Queen: Oh Hamlet,

Thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Hamlet: O throw away the worser part of it,

And live the purer with the other half.

Good night, but go not to mine Uncle’s bed,

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. Refrain to night

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence. Once more goodnight,

And when you are desirous to be blessed,

I’ll blessing beg of you.

from HAMLET Act III, Scene 4

Aristotle had something similar: “The virtues… we acquire by first having actually practised them, just as we do the arts.”   from Ethics, Bk 2, Ch 1

And, of course, there is the ubiquitous street slang: fake it till you make it. Might have been Paul Simon who came up with that line. In his song 'Fakin' It' (1968) there is the lyric that reads: “And I know I’m fakin’ it, I’m not really makin’ it.“

It goes without saying that air is more important for the physical life of human beings than money or diamonds. However, actually there are many people who put more value on money or diamonds than on air. Although we cannot be alive for a moment without air, we often lose sight of this truth. Even if we lose sight of it, we will not die from suffocation right away. But, if we continue to pollute the air for the sake of maintaining our luxurious lives as we do today, the time comes when we will suffocate. Therefore it is a problem for us to lose sight of the importance of air.

Uchiyama Kosho (1912 - 1998)

Kosho Uchiyama Roshi was one of the great Zen masters of the twentieth century. He centered his life on zazen, and, at his temple Antaiji, on the outskirts of Kyoto, he taught a life of the highest culture to everyone who wanted to practice with him, monk and lay, Japanese and foreigner.

from article at Lion's Roar website

Therefore the Great Man in his actions will not harm others, but he makes no show of benevolence or charity. He will not move for the sake of profit, but he does not despise the porter at the gate. He will not wrangle for goods or wealth, but he makes no show of refusing or relinquishing them. He will not enlist the help of others, but he makes no show of being self-supporting, and he does not despise the greedy and the base. His actions differ from those of the mob, but he makes no show of uniqueness or eccentricity. He is content to stay behind with the crowd, but he does not despise those who run forward to flatter and fawn. All the titles and stipends of the age are not enough to stir him to exertion; all its penalties and censures are not enough to make him feel shame. He knows that no line can be drawn between right and wrong, no border can be fixed between great and small ...

Chuang Tzu Basic Writings
17 Autumn Floods p100
translation by Burton Watson

 

枯    廻

   wither  wander  

病 んで 夢 は 枯 野 をかけ廻る

sick on my journey, dreams wander
over withered grass

Bashō

from Withered Grass 16
photography and translation by gv simoni