Such an important time. I struggled mightily to offer the right guidance. I wrote an entire blog and then could not keep my eyes open as I read it. It’s not the right message; I was forcing it. I’ve let it go; maybe it’s a message for another time. I humbly approach The Oracle: What is the guidance for now? I ask.
The answer I receive is hexagram #9: The Taming Power of the Small, with stirrings in the first, fourth, and fifth places. The interplay of images: wind blowing over heaven. The wind has the power to gather the clouds, but it cannot make it rain. For this we must wait.
The hexagram is composed of five powerful yang lines restrained by the influence of a single weak yin line. The yin influence has its limits. Although it has the power to restrain it cannot overcome the obstacle.
The radiation in Japan can only be minimally restrained, the circumference of evacuation must widen. Global Supply Lines at Risk as Shipping Lines Shun Japan says a headline in the New York Times; the entire world is now impacted with nuclear fallout. It is time to restrain our global appetites. Think local. Eat local.
Qaddafi can be restrained from flying his planes and from committing out-and-out genocide, but as yet he cannot be stopped. Again the influence possible in this time of revolution is, at best, a restraining influence; we can only have limited influence on the course of the revolution. It must play out in its own way and its own time.
Republicans chip away at the unions, Roe v. Wade, and cast Obama as a foreign infidel. In response, the discontent of the masses is stirring but, as yet, exerts little restraint on the madness. Revolutions are happening, but the time has not ripened for major changes in governance, though the necessary ingredients for change are indeed beginning to coalesce.
We find ourselves in a time of waiting, with limited influence. What should we do? The charged first line of the hexagram reads:
“Return to the way. How could there be blame in this?“
-From The I Ching, the Richard Wilhelm translation, p. 41.
This line depicts being stirred to act in response to the energy of now, of revolution; we all want to do something to help. We seek to push forward and make progress. We are met by obstructions. We are guided to return to the way—the Tao—action in conformity with the true nature of the situation.
It’s not time yet for the clouds to bring forth the rain, so we must take out the garbage, do our taxes, clean out the litter box, and make a commitment to daily self-cultivation. Prepare our bodies and our spirits for the coming changes. Focus on the doable and the necessary. “Tame ourselves, our greatness will build—and we can yoke it for further actions.” -From The Living I Ching by Deng Ming-Dao, p. 125
The moving line in the fourth place again counsels the need to exert restraint upon a being of power and influence, perhaps the mighty ego self who is frightened, angry, appalled, and pushes for immediate action. The restraint here is to stay aligned with the truth and restrain from unnecessary action. Don’t fight the racist, the birther. Know the truth of nuclear energy. The time of great influence is not yet upon us, but we can restrain ourselves, save our energy and cultivate right actions, good habits in our lives—habits consonant with the coming changes to the world. Rest assured, the rains are coming.
The charged line in the fifth place, the ruler of the hexagram, counsels us to restrain by embracing our interdependent and interconnected One World—to bond and share the wealth. This is the restraint that must be placed on individual greed that can only accumulate and care for itself with no thought to the needs of others. This One World is the one we must restrain ourselves and hold out for, not a world restored to power as was.
If we follow the restraining influence of the time of The Taming Power of the Small by forging ourselves in the proper way, The Book of Changes predicts a future of advanced civilization in hexagram #50: The Cauldron.
The Cauldron was a huge three-legged pot, cast of bronze, a sacred vessel unique to early Chinese civilization with huge handles flaring up like dragons. The Cauldron, used in the temples, stood directly in the fire to cook food for the nourishment of all during ceremonies of sacrifice and honor to God.
The Cauldron is a manmade object, one of the few depicted in the I Ching. This makes it highly significant for an oracle that focuses almost exclusively on the influences of the elements in nature. The ability of mankind to create a vessel that can be used to commune with God, as well as nourish the people, is given archetypal significance in this book of wisdom. It is possible for us to achieve an advanced civilization that can acquiesce to the higher self or spirit through right action and thereby care for and nourish all.
What a hopeful change the I Ching suggests as our future possibility! The Cauldron is, in fact, the hexagram that directly follows the hexagram of Revolution in the I Ching. Under the best of circumstances the world revolution now might forge a true cauldron. However, this is predicated upon acquiescing to the limited influence and restraint necessary in The Taming Power of the Small, for that is where we are now.
Now is the time to engage in the painstaking process of forging the giant cauldron. This translates, on an individual level, into cultivating our selves into beings that can channel right action. Specifically, we must restrain ourselves from the old ways and keep the light of truth lit in our hearts. The time for great influence has not yet come, but it will come, it always rains eventually.
For now, we must take out the garbage, do our taxes, clean the litter box, cultivate a daily spiritual practice, limit our appetites, tend to our organic gardens, and wait for the rain. We must store our energy, not waste it on fighting the talking heads. Nature is leading this revolution. Change is inevitable.
“Smallness tames. How slight the secret. How monumental the effect.”
-From The Living I Ching, by Deng Ming-Dao, p. 125.
Simply,
Chuck
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I dreamed all night about writing this blog, achieving many aha moments as ideas and thoughts came together, as I connected with the bigger picture of who I am, where I am, and what I have to face ahead of me. All of this converged into a big interconnected web of awareness that we are all facing the same issues, the same challenges, the same inner and outer dilemmas. And so it feels right that I explore some guidance I received earlier in the week, as I turned to the Tarot with some requests.
Request for guidance number one was as follows: Please may I pick the card that is most meaningful and important for me to receive on this day as I seek balance and calm knowing in my life. Please direct me to pick the card that is in alignment with my heart’s intent.
Here is the card I picked: The Magus
The Magus
I use the Tarot as a daily guide when I feel the need for clarity, if I am swimming in inner discourse that I cannot quiet, or if I just want to center myself. On Monday, when I sought advice from the Tarot I was mostly interested in grounding myself, in beginning my week fully present. The Magus or Magician “represents the universal principles of communication. The golden figure of Mercury, the winged messenger from Greek mythology, represents communication that is inspired, resilient, and well-timed,” Angeles Arrien writes in The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols. In addition, the Magician is surrounded by ten tools, each one of them representing a means of communication, suitable for different situations and contexts; the challenge is knowing which tool to use when.
I was immediately struck by this card showing up in my hands, for personal reasons, as well as for our times; for all of us. I have been personally challenged for the past ten years with using language and my personal abilities to communicate in many different ways in the world, to use communication in all of its many forms as a means of growth. On a universal level, I immediately noted that in the time we are in now communication is so easily accessible, we all have so many tools available to us, and lately we have been using them to great advantage. Take the revolutionary situations in the Middle East, largely orchestrated and carried out through the use of modern tools of communication: cell phones and facebook. The fact that we all have these tools puts us in a unique position but also a rather precarious one as well.
We must be more thoughtful than ever, I believe. We must be careful in how we express ourselves and selective in what we say. In order to fully embrace the meaning of the Magician in all of us, we must be in proper alignment with our times, the energy of Mercury that is flowing and firing through us all, asking us to change, to revolt, to grow now beyond any stage we have previously achieved, but it also asks us to do so from a new base, from the spiritually interconnected, heart-centered place we all have within. We all feel the energy of revolution and the speed with which things are happening, but we must stay in alignment with the far greater truth that this kind of energy can destroy us as well as evolve us.
We must be in balance—our timing must be right. Our sense of purpose must be clear and well thought out, from the proper perspective, in alignment with the greater interconnectedness of all things. This is what Chuck and I have been trying to write about in our blogs, what Jeanne conveys in her messages, that we are at a crucial time in the history of the world, that we have more tools available to us for communicating now than ever before, but we must use them wisely, for the right reasons, with commitment to endeavors that evolve us now to a place of understanding, kindness, compassion and love for all human beings and the planet as well.
This is what Arrien says as well: “The Magician organizes communication patterns by picking the appropriate tools or content and combines it will well-timed delivery. Blunt communication is communication which lacks correct timing. Confused communication is communication which lacks appropriate content, yet may be well-timed in delivery but poorly organized. The wizard-like quality of the Magician is to artfully combine good timing with clear content and appropriate context.” I believe this is the challenge for all of us now. The truth must be spoken, the revolutions must be waged, the world must change, but all of this must be done properly now. We may not have another chance to get it right.
My second request was for guidance related to all of us, especially the readers of these blogs. I asked for clarity on how what I personally write is being received and what I must be aware of as I continue to express myself in this very public forum. I asked that this guidance show me where we all are now, as we take in the truths of the world and as we grasp the deeper meaning. What must we be aware of next?
Here is the card I received: The Five of Wands: Strife
Strife
Strife, as Arrien writes, “is the symbol of the state of strife, anxiety or frustration. Anxiety is an energetic experience caused by holding back… It is the state of having abundant energy but not knowing what to do with that energy, or it’s a lot of energy that’s being contained or held back, which will produce anxiety or the state of strife… The astrological aspect that’s represented on this symbol is Saturn in Leo. Saturn is the planet of discipline, of knowing what your limits and boundaries are and being able to set limits and boundaries. Saturn is the planet that reminds us to do things step-by-step. Leo is the astrological sign of creative power that does not want to be limited, restricted or restrained, and desires full expression.”
So here I see the direct correlation to the Magician card in the energy that is now present, the energy that is revolutionary, in us all, asking to be expressed, allowed to live. Yet we are also held back by old patterns of behavior and what we have yet to face about ourselves, personally, as a nation and a world. We are asked to set limits, which in one sense can offer us the sobriety of thoughtfulness, leading to proper timing, yet also adds frustration to the mix. In holding back we build up anger and tension, which may block our availability to our true knowing, to awareness that is growth-oriented for all of us.
We must be careful as we go into the next five weeks and months, as we face our truths and the world’s truths, as we release old patterns of anxiety and frustration within ourselves and in the revolutions now taking place outside of us. In addition, our energy may get stuck in the frustration of this tension, which sets up the potential for problems and we must be aware that we can easily fall back into old patterns and old complacencies. Even while we bask in this energy, it may be difficult to fully access its power properly.
As Arrien writes: “Any holding back or self limitation will move you into that state in alchemy which was known as leaded consciousness. Leaded consciousness is symbolically represented by the greyed-over areas of this symbol. The lotus blossoms are grey, which means that in states of anxiety you have difficulty in opening or unfolding.”
“In the next five weeks or in the next five months would be a good time to move towards creative endeavors where you feel that you can express yourself fully instead of binding and restricting yourself in any way… This symbol reminds you that in the next five weeks or in the next five months, you are no longer willing to be the lineage bearer of family anxiety patterns.”
This then becomes the challenge to all of us, as the weeks and months unfold, to notice our old patterns of frustration and how we handle them. Are we going to truly change now, embracing this energy in a good and heart-centered manner, or are we going to let the old status quo return and bury us in our inner tensions? Are we truly ready to embrace the power of the energy of these times and change ourselves too, while we watch the rest of the world embrace it, dealing with the strife in all of us?
My third quest for advice revolved around how to deal with people in the world outside of me. How do I apply the energy of the Magus and the power of Strife properly, so that I do not fall into old patterns of personal behavior as regards the people I meet as I elect to change, to take this journey that the energy of this time I live in guides me to take? How do I deal with what comes at me as I seek to transform myself?
Here is the card I pulled this time: Ace of Wands
Ace of Wands
Arrien states: “The Ace of Wands is a symbol of spiritual self-realization, awakening, and is associated with the principle of truth and authenticity… the torch of fire, a symbol of the uncontainable life-force that’s within. The lightning bolts are a symbol of awakening to the spiritual truth and authenticity of who you are… you’ve awakened to the unconscious and irrepressible inherent Being within.”
This card, for me, wraps up the challenges suggested by the two previous cards: we must all stand in and speak our truths. We must be honest and authentic, upholding what we have learned about ourselves as we have journeyed through our lives. We must not hold back who we have evolved into. We know who we are now, and we must fully embrace and become that person. Especially, we must embrace the energy of our times to fully mature into who we have worked so hard to become, but we must balance that energy that wants to burst forth, and declare itself, with the pragmatism and sobriety of the great communicator that resides within us, our ancient spirit self, our knowing wisdom mind, as the Buddhists call it.
As the seers of ancient Mexico will remind us always: we are beings who are going to die, so the question to ask, as we face our death is: How do I want to live?
I feel that these three cards, The Magus, Strife, and The Ace of Wands offer us the balance and guidance we need now, for the times we live in. They offer sobering and at the same time invigorating guidance, encouraging us to stay connected to the energy of life, to plowing ahead, accepting and resolving what we have buried in our pasts that so frustrates and angers us, while we fully embrace our greater potential and our inherent truths. It is time, I believe, for all of us to become more than we have ever dared to become before, but we must do it right.
The tools of communication are not in question; the means are available to all of us. But what we say is of utmost importance, how we say it, and where we elect to speak our truths. We must, I believe, stay in our heart-centered truths, but at all times be mindful of where others are, of the impact our actions, thoughts, and language have. In the media now we hear and read such vitriolic and hateful language, strife between the talking heads, but does it really have any meaning? The same thing can be asked of the language of “the experts” regarding the nuclear disaster in Japan; are they speaking the real truth, or are they “greyed-over” platitudes in an attempt to keep the energy from fully empowering us all now?
We can use these examples by questioning our own speaking tongues, both in our inner world and in the outer world. Are we caught in old patterns of inner and outer strife, in lies that no longer serve us or the energy that is boiling inside us all? It is indeed time to revolt, but it must be done right, both within and without. And you know what, it can’t be stopped. We are in it, we are all responsible for the outcome, as Jeanne mentioned in the most recent message. So the question is, are we going to get it right this time? Everything is available to us, everything is in alignment, everything is already in action.
I awoke from a dream the other morning hearing this: “Yes, good, good,” I heard a voice saying. “You get it, you understand how energy works, you know what you are talking about, but now it is time to not only embrace it and to become it, but to go beyond it.” It’s time for all of us, and the entire world, to go beyond now.
If you wish, feel free to share or comment in the Post Comment section below. And don’t forget to check out our facebook page where we share pertinent quotes, photos, and comments, from us and others, at: Riverwalker Press on facebook.
Thanks for reading and passing these blogs on to others! Sending you all love and good wishes,
Jan
References: The Tarot cards I use and that are pictured in this blog are Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Deck and the book referenced is The Tarot Handbook: Practical Applications of Ancient Visual Symbols, by Angeles Arrien. Both are available through our Store.
Written by Jan Ketchel and including a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
It’s early Sunday morning as I write this. Chuck woke me as dawn was breaking and I got up to see the first orange sweep of the rising sun in the East and the luminous globe of the enormous “supermoon” setting through the trees in the West. The birds were already stirring and, as we sat by the woodstove and looked out the windows to the South, I saw deer grazing in the field across the road while the robins swept across the front yard, as they worked on nest building, and the squirrels ran around gathering edibles; nature awakening and going about the natural course of things. I could not help but think about what nature had enacted on the other side of the world: devastation and continued danger of high radiation in Japan, as well as the energy of revolution continually escalating in the Middle East.
Here I sit, I thought, quite happy and contented, my world in order, nature doing what nature does. It goes on as it has every spring, nesting, preparing for new life, the crocuses and daffodils emerging from the frozen ground, the sun warming the earth and, yet, I cannot forget what has been happening in our world.
Already a little more than a week has passed since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan rocked our world and we all felt the reverberations in some way. There are people who choose not to attach any importance to events taking place so far away, however, who choose not to know, who feel detached and unaffected, simply because they are not personally effected by something happening in a foreign country. The media has already gone on to new news, for the most part; the Libyan conflict—revolution equally important—now taking the headlines again.
It is appropriate that we not turn from the truth of the revolutions taking place in our world, yet I fear the nuclear disaster in Japan will be swept from our knowing, suppressed, covered in lies. We will be told again and again that there is no immediate human health danger to be concerned about, until we accept it as truth and return to our old ways. Meanwhile radiation has been released into the atmosphere, it is in cow’s milk and green leafy foods in Japan, and it is being washed into the oceans and carried on the winds. Yet we are lied to in order to keep down the panic.
Panic is necessary now. This is the time of revolution, after all. We must not listen to the voices that tell us to “go shopping” as President Bush did after 9/11, or the Japanese authorities who say they have everything under control and that there is really nothing to worry about, while at the same time radiation is spreading. In the face of the truth they blatantly lie, expecting us to acquiesce to the lies as we have always done in the past. It is not time to pull back into secrecy but to keep exposing the lies along with the real truths of what man has done to our world, to Mother Earth.
And yet, I know that inner calm is utterly necessary at times like this, that the truth must be balanced with inner pragmatism while we look deeply within and search for the true path for man to take, now more than ever. As I look upon nature itself on this beautiful morning, I receive one answer by its example. Nature tells me that life does indeed go on.
This is nature at its best, just as destruction, misery, and suffering are nature at its best. There must be death for there to be new life. Can I accept that what is happening is right for our times? Can I accept the release of radiation, the revolutions, the deaths in so many forms as right, knowing that it is forcing us to a new evolutionary possibility, for mankind to do more than just survive what he himself has wrought? This is nature in true balance. Can I be in alignment with this side of nature too?
I ask you today, Jeanne, to lead us now to a new level of understanding and consideration, as we take in the truth of what is happening, for I fear that the media will be moving on to the next crisis in the world, leaving the smoldering mess of contamination in Japan to “the experts,” while the planet suffers, and each one of us too. While baby dolphins die as a result of last year’s fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico and the fish in the Hudson River contend with heavy PCB contamination, while nature pushes us to remember, we move on so easily to the next big news item, forgetting that we too are nature.
What can we do to stay bound to the truth now? It is time to stay connected to what we have forgotten, that decay is necessary, as well as new life. I must remember, while I watch the birds building their nests, that in the woods lies the carcass of an enormous deer, rotting, its rib cage bleaching white in the sun, picked clean by scavengers. I must remember this balance in nature and be honest with myself about death.
Can you talk today about making personal choices now, as the attention to recent disasters shifts and the status quo reasserts itself, as we get back to business as usual, as I see reflected in nature on this early morning? Because that is the other truth: life does go on.
Here is Jeanne’s response to my questions:
I ask you to enjoy your moments of bliss and delight, yet maintain awareness of death, for it is true that they go hand-in-hand. But do not either forget that they are not separate activities, opposites perhaps, but in concert nonetheless, for you cannot have one without the other. This Jan points out, and yet it is what is most often forgotten as one goes about “business as usual.”
There can no longer be business as usual. You, My Dear Readers and Journeyers, if you are to be the new generation of seers upon that earth, must never return to complacency and business as usual. It is time now to remain awake, alert to the realities of your world as you have made it. You may say that this had been done by others, that you have no skills in the development of nuclear science, that you have no dispute in the war zones, but that is not so: You are all responsible.
I charge each one of you with the responsibility for your world and until you accept this responsibility you will not be a true citizen of change, nor hold the seers potential in right alignment with its proper meaning or intent.
I ask that there be no stopping the human potential to realign with nature, to rebalance with nature’s intent, for in order to evolve and come into alignment, mankind, all humanity, must react as ferociously as Mother Nature does. I do not advocate destruction without—except in the form of change—by making decisions that will be revolutionary in enacting personal and worldwide change.
Do what is right for the planet and you will do what is right for all living things. Nature goes about her business, but do not think it is business as usual, for nature contends each moment of each day with change. Nature must adapt to herself and to what man had done to her air, her waters, her soils, her growing flowers and fruits, to her creatures, and yet she does not stop. Her energy is as powerful as ever. Nature does not sleep, except to rejuvenate herself, and this is what man must learn to do as well.
Man must learn to rejuvenate his energy, so that his natural power is ready each moment of each day. If a bird falls asleep in the middle of the day it will not be in alignment with nature. If the birds all slept, instead of doing what they must to live, the balance of all nature would suffer.
Man sleeps too often when he should be awake. It is time now to shift to a more natural alignment with nature, with the rising sun and the setting sun. Learn now to work in the proper moment, to rest in the proper moment, and to act according to the laws of nature in the proper moment, all of which can only be accessed if in alignment with all things.
Accept the truths of life and death as intertwined. One without the other leads to chaos and this is where mankind, especially in the West, has faltered. He has chosen only to live. He has chosen to forget about death and thus he has created an impossible situation.
An earthquake is only the beginning of his shake up, for mankind needs to be reminded of the basic truths of his reason for being upon that earth. And what is that?
Man is a sentient being. This means he is, in truth, a spiritual presence and not a conquering presence. Man has sought to conquer nature, forgetting his spiritual self, as he sought only to feed his ego self. Now man is asked, by nature herself, to return to his sentient roots, in alignment with nature, and learn once again what nature offers: the true lessons in evolutionary growth.
Look now for personal inner balance. Seek a place of calm observation while awake and rejuvenating energy replenishment while asleep. Restore first that balance, the sleeping-waking cycles, as nature does, and you will begin to realign with man’s true intent. When in balance, you will find that you each have within you the answers you seek.
Take responsibility for the self and you take responsibility for the entire world. Remain alert to the moment, to the energy of the moment. And do not forget that in order for life, including your own, to evolve, there will be destruction and death. It is necessary and unavoidable.
A seer knows this at all times. A seer seeks balance at all times by remaining aware of his death, just as the birds and other animals do. Their instinct is strong. They know how to live and they know how to die, with dignity, in proper alignment with nature, constantly adjusting to what life presents, respectful of all other life, always on the move in natural consort/concert with evolutionary energy.
In ending, I suggest that each one of you look upon your own life, your habits, and correct your misalignment with nature as much as you can, just as you expect the rest of the world to do. And then see what happens!
Thank you Jeanne. Please feel free to post comments or respond to this message in the post/read comments section below. Also check out our facebook page at: Riverwalker Press on facebook. And thank you for passing the messages on!
News of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 came to Huashan with the monthly supplies. The students who had gone down for provisions had rushed back up the mountain with the report that Japan had swept across the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing, overrun the iron- and coal-rich northern mountains of Shaanxi Province, and had begun a second drive from Tianjin toward Nanjing…
The exceptionally gruesome stories of the fighting and atrocities shocked everyone, including Saihung… Every priest, acolyte, and student had a different opinion…
A large number of Taoists advocated noninvolvement in the war. They insisted that they as ascetics, “people-who-had-left-their-families,” should not return to worldly affairs and break the purity they had so long cultivated. The world was a place of war, deceit, dishonesty, money, killing, politics, and danger.
Patriotic Taoists disagreed, saying that if China was overrun or destroyed, ascetics would have no place to practice their arts… Renunciates or not, they were needed by their country and people.
These are the words I was reading in The Wandering Taoist last Friday when I paused, put down my book, and picked up the news of the tsunami attacking Japan. The synchronicity of aggression by Japan and upon Japan, at that moment, for me, was unshakeable. But what did it mean, what was I being shown?
The meaning became clearer as I contemplated the context of the Sino-Japanese War for the Taoist monks who had left the world and now, high in the mountain retreat of Huashan Monastery, were forced to struggle with deciding what should be the correct action in the face of this worldly aggression.
The Taoist sages knew that this world is but one illusion—they need not attach—and yet many of these highly evolved martial artist monks felt compelled to come down from their mountain and meet aggression with aggression.
Later, as I pondered the deeper meaning and response to the tsunami in Japan, I consulted The I Ching, perhaps the wisest and most immediately useful of Taoist texts. I received Hexagram #49: Ko/Revolution (Molting) with moving lines in the third and sixth places.
The original sense of this hexagram refers to the changes to an animal’s pelt or skin in the course of the year: the molting process. This is a natural event. This is nature’s transforming work, effecting necessary changes to accommodate shifting environmental conditions. Later interpretations of this hexagram extended its meaning to include revolutions that effect necessary changes in governance. Hence, the hexagram represents a change in nature and a change in governance.
These indeed are the attributes of now: the tsunami strike (nature) generating a revolution to overthrow the governing principles of our world. We see this reverberating in the many revolutions taking place throughout the Middle East, heralding a change in governance, while the molting action of nature is destroying a nuclear energy and containment system, which the earth deems destructive to its health and future evolution. Nature’s action and revolution are messages for the entire world, not just Japan and the Middle East. We are all pressured now, through this molting action, to realign governance in accord with nature. Revolution challenges an ideology of greed that refuses to consider balance and the needs of all of nature, human and nonhuman alike.
The moving line in the third place states: “When change is necessary, there are two mistakes to be avoided. One lies in excessive haste and ruthlessness, which bring disaster. The other lies in excessive hesitation and conservatism, which are also dangerous.”
We are challenged here to pause and reflect upon the deep meanings and truths that are being revealed, as well as the lies that are being promulgated, about nuclear power specifically, and then to act decisively. If we contemplate what gives rise to a world that accepts the need to contain highly radioactive materials for hundreds of thousands of years we will arrive at the understanding that at the root of it is a governing belief that unlimited growth is a necessity for the human species. This self-serving principle forces our species to detach from balance and instead exploit and threaten all that nature provides for the survival of all things. Precipitous actions focused on immediate containment and greater securing of a system of deriving energy destructive to life, without a deeper appreciation of the need for a major shift in how we derive energy, would be as futile as monks deciding on bloodshed as the proper action, but in essence just attaching to a different narrow illusion.
The moving line in the sixth place states: “You are reserved and withdrawn. Because of your quiet and uncomplicated philosophy of life, the effect on you of the great changes that are occurring throughout the world will be small and insignificant.”
What does this mean? Stand in the truth. The great changes happening in the world are inevitable. The ego of man will stand unrelentingly firm until nature completely levels it and restores it to humility where it assumes the proper relation to the Tao, or the course of nature. I emphasize here that it is out of our hands now; nature will have its way. This is necessary because man’s ego refused to acquiesce to a governance that respected natural balance and the interconnectedness of all things. In the meantime, we must spare ourselves great energy expenditure fighting that which only the heavy artillery of nature will level.
This was the lesson to the Taoist priests, who ultimately returned to their temples having learned the futility of bloodshed. With this lesson, it was time to take on the true demon on a level playing field, that is, to go within and lift the veil of illusion within the self.
We are all interconnected. What happens without happens within. We are all confronted with a tsunami right now, within ourselves, blowing the lid off truths turned toxic in their nuclear containment within the self. Our personal energy sources, the illusions we uphold to fuel our lives are being exposed now with unrelenting force. Can we face these truths within that we see mirrored and revealed without? What truths are being revealed now that demand changes in the governance of ourselves and our relationships? Are we willing to make major changes in our lives to achieve true alignment? These are the opportunities we are personally being presented with to change the course of our lives, which in turn reverberate into a changed life on this planet.
The future hexagram that emerges from the changes in revolution is #25: Innocence. In innocence we are presented with the image of thunder beneath heaven. When movement (thunder) follows the law of heaven, man is innocent and without guile. Here we have the strong suggestion that the outcome of revolution be a governance that acts in accordance with the Tao, that is, an ego that humbles itself and serves the true needs of the self—the rule of heaven—acting from a place of pure innocence versus tainted egoistic greed. This is the place of humility where man assumes the proper attitude within the interconnectedness of all things. In this paradigm, energy is derived from doing that which is right, working with versus exploiting nature, deriving energy from sources in concert with nature, accepting limitation, versus unlimited energy at all costs.
In summary, my reading of the Taoist response to Japan’s attacks, synchronized with the tsunami in Japan and the reading of The I Ching, all point to lethal power overthrowing the world as we have known it. Japan is simply the latest country to experience the molting of our planet. Think back to 2004, to the tsunami in Indonesia, as well as the recent debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. As well, let us not get distracted by the significance of relief efforts and restoration to normalcy. Victims of these disasters are warriors heralding a new world. Don’t let sadness and grief distract us from the real message: these are necessary encounters with nature’s imperative; everything is changing now on a dramatic worldwide scale.
There is need for revolution, and nature is providing it. Understanding the true nature of this occurrence can bring us to a place of calm and simplicity. We arrive at this place through acquiescing to the deeper truth of fundamental change that we are in the midst of; we can’t stop it. We must align our intent with nature’s intent and remain calm in knowing that what is happening is right. This is not passive surrender. This is the proper position of the ego that supports the truth. Take action within the self and outside the self that aligns with the Tao of nature, because the world, as we have known it, is undergoing major change now, fortunately, heralded by nature itself. No longer is man’s greed going to be allowed to dominate the planet.
Don’t waste energy in psychotic arguments. Embrace the real truth, within and without, without blame, and move toward a life of simplicity that takes only what is necessary and respects the needs of everything else. This is the way of the Tao.
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I am nothing,
Chuck
References:The Wandering Taoist, Deng Ming-Dao, p. 186; The I Ching, Richard Wilhelm translation, p. 189-192; I Ching, Sam Reifler, p. 220.
Buddha in the Midst of the Mist: Sitting in Calmness
With the crisis in Japan continuing to escalate and the loss of so many lives once again punctuating our complacency, as it did when the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004 killing over 230,000 people, we in the West must face our own mortality. The impermanence of life, normally ignored in favor of plowing ahead with our lives with little regard for the impact we make on our environment, strikes home when Mother Nature shows us just how insignificant we really are. But if you have been reading the channeled messages from Jeanne that we have been posting lately you might also note that crises such as these can be utilized to shift us, as they ask us to question how we really want to live our lives.
Sogyal Rinpoche says the following, in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: “As the world around us becomes more turbulent, so our lives become more fragmented. Out of touch and disconnected from ourselves, we are anxious, restless, and often paranoid. A tiny crisis pricks the balloon of the strategies we hide behind. A single moment of panic shows us how precarious and unstable everything is. To live in the modern world is to live in what is clearly a bardo realm; you don’t have to die to experience one.”
He then goes on to say: “The constant uncertainty may make everything seem bleak and almost hopeless, but if you look more deeply at it, you will see that its very nature creates gaps, spaces in which profound chances and opportunities for transformation are continuously flowering—if, that is, they can be seen and seized.” (-from pages 104-5)
This is where we are now, at the moment of revisioning our world, taking advantage of the moment that nature offers us to grab the chance to transform everything. We can all do this in some small way.
I insert a picture here of a tree branch that I often stared at off the deck last summer, until I finally took a picture of it. I call it the swimmer because it looks to me like a swimmer diving into the surf or swimming out of it. Speaking of impermanence, that branch, my swimmer, is no longer there. He went down in the mini tornado we had last fall. When I went looking for this picture I had taken of him last summer I was thinking of the people who lost their lives in the tsunami and the impermanence of all things. We can’t hold onto anything, but we can carry love, kindness, and compassion in our hearts at all times, now and as we pass into new life, as we go through the bardos now and later when we die.
For now, I send you good wishes that you may seize the opportunities now being offered to live differently. I am grateful for this opportunity, Jan
