No Meeting This Week

Hey Everyone,

Just letting you all know that because of the snow, we are once again NOT meeting this week. More information about the retreat will be coming soon.

Below I posted half of a poem by Wang Ming, a Chinese master from the 6th century. Please take a look at your leisure. I can post the second part in next weeks email and maybe we can talk about it or read it again at the meeting. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Stay warm.

With Palms Raised,

Mason Buddhist Association

Too much knowledge leads to overactivity;
Better to calm the mind
The more you consider, the greater the loss;
Better to unify the mind'

'Excessive thinking weakens the will
The more you know, the more your mind is confused
A confused mind gives way to vexation
The weakened will obstructs the Tao.'
Don't say there is no harm in this;
the ensuing pain may last for ever.
Don't think there is nothing to fear;
the calamities churn like bubbles in a boiling pot.
Water dripping ceaselessly
will fill the four seas.
Specks of dust not wiped away
will become the five mountains.
Protect the branches to save the roots;
though a small matter it is not trivial
Close the seven orifices,
shut off the six senses.

Pay no heed to forms;
Do not listen to sound
listening to sounds you become deaf,
You become blind observing forms.

Literature and art
Are but busy gnats in the air;
Technique and ability
A solitary lamp in the sun.

Those able and talented ones
Are really stupid fellows.
Discarding the pure and simple
They drown in too much beauty.

TBC in Next Weeks email=)

If you want to read the rest, it is available on Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=dgiy0VoAWeMC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=calming+the+mind+wang+ming&source=bl&ots=BV6ljuxprW&sig=TAJgzR-G3n6vxeejfwTbg5UmxKA&hl=en&ei=QOdxS5yPEs7R8Qab3fGtCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=calming%20the%20mind%20wang%20ming&f=fals