Occupy a new frame of mind today. Volitionally shift away from the usual thoughts, feelings and determinations of self and other. Let light in. Let go of that which you normally bear and bear instead the calming light of no thought, new thought, or pleasant thought. Allow a day of respite by intending it.
Your thoughts create your reality. For one day create a new reality.
Words matter. Watch what you say and how you say it. Speak out only when necessary, using your words wisely to influence not injure. Words are like caressing water or they are like sharp knives. They are meaningless or full of meaning, intelligent or empty. Let your words today be full of compassion, kindness, and awareness, allowing others to experience themselves as beings of import and gentleness through hearing your own sense of import and gentleness that you invoke through the words you choose to use.
Words have power. Use them wisely to create not destroy. Speak words of love not of hate. Speak words of conjugation not confrontation. Speak words of unity not derision or division. Speak words of healing, innerly and outerly, to self and other. Be careful what you say. It matters.
The Marrying Maiden, hexagram #54 of the I Ching, is a reading I’ve grappled with much of my adult life. The Petty Tyrant is a central theme in the training of the warrior in the shamanic world of Carlos Castaneda. I see the marrying maiden and the petty tyrant as mirror images of wisdom, pearls from two ancient traditions that reflect so relevantly in the world of now.
Contrary to a sweet, innocent image that the marrying maiden might evoke, hexagram #54 depicts an unchosen life, a woman forced into the role of second wife as she must enter the home of her marrying sister’s husband, an ancient Chinese custom. Not the chosen bride she nonetheless must accept her new station and all the duties it entails. Thus, hexagram #54 depicts an unchosen, unwelcome fate.
From a broader perspective this predicament captures a salient feature of the reality of life in this world. As Buddha concluded, “Life is suffering. There is no escaping old age, sickness and death.” This is our collective reality—we are all marrying maidens to forces we cannot control.
The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered that we spend the bulk of our energy fighting these deeper truths of our human condition. They saw this as absorption in self-pity. I understand this as absorption in the child state of resistance to the inevitable loss of paradise that we may or may not have experienced in our early childhood. Regardless, we feel entitled to have it restored or finally delivered, refusing to leave the garden, stubbornly demanding our due.
Of course, this is a very young hero that holds the world accountable, but this young hero is ill-equipped for the adult truth of old age, sickness and suffering, that which ultimately afflicts us all. The Shamans see humankind as fixated at the stage of this young hero, wasting most of its energy fighting fruitless battles. The marrying maiden is doing the same thing, bemoaning her fate. The I Ching guides her to see the reality of her situation and to position herself appropriately without self-pity. Similarly, the Shamans encourage us to identify our petty tyrants—those who ruthlessly show no consideration for our needs—as our teachers.
Rather than spend energy on fruitless anger and resistance, a warrior stares down any energetic spillage of self-pity. A warrior fully accepts the circumstances that life presents and with clarity and full energy acts in accordance with what is possible, with what is the best decision to make, and with what is the best action to take in the moment. To achieve this readiness one must be fully present without an ounce of energy spent feeling sorry or sad for the predicament one finds one’s self in.
In a world currently dominated by violent opposition, where the opposites are dissociated and only seek resolution by destroying each other, we are confronted with being marrying maidens to these petty tyrants all over the world, most especially in our own country. It is challenging to not succumb to the self-pity of helplessness in such a state of chaos. On the other hand, we are gifted an opportunity to train in warriorhood.
A warrior pauses, examines the true nature of things and awaits decisive action in full clarity. A warrior spends no energy bemoaning his or her fate; all circumstances are equal opportunities to transform one’s position as fateful marrying maiden into that of decisive warrior. A warrior is grateful for all teachers, especially the petty tyrants.
Once broken of the fixation of self-pity and entitlement, we are truly freed to be leaders advancing into a new world beyond the filters of self-obsession into deeper truth, fulfillment and new balance.
Most humbly,
Chuck
Each day you must make decisions in how to use your energy. A warrior does not expend energy unnecessarily, but a warrior is always ready to spring into action and always has enough energy to do so.
Problems that arise in life create the ebb and flow of energy inside and out and so, like a trained warrior, remain aware that there are times to fight and times to acquiesce, times to relax and times to be on alert, times to be present and times to disappear.
Look to what is happening outside of you to guide your decisions, actions, and personal energy usage. Like a warrior know what you are capable of and what is best left to others. Each warrior has a specialty and keeps that specialty honed. What is yours and how are you using it?
Life is all about gaining consciousness of self in the world as a physical, mental, spiritual, emotional being. Training begins immediately at birth, yet awareness of this most universal process often arrives late in life or not at all. And so awareness becomes the goal, that which leads to full consciousness.
Awareness may begin to be achieved by staying present in each moment of each day, knowing that it is all that matters, for all else has either already happened or has not yet happened and possibly never will and so has no importance.
Stay in the moment. It’s all that matters at this moment.