If We Must Die

Claude McKay, 1889 - 1948

If we must die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen!  We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Immortal

I came alone,
I sit alone,
WIthout regrets that people know me not. 
Only the ghost of that old tree,
To the south of the city, 
Happens to know that I am an Immortal,
Passing through.
-Poem ascribed to Lu Tung-pin (呂洞賓), one of the 8 Taoist Immortals (八仙).

Liken

Liken the scriptures.

Go and do, be like Nephi.

Consider yourself as Adam...

Shake the pillars of hell and be as Captain Moroni.

Take Moroni's challenge and find out for yourself.

My Mormon hero's don't follow; they study, lead, and help.

If we are to like ourselves to the prophets:
     Then can we consider ourselves as Joseph Smith, being told all the religions have fallen astray?  What would be do then?
   

invest in loss

MY HOPE by Professor Cheng Man Ching (鄭曼青).

"Taoists advocate wu wei (non-action or effortlessness), and the Buddhists venerate the doctrine of emptying.
He who is dedicated to non-action seeks to realize the great hope of immortality (he is referring to a spiritual state, not physical immortality as we understand it in the West.)
He who endeavors to empty the world of objectivity does so to cultivate his spirit, which is the only real self.
So as the Taoists and Buddhists have their goals, I would adopt as my watchword for Tai Chi Chuan the simple phrase, “investment in loss”. For a practitioner this means that they voluntarily and at their own initiative suffer “loss” and that the result will bring the benefit of success and health. To be explicit, he who invests in small losses makes small gains, he who invests in bigger losses makes bigger gains – what is worth having is worth paying for!
Both Buddhists and Taoists in their doctrines aim at salvation of people’s souls, but, first of all, they must save their own. To invest in loss is the same as what Confucius meant by “ke chi”, to subdue the self. Mencius says in his book, “When Heaven is about to confer great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil,…exposes his body to hunger,…and supplies his incompetencies.” This basic commandment of the Confucian doctrine is for one to subdue the self and to seek jen – ie. To develop in one the virtues of love, creativity, and harmony; and then to extend one’s self to others, ie. To enlarge one’s sphere of goodness by helping other people do good.
Although I have not risen to the height of Confucius’ teaching, I try to learn and to venerate its meaning and spirit."
Photograph by Kenneth Van Sickle.