Stay or go, just be clear. Confusion is no help. A clear mind helps.
It has been asked,
“How should those who enter the
path apply their minds?”
All things are originally uncreated
And presently undying.
Just let your mind be free;
You don’t have to restrain it.
See directly and hear directly;
Come directly and go directly.
When you must go,
Then go.
When you must stay,
Then stay.
This is the true path.
A scripture says, “Conditional
existence is the site of enlightenment,
insofar as you know it as it really is.”
(—Niu-t’ou Hui-chung (683-769), dailyzen)
I used to worry about living. Should I do this, should I do that?
I used to worry about dying. What will happen? Where will I go?
Now — living or dying, no difference, nothing to see here, nothing to see there.
Happy not to be enlightened. Happy to be the fool.
“No I am not Prince Hamlet nor was meant to be
Am an attendant lord one that will do
To swell a progress start a scene or two
Advise the prince no doubt an easy tool
Deferential glad to be of use
Politic cautious and meticulous
Full of high sentence but a bit obtuse
At times indeed almost ridiculous—
Almost at times the Fool.
(—from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T S Eliot)
This life of mine has been a fool’s errand, and I have carried it out well.
In my 81st year I have nothing to say, nothing to speak for me. This is how it is. This is the way the eaves drip this morning.
Pound by pound this body diminishes. Tooth by tooth this mouth releases. Sand truck comes up Barnestown road. The road is wet, concerns for black ice.
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
(—Paul Simon, Slip Sliding Away)
One minute at a time.
Insofar as you know it as it really is.