Mark Chmiel
Enough already of Useful Idiots, Counterpunch, flare-ups at The Intercept
Political yammering by self-appointed soothsayers
This Friday night I fade far away from news of assorted American Psychos
And am welcomed by Po Chü-i
Who reminds me, yes, of the brutal world all the way back then
But also of the joy even now with four friends who are still alive
I give thanks for translators whose labors allow me to meditate on the teachings of sages throughout time, like David Hinton’s work with Confucius’s Analects…
1.16 The Master said: “Don’t grieve when people fail to recognize your ability. Grieve when you fail to recognize theirs.”
2.4 The Master said: “At fifteen I devoted myself to learning, and at thirty soon firm. At forty I had no doubts, and at fifty understood the Mandate of Heaven. At sixty I listened in effortless accord. And at seventy I followed the mind’s passing fancies without overstepping any bounds.”
2.6 The Master said: “If you look at their intentions, examine their motives, and scrutinize what brings them contentment—how can people hide who they are? How can they hide who they really are?”
4.14 The Master said: “Don’t worry if you have no position: worry about making yourself worthy of one. Don’t worry if you aren’t known and admired: devote yourself to a life that deserves admiration.”
4.17 The Master said: “In the presence of sages, you can see how to perfect your thoughts. In the presence of fools, you must awaken yourself.”
7.22 The Master said: “Out walking with two companions, I’m sure to be in my teacher’s company. The good in one I adopt in myself; the evil in the other I change in myself.
9.4 The Master had freed himself of four things: idle speculation, certainty, inflexibility, and conceit. Continue reading “Gratitude/555”
1.
The Master said, To learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure? That friends should come to one from afar, is this not after all delightful? To remain unsoured even though one’s merits are unrecognized by others, is that not after all what is expected of a gentleman? 1.1
—Confucius, Analects, 1.1 (translated by Arthur Waley)
2.
Comrade Bethune’s spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought of self, was shown in his boundless sense of responsibility in his work and his boundless warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people. Every Communist must learn from him. We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man’s ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already nobleminded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.
—Mao Zedong, Little Red Book [Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung]
3.
I am always trying to find how to get the message through. [In Munich] we custom-made five-thousand backpacks like the ones of these students [who died in Sichuan] to construct a simple sentence [spoken by the] mother of a dead student. It was: “She has been happily living in this world for seven years.”
—Ai Weiwei, Weiwei-isms
Julia Ching, The Philosophical Letters of Wang Yang-ming
University of South Carolina Press, 1972
I previously studied with delight Julia Ching’s To Acquire Wisdom: The Way of Wang Yang-ming. Wang was the towering philosophical figure in the Ming Dynasty, one whose teachings and poems I took to heart. In this collection of letters, I am reminded of the simplicity of his way—the “extension of liang-zhi.”
Useful Phrases
“our firm determination to become sages” 6-7
having a single purpose, being undivided 41
recover your original determination 43
Mean: Keep always to the Mean; practice discernment and single-mindedness. 49
“the stimulation of the mind, the strengthening of human nature, the practice of polishing and perfecting oneself” 51
“to have a humble mind and to maintain a constant sagacity” 60
“conquer yourself and recover propriety [li]” 74
Confucius recommended, “learning with constant perseverance and application” 89 Analects 1:1
“unfolding, energetic, firm, and enduring” —Doctrine of the Mean 31, 110
Major Themes
Learning: the gentleman can find himself in no situation in which he is not himself, since whatever he does is, for him, learning. 105
Liang-chi: To develop the innate moral knowledge in the mind is, for WYM, the only thing necessary in the pursuit of sagehood, while Chu Hsi and said that one ought to investigate the principles of all things. 31
Liang-chi: l-c contains all truth 48
Liang-chi: All [people] have this moral ability to judge between right and wrong. This is what we call l-c. 68
Liang-chi: True spontaneity refers to the substance of mind not being hindered by unruly desire, so that she finds herself in no situation in which she is not herself. 79
Liang-chi: For this l-c, to eliminate carelessness and pride is to investigate things. The extension of this knowledge is the secret transmission of the ancient learning of the school of sages. 83
Liang-chi: l-c is mindfulness 88
Liang-chi: The only effort required is to learn constantly, and the essential of learning constantly is to watch over ourselves when we are alone, and this vigilance in solitude is precisely the extension of l-c, while l-c is nothing other than joy-in-itself. 90
Liang-chi: A scholar who has already determined to become a sage in order to gain insight needs merely to extend his l-c, in its intelligent and conscious aspects, to the uttermost, proceeding gradually and naturally day by day. 94
Liang-chi: To accumulate righteousness is only to extend the l-c. 96
Liang-chi: When l-c awakens, it is as though the bright sun has arisen, and ghosts and spirits naturally disperse. 117
Mindfulness: If we only guard this mind and not allow it to become dispersed, the principles of reason will mature themselves. 8
Mindfulness: Mengzi said, ‘There is naught else in learning outside of finding one’s lost mind.’ 87. Mencius, 6A:11
Mindfulness: sweep your hearts clean of the bandits inside .. and restore inner clarity and peace and calm 45
Mindfulness: The mind’s substance is tranquility; the mind’s function is activity, 58
Path: “abandon the path of honors and reputation, purify your mind and your desires, concentrate on the learning of the sages” 65
Polishing: See Platform Sutra on polishing 10
Sages: [they need to ] have the sincere determination to becomes sages, and to devote themselves to being ‘discerning and single-minded’ 102
Sages: The l-c of hsin is sagehood. 113
Vocabulary
hsin = the heart of mind, the seat of consciousness
T’ien-li = heavenly reason, principle of Heaven
Ch’i = breath, ether, force, temperament
Liang-chi = knowing the good, knowledge of the good.
Jen = literally, kindness, benevolence, humanity, goodness, love
Shen-tu = watching over self when one is alone 121
Tao = the Way, for Confucians, virtue, authentic doctrine of the sages. 125
1.1
The Master said, “To learn, and at due times to practice what one has learned, is that not also a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is that not also a joy? To go unrecognized, yet without being embittered, is that not also to be a noble person?”
—Irene Bloom
The Master said, To learn and rehearse it constantly, is this indeed not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is this indeed not a delight? Others do not know him, yet he feels no resentment, is he indeed not a superior man?
—Daniel K. Gardner
The Master said: “To learn, and then, in its due season, put what you have learned into practice—isn’t that still great pleasure? And to have a friend visit from somewhere far away—isn’t that still a great joy? When you’re ignored by the world like this, and yet bear no resentment—isn’t that great nobility?
—David Hinton
He said: Study with the seasons winging past, is not this pleasant?
To have friends coming in from far quarters, not a delight?
Unruffled by men’s ignoring him, also indicative of high breed.
—Ezra Pound
The Master said, To learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure? That friend should come to one from afar, is this not after all delightful? To remain unsoured even though one’s merits are unrecognized by others, is that not after all what is expected of a gentleman?
—Arthur Waley
Wendy, a Saint Louis University alum, and Xavier, a French native, met in Shanghai, a metropolis that has gained importance on the world stage over the last decade. The two met in this city while pursuing their corporate careers. After over a year of practice to live a more simplistic life, Wendy and Xavier bid farewell to both their corporate jobs and lives in China, after 6 and 14 years, respectively. They will share their insights on life in Shanghai, on their journey to pare down their life possessions to a suitcase and a backpack each, and their journey around the world, including traveling on the Trans-Siberian rail.
Join us
Sunday 11 November
Potluck dinner begins at 6:00 p.m.
Wendy and Xavier begin sharing at 6:45
At the home of Sari Althubyani
12365 Cross Creek Cove
Apartment K, top floor
Creve Coeur, MO
63141
Burton Watson, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, Columbia University Press, 1996
Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn’t know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
Do not be an embodier of fame; do not be a storehouse of schemes; do not be an undertaker of projects; do not be a proprietor of wisdom. Embody to the fullest what has no end and wander where there is no trail. Hold on to all that you have received from heaven but do not think you have gotten anything. Be empty, that is all. The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror—going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself.
Artisan Ch’ui could draw as true as a compass or a T square because his fingers changed along with things and he didn’t let his mind get in the way. Therefore his Spirit Tower remained unified and unobstructed. You forget your feet when the shoes are comfortable. You forget your waist when the belt is comfortable. Understanding forgets right and wrong when the mind is comfortable. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. You begin with what is comfortable and never experience what is uncomfortable when you know the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.
___________________
What good medicine Chuang Tzu is for me, with all my scheming, planning, exerting, desiring and grasping after! He’s the chill sage on the Via Negativa: letting go and letting be, as in the following passages: Continue reading “Making It Be Spring with Everything”
Devoted Buddhist
Semi-recluse
Noticer of the minute particulars
Painter of vast emptiness
Appreciator of interbeing moment by moment
Befriender of sages, visitors and travelers moving in and out of the Ch’an world
His wife dead at thirty
He gravitates to Buddha,
The Dharma, the Sangha
And what better sangha
Than the 10,000 things
Which come and go?
See David Hinton, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei
I overheard Sylvie Smith ask Emma Wong
“What’s up, haven’t seen you on Snapchat?”
“Yeah, I haven’t looked at Snapchat
In three weeks”
Sylvie looked horrified
“THREE WEEKS?!!!
What’s going on with you?”
“Just into other things”
“You’re dating someone?”
“No, I’m reading someone” Continue reading “Waiting in Line To Order an Espresso”
In the 1970s Orbis Books was the U.S. cutting-edge publisher of books coming out of Latin America that heralded the phenomenon of liberation theology. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, and Jon Sobrino were among the authors boldly questioning the Church’s historical alignment with the rich and advocating the preferential option for the poor. A representative title was Jose Comblin’s The Church and the National Security State.
Perhaps it was the post-60s zeitgeist that accounts for a highly unusual book published in 1978: Raymond Whitehead’s Love and Struggle in Mao’s Thought. That is no typo—that’s Mao, as in Mao Zedong, Chinese revolutionary, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and Evil Incarnate to the West (along with Stalin and Hitler). Just as Latin American liberation theologians and pastoral agents employed Marxist social analysis as part of their struggle against oppression, Whitehead retrieved from Mao’s thought challenges that the mainstream churches needed to confront head on. Here are some representative passages:
“Each person, whether proletarian or bourgeois, revolutionary or reactionary, can progress by struggling against selfishness, arrogance, laziness, fear, and timidity. If constant, vigilant struggle is not maintained, then one will regress.” [48] Continue reading “The Struggle Is One”
Hold It All 