Chuang Tzu ~ be natural

The real, the divine, the existential, is to be attained by losing yourself completely in the work you are doing.Don't make any effort.Even the effort to attain it becomes a barrier -- then you cannot lose yourself. Even the effort to lose yourself becomes a barrier.

A child lives naturally -- he is total. He does not make any effort, because making an effort means you are fighting with yourself. A part of you is for and a part of you is against -- hence the effort.

A flower flowers without any effort because the energy is not dissipated in any projects; the flower is not planning for the future, the flower is here and now. Be like a flower, be like a bird, be like a tree, a river, or the ocean -- but don't be like a man. Because man has gone wrong somewhere.Nature and to be natural -- effortlessly natural, spontaneously natural ~ this is the message of Tzu

In nature circles exist everywhere, everything moves on a circular path. The circle is the easiest phenomenon in nature -- and no compass is used. The stars don't consult a map, they don't carry a compass and they go on moving in a circle. If you give them compasses and maps, I am certain they will be lost -- they will not know where to go and what to do.

You must have heard the story of the centipede? A centipede walks with a hundred legs. A frog, a philosopher, saw the centipede, he looked and watched and he became very troubled; it is so difficult to walk even with four legs, but this centipede was walking with one hundred legs. This was a miracle! How did the centipede decide which leg to move first, and then which one next and then which one after that? And one hundred legs! So the frog stopped the centipede and asked a question: I am a philosopher and I am puzzled by you. A problem has arisen which I cannot solve. How do you walk? How do you manage it at all? It seems impossible! The centipede said: I have been walking all my life, but I have not thought about it. Now that you ask, I will think about it and then I will tell you.

For the first time thought entered the centipede's consciousness. Really, the frog was right -- which leg should be moved first? The centipede stood there for a few minutes, couldn't move, wobbled, and fell down. And he said to the frog: Please don't ask another centipede this question. I have been walking throughout my life and it was never a problem, and now you have killed me completely! I cannot move. And a hundred legs to move! How can I manage?

So many precepts to be followed, so many principles to be managed -- so many moral concepts. You have so many things imposed on you that your inner life cannot be spontaneous. You go astray, not because of any evil force, but because of the do-gooders. It is not a Devil which is leading you towards wrong, it is your priests, your leaders, your so-called saints.

Don't be concerned about what you are doing -- do it so wholeheartedly that the very doing becomes a bliss. And don't think of great things, there is no such thing as great or small. Don't think that you are to do great things, play great music, paint great paintings, that you are to become a Picasso or a Van Gogh, or something else -- a great writer, a Shakespeare, or a Milton. There is nothing -- no great things, no small things. There are great men and small men but things are not great and small. And a great man is one who brings his greatness to every small thing that he is doing: he eats in a great way, he walks in a great way, he sleeps in a great way. He brings the quality of greatness to everything.

And what is greatness? Nature,being natural.... Nothing is greater than nature.

Eat like an emperor. That doesn't depend upon the quality of the food, it depends on the eater, the way he celebrates it. Even with just bread, butter, and salt, you can be an emperor.

"Do you think these sannyasi children of Sri Ramakrishna are born to simply to sit under trees lighting dhuni-fires? Whenever any of them will take up some work, people will be astonished to see their energy. Learn from them how to work "-- Swami Vivekananda