Thursday, September 19, 2013

Meditation


Don't pursue actions that can be repudiated, but don't resent it if people repudiate you. Cultivate virtues worthy of praise, but don't expect people to praise you.
You cannot cause calamity not to occur, but trust in yourself not to beckon it. You cannot cause fortune to arrive, but trust in yourself not to reject it. When calamity occurs, since it is not your doing you do not grieve when in straits. When fortune comes, since it is not your achievement you are not conceited when successful.
In this way you live at ease and enjoy effortlessness, yet there is order.

- Lao Tzu


[from 'Wen-Tzu : Understanding the Mysteries', translated by Thomas Cleary]. via Zen Poems, haiku and writings.

Photo: Ornamental plants and wild poinsettia by Alma P. Gamil 
           taken in Bulusan, Sorsogon
           Philippines