Impartial, Free of Anxious Scheming
One who wants nothing, is pure and capable yet takes no side, free of worry, having laid down the anxious urge to launch schemes — such a one is calm.
Have I confused competence with restlessness, feeling safe only when I am always launching something?
📝Reflection
The person the old teacher paints is no idle sluggard; he is in fact capable (dakṣa). Only, that capability is severed from anxiety. I keep launching things to be called able, but most of it is a thrashing to quiet my unease. Purity (śuci) and impartiality (udāsīna) are not indifference but clear engagement that does not cling to results. Just as Zhuangzi's 'non-action' is not doing nothing but not forcing. I learn to do well without the fret.
🌱Apply It Today
Catch one thing you were about to start out of anxiety today, and hold it one day to see whether it is truly needed.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
