cannot walk." Id. at 237-238.).

'SURRENDER TO THE SPIRIT OF THE MUSIC'

Marion Woodman & Jill Mellick, Coming Home to Myself: Reflections for Nurturing a Woman's Body and Soul, with watercolor painting by Jill Mellick (Berkeley: Conari Press, 1998) ("So long as we're doing one two three around the floor, dancing is a bloody bore. Only when we surrender to the spirit of the music can we truly dance." Id. at 36.).

REDISCOVERING AND RECLAIMING THE FEMININE CONSCIOUSNESS

Marion Woodman, Kate Danson, Mary Hamilton, & Rita Greer Allen, Leaving My Father's House: A Journey to Conscious Femininity (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1992) ("The eternal feminine is thrusting her way into contemporary consciousness. Shekinah, Kwan Yin, Sophia, whatever her name, she is the manifestation of the divine matter. Among her many faces are the Black Madonna, White Buffalo Woman, Shakti, Kali, Aphrodite. Hers are the ways of peace, compassion, reverence for life and death in the oneness of nature. Knowing her has nothing to do with blindly stumbling toward a fate we think we cannot avoid. It has everything to do with developing consciousness until it is strong enough to hold tension as a creative energy. In the turmoil of our times, we are being called to a new order of reality. Working toward that consciousness, we suffer, but our suffering opens us to the wounds of the world and the love that can heal. It is our immediate task to relate to the merging feminine whether she comes to us in dreams, in the loss of those we love, in body disease, or in ecological distress. Each of us in our own way is being brought face to face with Her challenge." "Conscious femininity is not bound to gender. It belongs to both men and women. Although in the history of the arts, men have articulated their femininity far more than women, women are now becoming custodians of their own feminine consciousness. For centuries, men have projected their inner image of femininity, raising it to a consciousness that left women who accepted the projection separated from their own reality. They became artifacts rather than people. The consciousness attributed to them was a consciousness projected onto them. That projection was sometimes an idealized image of beauty and truth, a sphinx, or a dragon. Whatever it was, it could not be an incarnated woman. A man does not have a womb, and the embodiment of his femininity is, therefore, different from a woman's." "The fact remains, however, we are all human beings. We are all the children of patriarchy. While our culture depends upon three thousand years of cultural process focused through masculine eyes, it has been won at high cost. What began as masculine values has degenerated into lust for control. Power has bludgeoned both our femininity and our masculinity. We all function with these two different energies. As health and growth depend on both dark and light, so maturity depends on an inner balance between Yin and Yang, Shakti and Shiva, Being and Doing. I prefer to call these energies femininity and masculinity because their biological image appear in dreams and their interaction or lack of interaction reveals harmony or chaos in the psyche. For me these words are not gender-bound."  "Conscious femininity, as we will be discussing it in this book, has to do with bringing the wisdom in nature to consciousness. For too long we have taken the instinctual Mother Goddess for granted. In our own bodies, in our Earth, we have assumed she would nourish and protect us. We have wallowed in sentimental images. Over centuries, we have forgotten her, reviled her, raped her. Now we will either integrate her laws into consciousness or we will die. There is an evolutionary process at work on our plant and we can only hope that out of this present death, sanity will come. Thus far in our history, the unconscious feminine has been associated with instinct; now the conscious feminine is bringing light to instinct, illuminating nature with new images that comes to us in our dreams and in creative work." "The task of releasing the feminine from the tyrannical power of the driven, crazed masculine is long and arduous, The process is just as difficult inside as it is outside. Observing it abstractly is one thing; experiencing it personally is quite another." 'This book look inside...." Id. at 1-2.).

EVOLVING MASCULINE AND FEMININE ENERGIES STRIVING TOWARD INNER HARMONY

Marion Woodman, The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts) (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1990) ("This book focuses on evolving masculinity and femininity as two energies within each individual, both striving toward an inner harmony. So long as these energies are projected onto others, we rob ourselves of our own maturity and our own freedom. Until we take responsibility for these projections, genuine relationship is impossible because we are entangled in our own images instead of relating to new possibilities that expand our boundaries." "The anguish of broken relationships is increasingly forcing individuals to come to some understanding of what liberated masculinity and liberated femininity could be. How do we release them from the outworn mythologies in which they are entombed?" Id. at 9. "Freedom is not license, nor is it selfish egoism. To be psychological free is to be confident in our own inner world, responsible for our own strengths and weaknesses, consciously loving ourselves and, therefore, able to love others." Id. at 11.).

I NEED TO LOCATE A PLACE WHERE I CAN FIND AND PURSUE THE PATH OF KNOWLEDGE.

TAKING A BREAK FROM YOGA STUDIO PRACTICE
As of late, I have sensed, in myself or in others (probably my projecting myself onto them), emptiness at studio yoga practice. It is not the emptiness of Buddhism, just emptiness as in void. I have not been able to concentrate on the practice, and I have been increasingly annoyed by the pop psychology of some instructor and class members. I have found myself frustrated by what Americans are doing to yoga, making it into a business. I have noticed another local studio is marketing itself through sex, with its photographs posting on Facebook essentially amounting to soft pornography.

So, am stepping away for a month or so. I need to find myself and remember why I am doing yoga. Perhaps I need to find a guru/teacher, someone to take me deeper into jnana-yoga. I am deeply lacking in tranquility, restraint, patience, dispassion, and virtue.

C. Mackenzie Brown, trans. & intro., The Song of the Goddess: The Devi Gita: Spiritual Counsel of the Great Goddess (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002) ("Yoga of Knowledge (jnana-yoga): the path to realization of pure consciousness and of the essential unity between the soul or Self and Brahman. It is one of the three major traditional yogas, requiring a number of preliminary mental and moral qualifications for the aspirant. These include tranquility, restraint, patience, dispassion, and virtue. Knowledge is said to be the supreme end of devotion. While the path of devotion leads, ultimately, to the Jeweled Island paradise of the Goddess, but no further without knowledge, the path of knowledge can lead to the ultimate realization of pure consciousness even here on Earth. The path of knowledge consists of three main stages: 1) listening to the teaching of scripture that demonstrate the unity of the soul and Brahman; 2) reflecting on the meaning of such texts; and 3) intensive meditation thereon." Id. at 145.).

PROJECTING YOUR GOD, HOLDING THAT DIVINITY WITHIN, LOVING AND WALKING PARALLEL PATHS

Marion Woodman, Conscious Femininity: Interviews with Marion Woodman (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts) (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1993) (Peay: What is a projection? Woodman: It's like an arrow. It's a bundle of psychic energy that sees something out there that it's attracted to and the arrow automatically fired--bang!--and if the other person has an arrow coming at you, that is called falling in love. And it's a straight neurosis. But it is part of psychic growth. As times goes on, you begin to realize that all these men, or women, you are so fatally attracted to are all very much alike at their core. You're really falling in love with your own projection each time. Gradually it gets through to you that it's not the other person you're in love with, but part of your own self that you're projecting into that person. It's those projected parts of ourselves that we have to pull back. A lot of women project their mother onto a man. It's all a bag of confusion! Peay: What do you mean by having to 'pull back' projections? Woodman: That is the most painful, agonizing process in the world. Because you have to recognize that what you thought was out there in another person is not out there, but inside yourself. Most people experience pulling back a projection as isolation, as being cut off from the outer world. But if you have loved a man and you have projected your inner god onto him, you have to recognize that he isn't a god after all. The real god is inside. You have to recognize the illusions, the delusions and the pain of human limitations. Then gradually it dawns on you what a huge mistake you've made." Peay: What happens then? Woodman: When you're able to recognize that it's your god you've been projecting, or, in a man's case, the goddess, you learn to hold that divinity within. Then you're able to ask yourself, 'Do I love that human being?' And you may find out that you do. That this man is sharing the journey with you, and he's put up with (dare I say) all your shit (that's how dreams image it), and you've put up with his, and there the two of you are, walking through life, together. There's something noble in his suffering. There's something noble in your own suffering. You're not leaning on each other. You're walking parallel paths, you're not holding each other up. That's a marvelous thing, to love another human being like that." Id. at 122-123.).

AGAINST PERFECTION: BALANCING LOVE AND POWER, THE FEMININE AND THE MASCULINE, THE YIN AND THE YANG

Marion Woodman, Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts) (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1982) ("This book is about taking the head off an evil witch. Lady Macbeth, glued to the sticking-place of insatiable power, unable to countenance failure to the point of rejecting life, will serve as a symbol of the woman robbed of her femininity through her pursuit of masculine goals that are themselves a parody of what masculinity really is. And though in Shakespeare's tragedy it is Macbeth who is beheaded, the head he loses is fatally infected by the witches' evil curse. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are metaphors of the masculine and feminine principles functioning in one person or in a culture, and the deteriorating relationship between them clearly demonstrates the dynamics of evil when the masculine principle loses its standpoint in its own reality, and the feminine principle of love succumbs to calculating, intellectualized ambition. Shakespeare's beheading of his hero-villain is, in the total context of the play, the healing of the country." This book is about a beheading. It has been hewn out of the hard rock of an addiction to perfection." Id at 7. "The I Ching, The Chinese Book of Changes, recognizes the continual shifts that go on within the individual. The Yang power, the creative masculine, moves ahead with steadfast perseverance toward a goal until it becomes too strong, begins to break--and then the Yin, the receptive feminine, enters from below and gradually moves toward the top. Life is a continual attempt to balance these two forces. With growing maturity the individual is able to avoid the extreme of either polarity, so that the pendulum does not gain too much momentum by swinging too far to the right only to come crashing back to the left in a relentless cycle of action and reaction, inflation and depression. Rather one recognizes that these poles are the domain of the gods, the extremes of black and white. To identify with one or the other can only lead to plunging into its opposite. The ratio is cruelly exact. The further I move in the white radiance on one side, the blacker the energy that is unconsciously constellating behind my back: the more I force myself to perfect my ideal image of myself, the more overflowing toilet bowls I'm going to have in my dreams." Id. at 14-15. "Living by principles is not living your own life. It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are. If you are trying to live by ideals, you are constantly plagued by a sense of unreality. Somewhere you think there must be some joy; it can't be all 'must,' 'ought to,' 'have to.' And when the crunch comes, you have to recognize the truth: you weren't there. Then the house of cards collapses. In trying to live out your principles and ideals, the part that matters the most was lost. The hideous irony then has to be faced. A one woman put it to me: 'I have everything and nothing. By the world's standards, I have everything. By my own heart's standards, I have nothing. I won the battle for my precious independence an lost what was most precious to me. I want to love and be loved but something in me is sending love away. I do not understand.' " "For the person who is living by ideals, the essential problem in relationships usually involves the difference between love and power." Id. at 61-62. I reread this book a few days after the bombing at the Boston Marathon. The following passage seems on point. "In the 20th century, the Christian idea of Hell has relocated itself in the public imagination. Now we fear the criminal underworld that operates as intricately organized hierarchical societies such as the Maia or international terrorist organizations. More and more, as terrorists' bombs explode in parked Volkswagons or as passengers of a 747 are held hostage, or as drugs are peddled in our own schoolyard or as we find ourselves requiring triple locks on our own front doors, we sense that our society is gradually being penetrated by an underground life. This experience, both real and imagined, is a kind of rape. The rape of consciousness by subterranean energies over which we have little control threatened almost everyone's dreams with sinister and infecting fear. Our apparent helplessness before the onslaught of this eruptive world both within and without turns human society and human psyche into a mine field." Id. at 131.).

THE BOOK OF CHANGES

Richard Wilhelm & Cary F. Bayes, The I Ching or Book of Changes: The Richard Wilhelm Translation rendered into English by Cary F, Bayes, 3rd ed. (Bollingen Series XIX), foreword by C. G. Jung, preface to the Third Edition by Hellmut Wilhelm (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1967, 1977).

CHIH-HU OU-I'S BUDDHIST COMMENTARY ON THE 'I CHING'

Chih-hu Ou-i, The Buddhist I Ching (Shambhala Dragon Edition), translated by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1987) (THE IMAGE: There is wind over the lake, with sincerity in the center. True Leaders consider judgments and postpone execution. [Commentary] True leaders know that when people do wrong, sometimes it arises from circumstances beyond their control; if they know how the people feel, they are sympathetic and sad for them, so they consider their judgments, giving weight to the people's merits and trying to minimize their faults. When it comes to execution, they would prefer to let the wayward slip by than to kill the innocent. In this way if one person is executed, everyone will submit and, even if executed, will not hate the executioner." Id. at 224. "This book is a reading of the classic I Ching by the noted Chinese Buddhist Chih-hsu Ou-i (1599-1655), and outstanding author of the late Ming dynasty whose work influenced the development of modern Buddhism in China. Ou-i uses the I Ching to elucidate issues of in social, psychological, and spiritual development." Id. at vii.).

THE TAO REQUIRES SOCIALLY RESPONSIBILITY AND SELF-CULTIVATION

Thomas Cleary, trans. & ed., The Way of the World: Readings in Chinese Philosophy (Boston & London: Shambahala, 2009) (From Chapter 1, "Inner Work from Guanzi":"With a dignified mien, / be cautious and respectful, / and vitality will reach stability. / When you attain this / and do not abandon it, / your ears and eyes / will not be promiscuous / and your mind will not have other aims. / With the right attitude inside, / everything is in proportion." Id. at 17. "If you keeping longing for something, / you become inwardly suffocated / and outwardly emaciated. / If you don't figure out / what to do about this soon, / your life will leave its abode." Id. at  20. From Chapter 4, "Purifying the Mind from Guanzi": "Permanent stasis is impossible, / anarchy is impractical; / adapt to changes to decide things, / know the times to formulate measures." Id. at 36. From Chapter 7, ""The Fisherman and the Woodcutter, Shao Yong": "The woodcutter asked the fisherman, 'What people call talent has both benefit and harm--how is that?' The fisherman said, 'Talent is one thing, benefit and harm diverge. There are those whose talents are balanced, and those whose talents are unbalanced. Those whose talents are balanced benefit other people, and this extends to themselves. Those whose talents are imbalanced benefit themselves but harm others in the process.'' Id. at 73. From Chapter 9, "Huang Shi's Slik Text, Zhang Shangying": "Those who work on good plans have no bad events; those who don't think far ahead will have troubles near at hand." Id. at 83. From Chapter 10, "Wenshi's Classic on Reality, Officer Xi": "Don't try to figure out others by your own mind, try to figure them out by their minds. Those who know how to to this can thereby manage affairs, can thereby practice virtue, can thereby consistently keep to the Way, can thereby socialize with others, can thereby forget self." Id. at 107. "It is a universal pattern that if small things aren't controlled they get big, and if big things aren't controlled they get unmanageable. So those who can control a state of mind can thereby develop virtue; those who can forget a state of mind can thereby conform to the Way." Id. at 107. "Don't take small matters lightly; a small gap can sink a ship. Don't take small things lightly; a little poison can kill you. Don't take small people lightly; small people ruin countries." Id. at 115. From the backcover: "The dynamic relationship between the individual and society has been a central concern of Taoism from its ancient beginnings.... This anthology presents a wide range of texts revealing the processes of integrating personal spirituality with social responsibility central to Taoist tradition across the centuries and throughout the schools. There are wealth of approaches to life in the world presented here, but at the heart of each is an understanding that even a mystic must be socially responsible and that self-cultivation is primarily preparation for anyone called to lead.").

HUMILITY

Thomas Cleary, ed., I Ching Mandalas: A Program of Study for The Book of Change (Shambhala Dragon Edition), translated from the Chinese by Thomas Cleary (Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989) (Humility: It is lucky if leaders use humility as a means of travel. Expressing humility is good and correct. The exercise of humility is beneficial to all. When you do not aggrandize yourself but share with those around you, it is good to extend this to strangers and enemies as well--it is beneficial to all. If you are proud of your humility, you have yet to really overcome yourself." Id. at 90. From the backcover: "The ancient book of advice and divination known as the I Ching (Book of Changes) has gained such popularity in both East and West that it hardly needs an introduction. Less well known are the traditional programs for studying the I Ching which were published in China about one thousand years ago. I Ching Mandalas is an example of this literature, which enables serious students of the classic to achieve a deeper understanding of its philosophy through the study of diagrams. These diagrams are tools for whole-brain learning that help the student to visualize patterns and interrelationships among the trigrams and hexagrams of the I Ching").

TAOIST ADEPTS

Thomas Cleary, trans. & ed., Alchemists, Mediums and Magicians: Stories of Taoist Mystics (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2009) (This book "is a collection of sketches from Chinese history portraying more than one hundred of the remarkable individuals associated with exceptional knowledge, uncommon artistry, an spiritual leadership over a period of more than two millennia. Complied under the title Mystic History by Zhang Tianyu, a Taoist priest in the fourteenth century, this collection introduces a broad range of personalities, professions, and pastimes of China;s esoteric elite, from the most illustrious to the utterly obscure. Among them are people who appear to the world as philosophers and scholars, strategists and statemen, recluses and courtiers, magicians and mediums, philanthropists and educators, alchemists and physicians, seers and soothsayers, priest and paupers, artists and poets."  Id. at vii.).

THE TAOIST ALCHEMICAL BALANCING OF YIN AND YANG

Chang Po-tuan, Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic: With a Concise Commentary by Liu I-Ming, translated from the Chinese By Thomas Cleary (Honolulu: U. of Hawaii Press, 1997) (From the "Foreword": "Complete Reality Taoism, which arose as a distinct movement between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, was concerned with the totality of experience and with furthering human progress in the realms of both conventional and ultimate truth. This concern manifested itself accordingly in both social and mystical practices, as the followers of Complete reality strove to encompass what they considered to be the essences of Buddhism and Confucianism as well as Taoism." Id. at xiii-xiv. From the "Introduction": ""The concept of yin and yang form one of the basic and pervasive themes of Taoist thought, used to describe all manner of oppositions and complementarities in the physical and metaphysical worlds...." "Generally speaking, three aspects or phases of Taoist practice are expressed in terms of yin and yang. These are referred to as fostering yang while repelling yin, blending yin and yang, and transcending yin and yang. In interpreting these phrases, the associations of yin and yang differ according to the specific process being described." "In Taoism one of the basic equivalents of yin and yang is the pair of terms 'heaven and earth.' At one level of interpretation, heaven refers to a world-transcending higher consciousness, beyond the bounds of ordinary thought and emotion; earth refers to the experience of the everyday world. The complete or 'real' human being is considered a balanced combination of these two levels of experience; this is expressed in the Taoist slogan 'Being beyond the world while living in the world.' Thus to maintain contact with the higher, vaster dimension of 'celestial' consciousness while at the same time living effectively in the 'earthly' domain is one meaning of blending or uniting yin and Yang." Id. at 3. From the text and commentary: "The conscious knowledge of the human mind is yang outside, yin inside; it is like sunlight,which radiates outward. The real knowledge of the mind Tao is like moonlight, stored within. The external yang of conscious knowledge belongs to the yang soul; the external yin of real knowledge belongs to the yin soul. The sunlight yang soul of conscious knowledge is what is called the spirit which is spirit; the moonlight yin soul of real knowledge is called the spirit which is not spirit." "'Spirit which is spirit' means there is artificiality within the real; 'spirit which is not spirit' refers to containing reality within the artificial. 'Refining sunlight and moonlight' means melting away the artificiality within reality of the conscious knowledge of the human mind, and refining out the reality within artificiality of the mind of Tao. When false consciousness is removed, real consciousness is steady; then the yang soul doesn't fly off, but is stabilized. When real knowledge is revealed, false knowledge vanishes; then the yin soul doesn't dissolve, but is stabilized." "Once the yang soul and yin soul are stabilized, then real knowledge and conscious knowledge, sense and essence, merge into each other and solidify into one energy, warm and gentle, transmuting by collecting and dispersing, tranquil and unstirring yet sensitive and effective. Every step is the celestial mechanism, the spiritual subtlety herein cannot be described in words." Id. at 61. "Equalizing beings: I am not different from other people; people's minds are themselves different. For people there are friends and strangers; for me, no 'that' or 'this.' Creatures of water, land, and air, I view equally as one body. Whether people are high or low in rank, their hands and feet are the same as mine. I am not even me; how could there even be you? 'That' and 'this' both nonexistent, myriad bubbles return to water." "The title of this verse is 'Equalizing beings,' which means equally seeing others and self, friends and strangers, fish, animals, and birds, people in high and low ranks, as one body alone. The important point of this verse is in the line 'I am not even me.' The reason people of the world cannot see beings as equal is because they are egotistic. If one can be selfless, how can one know there is a second person? With 'you' and 'me' both forgotten, myriad beings all empty, they are equal of themselves without being equalized." Id. at 164-165.).

KNOWING PEOPLE

Sun Tzu, The Art of War: Complete Texts and Commentaries: The Art of War; Mastering the Art of War; The Lost Art of War; The Silver Sparrow Art of War, translated by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003) (From Mastering the Art of War: "Knowing People: Nothing is harder to see into than people's natures. Though good and bad are different, their conditions and appearances are not always uniform. There are some people who are nice enough but steal. Some people are outwardly respectful while inwardly making fools of everyone. Some people are brave on the outside yet cowardly on the inside. Some people do their best but are not loyal. // Hard though it be to know people, there are ways. // First is to question them concerning right and wrong, to observe their ideas. // Second is to exhaust all arguments, to see how they change. // Third is to consult with them on about strategy, to see how perceptive their ideas. // Fourth is to announce that there is trouble, to see how brave they are. // Fifth is to get them drunk, to observe their nature. // Sixth is to present them with the prospect of of gain, to see how modest they are. // Seventh is to give them a task to do within a specific time, to see how trustworthy they are." Id. at 183, 221-222. I have found that person self-describing him/herself as being "a good judge of character" never is.).

Zhuge Liang & Liu Ji, Mastering the Art of War (Shambhala Dragon Edition), translated and edited by Thomas Cleary (Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989).

CHENG YI, THE TAO OF ORGANIZATION

Cheng Yi, The Tao of Organization: The I Ching for Group Dynamics, translated form the Chinese by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1995) (From "Translator's Introduction": "The Tao of Organization analyzes relationships and power configurations within groups. Taking into account both the subjective and objective dimensions of these structures, it is extraordinarily subtle and complex. The relationship between interpersonal and intrapersonal forces, the crucial point on which the Tao--the Way, or inner pattern or deign--of organization hinges, is the central focus of the explanation. This makes the commentary unusually versatile in terms of studying both personal and collective life." Id. at ix. "As is well known, the fundamental elements of I Ching are the so-called two modes, yin and yang. These common visualized as the rise (yang) and descent (yin) of the energy level of a system. Yang energy is growth, progress, upward movement; yin energy is storage, restraint, withdrawal." "In this system, yin stand for flexibility, openness, calmness, stasis, or weakness...." "Yang stands for firmness, strength, progress, or aggression. As in the case of yin associations, the meanings and values of yang shift according to the configuration of the time...." Id. at xi. "Traditionally, two of the most common but unfortunately overused yin-yang associations are the female-male and bad-good polarities. Abuse of these associations, according to traditional lore, consists of automatic application to every case. These associations have been applied so regularly, it is said, as to contaminate vast areas of thought with a fixed dualism that fosters irrelevant associations and severely prejudices the ability of people afflicted to consult the I Ching. Cheng Yi himself makes mention of this more than once in the course of his commentary. It is thought important to articulate this, because fixed associations will affect a reading even if they are only subconscious." Id. at xii. The Text and Commentary: "The way for leaders to be close to all the people is simply to make the way to close manifestly clear. If they treat people sincerely, are sympathetic toward others, and mobilize the administration for the benefit of all, leaders are following the right way to be close to their communities. If leaders do this, who would not feel close to them?" "If, on the other hand, it is harsh to the humble and rewards the unjust, no matter how much it may claim to want to be close to the community, the way is already too narrow, and the leadership will find it impossible to succeed in gaining closeness." Id. at 21-22. "Yin is the main element of joy. Weak, petty people occupy high position because they enjoy it. Who in the world would consent to consort with them? They seek to gather people, but no one will associate with them, so their frustration reaches the point where they sigh and weep." "Being rejected by others is something they have brought on themselves, so whom can they blame? Detested and shut out by others, not knowing what to do, they become dejected, to the point of sighing and weeping. This is a true picture of the condition of petty people." Id. at 152.).

IS SCIENTOLOGY REALLY A RELIGION?

Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (New York: Knopf, 2013) (From the bookjacket: "In Going Clear, Wright examines what fundamentally makes a religion a religion, and whether Scientology is, in fact, deserving of the constitutional protections achieved in its victory over the IRS." Also, see Diane Johnson. "Scientology: The Story," New York Review of Books, April 25, 2013.).

UNBURDEN THE BODY: TAOIST THOUGHT

Thomas Cleary, Taoist Meditation: Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body, translated and compiled by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2000) (From "Anthology on the Cultivation of Realization": "If people want to do the finest thing in the world, nothing compares to learning. If they want to be the best learners, nothing compares to learning the Way." Id. at 7. "When people have desires, it is like trees having insects; consumed within unknown, before long they collapse. Those who think desire is fun do not realize desire is like fire; if you do not put it out, you will burn yourself. Your spirit will suffer from irritation, alcohol and sex will wear out your vital energy, producing illness and ulcers, so you cry out in pain day and night. Buddhists who say you suffer for your sins after death do not realize you already suffer while still alive." Id. at 10. "The only thing that differentiates humans from beast is this mind. Buddha said evildoers will come back reborn changed into beasts; I say people who lose their minds become beasts right then and there. Why? They may have human form, but they are no longer human." Id. at 24. "The reason people are unable to attain the Way is because they are burdened by the body." "If you want to get rid of this burden, you should realize this body is an impermanent thing, a painful material object with no owner, a bag of pus and blood, urine and feces. The whole body, inside and out, has nothing good about it at all.  Why do you want to feed it fine food and dress it in fine clothes? You show off sharpness and sell keenness whenever you are in the presence of others. People who are subject to compulsion are confused in mind and deluded at heart; everyone in the world has been strung along." Id. at 32-33. "Self-examination means examining your own mind." Id. at 60."Self-examination means awareness and control. It is none other than reforming faults and consciously developing. It is none other than mastering seriousness. Even though the Great Way has no practice and no realization, materialism must be polished away day by day," Id at 61. "Self-examination is like arresting a robber--you cannot relax at any time." "Self-government is like executing a rebel--you must cut through with one stroke of the sword. Attacking human desire must be like this before it can be successful." "Self-government is a matter of getting rid of what was originally not in us...." "Conscious development is a matter of preserving what is originally in us. We should realize it is originally there of necessity and does not come to be there by conscious development." Id. at 64. From Sima Chengzhen, "Treatise on Sitting Forgetting": "[N]othing is better for people who cultivate the Way than to resolutely simplify things. Discern whether they are inessential or essential, assess whether they are trivial or serious, distinguish whether to eliminate them or take to them. Whatever is not essential and not serious should be abandoned." Id. at 87. "The three precepts are: 1. simplifying involvement; 2. not craving anything; 3. quieting the mind. "If you diligently practice these three precepts, without flagging, then even if you have no mind to seek the Way the Way will come of itself." Id. at 102.).

FOUR-LEGGED CHANGE

Jon Katz,  Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me (New York: Villard, 2002) ("John Steinbeck once wrote that it was the nature of humans as they grew older to complain about change, especially change for the better. I have never really had that particular problem. Change loves me, defines and stalks me like a laser-guided smart bomb. It come at me in all forms, suddenly and with enormous impact, from making shifts in work to having and raising a kid to buying a cabin on a distant mountaintop. Sometimes, change comes on four legs." Id. at xxi. This four-legged-change happened to me, in the form of fifteen-month-old Australian Shepherd. I renamed her. Her name is Charlie. "In our culture, humans with a special knack for animals have always been thought queer, or worse." "Learning a dog's worldview, altering it (within bounds), accepting a dog's understanding as sometimes more reliable than a man's--these commonplace tools of dog training are a mild cultural treason. . . . The truly dangerous inhabit a reality most of us can scarcely imagine--every day they share the thoughts, habits, tics and aspirations of a genuinely alien mind." Id. at ix (quoting from Donald McCaig, Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men). I would like to become one of those dangerous men, at least with respect to sharing "the thoughts, habits, tics and aspirations" of Charlie's "alien mind.").

BALANCE AND HARMONY

Li Tao-ch'un, The Book of Balance and Harmony, translated from the Chinese and with an introduction by Thomas Cleary (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989) ("The absolute is movement and stillness without beginning, yin and yang without beginning." "When the human mind is calm and stable, before it is affect by things, it is merged in the celestial design; this is the subtlety of the absolute. Once it is affected by things, then there is a partiality; this is change of the absolute." "When you are calm and stable, careful of attention, the celestial design is always clear, open awareness is unobscured; then you have autonomy in action and can deal with whatever arises. With the maturation of practice of calm stability, one spontaneously arrives at this true restoration of the infinite, where the subtle responsive function of the absolute is clear and the design of the universe and all things is complete in oneself."  Id. at 3-4. "Balance and harmony are the four directions centered on reality; in action all is balanced." "The Record of Rites says, 'When emotions have not yet emerged, that is called balance; when they are active yet all in proportion, that is called harmony.'" Id. at 4. "Metaphors: Vitality in the body is yang within yin; refine vitality into energy. Energy in the mind is yin within yang; refine energy into spirit. The original spirit is formless; refine spirit into openness." Id. at 21. "Do you know this person who controls the puppet? The body is like a puppet; the string of the puppet are like the mysterious pass. The person controlling the puppet is like the innermost self. The movements of the body are not done by the body; it is the mysterious pass that makes it move. But though it is the action of the mysterious pass, still it is the innermost self that activates the mysterious pass. If you can recognize this activating mechanism, without a doubt you can become a wizard." Id. at 29-30. "The highest vehicle is the ineffable Way of supreme ultimate reality." "Discipline, concentration, and insight are the three essentials." Id. at 39. "Those with clear understanding, those whose knowledge and wisdom are perfected, are able to see all phenomena as empty of absoluteness. Then the unified mind returns to tranquility, and lives independently in a transcendent state. Therefore there is no creation or change for them." "Those who do not clearly understand are externally fixated on body, mind, society, and events; and they inwardly dwell on sensations, conceptions, actions, and consciousness. Therefore they change along with the world, are born and perish along with forms." Id. at 148.).

STEP OUT OF ROUTINE, AND THINK!

Jon Katz, Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change (New York: Villard, 1999) ("When it comes to change, I'm not a detached observer; I'm a partisan. It can happen: human beings can look inward, face the realities of their existences, and--sometimes--alter enrich, or transform the circumstances under which they live. They can dream, and--sometimes--they can pursue and realize their visions. Few of us can have much influence on the changes in the world beyond our own experiences, the greater physical, economic, or international upheavals. But dealing with the other kind of change, the personal variety, is a nearly universal human drama and preoccupation--and sometimes the stuff of real adventure." Id. at xi-xii (paragraph breaks deleted). "The central conceit of boomers is that they can control the world they live in, by one means or another. They not only believe it, they insist upon it. They think they can and should create perfect children who lead lives free of failure, risk, and pain. All the harder the fall when it does." Id. at 16. "There are times in one's life, those key moments Merton called journeys of the soul, that I might more prosaically call passages--marriage, divorce, children, moving, illness, workplace crises and challenges, the prospect of friendship, moral dramas , and spiritual decisions--when one simply has to stop, step out of ones routine, and take the trouble to think. It's not a luxury but an obligation: how else to even try to make measured, considered decisions base on deliberation and self-awareness rather than on impulse or fear?" Id, at 65.).

TAOISM: VITALITY, ENERGY AND SPIRIT OF THE WAY

Thomas Cleary, Vitality, Energy, Spirit: A Taoist Sourcebook (Shambhala Dragon Edition), translated from the Chinese and edited by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1991) ("Taoists often call their study the 'science of essence and life' to represent their cultivation of those arts. The science of essence deals with mind; the science of life deals with the body. Their object is to groom and enhance what Taoists call the three bases or three treasures of human existence: vitality, energy, and spirit." "Vitality, energy, and spirit are envisioned as three centers of the individual and collective organism...." "Vitality is primarily associated with creativity, temporarily associated with sexuality. Energy is primarily associated with movement, heat, and power, temporary associated with breath, magnetism, and strength. Spirit is primarily associated with the essence of mind and consciousness, temporally associated with thought and reflection. As the three centers interact, the quality and proportion of their mutual influence relate directly to the total state of mental and physical well-being." Id. at ix. "The present anthology contains variety of traditional Taoist educational materials dealing with the theory and practice of the 'inner achemy' by which vitality, energy, and spirit are unified, groomed, refined, and purified, a process believed by the Taoists to restore the original wholeness and health of the natural human being." Id. at xxiv. Huai-nan-tzu: "When the mind neither sorrows nor delights, that is supreme attainment of virtue. To succeed without changing is supreme attainment of calm. To be unburdened by habitual desires is supreme attainment of emptiness. To have no likes and dislikes is supreme attainment of equanimity. Not getting mixed up with things is supreme attainment of purity." "Those who can accomplish these five things reach spiritual illumination. Those who reach spiritual illumination are those who attained the inward." "Therefore when you master the outward by means of the inward, all affairs are unspoiled." "If you can attain this within, then you can develop it outwardly." Id. at 22. Ancestor Lu, "Sayings": "Dissipation: The human body is only vitality, energy, and spirit. If you do not care about your vitality and waste it arbitrarily, that is like putting water into a leaking cup; it will not fill the cup, but will gradually leak away. Finally it will be all gone, not a drop left. If you do not care about your energy but let it go whichever way it will, that is like placing incense on a red-brazier, letting it burn away; add more fuel and fire, and the incense will become ash. If you do not care about your spirit and dissipate it arbitrarily, that is like placing a lone lamp in the wind, letting it be blown by the wind, uncovered, so that it goes out." Id. at 82. "The True Eternal Tao: Whenever I see those whom the vulgar call devotees of the Tao, I find that all of them seek to be taken in spirits and immortals, or they seek lasting life and preservation of wealth by the practice of material alchemy or sexual yoga. When it comes to the great Tao of true eternity pure and open, tranquil and dispassionate, there are few who are interested in it." Id. at 103. "Entering the Tao: The Tao is entered by way of sincerity. When you reach complete sincerity, the Tao is not far off. Therefore a classic says, 'Before practicing the way of immortality, first practice the way of humanity.' What does practicing the way of humanity mean? The Tao is fundamentally empty, yet it fills the universe. People should embody the Tao in action, making the extent of their minds reach everywhere and encompass everything, so that all living creatures are embraced within the mind of the individual. Also one should investigate the root of consciousness and the nature of intelligence, from time to time looking inward and using the mind to ask the mind whether one's actions are in accord with truth, and whether one is really contributing positively to society.." Id. at 103. Be a Taoist lawyer. Pop Quiz: Who said, to paraphrase, there are two types of lawyers. Those who are social engineers, and those who are parasites?  From "Records of Sayings of Banshan": "People engaged in self-cultivation should avoid discussing others' strengths and weaknesses or right and wrong, as well as the ups and downs of society and all worldly affairs." Id. at 159. I agree with the first part, but disagree with the latter. Those who are engaged in self-cultivation should be engaged in addressing issues such a global warming, poverty, overpopulation. They are the only one who can bring some humanity to the discussion. "Do not speak or think about what does not concern you--as soon as you start making judgments, you have obscured your self." "If you concentrate on refining your mind, you should always search out your own faults. Why should you be concerned with others' personal affairs?" Id. at 160. I need to take that to heart!!).

A BIOGRAPHY OF THE 'I CHING'

Richard J. Smith, The I Ching: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books) (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2012) ("Despite the great and often glaring differences separating the Yijing from such religious classics as the Bible, the Talmud, the Qur'an, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Lotus Sutra, it deserves to be considered one of the great works of spiritually inspired world literature." Id. at 211. "The sustained appeal of the Yijing rests primarily in three related areas, all of which apply to many other classic works as well: (1) the intellectual challenges it poses, (2) the psychological insights it encourages, and (3) the creative inspiration it affords, not least by virtue of its powerful and pervasive symbolism." Id. at 212.).

LIU I-MING'S COMMENTARY ON CHANG PO-TUAN'S THE INNER TEACHINGS OF TAOISM

Chang Po-tuan, The Inner Teachings of Taoism, Commentary by Liu I-ming, translated from the Chinese by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2001) ("Get rid of anger and hatred. If you do not sweep yourself clean of anger and hatred, You will be full of turbulence, which will obscure the truth." Id. at 37. "Relinquish attachment to the physical body. See the physical body as something temporary and artificial, And naturally there will be a way to seek the real body." Id. at 37. "Do not talk about right and wrong. Everyone should sweep the snow from his own door And not be concerned about the frost on another's roof." Id. at 39. "The Heart of Heaven and Earth: "The first essential step in cultivating reality is to find the heart of heaven and earth. The heart of heaven and earth, the universal mind, is what has been previously referred to as the natural, innocent true mind. This mind is subtle and recondite, and is not easily manifested; it only shows a glimpse when 'light appears in the empty room' and 'within darkness, suddenly there is illumination'." "Heaven is associate with yang, earth is associate with yin; the heart of heaven and earth is the mind in which yin is not separate from yang, yang is not separate form yin, yin and yang are merged. When yin and yang are conjoined, this mind is present; when yin and yang are separate, this mind is absent. It is not form, not void, yet both form and void; it is not being, not nonbeing, yet both being and nonbeing. Form and void interpenetrate, being and nonbeing cannot be established; this is ineffable existence within true emptiness. When you know this mind and keep it intact, the overall basis is already established and the rest is easy." "The ignorant who do not know this all manipulate the avaricious physical heart; some consider the active mind the heart of heaven and earth, some consider the still mind the heart of heaven and earth, some think the mind dwelling on the middle of the torso is the heart of heaven and earth. This is wrong. The avaricious heart is the conditioned human mind with personal desires; the active mind clings to existence, the still mind clings to nothingness, and dwelling mind fixes on form. These minds are as far from the heart of heaven and earth as mud is form the clouds." "The heart of heaven and earth is unified in action and stillness, is tranquil and unperturbed yet sensitive and effective, is sensitive and effective yet tranquil and unperturbed. How could it it refer to the physical, avaricious heart?" Id. at 76-77.).

RADICAL ACCEPTANCE

Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, with a foreword by Jack Kornfield (New York: Bantam Books, 2003) ("Radical Acceptance reverses our habit of living at war with experiences that are unfamiliar, frightening or intense. It is the necessary antidote to years of neglecting ourselves,, years of judging and treating ourselves harshly, years of rejecting this moment's experience. Radical Acceptance is the willingness to experience ourselves and our life as it is. A moment of radical Acceptance is a moment of genuine freedom." Id. at 4. ).

LIU I-MING, AWAKENING TO THE TAO

Liu I-ming, Awakening to the Tao, translated from the Chinese by Thomas Cleary (Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1988) ("The Natural Reality of the Infant: "When an infant is first born, it has o conscious knowledge, no attachment to pleasures and possession, no sentimental bonds. It knows nothing of wealth or poverty, has no idea of self, person, being, or life. For the infant, everything is open--nothing defiles it, for it is indifferent, equanimous, purely natural." "What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of restoration of innocence. If people are able to radically wake up and turn around, shedding attachments to things, to dwell in the realm of nothingness and formlessness, to uproot the sense and objects conditioned by history and sweep away the forces of habit acquired in the present life, letting go everywhere to be open and clear, pure and clean, then even if the body is old  the nature is restored; outwardly one may be weak, but inwardly one is robust." "This is the restoration of youth, the original state of the infant. Otherwise, once natural reality is lost, even if one is physically strong and fat as a pig or an ox, what is the benefit?" Id. at 25-26. "Moths and Worms: [] Worldly people follow what they desire--they compete for fame, grab for profit, indulge in drink and lust. They take artficialities for reality, take irritants for pleasure. Day and night they struggle uncertainly, anxious and worried all the time, wearing out their vitality and spirit. They are not willing to stop until the day they die." "Such people are like moths flying into a lamp and burning to death, like worms seeking heat losing their lives. This is what is called sending yourself to death without even being called by the Great Reaper." "If you know in yourself the value of life, see through emotional entanglements and sensual cages, leap out of the net of fame and profit, be like a complete simpleton, learn to be a flexible, yielding  ignoramus. Do not contend for what others contend for, do not love what other love. In all situations, lower yourself and honor others. In all affairs do not be impulsive or forward." "Be like a fish submerged in the depths, like a turtle in the mud. Then criticism and praise do not reach you, calamity and fortune do not affect you. You live spontaneously without seeking life, you avoid death by not bringing on death." "This is a good method of heading for good fortune and avoiding misfortune. Nevertheless, foolish people consider external things more important than essences and life, bringing death on themselves." Id. at 62-63. "When Oil and Coal Run Out: [] Only humans have the same energy of yin and yang and the five forces but cannot follow it naturally. They cultivate unnecessary habits, take pain for pleasure, take poison for medicine. Greedily and gladly following their desires, they chop away at the root of life. Eventually their vitality and spirit wear out, their real consciousness fades away, just as a lamp goes out when the oil is gone, and a fire goes out when the charcoal is used up. They will only come to the brink of extinction." "If people are really beyond the world, they consider essence and life important. They protect their vitality and spirit as one wold protect gold and jade. They take care of the true consciousness as one would take care of rare gems. They do not set foot in a pit of fire, they do not show up in the arena of right and wrong." At all times they set their minds on what is fundamental and focus their thoughts on the meaning of the Way. They are careful about what goes on inside them, and prudent about what they do in the outside world. They store their spirit and energy." "This is what is meant by the saying that enlightened people work on he fundamental; when the fundamental is established, the way comes into being. This is like adding oil to keep a lamp from going out, like adding charcoal to keep a fire burning. Those without life can have life, the unborn can live forever. Is the question of whether to live or die to be left up to heaven alone?" Id. at 67-68. "The Racehorse and the Nag: [] Nevertheless, there are many Taoists in the world who cannot with a true heart regard essence and life as most important. They talk about the virtues of the Tao, but in their hearts they are criminals and gangsters. They want their imaginings of the Tao, and they want their greedy ambitions too. They are easily angered and unreceptive." "The intellectuals among them, depend on their ability to memorize a few 'spiritual' sayings, and think they have the Way. Consequently they disregard others and will not seek enlightened teachers or visit capable friends, thus mistaking the road ahead." "The dull ones do not know to investigate principles, and do not distinguish the false from the true. Having studied some 'side-door' practices, playing around on twisted by-ways, they also think they have the Way, and will not go to high illuminates for verification, thus holding to their routines all their lives, trapped in unbreakable fixations." "People like these types to not really think about the matter of essence and life as the single most important thing in the world, and the cultivation and maintenance of essence and life to be the single most difficult thing in the world. How can this be easily known, or easily accomplished?" "This is why those who study Taoism may be as numerous as hairs on a cow, but those who accomplish the Way are as rare as unicorns horns." Id. at 77-79. In studying this text I could not help but think about my yoga practice as part of my path to the Way. Am I on the by-way, or on the high road of practice? Am I a criminal, gangster, intellectual, etc., playing at Yoga and the Way, or do I have a serious Yoga practice focused on fundamentals, essence and life? Are my Yoga teachers real, or just charlatans? Am I real, or am I a charlatan? Am I in the world or beyond it?).

SUGGESTED FICTION: CONTROL(?) AND CHOICE(?)

Jerzy Kosinski, Steps (New York: Grove Press, 1968, 1997) ("For the uncontrolled there is no wisdom, nor for the uncontrolled is there the power of concentration; and for him without concentration there is no peace. And for the unpeaceful, how can there be happiness?" The Bhagavadita. "So to find out whether you loved me, you had to sleep with another man? I didn't sleep with him. But if you wanted to find out how you are without me, why did you refuse such a critical test? I didn't refuse; he didn't ask me. He said he loved me and wanted to marry me. Maybe he thought that if he asked me to go to bed with him, I would refuse because of my involvement with you. You see, I told him about you, and what was between us. But you spent a lot of time together. He must have kissed you. You touched him. Yes. And his tongue was in your month, and he stroked your body. Tell me, would you have gone to bed with him if he had wanted you to? I was ready to. What is the verdict of your judge and jury? The verdict is that I am capable of independent judgment and that I want to remain with you. And him? I told him I wouldn't leave you. I like him; he's a good man; but it would be a different life with him. I know I prefer the life you and I have together. I chose that part of me which wants you over and above the self I would become with him. Above all, I know that I alone decided this." Id. at 44-45. "Almost all of us on the jury were able to discuss and imagine how he had committed the crime and what had impelled him to it. To clarify certain aspects of his case, some of the jurors acted out the role of the accused in an attempt to make the rest of us understand his motives. After the trial, however, I realized that there was very little speculation in the jury room about the victim of the murder. Many of us could easily visualize ourselves in the act of killing, but few of us could project ourselves into the act of being killed in any manner. We did our best to understand the murder: the murderer was a part of our lives; not the victim." Id. at 94. From the backcover: "Jerzy Kosinski's classic vision of moral and sexual estrangement brilliantly captures the disturbing undercurrents of modern politics and culture. In this haunting novel, distinctions are eroded between oppressor and oppressed, perpetrator and victim, narcissism and anonymity. Kosinski portrays men and women both aroused and desensitized by an environment that disdains the individual an seeks control over the imagination in this unforgettable and immensely provocative work.").

LIU I-MING, THE TAOIST I CHING

Lui I-ming, The Taoist I Ching, translated from the Chinese by Thomas Cleary (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1986, 2005) ("This volume presents an explanation of the classic I Ching based on the teachings if the Complete Reality school of Taoism, in particular that stream of the Complete Reality school known as the Clear Serene branch." Id. at 1. "A proud dragon has regrets." "Promoting strength excessively, being only strong and not flexible, knowing how to go forward but not how to withdraw, is being like a dragon of drought: When the dragon gets to be proud, it cannot give life; when strength goes to excess, one will fail in one's tasks. When yang culminates, it must shift to yin. The celestial jewel gained is again lost. It is a logical matter of course, This is why the text says a proud dragon, one who goes too high, has regrets." Id. at 43. "Accord with the wrong people." "When one is oneself ignorant and foolish and also associates with ignorant and foolish people, this is accord with the wrong people. Accord  with the wrong people has no benefit and is harmful. What is the value of accord then? This represents incorrectness of outer accord." Id. at 64-65. "Accord with one outside is right and bodes well." "Flexibility according with the firm, seeing the wise and wanting to be like then, even the ignorant will become illumined, even the weak will become strong. This is external accord being correct." Id. at 65. "Tranquility". "Tranquility means going through in harmony. [] Yang is strong inside, yin is submissive outside. Strength and submission unified, yin and yang correspond; it therefore is called tranquility." "Only when yin and yang are harmoniously combined is it possible to accomplish things. Therefore the way of tranquility is that the small goes and the great comes; it is auspicious and developmental. The small is yin and the great is yang: 'The small goes' means yin submits, 'the great cmes' means yang is strong. With yang strong on the inside and yin submissive on the outside, the primordial gradually returns and acquired conditioning gradually melts away; thereby it is possible to reach the realm of pure yang with no yin. It is a matter of course then to be fortunate in action, and for activity to develop. "However, in the path of bringing about tranquility, there is a firing process, there is a course of work. If advancing and withdrawing are done with the proper timing, and one is strong yet act docilely, using docility to nurture strength, one can bring about tranquility and preserve it, understanding essence through understanding life, attaining nonstriving through striving, completing the great Way. On this one can be sure." Id. at 71-72. "If you want to act on something, you should first understand it; first understanding, then acting, all actions will be as you will. This is why biting through, using action within understanding, is developmental. Action with clarity is always based on understanding; its development and frustration may be symbolized by the administration of justice. Nothing in the world is harder to administer than justice; if the true conditions of justice are not clear, right is considered wrong and wrong is considered right--arbitrarily applying penalties, the calamity extends to the innocent, mistakenly injuring essence and life." "Practice of the Tao is like administering justice: Discerning true and false, right and wrong, is like the judge deciding good and bad; getting rid of falsehood and keeping truth, so as to preserve essence and life, is like the justice administration rewarding the good and punishing the bad, so as to alleviate the burden of injustice. When you investigate and find out true principle, it is clear in the mind and evident in practice; fully realizing essence and perfecting life, it is unfailingly developmental and beneficial." Id. at 100. "Constancy". "But the path of pervasive illumination is not possible without a constant mind. Constancy means singlemindedly applying the will, the longer the stronger, not becoming lazy and slacking off. Thereby one can comprehend essence and life; so there is a path of development in constancy , and it is also possible to be impeccable thereby." "However, though constancy can lead to development and impeccability, it is only beneficial if constancy is correct. If it is not correct, abandoning the real and entering into the false, then it is not developmental, and is faulty. The blind practitioners in the world who go into deviant paths, taking what is wrong to be right, aggrandizing themselves, boasting of their practices and cultivating vain reputations, striving all their lives without ever awakening, most assuredly are capable of constancy, but they are constant in aberrated paths, not constant in the right path. If you want to seek eternal life in this way, you will on the contrary hasten death; when your time is up, you will have no way out, and cannot escape the blame--how could you gain good fortune? Therefore constancy in the developmental, impeccable way is only brought to fruition by correctness." Id. at 132-133. From the backcover: "The I Ching, or 'Book of Change,' is considered the oldest of the Chinese classics and has throughout history commanded unsurpassed prestige and popularity. Containing several layers of text and given numerous levels of interpretation, it has captured continuous attention for well over two thousand years. It has been considered a book of fundamental principles by philosophers, politicians, mystics, alchemists, yogins, diviners, sorcerers, and more recently scientists and mathematicians." "The first part of the present volume is the text of the I-Ching proper--the sixty-four hexagrams plus sayings on the hexagrams and their lines--with the commentary composed by Liu I-ming, a Taoist adept, in 1796. The second part is Liu I-ming's commentary on two sections added to the I-Ching by earlier commentators, believed to be members of the original Confucian schools; these two sections are known as the Overall Images and the Mixed Hexagrams. In total, the book illuminates the Taoist inner teachings as practiced in the School of the Complete Reality." "Well versed in Buddhism and Confucianism as well as Taoism, Liu I-ming intended his work to be read as a guide to comprehensive self-realization while living an ordinary life in the world. In his attempt to lift the veil of mystery from the esoteric language of the I Ching, he employs the terminology of psychology, sociology, history, myth, and religion. This commentary of the I Ching stands as a major contribution to the elucidation of Chinese spiritual genius.").

AGAINST THE PERVERSE 'TOUGH LUCK' FORM OF LIBERTARIANISM

Andrew Koppelman, The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Health Care Reform (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2013) (DO WE REALLY WANT TO INTERPRET THE CONSTITUTION AS BEING  VOID OF COMPASSION? From the bookjacket: "Chief Justice John Roberts stunned the nation by upholding the Affordable Care Act--more commonly known as Obamacare. But legal experts observed that the decision might prove a strategic defeat for progressives. Roberts grounded his decision on Congress's power to tax. He dismissed the claim that it is allowed under the Constitution's commerce clause, which has been the basis of virtually all federal regulation." In The Tough Luck Constitution, Andrew Koppelman explains how the Court's conservatives embraced the arguments of a fringe libertarian legal movement bent on eviscerating the modern social welfare state. They instead advocate what Koppleman calls a 'tough luck' philosophy: if you fall on hard times, too bad for you. He argues that the rule they proposed--that the government can't make citizens buy things--has nothing to do with the Constitution and was in fact tailor-made to block this one law after its opponents had lost in Congress." "Koppelman also places the Affordable Care Act within a broader historical context. After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution was written to increase central power. The Supreme Court's previous limitations on Congressional power have proved unfortunate: it struck down anti-lynching laws and declared that child-labor laws would end 'all freedom of commerce, and . . . our system of government [would] be practically destroyed.' Both somehow survived after the court revisited these precedents. Koppelman notes that the libertarian-inspired arguments used against Obamacare are radically new--not based on established constitutional principles." "Ranging from early constitutional history to potential consequences, this is the definitive postmortem of this landmark case." From the text: "Almost no one is a serious Tough Luck Libertarian. Those who make Nozick-like claims typically do so in a baldly selective way, when someone proposes to diminish their own share of the pie to benefit someone else. Then redistribution, from which the speaker usually benefits in multiple ways, becomes an intolerable intrusion on liberty. So there is a dilemma for those who invoke Nozickian arguments. You can invoke them consistently, in which case you end American civilization as we know it. Or you can invoke them only opportunistically, in which case you won't deserve to be taken seriously. The judges and attorneys who sought to invalidate the ACA faced this dilemma. They typically responded by grabbing the second horn--a constitutional limit tailored to do in the ACA, which would probably never be relevant again." "Not all libertarianism is Tough Luck Libertarianism. You can believe in vastly reduced regulation of markets while thinking that there's nothing inherently just about the way they distribute property. Friedrich Hayek, the leading proponent of this view, endorsed Rawls without inconsistency. The concerns raised by Scalia, Kennedy, and Alito are Nozickian, not Hayekian." Id. at 11. I wonder what percentage of college graduates over, say, the last twelve years (this way we can speak of the twenty-first-century college educated) have read Robert Nozick, John Rawls and/or F.A. Hayek. I suspect it is a rather small percentage.).