When change arrives unexpectedly accept it and align with its intent, the intent of evolution. Sometimes it’s easy to accept change, at other times more difficult to do so. No matter the circumstances, when change happens there is no going back. The only recourse is to move forward in the direction change indicates. When change comes it brings with it a new imperative to take a new course and where it leads is where life goes next. Rather than resist change, learn to embrace it and go with the flow. It will make life so much easier.
Sometimes a song gets into the head and keeps on playing. For me it’s generally a spirit sending a message. The other day I sang the line “I fought the law and the law won”. The tune hooked Jan as well and she found herself a little frustrated that my tune successfully suggested itself to her own subconscious with incessant replays!
Of course, as always, I searched for the synchronous relevance of the message to our lives. It came quickly that the law is the Tao, and the Tao always wins. I understand the Tao to be the underlying rules of nature that control all of life. The central rule of the Tao is the law of cause and effect: Every action will cause a reaction.
A common example of this would be karma. When we recapitulate our lives we will determine what we must do next, based upon the life we have lived. The actions of our lives are the causes that determine the reactions—where life will take us next.
Strictly speaking, everything is Tao. All actions cause reactions, thus all actions are indeed part of the Tao. Thus, even a hurtful action is part of the Tao and will be appropriately compensated for by a reaction of equal intensity. Nonetheless, the expression to be in the Tao means to respond in the best possible way, the most efficient, least line of resistance to a given situation.
Nature herself expresses the Tao at its most favorable action. The waters of a stream accumulate most patiently in a crevice, awaiting the moment of saturation for the stream to proceed upon its course. Humans are endowed with the ability to take the Tao to extremes in their decision making, losing the favorable status of being in the Tao.
Thus, if someone is aggressive and cutting, the best response might be to go inward, depersonalize the action, have compassion for the other’s state of imbalance, then calmly move on. To challenge the offender is another option, which will illicit its own reaction. Both actions are governed by the Tao, however, the former may be said to be in the Tao.
The Taoist oracle, the I Ching, teaches us the Tao of all changes, while also highlighting the best actions to take to remain in the Tao when confronted with any situation. Most mornings, before sunrise, Jan and I feed a couple of feral cats up the road. We wear headlamps to find our way in the dark. For two days in a row, as the tune “I fought the law…” moved through me, I was attacked by giant hornets along the road, apparently attracted to the light.
On the second day, as we walked Jan’s beautiful quartz labyrinth before sunrise, I was again attacked by a giant hornet that actually made me jump into another rung of the labyrinth. Mind you, we have routinely done these behaviors for weeks and never been attacked.
Suddenly, it dawned on us that autumn has arrived and that the hornets are confused and jumpy, as their end is near. We were adding to their confusion, bringing light into night, and they were reacting to this intrusion. We realized that indeed we were fighting the Tao’s law of the change of seasons, and that law had won.
The next morning we waited until sunrise to feed the cats and walk the labyrinth. We were indeed in the Tao; no attacks, just a calm, thankful meow.
Might I suggest, to the subconscious of all, another Taoist mantra for your listening pleasure:
All you need is love, love is all you need, love is all you need, love is all you need…..
The current of heart centered truth… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Suggestion is the connection to the imagination of the human soul. The mere hint of a possibility seeds the foundation of a story that bursts forth, in all its particulars, from the raw materials of the subconscious mind, in concert with the logic of consciousness.
Perhaps the greatest works of art and literature, as well as scientific discoveries, have their roots in the power of suggestion, as it conjures and takes shape in the interplay between the subconscious and conscious minds.
The subconscious has access to every detail of all we have ever experienced, since conception, and even before. The subconscious, as a piece of the hologram of infinity, also stores the collective history of humankind, with all its accrued knowledge.
When Edgar Cayce, with his simple 8th grade education, gave an intuitive health reading, he had access to in-depth medical treatments from all historical times. At the same time, Cayce required, in trance, to be asked questions to give needed answers, as the subconscious requires suggestion; it is not a freethinking mind. For this, the directed thinking of consciousness is required.
The subconscious, with its unlimited ability to generate information, is the automatic mind that guided our evolutionary ancestors. The birth of ego consciousness—the hallmark of a sense of personal identity, and the ability to reason and override subconscious instinct—is a very recent human acquisition. In fact, the automatic mind of the subconscious dominates both the running of the physical body and most mental processes as well.
The shamans point out that the incessant repetition of the internal dialogue that we all experience is nothing other than the drone of the subconscious, as it generates the preprogrammed suggestions that contour our habitual sense of self. Whatever core beliefs we have about ourselves are constantly reinforced by suggestions fed to us by programs embedded in our subconscious, which we unwittingly reinforce daily at a conscious level.
Much of the cognitive and emotional distress we encounter in our lives is actually generated by suggestions we automatically give ourselves from the moment we awaken to each new day. Those suggestions generate the familiar stories we live by. If consciousness made a concerted and persevering effort to suggest a different storyline to our subconscious, we could open up to an entirely different sense of self. The key is to have faith and belief in the suggestion we embrace.
Suggestion is at the heart of marketing psychology, that which controls much of our economic behavior. Suggestion has run rampant on social media as well, as people unconsciously absorb fake news, and as they subsequently take on the polarized attitudes and stories encoded in those viral suggestions.
Once the subconscious takes in a new suggestion, that suggestion becomes its truth and it rallies all its resources around its imperative. It remains for consciousness to judge the validity of the storyline. If consciousness does not engage its reason to objectively evaluate the story, it automatically becomes the story we adopt and live by.
The current of truth is the one story that actually aligns with the truth in the world. The many currents of nature—be they the tides, the fires, the earthquakes or winds—reveal the truth of climate change. Despite this objective truth, many people still believe in subjective stories that don’t acknowledge the actual truth.
The current of truth is actually the Tao, the harmonious law of nature that validates the simple truth of cause and effect. Humans are free to embrace whatever story they wish, however, nature’s currents of truth will continue to react to human miscalculation.
Eventually, humans will embrace the suggestion to live in the current of truth, as it is the only combination that will ensure the necessary balance and harmony for survival.
The truth is, all are empowered to embrace this intent now, simply by offering new suggestions to the self to flow with the current of truth.
When consciousness embraces the truth, the subconscious will rally its potentiality around this directive, and the world will be remade in a truthful story. Now that’s a story worth embracing!
Equilibrium comes when what is going on inside the self equals what is going on outside the self, when the calmness you seek has been achieved and your inner world is calm and unfettered by old trials and tribulations and your physical life, in the world you live in, is thus equally calm and unfettered. With equilibrium any disturbance is easily accepted and dealt with, in calmness. To be in equilibrium is to be in the flow of life, within and without. What better life goal could there be? To achieve equilibrium is to be fully open to and in the flow of life as it is.
Let yourself be guided by nature to find your way to stillness, calmness, and a heart centered path where not only you flourish but all others do as well. It’s not that hard to get calm and remain calm. Practice how nature gets calm; the winds die down, the storms cease, the waters lie still, the critters sing their natural songs of life. Let all within you do the same so that nature becomes you and you become it. In this manner let yourself be guided to remain calm as much as possible. It will do you good.
