Do everything with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggle with the world will have come to an end.
[A Still Forest Pool : Achaan Chah]
'Then he said to them all, ''If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.
What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?'' '
Luke Chapter 9:23-25
The New Revised Standard Version
''For transition involves the breaking down of previous structures, and this disintegration reveals more clearly the underlying process of change, like threads being woven on a loom.''
Melanie Reinhart, 'Outer Space Inner Space'
Rudyard Kipling
'Then he said to them all, ''If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.
What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?'' '
Luke Chapter 9:23-25
The New Revised Standard Version
''For transition involves the breaking down of previous structures, and this disintegration reveals more clearly the underlying process of change, like threads being woven on a loom.''
Melanie Reinhart, 'Outer Space Inner Space'
| IF..... | ||||
| IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! |
1895
That reminds me of Mencius, VII.B.35 (Penguin translation):
ReplyDeleteMencius said, "There is nothing better for the nurturing of the heart than to reduce the number of one's desires. When a man has but few desires, even if there is anything he fails to retain in himself, it cannot be much; but when he has a great many desires, then even if there is anything he manages to retain in himself, it cannot be much."
I love this poem. My father used to recite it when I was a child. He lived his life by it. He was a huge Kipling fan. There's a great website devoted to this poem that I stumbled upon for anyone who is inspired by all things "If" - http://www.allthingsif.org. It includes articles, stories, other poems and even music based on the poem “If.”
ReplyDeleteHello Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your posting.
I've yet to check out the website above, but I plan to.
I think my father also lived by Kipling's 'If' and although he never recited it to me, as your father did to you, [and that is something very intimate and special], he had a poster of this poem on the wall by his bed, when he was older and bedbound. After he died, I took down that worn out old poster and now it is one of my treasures.
And in very difficult times, 'If' has seen me through, just as if my father were doing so. Also I think of it as a portrait of him, humble, quiet and unpretentious as he was. There is an exceeding amount of love in it, don't you think?