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Chuck’s Place: Before Completion—The Cauldron

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The era of dominance by greed is coming to completion. This is the message I’m given as I consult the I Ching for a reflection on NOW: we are in the time of Before Completion.

The necessary changes have been prepared for. All that remains is to cross the river to new life. However, just at the point of crossing the I Ching posts a stern warning: STOP! DO NOT CROSS! The time is not right yet!

First, it says, we must visit the hexagram of The Cauldron where important work to ensure a successful crossing must be completed.

Preparing the Cauldron

We find the cauldron stored in the sacred temple of the ancestors. It is a huge bronze vessel, forged to withstand the heat of a large fire, in which foods for nourishment are cooked and blessed by the ancestors.

The Cauldron is a sacred chalice that nourishes the true needs of mankind. To eat from the cauldron is to consume real nourishment from the divine—to consume what is truly needed.

The I Ching is showing us that the vessel we need to forge, to safely cross the river to new life, is the cauldron: We must consume from real need in order to free ourselves from being consumers of insatiable greed. If we can forge a self that consumes from true need, in alignment with spirit, we are freed forever from the domination of greed.

Corporate greed requires consumers to satisfy its insatiable appetite. United consumers, those who shift their consumption to that which is truly needed, to that which supports the life of the planet, move the world into the new balance that awaits.

This is the collective action the world awaits now, and that cauldron of change is but steps away from completion. However, as Jan states in her blog, we must all address the ruling 1% within ourselves to be fully available to this much needed concerted collective action without. If our individual consumer demands don’t change, how can we join the 99% in collective action to change the world?

Every one of us has a 1% within, a ruling, dominant part that demands the lion’s share of our energy. That energy can take the form of money. How much of what we consume is truly in alignment with what we need? How often are we aligning our personal consuming with the nurturance and guidance of our sacred inner cauldron? What is really controlling us?

Is our spending out of control? Do we deepen our debt to feel better? Do we eat too much of the wrong things? Do we drink too much to calm ourselves, to free ourselves? Do we drug ourselves to soothe and escape? Do we deny ourselves to a fault, under the hidden greed of deprivation and control? Do we satiate our senses with Facebook, the greed of self-importance? The list is endless. What we’re searching for in this questioning exercise is that which has control over our decisions and actions, that which is not derived from inner knowing of what we truly need, which is: food from our sacred cauldron.

Our inner 1% must become a steward now to the true needs of the 99% within us, versus being allowed to be a taker of the energy of it for its own separate greedy agenda. The same premise holds true for the new cycle of life we are entering in the world. The 1% must become stewards to that which is truly needed by the 99%. Those who resist will simply lose their funding through loss of consumer demand.

This is the I Ching’s guidance for NOW—the time Before Completion. Do not attempt to force a new order until you’ve forged the cauldron, an attitude of sacred acquiescence to true need. This is the vessel that can sustain a new era beyond the revolution, beyond completion, into a world of sustained balance, nourished by the sacred food in the cauldron, resting in the temple of the ancestors, in the temple of the body, deep within the sacred self.

It is indeed a time to remain calm,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog, Quote for the Day

To Occupy: “Don’t Invest!”

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Yesterday, in a dream, I uncharacteristically was toying with investing in the stock market, something I’ve never done. I wasn’t really serious about it. Jeanne’s father, John, came to me. I knew he’d had experience with the market when he was alive, so I asked him for advice. He immediately and forcefully snapped at me: “Don’t invest!” Upon waking, I appreciated my time with John, but saw little relevance to our interaction.

Upon encountering my stepson in the kitchen I spontaneously blurted out, from some unknown place: “iPhone, therefore I am!” He assured me that I wasn’t very original. I thought I was quite clever but, with self-importance in check, I was nonetheless struck by the meaning of the words that had come through me.

Rene Descartes, contemplating how he knew he existed, came to his famous conclusion: “I think, therefore I am.” In our time, right now, “I” has become a collective identity. Technology and the human need for interconnection have merged into a new identity for this current generation. It knows it exists because of its interconnectedness. Indeed: iPhone, therefore I am!

When I connect the dots of these two experiences on the day of the burgeoning global Occupy movement, I come to the following message: I Phone—Don’t Invest! What does that mean?

I=the collective Occupy movement.

Phone=communicate as a mass united whole.

Don’t invest=use the power of the purse to force change.

It’s unity through interconnected communication that is creating revolution, bringing down governments. Turn that power now, as a mass, in a targeted way at the market. Don’t just Occupy Wall Street, rattle it through the power of the purse!

On Friday, with Apple’s release of the new iPhone, a mass ripple of commerce flowed through the market. Everywhere in the world people lined up to purchase their new phones.

Occupy has the power to send ripples, if not tidal waves, through the market by targeting a specific company or bank, by coordinating worldwide to boycott a store, a product, a bank, etc.

You have to hit a corporation where it hurts. The only language it understands and listens to is the bottom line.

Michael Moore says it well. It’s not about bringing down capitalism, but it is about restoring fairness and human decency. Corporate greed must be checked. This can no longer be accomplished through government. In one form or another the 1% own the government. But the 1% do need the 99% to buy their goods and services to stay in existence. This puts direct power to change the world in the hands of the people.

The worldwide Occupy movement may seem to be in a fledgling stage, but its intent touches the hearts of the masses who cannot march. There is majority sympathy with this minority movement. Bring the march of communication toward a targeted goal. Everyone can march this way.

It’s time to put the brain and tools to work. A targeted effort toward a specific corporation must be communicated on a mass scale. The message to the corporation: Make specific changes or we withdraw our support.

No laws broken, no one hurt, simply a market correction from the people, by the people, for the people.

If this resonates, please pass it on,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Thunderbolt!

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Thunderbolt!

In The Godfather, Michael Corleone, in his protected Sicilian retreat, is struck by a powerful, almost dangerous desire for the peasant woman Apollonia—what the Sicilians call “being hit by the thunderbolt.”

The thunderbolt originates in the realm of the immortals at the hand of Zeus, head of the Olympian gods. Being struck by the thunderbolt then is a divine interaction of great energetic and emotional significance. The encounter might result in rapture, transformation, conflagration, or death.

The “key,” as Ben Franklin is said to have demonstrated, is whether this powerful electrical charge can be safely harnessed and conducted to empower the boldest of human enterprises or, in its raw form, strike and destroy with uncontrolled power.

Today, we conceive of the Greek pantheon of gods as archetypes residing deep within the human psyche. The divine is part of us. We are human/divine beings who experience our divinity in thunderbolt surges of energetic encounters such as in experiences of falling in love, awe, rapture, passionate sexuality, compassion, interconnectedness, power, violence, hatred, creativity, ecstasy, rage, and grace.

As humans we long for these energetic experiences of wholeness, fulfillment, and transcendence. These experiences are both our birthright and deepest challenge to realize in this life. We must find our way to the energy of our divine nature and safely funnel it into our lives to attain these energetic possibilities.

The real challenge is to successfully channel these divine surges of thunderbolt energy into our humanness in a way that funds our human fulfillment and, as well, opens access to our energy bodies that live beyond our human form in infinity.

As a young child, my first encounter with divine energy was terrifying, as the experience of myself as pure energy nearly fried the circuit to my humanness. That’s why we develop egos and rationality—to insulate ourselves from the full impact of our energetic selves.

Major ruptures to our ego’s construction of reality can force us into experiences of our true energetic nature. Frequently, in trauma, people leave their human form and discover themselves as energy beings outside of their bodies. These are often terrifying encounters that lead to a lifelong challenge to reconcile energetic self with human form.

All encounters with thunderbolts generate anxiety, fear, trepidation, excitement, and anticipation. Some are quite unexpected, others quite planned for. Falling in love can be longed for, but not made to happen. Addictions, on the other hand, are experiences chosen because they open the channel to thunderbolt energy. Under the influence of the drug, the wine, the food, the purchase, the job, the obsessive activity, etc., the human form is flooded with and enjoys union with surges of divine energy.

Unfortunately, in addiction, access to the divine energy is limited to the substance or behavior and is not available independent of it. Furthermore, one cannot fully be in control of what kind of divine energy might show up. Perhaps a vengeful god resulting in a crime of passion or perhaps an omnipotent god that pushes to acts beyond the limits of the human form, resulting in accidental death or even suicide, comes calling.

Divine energy may be exciting but its power must be respected. To allow it to take full possession of us results in the manic side of bipolar disorder. You can be guaranteed that the fallback into humanness once the divine vacates will be a deep fall into the pit of depression.

On the other hand, to live a life sealed off from the tremendum of divine energy will lead ultimately to agoraphobia—the need to wall the self in from all high energy triggers projected everywhere in everyday life. We need divine energy to fulfill our lives. We must reckon with it in one form or another.

Recapitulation is a practice that clears and fortifies the channels to divine energy. In recapitulation, we relive the high energy onslaught of disintegrating experiences in our lives over and over until we can fully stare them down, be present, and handle them in full truth. We dismantle every disintegrating component of the experience until it no longer has any energetic impact. In the process we reclaim and reconfigure our energy that had previously been dispersed in the encounter into a channel for our energetic being. We develop the ability to access, funnel, and enjoy our divine energy in human form, as well as our energetic selves, at will.

Although Michael Corleone was able to unite and possess Apollonia after being struck by the thunderbolt, their union was short-lived as she was killed in an explosion that was intended to kill him. His real challenge, though he failed miserably, was to find his way to love in a real human relationship, with Kay, upon return to America. A successful human relationship forms the channel to divine love in contrast to the thunderbolt, which overtakes the human and quickly burns out.

The challenge is the same with integrating all divine thunderbolts into our human lives. We must open and fortify the channels to handle the energy of the divine to avoid being overtaken or fried by its power. Recapitulation is a valuable tool to channel and merge with the thunderbolt.

Out and about in today’s thunderstorm,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Accumulation in Excess

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We are in a time of extreme imbalance. Imbalance is the result of accumulation in excess. Accumulating in excess is the precursor of change. When a river swells to excess with accumulated rains, it must, of necessity, overwhelm its banks and flood the lands—a time of great change indeed!

The accumulation of angst through decades of stagnant repression has broken through to revolution in the Middle East Arab Spring. The accumulation of excessive wealth in the hands of the few has sprung another spring of protest upon the “wall” of Wall street.

The excessive stranglehold upon the economy—from whatever tainted, purist, or natural source—presses now upon the spirit to relinquish its attachment to materialism in excess as a source of meaning in life. The flood of deprivation drowning the planet is pressing human life into a new, sustainable balance.

There is no restraining the floods of change currently unleashed upon us. No corrective action can shore us up or return us to an old world balance.

We are in a different world now. The environment is rapidly shifting, the masses are wiser, more interconnected than ever, and the ruling platitude of unlimited growth and expansion has proven unsustainable.

We find ourselves truly at a major evolutionary juncture: Accumulation in excess as a way of life, as a planetary economy, is unsustainable. What will come next?

What is called for is a new paradigm that separates true needs from want, hunger from appetite. Accumulation in excess derives not from true need and hunger but from want and appetite. Want and appetite are abstractions, projections of value attached to things. From this projection derives the equation: more things = greater value. This is the equation of addiction. Addiction is accumulation in excess. Addiction is the human condition at this current evolutionary juncture.

The ethereal impulse behind addiction is spirit. Spirit seeks greater life, greater possibility. Spirit projected onto matter always seeks more for completion: more love, more alcohol, more numbness, more freedom, more adventure, more sex, more intensity, more money, more food, more, more, more.

Material balance

If we are to find safe passage through this time of great change we must satisfy spirit in spirit terms. We must lift our spirit’s longings off our material world and allow our beleaguered planet to restore its balance.

We are energetic beings. Energy is the home of spirit and spirit longing. The ultimate adventure that awaits us is our energy body, the body that lives on beyond the material world, the body that journeys in infinity. We all have access to it in this life, but only if we shift. The more we cycle in excessive accumulation of material things, the longer we remain in avidya—ignorance—yet to discover that all that glitters is not gold.

Fulfillment in this life requires us to explore and meet our deepest needs: material and spiritual. But if we refuse to recapitulate—where we free our spirit from our material experiences—we remain frozen, unable to find fulfillment in spirit or body. One cannot substitute for the other. A spirit being who shuns the body—a spirit in excess—results in a being in need of reincarnation. Likewise, a physical being who shuns the spirit will find itself steeped in addiction, bound to the spirit, projected onto matter.

With spirit soaring

Such is the condition of now. Accumulation in excess—unsustainable and uncontainable. The walls are coming down in floods of revolution. May we find safe passage as spirits soaring in material balance.

In dedication to the soaring spirit of Steve Jobs,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Under the Bodhi Tree

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In a dream, I witness a family with young children confronted with frightening events. They play a game where they race to outpace the impending disasters by creating stories that keep them at bay.

We tell ourselves stories, or stories are told to us, to spin reality and make us feel safe. We live in a time of great storytelling delivered through modern machines. Economies are now driven by handheld storytelling devices competing to deliver the latest story the fastest. Who can give us the latest image, joke, and spin in the fewest nanoseconds?

Meanwhile, the post-American Dream reality continues to debunk an illusory world long over. There are no real American corporations. Corporations are moneymaking entities with allegiance only to that which generates profit. America’s manufacturing has long left its shores in search of highest possible profit. America has become a Third World country that industry now seeks to exploit for its final riches—its natural resources. All this under the story of keeping America safe, secure and, of course, working!

When could we have imagined that fracking—a known disastrously carcinogenic procedure to obtain natural gas—is almost certain to be allowed in the midst of New York’s Hudson Valley, the major water supplier to millions of people in New York City. The storytellers are powerfully suggesting that it is the only American thing to do, to shore up our economy and preserve our independence. Such a “safe technology!” We are assured that our drinking water won’t be compromised. How reassuring!

The corporate world has wormed its way into the internet, the final frontier of free speech. Algorithms, ultimately programs designed to cater to our likes, secretly prejudice the information we call for and unleash the modern “hidden persuader” in search of our money. Watch TED talk:

What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are Hiding from world.

So blinded are we by our own hunger for self-importance that we readily reveal all our likes and dislikes to Facebook, who’s algorithms digest the data and hand it, on a silver platter, to industry. And, we don’t care! As don Juan said: We are happy chickens in a chicken coop! Happily pecking away in our imprisonment, being fed to bursting.

Tweetie Bird, Twitter, has come of age as a scientific storyteller, yesterday revealing the universality of global mood shifts. The big news: people are happiest in the morning and on the weekend. How enlightening. With that news I can now be happy when I awaken and when the work week is complete, knowing that I’m normal, just like everyone else. Do we really need a “scientific study” from this giant storytelling machine to tell us something that we know by simply observing ourselves? Or have we come so far from knowing ourselves that we don’t know what we feel or when we feel it without Twitter’s enlightenment?

We are indeed in a time of great change. The old stories are folding and we anxiously grasp at our storytelling machines for calming new stories like the young family in my dream desperately seeking to stave off impending doom. I think it might be time to turn to an old story that presents a simple technique to find calm without a story.

No CAT-astrophies

There was once a Buddha who sat beneath the bodhi tree. He sat in utter stillness, calmly breathing, as apocalyptic and sensuous, lustful stories passed before him. He knew them all to be illusions and so he grasped at none of them, allowing none to plant seeds in his mind to generate worrisome, anxious or fearful attachment. Instead, he remained with the truth—unspun reality, simply what is—in utter stillness. With this he found his way to enlightening calm.

In a post-storytelling world of fully recapitulated truth we find our way into utter calm. Release the devices, find a nice tree to sit under, go inward and, in stillness, bypass attachment to the storytelling mind and allow yourself to stay present as the truths of the heart flow through you. Allow yourself to breathe the side to side sweeping breath, releasing untruths while consolidating inner truth.

Discover true calm,
Chuck