“Always consider carefully your first move.  Halt first before you act.  Give it space.  Keep your grace.” – Today’s Reading

Always consider carefully your first move.  Halt first before you act.  Give it space.  Keep your grace.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 66 – If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them.

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “Accept help as it comes along. Taking the first step leads to success.”

Today: I Ching – Previous previous reading – “The choices you make today are coming from the right place. Enjoy the connections.”

See related posts.

Musings on Grace and Gratitude

A letter to a friend

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching
52 – Fifty-Two.  Kên / The Mountain

Above this Mountain’s summit another more majestic rises:
The Superior Person is mindful to keep his thoughts in the here and now.

Stilling the sensations of the Ego, he roams his courtyard without moving a muscle, unencumbered by the fears and desires of his fellows.
This is no mistake.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a higher vantage point available to you, but it is obscured by the visible peak of personal ambition.
To climb to this higher plane, you must shake off the desires and fears of the conscious, visible world around you.
To make this journey you must quiet the Ego, empty your mind of past and future, and dwell totally in the moment at hand.
Thorough mindfulness of what is before you is the only tranquility.
Be. Here. Now.

Six at the beginning [yin at bottom] means:

Not even moving a toe.
No mistakes.
Hold to this course.

Keeping his toes still.
No blame.
Continued perseverance furthers.

Mule from Kritsa

Typical mule from Kritsa, Crete Greece

Keeping the toes still means halting before one has even begun to move. The beginning is the time of few mistakes. At that time one is still in harmony with primal innocence. Not yet influenced by obscuring interests and desires, one sees things intuitively as they really are. A man who halts at the beginning, so long as he has not yet abandoned the truth, finds the right way. But persisting firmness is needed to keep one from drifting irresolutely.
22 – Twenty-Two.  Pi / Grace

Fire illuminates the base of the Mountain:
The Superior Person realizes he has not the wisdom to move the course of the world, except by attending to each day’s affairs as they come.

Success in small matters.
This is a good time to begin something.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The emphasis now is on form, not function — on the sizzle and not the steak.
The environment around you is not one of depth, and you are appreciated now for your image, not your essence.
You perfectly fill a role, and no one is seeing the genuine you.
Still, you are being listened to and watched.
Use this influence to further your goals as much as possible.
Even if you don’t feel understood, you can perhaps connect with a few isolated hearts.
Relax and enjoy the attention.

Today: “Suppose you have enough breath of life at the rate of one breath for one year” – Yogi Bhajan

“Suppose you have enough breath of life at the rate of one breath for one year, so you take one breath a minute, you can live fifteen years. Suppose you have breath of life for one hundred years. At fifteen breaths a minute, at that rate, you can live 1500 years. That’s how yogis extend their life—by practicing one breath a minute. When you practice one breath a minute, then you become Pavan Guru— you become the light and knowledge of the prana, and then you know the universe, the universe knows you.”

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See related posts

Tao Te Ching – Verse 66 – If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 66

All streams flow to the sea
because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.

If you want to govern the people,
you must place yourself below them.
If you want to lead the people,
you must learn how to follow them.

Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 66 – If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them.”