Tag: Tao

Today: “You have the choice whether to hold your attention inward with your personal development, or share your brilliance in the public eye. Without seeking it, you will be known to those who see your grace.” – from the I Ching

You have the choice whether to hold your attention inward with your personal development, or share your brilliance in the public eye. Without seeking it, you will be known to those who see your grace.

Meditation: Meditation: LA015 780227 – To Bring Swift and Powerful Change

Tao Te Ching – Verse 36 – If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand

Meditation: LA046 – 780614 – Hari Shabad Meditation – Use the Wind to Produce Trance and Dissolve Negativity

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

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.

Six in the fourth place means:

Artifice or simplicity?
Two riders on winged white horses: one a bandit, the other an ardent suitor.

Grace or simplicity?
A white horse comes as if on wings.
He is not a robber,
He will woo at the right time.

Pegasus

An individual is in a situation in which doubts arise as to which is better – to pursue the grace of external brilliance, or to return to simplicity. The doubt itself implies the answer. Confirmation comes from the outside; it comes like a white winged horse. The white color indicates simplicity. At first it may be disappointing to renounce the comforts that might have been obtained, yet one finds peace of mind in a true relationship with the friend who courts him. The winged horse is the symbol of the thoughts that transcend all limits of space and time.

33 – Thirty-Three Tun / Retreat

The tranquil Mountain towers overhead, yet remains this side of Heaven:
The Superior Person avoids the petty and superficial by keeping shallow men at a distance, not in anger but with dignity.

Such a retreat sweeps the path clear to Success.
Occupy yourself with minute detail.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Retreat in this instance is not a desperate flight in disarray, but a conscious choice to distance yourself from forces that would rob you of your peace.
It is not a surrender, but a regrouping.
Retreat from this conflict is actually an advance toward your own center.
You move toward balance, and thus a much stronger position.

Today: “In the house of the Lord, progress is slow, but there is no ultimate darkness.” Yogi Bhajan

“In the house of the Lord, progress is slow, but there is no ultimate darkness. You shall be answered if you will call Him.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “Give up the duality of endless imaginings. Learn to trust your intuition instead.” – from the I Ching

Give up the duality of endless imaginings. Learn to trust your intuition instead.

Meditation: Meditation: Know the Psyche of the Other

Tao Te Ching – Verse 35 – She who is centered in the Tao can go where she wishes, without danger.

Meditation: NM345- Strengthen and enhance the radiant body

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

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.

Six in the fourth place means:

Entangled folly brings humiliation.

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536) – author of Encomium Moriae (In Praise of Folly)

For youthful folly it is the most hopeless thing to entangle itself in empty imaginings. The more obstinately it clings to such unreal fantasies, the more certainly will humiliation overtake it.
Often the teacher, when confronted with such entangled folly, has no other course but to leave the fool to himself for a time, not sparing him the humiliation that results. This is frequently the only means of rescue.

38 – Thirty-Eight K’uei / Estrangement

Fire distances itself from its nemesis, the Lake:
No matter how large or diverse the group, the Superior Person remains uniquely himself.

Small accomplishments are possible.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are working at cross-purposes with another.
The distance between you is very wide.
The gap can be closed, however, with no compromise of your integrity.
You are not adversaries in this case — just two persons addressing individual needs.
Ask yourself: are these needs mutually exclusive?
Is there common ground here?
Must there be one winner and one loser?
Could you become partners in seeking a solution that would allow for two winners?

Today: “It does not matter who you are, it only matters how you radiate.” Yogi Bhajan

“It does not matter who you are, it only matters how you radiate. Happiness does not come through materials, it comes through happiness.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “You are on a righteous path strewn with blessings ahead.” – from the I Ching

You are on a righteous path strewn with blessings ahead. Keep humility.

Meditation: Meditation: NM0380 – Ecstasy and Joy

Tao Te Ching – Verse 33 – Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Meditation: NM0380 – Ecstasy and Joy

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

50 – Fifty Ting / The Caldron

Fire rises hot and bright from the Wood beneath the sacrificial caldron:
The Superior Person positions himself correctly within the flow of Cosmic forces.

Supreme Accomplishment.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Your needs are coming into harmony with the requirements of the Cosmos.
Blending brilliantly with the Dance of Life, you are becoming an actual element of Cosmic Law.
Your goals will now be realized because you no longer cut against the Cosmic grain; you are no longer swimming against the flow of the Tao.
You are acquiring an intuitive sense of what can and cannot be, and aligning your efforts accordingly.

Six in the fifth place means:

The ting has yellow handles, golden carrying rings.
Perseverance furthers.

Bronze cauldron

Here we have, in a ruling position, a man who is approachable and modest in nature. As a result of this attitude he succeeds in finding strong and able helpers who complement and aid him in his work. Having achieved this attitude, which requires constant self-abnegation, it is important for him to hold to it and not to let himself be led astray.

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.

Today: “Those who are humble in practice are always righteous in the face of God.” Yogi Bhajan

“Those who are humble in practice are always righteous in the face of God. They are protected by the Supreme Being and shall always live in plentiful abundance.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “Hone your discipline. It is the path to good fortune.” – from the I Ching

Hone your discipline. It is the path to good fortune.

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

Tao Te Ching – Verse 33 – Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Meditation: NM0415 – 20010910 – Karma & Dharma

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

41 – Forty-one Sun / Decrease

The stoic Mountain drains its excess waters to the Lake below:
The Superior Person curbs his anger and sheds his desires.

To be frugal and content is to possess immeasurable wealth within.
Nothing of value could be refused such a person.
Make a portion of each meal a share of your offering.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is an occasion for downsizing to fighting trim.
Simplicity and economy are strong defenses against the slings and arrows of Outrageous Fortune.
Whether this is a time of want or a time of plenty, it is an auspicious time to shed a dependency.

Six in the fifth place means:

He is showered with precious gifts, and those giving will hear no refusals.
Supreme good fortune.

Someone does indeed increase him.
Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it.
Supreme good fortune.

If someone is marked out by fate for good fortune, it comes without fail. All oracles – as for instance those that are read from the shells of tortoises – are bound to concur in giving him favorable signs. He need fear nothing, because his luck is ordained from on high.

61 – Sixty-One Chung Fu / Inner Truth

The gentle Wind ripples the Lake’s surface:
The Superior Person finds common ground between points of contention, wearing away rigid perspectives that would lead to fatal error.

Pigs and fishes.
You may cross to the far shore.
Great fortune if you stay on course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The subject of this hexagram discovers a key to Tranquility by first gaining insight into his own nature, then turning that vision outward.
By resolving inner conflicts and being at peace with himself, he learns to gain insight into others.
In effect, he enters another, sees with the other’s eyes, listens with the other’s ears, feels with the other’s heart.
He then returns to his own center, with new perspective and understanding.

Today: “We have to understand the basic fundamental existence of ours—to understand the spirit.” Yogi Bhajan

“We have to understand the basic fundamental existence of ours—to understand the spirit. Once you understand the spirit you are all right.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “Support those with whom you share a bond. Your generosity will strengthen your community.” – from the I Ching

Support those with whom you share a bond. Your generosity will strengthen your community.

Meditation: Meditation: NM0406 – Know the Best of You – Share the Best with Others

Tao Te Ching – Verse 32 – The Tao can’t be perceived. Smaller than an electron, it contains uncountable galaxies.

Meditation: Breath to Conquer Time Space and Destiny

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 Creator created the creature to realize the state of the stability, the finite of the infinity.” Yogi Bhajan

“The Creator created the creature to realize the state of the stability, the finite of the infinity.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “Proceed steadily toward your goal. Do not rush. Do not skip any steps. Success will come.” – from the I Ching

Proceed steadily toward your goal. Do not rush. Do not skip any steps. Success will come.

Meditation: Meditation: LA114 790613 – Spinal Serum

Tao Te Ching – Verse 28 – Know the male, yet keep to the female

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

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 in the fifth place means:

Climb these steps to good fortune.

Perseverance brings good fortune.
One pushes upward by steps.

Mount Fanjing – south-west China
the Temple of the Buddha and the Temple of Maitreya ¹

When a man is advancing farther and farther, it is important for him not to become intoxicated by success. Precisely when he experiences great success it is necessary to remain sober and not to try to skip any stages; he must go on slowly, step by step, as though hesitant. Only such calm, steady progress, overleaping nothing, leads to the goal.

1. Mount Fanjing
We’re in Guizhou province looking at a spire called Red Clouds Golden Summit on Mount Fanjing in south-west China. Rising more than 100 metres above the surrounding mountaintop, visitors will need to climb almost 9,000 steps to reach the summit. Look closely at the image and you can see how the stairs swirl up and around the rock formation and through a gorge.

The buildings you see perched at the top are two Buddhist temples – the Temple of the Buddha and the Temple of Maitreya – linked by a small footbridge. For visitors who don’t want to walk to the top, there’s a cable car that will take you two-thirds of the way there. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2018.

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.

Today: “Your intimate sense of self will provide everything you need to cast aside delusion and all external dependencies founded on ego.” – from the I Ching

Your intimate sense of self will provide everything you need to cast aside delusion and all external dependencies founded on ego. Rather than trying to be a leader, others are drawn to your magnetic presence.

Meditation: Meditation: KWTC04-960627-Soul and Identity

Tao Te Ching – Verse 28 – Know the male, yet keep to the female

Continue reading ““When we love there are no barriers…” Yogi Bhajan”

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

61 – Sixty-One Chung Fu / Inner Truth

The gentle Wind ripples the Lake’s surface:
The Superior Person finds common ground between points of contention, wearing away rigid perspectives that would lead to fatal error.

Pigs and fishes.
You may cross to the far shore.
Great fortune if you stay on course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Nine in the fifth place means:

Finding himself, his serene inner flame radiates warmth that draws others near.
He does not Do; he just Is.

He possesses truth, which links together.
No blame.

Napoleon

This describes the ruler who holds all elements together by the power of his personality. Only when the strength of his character is so ample that he can influence all who are subject to him, is he as he needs to be. The power of suggestion must emanate from the ruler. It will firmly knit together and unite all his adherents. Without this central force, all external unity is only deception and breaks down at the decisive moment.

41 – Forty-one Sun / Decrease

The stoic Mountain drains its excess waters to the Lake below:
The Superior Person curbs his anger and sheds his desires.

To be frugal and content is to possess immeasurable wealth within.
Nothing of value could be refused such a person.
Make a portion of each meal a share of your offering.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

“When we love there are no barriers…” Yogi Bhajan

“When we love there are no barriers, no desires, no needs, no wants.” Yogi Bhajan

Today: “What is a fear complex” – Yogi Bhajan

“What is a fear complex? When you feel limited. If you feel that you are a part of the universe and the universe is a part of you, what is there to fear?” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: LA747 921231 Fear 6, to command yourself

Today: “Examine closely those who would invite an association that involves substantial commitment. Beware of exploitation.” – from the I Ching

Examine closely those who would invite an association that involves substantial commitment. Beware of exploitation.

Meditation: Meditation: LA719 930303 – Magnetic Field – Sacred Space

Tao Te Ching – Verse 28 – Know the male, yet keep to the female