Month: March 2022

Today: The disaster is here. External events are beyond our control. Be prepared and follow your heart.” – from the I Ching

The disaster is here. External events are beyond our control. Be prepared and follow your heart.

Meditation: Meditation: M0512-19890312 – For Mastery of Time and Space

Tao Te Ching – Verse 79 – Failure is an opportunity

Meditation: KYB117-19860822 – Achieve an Experience of God

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's and subsequent translations of the I Ching

28 – Twenty-Eight Ta Kuo / Critical Mass

The Flood rises above the tallest Tree:
Amidst a rising tide of human folly, the Superior Person retires to higher ground, renouncing his world without looking back.

Any direction is better than where you now stand.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Several high-priority concerns demand immediate attention.
All are crucial.
None will be denied.
Yet some demand the denial of others.
Like two atoms seeking to occupy the same space, these irresistible forces and immovable objects threaten to ignite a cataclysm that could irreversibly alter your world.
This is no time for fatal heroics.
You are at Ground Point Zero.
Remove yourself from this situation without delay.
Find sanctuary.
Later you may deal with these concerns on your own terms, from a position of strength.

Six at the top means:

Fording the flooded stream, he disappears beneath the rushing waters and never resurfaces.
Misfortune through no fault of his own.

One must go through the water.
It goes over one’s head.
Misfortune. No blame.

Here is a situation in which the unusual has reached a climax. One is courageous and wishes to accomplish one’s task, no matter what happens. This leads into danger. The water rises over one’s head. This is the misfortune. But one incurs no blame in giving up one’s life that the good and the right may prevail. There are things that are more important than life.

44 – Forty-Four Kou / Compulsion

A playful Zephyr dances and delights beneath indulgent Heaven:
A Prince who shouts orders but will not walk among his people may as well try to command the four winds.

A strong, addictive temptation, much more dangerous than it seems.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are ignoring a clear and present danger to your well-being.
If this threat emanated from a heavy-handed oppressor, you would see it coming.
But this danger comes to you in the form of a seduction, an amusement, a diversion, an indulgence that is eating away at the fiber of your secure little world.
You are too cocksure.
You underestimate the tribute this dalliance will demand.

Today: “Let us meditate on God.” Yogi Bhajan

“Let us meditate on God. By God, I mean the Infinite Creator, the giver of energy, and the power through which our breath fluctuates in us as we inhale and exhale; that great Existence, that great Phenomenon of Truth in us which brings us the satya and gives us the life. Unknown we are, to Known we have to go. From the God who made the blueprint of the being—the eyes, the nose, the hair, the shoulders, the hands and arms—fill all of that with humility. Draw from the universe that great energy and feel it in every cell of your body. Let every cell of your body vibrate and extend that vibration to every extent. Feel it as a big whirlwind of energy circling with each cell of your body. Just concentrate and feel it in you.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: Prepare for disaster. Help your countrymen weather the storm.” – from the I Ching

Prepare for disaster. Help your countrymen weather the storm.

Meditation: Meditation: NM0425 – Breath of Life

Tao Te Ching – Verse 79 – Failure is an opportunity

Meditation: NM190-19951031-Connect Yourself to the Reality

Tell the magical Story of Mushkil Gusha over a meal today with friends.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's and subsequent translations of the I Ching

23 – Twenty-Three Po / Splitting Apart

The weight of the Mountain presses down upon a weak foundation of Earth:
The Superior Person will use this time of oppression to attend to the needs of those less fortunate.

Any action would be ill-timed.
Stand fast.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is a situation easily mistaken for Stagnation (Hexagram 12) or Revolution (Hexagram 49).
It just depends on which side you’re on.
During a time of Stagnation, human worms invade to feed on the decay.
During a time of Revolution, oppression is being overthrown.
But in this situation, oppressors are violently seizing power.
Pay special heed when you receive this hexagram, because the oracle is often warning you of a situation of which you are totally unaware.
You are about to be blindsided.

Six in the fourth place means:

The seat of the throne is ripped apart; the leader is falling.
Outrageous fortune.

The bed is split up to the skin.
Misfortune.

Here the disaster affects not only the resting place but even the occupant. No warning or other comment is added. Misfortune has reached its peak: it can no longer be warded off.

16 – Sixteen Yü / Enthusiasm

Thunder comes resounding out of the Earth:
Similar thunder roars up from the masses when the Superior Person strikes a chord in their hearts.

Whip up enthusiasm, rally your forces, and move boldly forward.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a rhythmic force, a world music, that lives deep in the Unconscious of each of us.
It’s a primitive drumbeat, a shaking rattle, a tribal chant that invokes the primal self to rise up and join the dance.
This is the enthusiasm that is generated now.
Not rhetorical persuasion, not a play on the emotions, but a charismatic, irresistible Call of the Wild.
Confucius said that the person who could comprehend this could ‘rule the world as though it were spinning in his hand.’
This is a time for instinct, not intellect — the Thunder from the Beneath.

Today: “Man has to live in his practical reality and truth, because Truth is God and God is Truth.” – Yogi Bhajan

“Man has to live in his practical reality and truth, because Truth is God and God is Truth.”
Yogi Bhajan

Today: Rely on your experience, alone and in the presence of your teachers. You may draw on the shared experience of all who have trod a similar path.” – from the I Ching

Rely on your experience, alone and in the presence of your teachers. You may draw on the shared experience of all who have trod a similar path.

Meditation: Meditation: LA004 780109 Experience the Experience

Tao Te Ching – Verse 79 – Failure is an opportunity

Meditation: TCH36-1-A00713 – Pain and Ecstasy – Triangle of Knowledge

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's and subsequent translations of the I Ching

48 – Forty-Eight Ching / The Well

Deep Waters Penetrated and drawn to the surface:
The Superior Person refreshes the people with constant encouragement to help one another.

Encampments, settlements, walled cities, whole empires may rise and fall, yet the Well at the center endures, never drying to dust, never overflowing.
It served those before and will serve those after.
Again and again you may draw from the Well, but if the bucket breaks or the rope is too short there will be misfortune.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a Source common to us all.
Jung named it the Collective Unconscious.
Others hail it as God within.
Inside each of us are dreamlike symbols and archetypes, emotions and instincts that we share with every other human being.
When we feel a lonely separateness from others, it is not because this Well within has dried up, but because we have lost the means to reach its waters.
You need to reclaim the tools necessary to penetrate to the depths of your fellows.
Then the bonds you build will be as timeless and inexhaustible as the Well that nourishes them.

Wood is below, water above. The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water. The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient China. The wood represents not the buckets, which in ancient times were made of clay, but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled up from the well. The image also refers to the world of plants, which lift water out of the earth by means of their fibres.
The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of an inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.

Raga Kumbha

Raga Kumbha meets a young woman at a well, and asks for water.¹

THE JUDGEMENT

THE WELL. The town may be changed,
But the well cannot be changed.
It neither decreases nor increases.
They come and go and draw from the well.
If one gets down almost to the water
And the rope does not go all the way,
Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.

In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favorable location, partly because of a change in dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same-this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less nor more; it exists for one and for all. The generations come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.

However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organisation of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness-by which the jug is broken-is also disastrous. If for instance the military defense of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug.

This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man’s nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention-a partial education of this sort is as bad as none- or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.

THE IMAGE

Water over wood: the image of THE WELL.
Thus the superior man encourages the people at their work,
And exhorts them to help one another.

The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and the trigram K’an, water, is above it. Wood sucks water upward. Just as wood as an organism imitates the action of the well, which benefits all parts of the plant, the superior man organises human society, so that, as in a plant organism, its parts co-operate for the benefit of the whole.

1. The painting personifies Raga Kumbha, one of the eight sons of Sri Raga.
Kumbha refers to a pitcher filled with water, which symbolizes an auspicious omen.
A young woman is pulling a pitcher out of the well, while a young thirsty soldier, clad in a yellow choga (garment) and a white apron tied around his head draws her attention.
The painting is based on one of the folk songs of Kangra valley that essays the accidental meeting of a husband and a wife.

The soldier after his marriage to a young girl goes away on service for several long years.
On his return he visits his father in law to fetch his wife.
He meets a young woman at a well and asks for water.
He also pays compliment to her beauty.
At this she rebukes him sternly and rushes home.
On her arrival at home, her mother asks her to put on her best clothes and ornaments as her husband had come.
She attires in best of her finery, and when goes to meet him finds that he is the same person who met her at the well.
Guilty of harsh words she had spoken to him at the well she attempts reconciliation and soon all misunderstandings are dissolved and they live happily afterwards as a loving couple.

Today: “The secret of knowledge is to talk about the God and not about your God.” – Yogi Bhajan

“The secret of knowledge is to talk about the God and not about your God. If you will talk about the God and not your God the whole world will be with you.”
Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: NM0410 – 20010615 – The Northern Lights – Ek Ong Kar

A letter to a friend

Greetings,

I appreciate hearing from you. You have been true to the Guru.

I haven’t been holding virtual meditation gatherings, though you are on my list whenever they should happen.

I still offer remote healing sessions, though typically not face to face. This is how I can offer personal suggestions for meditations.

I agree, the world has largely devolved into insanity. It has touched us all, though not everyone is broken. I’m happy to hear that you have found a safe haven.

There has been a profound change in people’s perceptions of how to organize our devotion. The paradigms of community, seeker, teacher and organization were largely blown up. Tribalism and cultism have taken a toll. What I have realized is that we human beings remain intact with our personal identities and aspirations. We only need to recognize and reform our social identities. The age of the monolithic power structure is over.

One thing that I have understood from our excellent teachers is that we, now, are it. Everything hinges on the active we, evolving from the passive us. Subtly, just as we all have experienced in countless classes, we share each others’ existence and presence. We do not have to feel alone. We share in our subtle bodies a common experience that binds us and lifts our soul. Once we resolve the question of the soul body, we can nourish and grow it through our daily practice, sadhana, together with the subtle body of all the souls practicing with us. In a natural progression, we share our awareness and compassion through radiance, our radiant body. This is how we can begin recognize and then support and nourish the collective soul body.

Here are some suggestions.

To enhance awareness of the subtle body and soul body:

Yogi Bhajan introduced it to us at Summer Solstice 2001. It was the last time he appeared at Summer Solstice.

It is difficult, to begin. He said, “do it for 40 days” then maybe 90 days, or 120, or just keep doing it. I started with 11 minutes for a week, then 22 minutes, then 31 minutes, then 62 minutes, then 2 1/2 hours.

This is a good one to master, at 1000 days.

Here are the meditations for the radiant body:

https://www.harinam.com/meditations-for-the-radiant-body/

Here’s another one Yogi Bhajan suggested that we master (as I heard it):

Meditation: LA822-950201-Healing the Physical

Also called “The Lighthouse”. It’s worth doing.

For the soul body:

Meditation: M043-19890623 See Your Soul Within Your Third Eye

Meditation: KWTC04-960627-Soul and Identity

For sanity and stability:

https://www.harinam.com/increase-the-flow-of-earth-in-you/

https://www.harinam.com/milarepa-meditation/

One day at a retreat, my friend and I were discussing the meditation NM0410, which was my sadhana at the time. She told me she was intrigued by it, and wanted to try it. As we were housed in a dorm at the retreat, she asked me to come get her on my way to the place where I was meditating. At 3am the next morning, I knocked on the door of her room (shared by 3 other people). Immediately, I heard screams from inside the room. They all screamed. So, puzzled, I left to do my sadhana.

She later explained that she and her roommates had convinced themselves that they were being stalked by a ghost in their room. My knock on the door became a part of their story.

Today: Take seriously any and all threats against you. The only real danger is not realizing the gravity of the situation and continuing to entertain relations with bad actors. Keep your composure and rely on your personal power.” – from the I Ching

Take seriously any and all threats against you. The only real danger is not realizing the gravity of the situation and continuing to entertain relations with bad actors. Keep your composure and rely on your personal power.

Meditation: Meditation: TCH20 02 960722 – Increase the Power of the Infinite Within

Tao Te Ching – Verse 79 – Failure is an opportunity

The Beatitudes from St. Matthew

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's and subsequent translations of the I Ching

5 – Five Hsü / Calculated Waiting

Deep Waters in the Heavens:
Thunderclouds approaching from the West, but no rain yet.
The Superior Person nourishes himself and remains of good cheer to condition himself for the moment of truth.

Great Success if you sincerely keep to your course.
You may cross to the far shore.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You must now endure this Dangling — either a carrot before your nose, or a sword above your head.
This strange mix of apprehension and anticipation is a Purgatory.
There is nothing more you can do to affect the outcome.
You must now submit to the Fates.

Six in the fourth place means:

The enemy is upon you.
You wait in blood, preparing yourself for their blows; but your own ability can see you through, if you stand your ground and maintain balance.

Waiting in blood.
Get out of the pit.

The situation is extremely dangerous. It is of utmost gravity now – a matter of life and death. Bloodshed seems imminent. There is no going forward or backward; we are cut off as if in a pit. Now we must simply stand fast and let fate take its course. This composure, which keeps us from aggravating the trouble by anything we might do, is the only way of getting out of the dangerous pit.

54 – Fifty-Four Kuei Mei / A Loveless Marriage

The Thunderstorm inseminates the swelling Lake, then moves on where the Lake cannot follow:
The Superior Person views passing trials in the light of Eternal Truths.
Any action will prove unfortunate.
Nothing furthers.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is at best a Marriage of Convenience.
You have found yourself in desperate straits, a position of weakness, and you are tempted to pay dearly for a remedy.
A drowning man isn’t picky about who throws him a rope.
The rescue offered to you now is undesirable.
It may pull you out of this sticky situation, but it will cause even greater predicaments down the road.
Don’t obligate yourself in this way.
You are selling your future for a quick fix today.

Today: “If God asked the saints, “Why didn’t you commit sins? Why didn’t you?” They would say, “Well, God, we loved you” – Yogi Bhajan

“If God asked the saints, “Why didn’t you commit sins? Why didn’t you?” They would say, “Well, God, we loved you.” He would say, “Did you not know that I am merciful?”

Yogi Bhajan