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* Tao Inspiration ☯ – The game is never over

by Val Boyko
Comments 27

wandering monk

There are no fixed limits
Time does not stand still.
Nothing endures,
Nothing is final.

You cannot lay hold
Of the end or the beginning.

He who is wise sees near and far
As the same,
Does not despise the small
Or value the great:
Where all standards differ
How can you compare?
With one glance
He takes in past and present,
Without sorrow for the past
Or impatience with the present.

All is in movement.
He has experience
Of fullness and emptiness.
He does not rejoice in success
Or lament in failure

The game is never over
Birth and death are even
The terms are not final.

~ Thomas Merton

 

The game is never over … when we accept and surrender to it all 💛

 

Merton, Thomas (2010-03-30). The Way of Chuang Tzu (Second Edition) (pp. 85-86). New Directions. Kindle Edition.

27 comments on “* Tao Inspiration ☯ – The game is never over”

  2. lorriebowden
    May 30, 2016

    Hi Val…Happy Memorial Day! Thank you for the peaceful words here…they caress my soul ♡ Hope all is wonderful with you 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Hariod Brawn
    May 30, 2016

    Words to savour, and to contemplate upon. Seriously profound – one can never quite get the inner meaning of such words, but one can stand and hear the echoes of meaning, perhaps? This is all that words can do, it seems – yet what words are these! I love that book, and have it beside my bed constantly. H ❤

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • Val Boyko
      May 30, 2016

      Thank you Hariod 💛
      This is on my kindle along with others books that I enjoy pausing and dipping in to. There is a sense of knowing, yet a feeling of space and so much more to open up to.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  4. Louise Gallagher
    May 30, 2016

    One of my favourites.

    ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Paul Handover
    May 30, 2016

    Very profound. Yet, for most of us, and certainly including yours truly, those wise words are beyond reach. Maybe I’m being too tough on myself? Possibly a constant reminder of these wisdoms does eventually leave a paw print.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  6. Walking My Path: Mindful Wanderings in Nature
    May 30, 2016

    Lovely, Val.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Tiny
    May 30, 2016

    This is so beautiful and so true, Val. And comforting too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Val Boyko
      May 30, 2016

      Thank you Helen. Embracing life fully as it is without judgement is something to aspire to. I have a long way to go ❣

      Like

      Reply
  9. nrhatch
    May 30, 2016

    Absorbing these words is the way of acceptance.
    the what is, is
    this too shall pass.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Carol Ferenc
    May 30, 2016

    Comforting words, Val.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. Healing Grief
    May 30, 2016

    “All is in movement” Beautiful reminder Val 💚

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Rajagopal
    May 31, 2016

    Merton’s words are simple on the face of it, yet fathomless in its profundity. There is no near and far, past and present, fullness and emptiness, success and failure, Nevertheless, we permit our lives to be ruthlessly bound by time, swinging pendulum-like between time past and time present, and actions scaled as deemed failures and successes. Over five millennia ago, Krishna’s advice to Arjuna was to attain ‘sthitha prajna’, loosely translated as equanimity in English. Stitha prajna is spiritual intelligence enabling attainment of a stable level of existence, unaffected by the vicissitudes of life, without allowing the mind to get lost in the labyrinth of desires. A few thousand years later, these thoughts resonated in Buddha’s emphasis on impermanence of worldly life, and attaining desirelessness. My namastes to you, Val…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Val Boyko
      May 31, 2016

      Thank you Raj from sharing the wisdom of the Gita. You put it so eloquently. My simple western introduction to this deep and expansive place is called finding our middle ground. Namaste 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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