“Once you understand your path and your destiny, you must conquer all of the obstacles to its completion.  Keep up.” – Today’s Reading

Once you understand your path and your destiny, you must conquer all of the obstacles to its completion.  Keep up.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 76 – Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry.

Today: “Dear ones, never blame anyone or anything…Have patience, for patience pays.” – Yogi Bhajan

Practice this:

sadhana

Meditation: LA101 790419-Faith In Our Self And Our Own Discipline

Kriya: Awakening Yourself to Your Ten Bodies

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Be careful to balance forward progress with caution for what you may have failed to include in your view.”

Previous previous reading: “Once recognized, it is best to escape the snares laid by powerful people whose intentions are deceitful and self serving. Do not take the bait.”

Related posts

The teacher

See Richard Wilhelm's translation for this reading
63 – Sixty-Three.  Chi Chi / Aftermath

Boiling Water over open Flame, one might extinguish The other:
The Superior Person takes a 360 degree view of the situation and prepares for any contingency.

Success in small matters if you stay on course.
Early good fortune can end in disorder.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Victory at the expense of another is a merciless taskmaster.
The precarious balance here is reflected in the lines of the hexagram: each of the yin lines rests upon a strong yang line — a seemingly perfect arrangement.
But the scales will be tipped with the change of any one line.
And there WILL be change.
Tireless vigilance and an answer to every challenge — that is the uneasy Seat of Power occupied by the conqueror.

Nine in the third place means:

He marches into the Devil’s Domain, and conquers it after three grueling years.
Lesser men could not do this.

The Illustrious Ancestor
Disciplines the Devil’s Country.
After three years he conquers it.
Inferior people must not be employed.

Shang dynasty

Shang Dynasty (Yin Dynasty in its later stages)

“Illustrious Ancestor” is the dynastic title of the Emperor Wu Ting of the Yin dynasty.1 After putting his realm in order with a strong hand, he waged long colonial wars for the subjection of the Huns who occupied the northern borderland with constant threat of incursions.
The situation described is as follows. After times of completion, when a new power has arisen and everything within the country has been set in order, a period of colonial expansion almost inevitably follows. Then as a rule long-drawn-out struggles must be reckoned with. For this reason, a correct colonial policy is especially important. The territory won at such bitter cost must not be regarded as an almshouse for people who in one way or another have made themselves impossible at home, but who are thought to be quite good enough for the colonies. Such a policy ruins at the outset any chance of success. This holds true in small as well as in large matters, because it is not only rising states that carry on a colonial policy; the urge to expand, with its accompanying dangers, is part and parcel of every ambitious undertaking.


1. [Wu Ting reigned from 1324 to 1266 B.C.]
The Shang dynasty in its later stages is also called the Yin dynasty.
It is believed to have been founded by a rebel leader who overthrew the last Xia ruler. Its civilization was based on agriculture, augmented by hunting and animal husbandry. Two important events of the period were the development of a writing system, as revealed in archaic Chinese inscriptions found on tortoise shells and flat cattle bones (commonly called oracle bones), and the use of bronze metallurgy. A number of ceremonial bronze vessels with inscriptions date from the Shang period; the workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization.

Large bronze wine jar
Shang or Yin Dynasty

3 – Three.  Chun / Difficulty at the Beginning

Thunder from the Deep:
The Superior Person carefully weaves order out of confusion.

Supreme Success if you keep to your course.
Carefully consider the first move.
Seek help.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

New ventures always pack along their inherent chaos.
Though this is an annoyance at best, and can even imperil or downright doom an endeavor, it is also the friction needed to polish your project to jewel brilliance.
Learn from these early obstacles.

 

Today: “Dear ones, never blame anyone or anything…Have patience, for patience pays.” – Yogi Bhajan

“Dear ones, never blame anyone or anything. Whatever happens, you must have asked for it, and you must have asked for it for a purpose. Have patience, for patience pays.” Yogi Bhajan

Lecture and Meditation: Patience Pays – LA-19831020

See related posts

What else Yogi Bhajan said

Tao Te Ching – Verse 76 – Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 76

Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)
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While alive, the body is soft and pliant
When dead, it is hard and rigid
All living things, grass and trees,
While alive, are soft and supple
When dead, become dry and brittle
Thus that which is hard and stiff
is the follower of death
That which is soft and yielding
is the follower of life
Therefore, an inflexible army will not win
A strong tree will be cut down
The big and forceful occupy a lowly position
While the soft and pliant occupy a higher place

(translation by Derek Lin, 2006)
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Be soft and be immortal.
Be the bully and be destroyed.
How many times must this lesson be taught?

(translation by Jeremy M. Miller, 2013)
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