In looking after yourself
And caring for others,
Nothing surpasses the gardening of spirit.
Gathered early, this power doubles
And prevents any reckless use of mind.
It brings freedom from our own ideas
And the knowing of what to accept, what to reject.
It overcomes all obstacles,
Reaches invisible heights,
And has no limits.
Firmly planted and deeply rooted in the Tao,
It shows the way to a deep life with eternal vision.
“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.”
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“The way we care for Heaven is by guarding our mind and nourishing our nature.”
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“Most people use their mind recklessly… The wise use their mind calmly. Calmness means carefulness and carefulness means a gardening of spirit, an art born of an understanding of the Tao.”
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“Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig... there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
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“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
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“In the interlaced net of principle and phenomena, true emptiness appears. Shining to obliterate the fundamental delusion.”
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“Outside, we govern others. Inside, we care for Heaven. In both, nothing surpasses the gardening of spirit… Only if we are still does virtue have a place to collect.”
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“If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted.”
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“The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure... you are above everything distressing.”
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“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
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“Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things...as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.”
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“But what is wisdom? Where can it be found? Here we come to the crux of the matter: it can be read about in numerous publications but it can be found only inside oneself.”
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“The simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe.”
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“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”
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“All things are bound together, all things connect. Whatever befalls the earth befalls also the children of the earth.”
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“a lot of farmers have gone to a lot of trouble merely to be self-employed to live at least a part of their lives without a boss.”
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“It’s not a question of what you should be or what you should not be doing. It’s a question of what you are.”
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“I'm not really a career person; I'm a gardener, basically.”
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“What if cultivating your own garden were the best way to help the world? What if your little backyard could, with the proper care, grow enough vegetable and fruits to feed a million people? What if your gardening inspired a thousand of your neighbors to do the same?”
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“There was nothing Suzuki Roshi liked more than working in his garden.”
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“Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace.”
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Comments (2)
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Shan Dao
7 years ago
Wang Bi says that in this poem, “Economy means farming” and Ursula Le Guin translates this as “gathering spirit.” We’ve put these two translations together into, “The gardening of spirit.”
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Shan Dao
7 years ago
In the last line that we translate as, “the way to a deep life with eternal vision,” Le Guin translates as “Live long by looking long,” Cleary and Feng say “Eternal vision,” and Red Pine, “the Way of a long and lasting life.”
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