Chuang and earlier Zen living

"Life without guidelines is confusing and troubling. We must give some definition to our path." I feel this deeply in my heart of hearts. I am sixty-five years old and for over twenty years have tried to live, no so much without guidelines, as with various conflicting guidelines. Conflicts such as wanting peace of mind yet sharing creative works and opinions bound to result in negative responses which destroy my peace of mind. Conflicts like wanting inner peace but wanting recognition, even fame. Wanting a simple life yet having four or five parallel goals or interests. So choose! Choose which philosophy and stick with it, dropping the others no matter how compelling, if they don't fit with my choice. Choose which paid work. Choose which hobby or hobbies. Choose health and fitness and do it! My strongest sense of what are the right guidelines are as follows: 1. Do no harm 2. Enjoy being alive 3. Aim and work for stable inner peace 4. Don't seek the attention of other...

 "Heaven does not discriminate" I'm glad that page and quote came up. I love it. It says so much that is important. Heaven is the Universe, the thing, force, that makes everything happen, from the Big Bang (and the thing that caused the Big Bang), right up to me writing this right now. Humans in earlier times personified it, like they personified the sun, the moon, the wind, and so on in ancient Greek Gods, or believed that everything was imbued with life force, as they do in Japan's religion-philosophy, Shinto. Others just recognise it as a flow or path, which is how I interpret Taoist and Buddhist views on this matter. The important thing is that it says, the thing that causes everything, just unfurls naturally. It's not aiming to help one being, one tribe, one species, one planet, one galaxy, one universe because it prefers it, and it's not aiming to punish one being, tribe, species, planet, galaxy, universe either. It doesn't discriminate. Now unfortun...

  In harmony and ease! My intentions are now aimless. I go nowhere and have no idea how I got there. I go and I come and I don't know why. I have been, I have gone. I have no idea when my journey is over. I wander and rest in limitless vastness. Relax and chill out about life. Stop having goals, aims, ambitions. Accept the flow of existence and what it brings, good and ill. Enjoy the experiences as they come, wander where the flow takes you, and rest all the time while you do so. 

All forms of life are guided by it, though they do not know it. Attend to your body, concentrate upon the One, and the perfect harmony of Heaven will be yours. Rein in your understanding, unify your stance and the spirit will dwell in you. The Tao will be your dwelling place. You will seem like anew-born calf and you won't try to understand the reason why. Not inclined to pursue questions. Obscure, obscure, deeply dark, heartless, no advice forthcoming. Life is not yours to have, it is the combining harmony of Heaven and Earth. Your innate nature and destiny are not yours to have, they are constructs given you by Heaven and Earth. This section re-emphasises the philosophical perspective that there is one universal flow of cause and effect, a constant and endless chain of changes. We think we are free to think and choose but this is a delusion. We are the effects of change and we are unwitting and unaware causes of change. Everything we think, say and do is caused by external events...

What was so great about these masters as to be worthy of special attention? They take painstaking care, but to what end? They are useless to the world! None of this makes the people any better. Indeed what happens is that the people become more ambitious for gain. The consequences of this will remain for a thousand generations. A thousand generations later you will still have men who will eat each other! So many so-called gurus, personal advisors, life coaches and the like peddle glitzy junk. Good at marketing to the ambitious masses, hungry for fame and riches, which leads most to predictable disappointment and a miserable life. Then it becomes part of the society's culture, and the wrong direction multiplies, as does the mentalhealth problems.

He risks no disaster from Heaven, nor complications from things, no accusation from anyone. In life he floats, at death he rests. He does not consider and plan, nor design for the future. He shines but is not seen. His spirit is pure and without blemish. Empty, selfless, calm and detached, he is in harmony with Heaven's Virtue. For the heart to be without sadness and happiness is to have perfected Virtue. To be one and changeless is to have perfected stillness. To encounter no opposition is to have perfected emptiness. To have no dealings with anything is to have perfected indifference. To have no feelings of dissent is to have perfected purity. Free from contamination, still and level, never changing, detached and acting without action, is to follow the Tao of sustaining the spirit. Only the Tao of true simplicity guards the spirit. Simplicity means no mixing. The one who manifests simplicity and purity can be called the true man. This is about non-attachment, non-engagement, what...