Find balance in yourself as you begin a new week. Find balance in knowing that you can achieve your goals, in knowing that you have what it takes, in knowing that you are enough, in knowing that your life is as it should be in this moment in time, in knowing that your challenges are the only ones that matter for you to grow. For that is what matters most, your growth and your ability to handle and face what comes each day, to go with the flow, to sail on steady into the day and the night, a sturdy little boat upon the great high seas of life, no wave too big, no wind too strong, no storm too much. Stay aware, alert, and healthy. Take care, Captain. Steady as she goes!
Tune into nature within and without. Get in synch with your true self, your energy part of all energy. You often feel so separate and separated from all that is, a stranger among strangers, distant even from your true self, but in truth you are all of one energetic nature. Tune into your energetic self and notice how you can feel it, bring it into alignment within and without. Meditate on this energetic state, finding new balance and grounding, and return to your life knowing that you are more than you think you are. You are all extraordinary energetic beings. Ground in that knowledge, in the Tao of being alive, in the extraordinary energetic nature of being. Get in touch with that and let that be enough for this day. Tune in.
One extreme leads to another, too much to too little, too full to too empty, too high to too low, too light to too dark. The Middle Way takes into consideration all extremes but stays mainly in between, neither too much nor too little. The Middle Way is just enough, though it may take some time to figure out how much is just enough. Do not be discouraged as you discover what the Middle Way means for you. You may go this way and that, up and down, fast and slow, but in the end find your own balance, find your own pace, find what suits you best so that all is in synch, innerly and outerly. That is what it means to take the Middle Way. And remember, what might seem to be the Middle Way one day may shift the next, that too is the Middle Way.
Crossing the river is a powerful symbol of change. To leave solid ground, to traverse a powerful current of liquid energy, to consolidate oneself on new uncharted ground, succinctly illustrates the phases of change.
So compelling is this image that the I Ching’s closing hexagram, #64, Before Completion, that marks the end and the beginning, is pictured as a fox crossing a river. In Greek mythology, securing the ferryman to cross the river Styx is the journey into Hades, land of the dead. Even the sophisticated modern texter might notice a ping in the pit of the abdomen as they prepare to drive across the bridge of a mighty river. The ping in the abdomen is the body’s archetypal recognition of the tremendum that crossing the great abyss represents.
Perhaps the great change we must face is as simple as closing our eyes and saying good night to the world. What guarantee do we have that the sun will rise or that we will open our eyes to the light of tomorrow as we drift and fall into the cliffhanger of dreams? What monsters, terrorists, sirens, and entities will we encounter in the underwater current of dream sleep? Will we safely rejuvenate and consolidate on firm ground tomorrow, or will our thoughts interrupt our smooth passage into a new day?
Perhaps our solid ground is the quiet calm of our aloneness. The sudden intrusion of a ring or a ding sparks fear in the throat, our sanctuary lost as we are thrown into the river of needs and expectations of another. Can we find our way to new ground that includes both self and other?
To leave the security of our car, wade across the parking lot, and enter the vast ocean of a store, with its sea of humanity, may evoke a furor of dissolution of self. In fact, every simple action of the day, from waking, interacting, leaving, working, eating, and returning, poses challenges for the smallness of self to navigate the bigness of everything.
In days of old, the rituals of the great religions tapped into the tried and true archetypal bridges of our deep nature to facilitate our crossings from one phase of life to another; crossings from childhood to adulthood, solitariness to relationship, life to death. These rituals literally transformed one into a new sense of self, confident to take on a new ground in life. These rituals bathed the ego in the deep wellspring of unconscious resource that reshaped the conscious self.
In our time, these rituals have largely petrified through the ascendence of rationality and the failure of religion to authentically provide a numinous crossing experience. Today, the individual must turn to the dream, which still offers the ritual crossings to new life. Conscious participation in dreaming can access those transformative crossings. Often the dream uses the river or the ocean, with all kinds of helpers and challenges, to facilitate the necessary changes to successfully effect a safe crossing.
Use of an oracle, such as the I Ching, can offer the guidance of a dream. In Hexagram #64, Before Completion, it offers the following guidance for making the crossing:
Don’t advance too rapidly just to get it over with—you may not be ready, it might not be the right time.
Be patient. Develop the necessary strength—the vehicle for the crossing. Don’t lose sight of the goal.
Sometimes it’s time to cross but you’re not ready, you lack the requisite strength. It is necessary to get help. Be humble. Ask.
You must battle the forces of inertia, regression, avoidance and doubt. Be resolved. Respect the power of the dissenters. Lay the foundation for mastery by consolidating intent.
Once the crossing has been effected, keep exuberance in proper measure. Intemperance can drown all one has worked for.
These cautions steer the ego to be in the right relation with the deeper self that then provides its transformative energies to transport the ego solidly and happily across the river to new fertile ground. Remain awake, poised, intent, patient, and calm. Know that the way will be shown. Perhaps the sea will part, perhaps the right floating log will appear. Simply know that you will cross.
Remind yourself often to keep your two feet on the ground, to feel them in the grip of groundedness even as you continue upward on your path of change and growth, even as you learn that you are so much more than you think you are. Do not leave your head in the clouds but turn your eyes down to human level often enough so that all that is right in front of your eyes is not lost to you, for often it is that which is so mundane that is also so magical. Remember, for all that you are or think you are, you are also a human being having a magical experience.
