Action

I do not owe (God) any work since He Himself works in me. If I should place my own [work] there, I destroy His work.  Marguerite Porete

Realizing that the Self is actionless, I do whatever presents itself, and live happily.  Ashtavakra Gita

There should be no action, neither should there be inaction.  Chuang-tzu

His unceasing work in everything is done so well, so wisely, and so mightily that it is beyond our power to imagine, guess or think.  Julian of Norwich

This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing now. It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.  A.A. Milne, "The House at Pooh Corner"

Nearly everyone insists too much and so comes to leave the passionate imprint of his own fingers in the clay; it bears witness, so to speak, to his power. But it gives evidence of still greater power to know how, when the moment arrives, to write as though one were - nobody.  Rainer Maria Rilke

A poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being. Its most precious quality will remain its having run itself and carried away the poet with it.  Robert Frost

Sunk without purpose in what he is doing, (the Master) is brought face to face with that moment when the work, hovering before him in ideal lines, realizes itself as if of its own accord.  Eugen Herrigel

The spider dances her web without knowing that there are flies who will get caught in it. The fly, dancing nonchalantly on a sunbeam, gets caught in the net without knowing what lies in store. But through both of them "It" dances, and inside and outside are united in this dance. So, too, the archer hits the target without having aimed - more I cannot say.  Master Kenzo Awa (in Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery)

Chuang-tzu suggests that we empty our boat. That we relate to the world from that open hearted emptiness that flows with what is, so that nothing that comes out of us will be coming from the "someone-ness" which opposes the flow. That we let go of control of the world and come fully into being.  Stephen Levine

Inaction and compliance make the Tao of God: action and entanglement the Tao of man. The Tao of God is fundamental: the Tao of man is accidental. The distance between them is great!  Chuang-tzu

Not as if a man should escape from or be unfaithful to his inward being, but rather he should work in it and from it, so that his inner self breaks forth in activity and the activity is drawn into his inwardness.  Meister Eckhart

The Great Function manifests itself without fixed rules, meeting each situation on its own terms, it's never too soon, never too late. Thrusting, retracting, advancing, retreating - it all takes place beyond the realm of thought. When you're in harmony with Mind, arms and legs operate on their own.  Bankei

"I didn't want to come swimming at all today. But if, when in, I decide to practise a slight circular movement from right to left - or perhaps I should say," he added, as he got into another eddy, "from left to right, just as it happens to occur to me, it's nobody's business but my own."  A.A. Milne, "The House At Pooh Corner"

Your own life is the instrument with which we experiment with truth. Thich Nhat Hahn.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. Gandhi

To believe in Him under any particular form is not enough. Accept Him in His numberless forms, shapes and modes of being, in everything that exists. Aim at the whole and all your actions will be whole. Anandamayi Ma.

To want nothing and do nothing - that is true creation! To watch the universe emerging and subsiding in one's heart is a wonder. Nisargadatta.



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