Tao Te Ching – Verse 6 – The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 6

The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.
Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 6 – The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.”

Today: “Persevere in what you are doing, yet remain mindful of the danger in every action.”  – from the I Ching

Persevere in what you are doing, yet remain mindful of the danger in every action.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 5 – The Tao doesn’t take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil.

Meditation: 760422 – Balancing Projection with Intention

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “Enhance your durability beyond strength. Apply yourself to a firm commitment to your aspirations and intentions. Be both firm and flexible as required.”

Today: I Ching – Previous Previous Reading – “Seek to learn rather than presume to have all the answers. A teacher may be recognized at any time, any place.”

See related posts.

46 – Forty-Six.  Shêng / Upward Mobility

Beneath the Soil, the Seedling pushes upward toward the light:
To preserve his integrity, the Superior Person contents himself with small gains that eventually lead to great accomplishment.

Supreme Success.
Have no doubts.
Seek guidance from someone you respect.
A constant move toward greater clarity will bring reward.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are progressing, rising inch-by-inch toward certain success.
What makes this assured is your refusal to tilt headlong toward your goal, slamming into obstacles and going mad with frustration.
You have a clear map before you of the steps necessary to reach your objective.
With faithful patience and a careful conservation of personal energy and resources, you will run this long, slow distance.

Six at the top means:  

Climbing onward and upward through dark of night is perilous, but your tenacity is admirable.
Good fortune if you avoid the slightest misstep.

Pushing upward in darkness.
It furthers one
To be unremittingly persevering.

Reaper in darkness

He who pushes upward blindly deludes himself. He knows only advance, not retreat. But this means exhaustion. In such a case it is important to be constantly mindful that one must be conscientious and consistent and must remain so. Only thus does one become free of blind impulse, which is always harmful.

4 – Four.  Mêng / Inexperience

A fresh Spring at the foot of the Mountain:
The Superior Person refines his character by being thorough in every activity.
The Sage does not recruit students; the students seek him.
He asks nothing but a sincere desire to learn.
If the student doubts or challenges his authority, the Sage regretfully cuts his losses.

SITUA TI    ON ANALYSIS:

This is a time of interchange between a mentor and pupil.
Whether you are the teacher or the student, it is a time of companionship along a mutual path.
This hexagram also emphasizes the eternal, cyclical nature of the mentor/student relationship — a mentor is merely a more seasoned pupil, further along on the journey.
A pupil holds within himself the seed of a future Master.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching

Today: “When we feel we are limited, we become limited” – Yogi Bhajan

“When we feel we are limited, we become limited. When we feel we are unlimited, we become unlimited.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: LA571 890214 Let Go of Your Limitations

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 5 – The Tao doesn’t take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 5

The Tao doesn’t take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn’t take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 5 – The Tao doesn’t take sides; it gives birth to both good and evil.”

Today: “Enhance your durability beyond strength.  Apply yourself to a firm commitment to your aspirations and intentions.  Be both firm and flexible as required.”  – from the I Ching

Enhance your durability beyond strength.  Apply yourself to a firm commitment to your aspirations and intentions.  Be both firm and flexible as required.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 4 – The Tao is like a well: used but never used up.

Yogi Bhajan’s Seven Steps to Happiness

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “Seek to learn rather than presume to have all the answers. A teacher may be recognized at any time, any place.”

Today: I Ching – Previous Previous Reading – “Look beyond your preferences. See beyond any tribal view. Include everything.”

See related posts.

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.

yin
yin above: Chên / The Arousing, Thunder
yang
yang
yang below: Sun / The Gentle, Wind
yin

 

The strong trigram Chên is above, the weak trigram Sun below. This hexagram is the inverse of the preceding one (31). In the latter we have influence, here we have union as an enduring condition. The two images are thunder and wind, which are likewise constantly paired phenomena. The lower trigram indicates gentleness within; the upper, movement without.
In the sphere of social relationships, the hexagram represents the institution of marriage as the enduring union of the sexes. During courtship the young man subordinates himself to the girl, but in marriage, which is represented by the coming together of the eldest son and the eldest daughter, the husband is the directing and moving force outside, while the wife, inside, is gentle and submissive.

THE JUDGEMENT

DURATION. Success. No blame.
Perseverance furthers.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.

Duration is a state whose movement is not worn down by hindrances. It is not a state of rest, for mere standstill is regression. Duration is rather the self- contained and therefore self-renewing movement of an organised, firmly integrated whole, taking place in accordance with immutable laws and beginning anew at every ending. The end is reached by an inward movement, by inhalation, systole, contraction, and this movement turns into a new beginning, in which the movement is directed outward, in exhalation, diastole, expansion.
Heavenly bodies exemplify duration. They move in their fixed orbits, and because of this their light-giving power endures. The seasons of the year follow a fixed law of change and transformation, hence can produce effects that endure.
So likewise the dedicated man embodies an enduring meaning in his way of life, and thereby the world is formed. In that which gives things their duration, we can come to understand the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.

 

Thunder and wind

THE IMAGE

Thunder and wind: the image of DURATION.
Thus the superior man stands firm
And does not change his direction.

Thunder rolls, and the wind blows; both are examples of extreme mobility and so are seemingly the very opposite of duration, but the laws governing their appearance and subsidence, their coming and going, endure. In the same way the independence of the superior man is not based on rigidity and immobility of character. He always keeps abreast of the time and changes with it. What endures is the unswerving directive, the inner law of his being, which determines all his actions.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching

Today: “Asking for self-reliance and obtaining self-reliance is not only great, it is the answer to every problem of life.” – Yogi Bhajan

“Asking for self-reliance and obtaining self-reliance is not only great, it is the answer to every problem of life. No one is so small that he cannot be great.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: LA950 A00214 20000214 Develop Self-Reliance

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 4 – The Tao is like a well: used but never used up.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 4

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 4 – The Tao is like a well: used but never used up.”

Today: “Seek to learn rather than presume to have all the answers.  A teacher may be recognized at any time, any place.”  – from the I Ching

Seek to learn rather than presume to have all the answers.  A teacher may be recognized at any time, any place.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 3 – The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores

The Teacher

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “Look beyond your preferences. See beyond any tribal view. Include everything.”

Today: I Ching – Previous Previous Reading – “Carefully discern peoples’ intentions before you join them in their ventures.”

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4 – Four.  Mêng / Inexperience

A fresh Spring at the foot of the Mountain:
The Superior Person refines his character by being thorough in every activity.
The Sage does not recruit students; the students seek him.
He asks nothing but a sincere desire to learn.
If the student doubts or challenges his authority, the Sage regretfully cuts his losses.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is a time of interchange between a mentor and pupil.
Whether you are the teacher or the student, it is a time of companionship along a mutual path.
This hexagram also emphasizes the eternal, cyclical nature of the mentor/student relationship — a mentor is merely a more seasoned pupil, further along on the journey.
A pupil holds within himself the seed of a future Master.

yang
yin above: Kên / Keeping Still, Mountain
yin
yin
yang below: K’an / The Abysmal, Water
yin

 

IN THIS HEXAGRAM we are reminded of youth and folly1 in two different ways. The image of the upper trigram, Kên, is the mountain, that of the lower, K’an, is water; the spring rising at the foot of the mountain is the image of inexperienced youth. Keeping still (52) is the attribute of the upper trigram; that of the lower is the abyss (29), danger. Stopping in perplexity on the brink of a dangerous abyss is a symbol of the folly of youth. However, the two trigrams also show the way of overcoming the follies of youth. Water is something that of necessity flows on. When the spring gushes forth, it does not know at first where it will go. But its steady flow fills up the deep place blocking its progress, and success is attained.

THE JUDGEMENT

Youthful folly has success.
It is not I who seek the young fool;
The young fool seeks me.
At the first oracle I inform him.
If he asks two or three times, it is importunity.
If he importunes, I give him no information.
Perseverance furthers.

IN THE TIME OF youth, folly is not an evil. One may succeed in spite of it, provided one finds an experienced teacher and has the right attitude toward him. This means, first of all, that the youth himself must be conscious of his lack of experience and must seek out the teacher. Without this modesty and this interest there is no guarantee that he has the necessary receptivity, which should express itself in respectful acceptance of the teacher. This is the reason why the teacher must wait to be sought out instead of offering himself. Only thus can the instruction take place at the right time and in the right way.
A teacher’s answer to the question of a pupil ought to be clear and definite like that expected from an oracle; thereupon it ought to be accepted as a key for resolution of doubts and a basis for decision. If mistrustful or unintelligent questioning is kept up, it serves only to annoy the teacher. He does well to ignore it in silence, just as the oracle gives one answer only and refuses to be tempted by questions implying doubt. Given in addition a perseverance that never slackens until the points are mastered one by one, real success is sure to follow. Thus the hexagram counsels the teacher as well as the pupil.

 

Spring wells up at foot of mountain

Flathead River at Old West Glacier Bridge, Montana
Credit: Glacier National Park Service [Public Domain]

THE IMAGE

A spring wells up at the foot of the mountain:
The image of YOUTH.
Thus the superior man fosters his character
By thoroughness in all that he does.

A SPRING succeeds in flowing on and escapes stagnation by filling up all the hollow places in its path. In the same way character is developed by thoroughness that skips nothing but, like water, gradually and steadily fills up all gaps and so flows onward.


1. [“Fool” and “folly” as used in this hexagram should be understood to mean the immaturity of youth and its consequent lack of wisdom, rather than mere stupidity. Parsifal is known as the “pure fool” not because he was dull-witted but because he was inexperienced.]

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching

Today: “the highest state of the yogic mind ” – Yogi Bhajan

“When the one-pointed, infinite beam of the mind starts sending the signal into the infinity and the infinity relates to the finite, the unit becomes united and this is called the highest state of the yogic mind.” Yogi Bhajan

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

Tao Te Ching – Verse 3 – The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores

Tao Te Ching – Verse 3

If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 3 – The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores”

Today: “Look beyond your preferences.  See beyond any tribal view.  Include everything.”  – from the I Ching

Look beyond your preferences.  See beyond any tribal view.  Include everything.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 2 – When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other.

Healing the perception

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “Carefully discern peoples’ intentions before you join them in their ventures.”

Today: I Ching – Previous Previous Reading – “The main problem is forsaking the path due to succumbing to uncontrolled desires. It is not a real problem as long as you keep returning to it. Each return makes one stronger.”

See related posts.

59 – Fifty-Nine.  Huan / Dissolution

Wind carries the Mists aloft:
Sage rulers dedicated their lives to serving a Higher Power and built temples that still endure.

The King approaches his temple.
Success if you stay on course.
You may cross to the far shore.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Walls meant to protect have instead separated and isolated.
Your defenses have kept you apart from those whom you most need to touch.
Whatever the reason for discord between you, it is time to lay down your arms.
Dispel the inflexible demands and fears of the Mind so that you may reunite in the Heart.
If you have begrudged, forgive.
If you have torn down, repair.
If you have injured, heal.
If you have judged, pardon.
If you have grasped, let go.

Six in the fourth place means:

He scatters his group far and wide.
Those who return will be of firmer resolve and leaner, stronger fibre.
An ingenious move.

He dissolves his bond with his group.
Supreme good fortune.
Dispersion leads in turn to accumulation.
This is something that ordinary men do not think of.

When we are working at a task that affects the general welfare, we must leave all private friendships out of account. Only by rising above party interests can we achieve something decisive. He who has the courage thus to forego what is near wins what is afar. But in order to comprehend this standpoint, one must have a wide view of the interrelationships of life, such as only unusual men attain.

64 – Sixty-Four.  Wei Chi / The End In Sight

Fire ascends above the Water:
The Superior Person examines the nature of things and keeps each in its proper place.

Too anxious the young fox gets his tail wet, just as he completes his crossing.
To attain success, be like the man and not like the fox.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Resist the rush to completion.
Anticipation of fulfillment may cause you to be careless before you have fully absorbed the lessons of the journey.
The endpoint of this Quest will only prove to be the threshold for another.
You are short steps from Mastery on this plane, yet you stride toward Ignorance of the challenges lying beyond.
Savor this accomplishment.
Fully Become.
Take full possession of your world before embarking to discover the next one.
That voyage begins soon enough, and you will reminisce about this one.
These are the Good Old Days.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching

Today: “The difference between you and an animal is… ” – Yogi Bhajan

“The difference between you and an animal is that the animal has limited compassion and you can have unlimited compassion.” Yogi Bhajan

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

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 2 – When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 2 – When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other.”

Today: “Carefully discern peoples’ intentions before you join them in their ventures.”  – from the I Ching

Carefully discern peoples’ intentions before you join them in their ventures.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for today

Tao Te Ching – Verse 1 – The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.

HNS Class Golden Bridge Hollywood – 2012-02-22 – The Aspect of Enlightenment

Today: I Ching – Previous Reading – “The main problem is forsaking the path due to succumbing to uncontrolled desires. It is not a real problem as long as you keep returning to it. Each return makes one stronger.”

Today: I Ching – Previous Previous Reading – Everything is splitting apart. All you can do is not contribute to the frenzy. Keep your wits, keep still, and this shall pass.”

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31 – Thirty-One.  Hsien / Attraction

The joyous Lake is cradled by the tranquil Mountain:
The Superior Person takes great satisfaction in encouraging others along their journey.
He draws them to him with his welcoming nature and genuine interest.

Supreme success.
This course leads to marriage.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is no greater natural law in the Cosmos than Attraction.
From the magnetic pull of an atom’s nucleus to the centrifugal force that spirals a galaxy, the face of the universe is shaped by Attraction.
On a human scale, it is Attraction that fuels procreation and furthers our species.
Yet it is also Attraction that spawns greed and covetousness, threatening our extinction.
Attraction is the underlying force of the situation in question.
You are refined or debased by the objects of your desire.
What gravitational pull are you now under?
Around what sphere of influence do you circle?
Can you use your own ability to attract?

Six at the beginning [yin at bottom] means:

He skillfully hides his excitement, but is betrayed by the twitching of his big toe.

The influence shows itself in the big toe.

Buddha's big toe

A movement, before it is actually carried out, shows itself first in the toes. The idea of an influence is already present, but it is not immediately apparent to others. As long as the intention has no visible effect, it is of no importance to the outside world and leads neither to good nor to evil.
49 – Forty-Nine.  Ko / Revolution

Fire ignites within the Lake, defying conditions that would deny it birth or survival:
The Superior Person reads the Signs of the Times and makes the Season apparent to all.

The support you need will come only after the deed is done.
Renewed forces, however, will provide fresh energy for exceptional progress.
Persevere.
All differences vanish.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

A revolutionary Change must be made forcibly.
There is no negotiating with the Established Order.
Perfect timing is essential.
Let the abuse of power become apparent and oppressive to those around you before making your move.
Lay the groundwork, sow the seeds for Revolution without tipping your hand prematurely.
You will need a strong foundation, because you will have to bring about this necessary change alone.
You cannot count on popular support, so you must wait until there is massive dissent.
Then the avenue for your assault will be cleared.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching

Today: “If man can awaken himself to the awareness that he is a man, then his destiny changes. ” – Yogi Bhajan

“If man can awaken himself to the awareness that he is a man, then his destiny changes. What you must know in your life is that you are positively a human being.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: NM249 971230 theorem of the Kundalini Yoga; control your micro & macro consciousness

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 1 – The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 1 – The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.”