To rule others is Power—
To rule yourself is Strength.
To know others is Intellect—
To know yourself is Wisdom.²
To study the Way is to study the Self—
To study the self is to Forget the self—
To forget the self is to be Actualized by myriad things—³
We turn inward and prove our True-Nature: that
True-Self is No-Self—our own self is no-self—⁴
We strengthen our own selfhood by
Surrender to Superhuman Destinies.⁵
In the beating of my Pulse and the rhythm
Of my Respiration—I recognize the flow of the
Seasons, and the throbbing of the Universal Life.⁶
The infinite possibility, the unlimited and unqualified wholeness
Of being of the uncommitted, the nonacting, the uncarved—
The being who, being nothing but himself—is Everything.⁷
One who seeks the self and Understands it—
Obtains all worlds & all desires.⁸
Though earth and moon were gone and
Suns and universes Ceased to be, and thou wert
Left Alone—every existence would Exist in thee.⁹
Power to be finite Ceased—
Before identity was Leased!¹⁰
¹ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
² Lao Tzu tr. original, Tao Te Ching 33
³ Dogen tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi, Genjo-Koan
⁴ Hakuin Ekaku tr. Rochester Zen Center, Chant in Praise of Zazen
⁵ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, The Rainmaker
⁶ B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
⁸ Chandogya-Upanishad 8.7.1 tr. Max Müller
⁹ Emily Brontë, No Coward Soul is Mine
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, Estranged from Beauty