Tao Te Ching – Verse 45 – True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself

Tao Te Ching – Verse 45

True perfection seems imperfect,
yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty,
yet it is fully present.

True straightness seems crooked.
True wisdom seems foolish.
True art seems artless.

The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 45 – True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself”

“Today any actions you initiate will be successful.  Only consider the consequences.” – Today’s Reading

Today any actions you initiate will be successful.  Only consider the consequences.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 43 – The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 44 – Fame or integrity: which is more important?

Try these meditations:

Meditation: NM091 – 19921110 – Self Emboldenment, Engagement, Vision

Meditation: LA950 A00214 20000214 Develop Self-Reliance

Meditation: LA010 – 19780210 – Gobinda – Project to the Infinite

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Use your potential. Apply yourself. You have much to offer as nourishment for your fellow travelers with the proper intentions and a willingness to act on them.”

Previous previous reading: “Be a source of inexhaustible sustenance that pervades all consciousness.”

Related posts

The teacher

See Richard Wilhelm's translation for this reading
1 – One    Ch’ien / Creative Activity

Heaven above and Heaven below:
Heaven in constant motion.
With the strength of the dragon, the Superior Person steels himself for ceaseless activity.

Productive Activity.
Potent Influence.
Sublime Success if you keep to your course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The time for action has come.
You now have the focus and the stamina necessary for accomplishing great tasks.
The path before you is being cleared and reward lies ahead.

yang
yang above: Ch’ien / The Creative, Heaven
yang
yang
yang below: Ch’ien / The Creative, Heaven
yang

 

THE FIRST hexagram is made up of six unbroken lines. These unbroken lines stand for the primal power, which is light-giving, active, strong, and of the spirit. The hexagram is consistently strong in character, and since it is without weakness, its essence is power or energy. Its image is heaven. Its energy is represented as unrestricted by any fixed conditions in space and is therefore conceived of as motion. Time is regarded as the basis of this motion. Thus the hexagram includes also the power of time and the power of persisting in time, that is, duration.
The power represented by the hexagram is to be interpreted in a dual sense—in terms of its action on the universe and of its action on the world of men. In relation to the universe, the hexagram expresses the strong, creative action of the Deity. In relation to the human world, it denotes the creative action of the holy man or sage, of the ruler or leader of men, who through his power awakens and develops their higher nature.1

THE JUDGEMENT

The creative works sublime success,
Furthering2 through perseverance.

ACCORDING to the original meaning, the attributes [sublimity, potentiality of success, power to further, perseverance] are paired. When an individual draws this oracle, it means that success will come to him from the primal depths of the universe and that everything depends upon his seeking his happiness and that of others in one way only, that is, by perseverance in what is right.
The specific meanings of the four attributes became the subject of speculation at an early date. The Chinese word here rendered by “sublime” means literally “head,” “origin,” “great.” This is why Confucius says in explaining it: “Great indeed is the generating power of the Creative; all beings owe their beginning to it. This power permeates all heaven.” For this attribute inheres in the other three as well.
The beginning of all things lies still in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to become real. But the Creative furthermore has power to lend form to these archetypes of ideas. This is indicated in the word success, and the process is represented by an image from nature: “The clouds pass and the rain does its work, and all individual beings flow into their forms.”3
Applied to the human world, these attributes show the great man the way to notable success: “Because he sees with great clarity causes and effects, he completes the six steps at the right time and mounts toward heaven on them at the right time, as though on six dragons.” The six steps are the six different positions given in the hexagram, which are represented later by the dragon symbol. Here it is shown that the way to success lies in apprehending and giving actuality to the way of the universe [Tao], which, as a law running through end and beginning, brings about all phenomena in time. Thus each step attained forthwith becomes a preparation for the next. Time is no longer a hindrance but the means of making actual what is potential.

The act of creation having found expression in the two attributes sublimity and success, the work of conservation is shown to be a continuous actualisation and differentiation of form. This is expressed in the two terms “furthering” (literally, “creating that which accords with the nature of a given being”) and “persevering” (literally, “correct and firm”). “The course of the Creative alters and shapes beings until each attains its true, specific nature, then it keeps them in conformity with the Great Harmony. Thus does it show itself to further through perseverance.”
In relation to the human sphere, this shows how the great man brings peace and security to the world through his activity in creating order: “He towers high above the multitude of beings, and all lands are united in peace.”
Another line of speculation goes still further in separating the words “sublime,” “success,” “furthering,” “perseverance,” and parallels them with the four cardinal virtues in humanity. To sublimity, which, as the fundamental principle, embraces all the other attributes, it links love. To the attribute success are linked the mores, which regulate and organise the expressions of love and thereby make them successful. The attribute furthering is correlated with justice, which creates the conditions in which each receives that which accords with his being, that which is due him and which constitutes his happiness. The attribute perseverance is correlated with wisdom, which discerns the immutable laws of all that happens and can therefore bring about enduring conditions. These speculations, already broached in the commentary called Wen Yen, later formed the bridge connecting the philosophy of the “five stages (elements) of change,” as laid down in the Book of History (Shu Ching) with the philosophy of the Book of Changes, which is based solely on the polarity of positive and negative principles. In the course of time this combination of the two systems of thought opened the way for an increasingly intricate number symbolism.
 

Atlantic sunset

 

Conjuction of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury above the Atlantic Ocean
La Palma – Canary Islands – May 25th 2013 – photo Lex van den Bos

THE IMAGE

The movement of heaven is full of power.
Thus the superior man makes himself strong and (quite) untiring.

SINCE there is only one heaven, the doubling of the trigram Chien, of which heaven is the image, indicates the movement of heaven. One complete revolution of heaven makes a day, and the repetition of the trigram means that each day is followed by another. This creates the idea of time. Since it is the same heaven moving with untiring power, there is also created the idea of duration both in and beyond time, a movement that never stops nor slackens, just as one day follows another in an unending course. This duration in time is the image of the power inherent in the Creative.
With this image as a model, the sage learns how best to develop himself so that his influence may endure. He must make himself strong in every way, by consciously casting out all that is inferior and degrading. Thus he attains that tirelessness which depends upon consciously limiting the fields of his activity.


1. The hexagram is assigned to the fourth month, May-June, when the light-giving power is at its zenith, i.e., before the summer solstice has marked the beginning of the year’s decline. [The German text reads “April-May”; this is obviously a slip, for the first month of the Chinese lunar year extends approximately from the beginning of February to the beginning of March. New Year is a variable date, falling around February 5. Two or three other slips of this sort occurring later in the book have been similarly corrected, but without special mention.]

2. [The German word used here is fördernd, literally rendered by “furthering.” It occurs again and again as a key word in Wilhelm’s rendering of the Chinese text. To avoid extreme awkwardness, the phrase “is favorable” is occasionally used as an alternative.]

3. Cf. Gen. 2: 1 ff., where the development of the different creatures is also attributed to the fall of rain.

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“User your potential.  Apply yourself.  You have much to offer as nourishment for your fellow travelers with the proper intentions and a willingness to act on them.” – Today’s Reading

User your potential.  Apply yourself.  You have much to offer as nourishment for your fellow travelers with the proper intentions and a willingness to act on them.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 43 – The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

Today: “In meditation you begin to realize that there is a world of you.” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: KWTC 19970630 – For Faculty of Self Engagement

Meditation: NM091 – 19921110 – Self Emboldenment, Engagement, Vision

Meditation: NM142 19940615 – Bless the Planet Earth and Let the Heavens Descend in You

Recap: Healing Intensive with Hari Nam Singh at Park Slope Brooklyn October 12-13, 2018

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs. Be careful of questionable engagements. Know who you re dealing with.”

Previous previous reading: “Be a source of inexhaustible sustenance that pervades all consciousness.”

Related posts

The teacher

See Richard Wilhelm's translation for this reading
48 – Forty-Eight.  Ching / The Well

The water in this well comes from a cool, deep, inexhaustible spring.

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.

15 – Fifteen.  Ch’ien / Modesty

The Mountain does not overshadow the Plain surrounding it:
Such modest consideration in a Superior Person creates a channel through which excess flows to the needy.

Success if you carry things through.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The Cosmos is moving toward equilibrium.
Extremes are being tempered, excess is beginning to shift toward the empty.
You can use these moderating influences to strike a balance in the world around you.
Remember, though, that this Leveling will not come about through an arrogant confiscation of excess, but through subtler persuasions.
Modesty and moderation are the keys.

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 43 – The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 43

The gentlest thing in the world
overcomes the hardest thing in the world.
That which has no substance
enters where there is no space.
This shows the value of non-action.
Teaching without words,
performing without actions:
that is the Master’s way. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 43 – The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world.”

“You have much to offer.  Coming out of isolation and engaging will open new pathways to do some good.” – Today’s Reading

You have much to offer.  Coming out of isolation and engaging will open new pathways to do some good.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 42 – The Tao gives birth to One

Today: “Left nostril breathing gives you self-endurance, self effectiveness, and self respect. ” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: KWTC 19970630 – For Faculty of Self Engagement

Meditation: NM091 – 19921110 – Self Emboldenment, Engagement, Vision

Share The Magical Story of Mushkil Gusha with friends over a meal today.

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs. Be careful of questionable engagements. Know who you re dealing with.”

Previous previous reading: “Be a source of inexhaustible sustenance that pervades all consciousness.”

Related posts

The teacher

17 – Seventeen.  Sui / Following

Thunder beneath the Lake’s surface.
The Superior Person allows himself plenty of sheltered rest and recuperation while awaiting a clear sign to follow.

Supreme success.
No mistakes if you keep to your course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Thunder from the Lake — the lulling, rhythmic roar of the faithful tide, eternally wearing away the stone of the shoreline, forever obedient to the phases of the moon.
The pull of the moon on the tide is the Following called for now.
As mighty as the tide is in its own right, it is ever the puppet of the invisible, irresistible gravity of the moon.
What cyclical forces pull you along?
Are you futilely attempting to resist a natural attraction?

Six at the top means:

By virtue of your wise heart, you are followed by a leader.
Come down from your mountain, and you will be rewarded with another.

He meets with firm allegiance
And is still further bound.
The king introduces him
To the Western Mountain.

Confucius

K’ung Fu Tzu (Confucius), born 551 b.C., lived during the Chou Dynasty

This refers to a man, an exalted sage, who has already put the turmoil of the world behind him. But a follower appears who understands him and is not to be put off. So the sage comes back into the world and aids the other in his work. Thus there develops an eternal tie between the two.
The allegory is chosen from the annals of the Chou dynasty. The rulers of this dynasty honored men who had served them well by awarding them a place in the royal family’s temple of ancestors on the Western Mountain. In this way they were regarded as sharing in the destiny of the ruling family.
42 – Forty-Two.  I / Expansion

Whirlwinds and Thunder:
When the Superior Person encounters saintly behavior, he adopts it; when he encounters a fault within, he transforms it.

Progress in every endeavor.
You may cross to the far shore.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Get ready to ride a tide of accelerated growth toward self-actualization.
A joyful awareness of the best within you, coupled with an acceptance of your Shadow, will provide a greater repertoire, a much bolder vision, and new depth and clarity that will compel you to expand your horizons.

[/su_spoiler]

Tao Te Ching – Verse 42 – The Tao gives birth to One

Tao Te Ching – Verse 42

The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.
All things have their backs to the female
and stand facing the male.
When male and female combine,
all things achieve harmony.
Ordinary men hate solitude.
But the Master makes use of it,
embracing his aloneness, realizing
he is one with the whole universe. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 42 – The Tao gives birth to One”

“Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs.   Be careful of questionable engagements.  Know who you re dealing with.” – Today’s Reading

Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs.   Be careful of questionable engagements.  Know who you re dealing with.

Note:   Give special attention to this reading.  It is exactly the same as the reading posted for Monday, November 18.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 39 – In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious

Today: “You must understand, what you call living is just the continual vibration of breath coming in and out” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: KWTC 19970630 – For Faculty of Self Engagement

Meditation: LA936 980609 Four Stroke Breath to Build Intuition

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Beset with impediments, proceed calmly with your purpose. It is your resolve applied to your intention that produces changes in the desired direction. Then, you only have to watch to see what happens.”

Previous previous reading: Maintain your character and uphold your principles according to your duty. Do not let anyone down, including yourself.”

Related posts

The teacher

7 – Seven.  Shih / Recruiting Allies

Deep Water beneath the Earth’s surface:
Untapped resources are available.
The Superior Person nourishes and instructs the people, building a loyal, disciplined following.
Good fortune.
No mistakes if you follow a course led by experience.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You must gain support from others.
Find a way to make others want to see your objectives met as badly as you want it.
How can they profit from the attainment of this goal?
Can you command confidence that you are just the person that can bring this plan to fruition?

Six in the third place means:

A wagonload of corpses this way comes.

Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon.
Misfortune.

US Army Wagon Train

US Army Wagon Train near Rurdosa, Texas 1916

Here we have a choice of two explanations. One points to defeat because someone other than the chosen leader interferes with the command; the other is similar in its general meaning, but the expression, “carries corpses in the wagon,” is interpreted differently. At burials and at sacrifices to the dead it was customary in China for the deceased to whom the sacrifice was made to be represented by a boy of the family, who sat in the dead man’s place and was honored as his representative. On the basis of this custom the text is interpreted as meaning that a “corpse boy” is sitting in the wagon, or, in other words, that authority is not being exercised by the proper leaders but has been usurped by others. Perhaps the whole difficulty clears up if it is inferred that there has been an error in copying. The character fan, meaning “all,” may have been misread as shih, which means “corpse.” Allowing for this error, the meaning would be that if the multitude assumes leadership of the army (rides in the wagon), misfortune will ensue.

15 – Fifteen.  Ch’ien / Modesty

The Mountain does not overshadow the Plain surrounding it:
Such modest consideration in a Superior Person creates a channel through which excess flows to the needy.

Success if you carry things through.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The Cosmos is moving toward equilibrium.
Extremes are being tempered, excess is beginning to shift toward the empty.
You can use these moderating influences to strike a balance in the world around you.
Remember, though, that this Leveling will not come about through an arrogant confiscation of excess, but through subtler persuasions.
Modesty and moderation are the keys.

[/su_spoiler]

Tao Te Ching – Verse 41 – When a superior man hears of the Tao, he immediately begins to embody it

Tao Te Ching – Verse 41

When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.
If he didn’t laugh,
it wouldn’t be the Tao.

Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 41 – When a superior man hears of the Tao, he immediately begins to embody it”

“Be a source of inexhaustible sustenance that pervades all consciousness.” – Today’s Reading

Be a source of inexhaustible sustenance that pervades all consciousness.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 40 – Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.

Today: “You have to develop the sensitivity of the brain that lets you know the truth: the Unknown is known to me.” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: NM0163 – Feel God Within You, The Kindness in You

Meditation: NM142 19940615 – Bless the Planet Earth and Let the Heavens Descend in You

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs. Be careful of questionable engagements. Know who you re dealing with.”

Previous previous reading: “Beset with impediments, proceed calmly with your purpose. It is your resolve applied to your intention that produces changes in the desired direction. Then, you only have to watch to see what happens.”

Related posts

The teacher

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.

Six at the top means:

This well is dependable and available to all.
Supreme good fortune.

One draws from the well
Without hindrance.
It is dependable.
Supreme good fortune.

Swimming pool at sea

The well is there for all. No one is forbidden to take water from it. No matter how many come, all find what they need, for the well is dependable. It has a spring and never runs dry. Therefore it is a great blessing to the whole land. The same is true of the really great man, whose inner wealth is inexhaustible; the more that people draw from him, the greater his wealth becomes.

3 – Fifty-Three.  Chien / Gradual Progress

The gnarled Pine grows tenaciously off the Cliff face:
The Superior Person clings faithfully to dignity and integrity, thus elevating the Collective Spirit of Man in his own small way.
Development.
The maiden is given in marriage.
Good fortune if you stay on course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Adaptability mixed with integrity will bring a calm, steady progress.
Move from your center, always faithful to your principles, yet with the flexibility to weather any tempest.
Yours is not a meteoric rise to the top, but the solid, confident footing of one who has a clear vision of what can be, and who is willing to climb the distance to reach it.
The oracle foresees companionship along the way — a Divine comfort on any journey.

[/su_spoiler]

Tao Te Ching – Verse 40 – Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 40

Return is the movement of the Tao.
Yielding is the way of the Tao.

All things are born of being.
Being is born of non-being.

Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 40 – Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.”

“Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs.   Be careful of questionable engagements.  Know who you re dealing with.” – Today’s Reading

Interlopers are usurping authority and power that is not rightly theirs.   Be careful of questionable engagements.  Know who you re dealing with.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 39 – In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious

Today: “You must understand, what you call living is just the continual vibration of breath coming in and out” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: KWTC 19970630 – For Faculty of Self Engagement

Meditation: LA936 980609 Four Stroke Breath to Build Intuition

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Beset with impediments, proceed calmly with your purpose. It is your resolve applied to your intention that produces changes in the desired direction. Then, you only have to watch to see what happens.”

Previous previous reading: Maintain your character and uphold your principles according to your duty. Do not let anyone down, including yourself.”

Related posts

The teacher

7 – Seven.  Shih / Recruiting Allies

Deep Water beneath the Earth’s surface:
Untapped resources are available.
The Superior Person nourishes and instructs the people, building a loyal, disciplined following.
Good fortune.
No mistakes if you follow a course led by experience.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You must gain support from others.
Find a way to make others want to see your objectives met as badly as you want it.
How can they profit from the attainment of this goal?
Can you command confidence that you are just the person that can bring this plan to fruition?

Six in the third place means:

A wagonload of corpses this way comes.

Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon.
Misfortune.

US Army Wagon Train

US Army Wagon Train near Rurdosa, Texas 1916

Here we have a choice of two explanations. One points to defeat because someone other than the chosen leader interferes with the command; the other is similar in its general meaning, but the expression, “carries corpses in the wagon,” is interpreted differently. At burials and at sacrifices to the dead it was customary in China for the deceased to whom the sacrifice was made to be represented by a boy of the family, who sat in the dead man’s place and was honored as his representative. On the basis of this custom the text is interpreted as meaning that a “corpse boy” is sitting in the wagon, or, in other words, that authority is not being exercised by the proper leaders but has been usurped by others. Perhaps the whole difficulty clears up if it is inferred that there has been an error in copying. The character fan, meaning “all,” may have been misread as shih, which means “corpse.” Allowing for this error, the meaning would be that if the multitude assumes leadership of the army (rides in the wagon), misfortune will ensue.

15 – Fifteen.  Ch’ien / Modesty

The Mountain does not overshadow the Plain surrounding it:
Such modest consideration in a Superior Person creates a channel through which excess flows to the needy.

Success if you carry things through.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The Cosmos is moving toward equilibrium.
Extremes are being tempered, excess is beginning to shift toward the empty.
You can use these moderating influences to strike a balance in the world around you.
Remember, though, that this Leveling will not come about through an arrogant confiscation of excess, but through subtler persuasions.
Modesty and moderation are the keys.

[/su_spoiler]

Tao Te Ching – Verse 39 – In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious

Tao Te Ching – Verse 39

In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.
When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.

Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 39 – In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious”

“Beset with impediments, proceed calmly with your purpose.  It is your  resolve applied to  your intention that produces changes in the desired direction. Then, you only have to watch to see what happens.” – Today’s Reading

Beset with impediments, proceed calmly with your purpose.  It is your  resolve applied to  your intention that produces changes in the desired direction.  Then, you only have to watch to see what happens.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 38 – The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; thus he is truly powerful.

Today: “Thirty-one minutes of Breath of Fire every day will regulate the pituitary.” Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

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

Meditation: TCH2012 960727 – Warrior’s Exercise for Opening the Energy into the Shushmana & Balancing the Hemispheres of the Brain

Meditation: Release obstacles in your path

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Maintain your character and uphold your principles according to your duty. Do not let anyone down, including yourself.”

Previous previous reading: “Retreat to a higher ground where the danger cannot reach you. Anything you lose will be returned to you.”

Related posts

The teacher

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.

yin
yang above: K’an / The Abysmal, Water
yin
yin
yin below: Chên / The Arousing, Thunder
yang

 

THE NAME of the hexagram, Chun, really connotes a blade of grass pushing against an obstacle as it sprouts out of the earth – hence the meaning, “difficulty at the beginning.”
The hexagram indicates the way in which heaven and earth bring forth individual beings. It is their first meeting, which is beset with difficulties. The lower trigram Chên is the Arousing (51); its motion is upward and its image is thunder. The upper trigram K’an stands for the Abysmal (29), the dangerous. Its motion is downward and its image is rain. The situation points to teeming, chaotic profusion; thunder and rain fill the air. But the chaos clears up. While the Abysmal sinks, the upward movement eventually passes beyond the danger. A thunderstorm brings release from tension, and all things breathe freely again.

THE JUDGEMENT

Difficulty at the beginning works supreme success,
Furthering through perseverance.
Nothing should be undertaken.
It furthers one to appoint helpers.

TIMES OF GROWTH are beset with difficulties. They resemble a first birth. But these difficulties arise from the very profusion of all that is struggling to attain form. Everything is in motion: therefore if one perseveres there is a prospect of great success, in spite of the existing danger. When it is a man’s fate to undertake such new beginnings, everything is still unformed, dark. Hence he must hold back, because any premature move might bring disaster. Likewise, it is very important not to remain alone; in order to overcome the chaos he needs helpers. This is not to say, however, that he himself should look on passively at what is happening. He must lend his hand and participate with inspiration and guidance.

THE IMAGE

Clouds and thunder:
The image of difficulty at the beginning.
Thus the superior man
Brings order out of confusion.

CLOUDS AND THUNDER are represented by definite decorative lines; this means that in the chaos of difficulty at the beginning, order is already implicit. So too the superior man has to arrange and organise the inchoate profusion of such times of beginning, just as one sorts out silk threads from a knotted tangle and binds them into skeins. In order to find one’s place in the infinity of being, one must be able both to separate and to unite.

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 38 – The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; thus he is truly powerful.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 38

The Master doesn’t try to be powerful;
thus he is truly powerful.
The ordinary man keeps reaching for power;
thus he never has enough.

The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.

Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 38 – The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; thus he is truly powerful.”

“Maintain your character and uphold your principles according to your duty.  Do not let anyone down, including yourself.” – Today’s Reading

Maintain your character and uphold your principles according to your duty.  Do not let anyone down, including yourself.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 37 – The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done

Today: “Inhale deep and hold the breath to your capacity, then exhale and inhale again and hold.” – Yogi Bhajan

Try these meditations:

Meditation: NM0336 – For Inner Strength

Meditation: LA135-19791029 Resolve Inner Conflict

Recap: Healing and Meditation Class at Yoga West with Hari Nam Singh 2018-09-18 – Inner Projection

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

See lecture on cold showers

See Meditation:  Breath of Fire

Previous reading: “Recognize your unique position in this upside down time. Find openings that will make the situation easier for your fellow travelers. Understand that a turning point is near and that eventually things begin to change into their opposites.”

Previous previous reading: “Retreat to a higher ground where the danger cannot reach you. Anything you lose will be returned to you.”

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The teacher

32 – Thirty-Two.  Hêng / Durability

Arousing Thunder and penetrating Wind.
Close companions in any storm:
The Superior Person possesses a resiliency and durability that lets him remain firmly and faithfully on course.

Such constancy deserves success.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Endurance is the key to success in this situation.
However, durability is not synonymous with stone-like rigidity.
True resilience requires a flexibility that allows adaptation to any adverse condition, while still remaining true to the core.
Can you maintain your integrity under any circumstance?
Can you influence the situation without giving opposing forces anything to resist?
Then you will endure to reach your goal.

Six in the fifth place means:

To submit to insult is to invite injury.

Giving duration to one’s character through perseverance.
This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.

Woman and man

A woman should follow a man her whole life long, but a man should at all times hold to what is his duty at the given moment. Should he persistently seek to conform to the woman, it would be a mistake for him. Accordingly it is altogether right for a woman to hold conservatively to tradition, but a man must always be flexible and adaptable and allow himself to be guided solely by what his duty requires of him at the moment.
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.

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 37 – The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done

Tao Te Ching – Verse 37

The Tao never does anything,
yet through it all things are done.
If powerful men and women
could center themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in its natural rhythms.
People would be content
with their simple, everyday lives,
in harmony, and free of desire.
When there is no desire,
all things are at peace. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 37 – The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done”