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Archive for October, 2014

Continuous Movement is a Fundamental Principle of Life

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

Today’s situation is expressed and explained
in Hexagram 26 – Great Accumulation

Continuous movement is a fundamental principle
of the way of I Ching and way of Life.
There is no stagnation in the sense of
non-movement.

Situations are always either improving
or they are deteriorating. Energy moves,
one way or another, even when that
movement is happening beneath
the surface of human perception.
Energy moves, and all life is energy.

In Great Accumulation, Mountain
is rising above Heaven. Mountain
represents an accumulation of power,
such as knowledge, and wisdom
applying that power.

Heaven represents a different kind of
power – one that is available to all
of nature, not just to mountains
or people of special status.

Why has Heaven permitted Mountain
to dominate?

Perhaps the rest of nature is
intimidated by it’s height,
without awareness that mountains
can crumble and be shaken from
within.

What lesson does this situation
provide for me?

You are as a small hill, in awe
of mountains with their heads
in the clouds.

But, they seem to have great
accumulation, and I don’t.

Their great accumulation may not last.

So, am I not to aspire for more?

The less you have, the less you have
to guard against losing.

But, great accumulation …

…can refer to great accumulation of
compassion and integrity, and that,
nobody can take from you.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, The Way of I Ching, Understanding life's struggles

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There is a Place For Everyone in an Ideal Community

Spirit shares I Ching Wisdom.

Today’s I Ching situation is 10 – Treading.

Treading follows Small Development and
Leads to Tranquility.

Small Development refers to building
community with others.

This is not possible without each member
understanding and accepting certain rules
of relating to others within the community.

We share responsibilities and work
according to our individual nature and
abilities, and yet everyone requires
a sense of dignity and self respect,
knowing she or he is valued for whom
they are and for their contribution
to the harmony and productivity of
the group.

Treading is the outcome of resisting
the temptation to focus on doing
our own thing, but choosing to serve
our unique role within the community.

How could one relate to oneself in such
a community?

In what way?

Surely we each need to develop our own
ideas and create our own vision
of what and who we want to become.

It would require an awareness of how
those personal desires fit into and
serve the community, and how well
one’s energy resonates with the role
chosen by or for us. The role chooses
us as much as we choose the role.

But, what if I am well suited to
the role that somehow chose me,
and yet I prefer another?

Someone else may be doing what you
would prefer to do, so your service
in that role is not needed, whereas …

Duty?

Yes, but you could play the other role
in your spare time, as a hobby.

But, if I have a passion for
a certain role …

Then, perhaps Universal Laws would
consider that role for you,
at another time.

What Universal Law?

The Law of Attraction.

I thought that law attracted people

It does.

I mean specific people to specific
people.

It does that, too.

Then, where and how does it attract
me to a specific role within
a specific community?

You would be attracted to a community
in which you felt comfortable, or
tranquil, within.

And then I would seek to find how
I might contribute to that community?

Yes. If you are of no use to them,
then how could you feel valued?

What if I have no special skill
but I require assistance from
that community, for whatever reason?

Then your personal needs would provide
other members of the community with
an opportunity to express sharing and
caring for those who are unable or
less able to care for themselves, and
sharing and caring are forms of
applied love.

So, there is a place for everyone
in an ideal community?

Yes.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Understanding life's struggles

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Potential Resources are not Reserves

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

Today’s I Ching situation is 42 – Increase.
It follows Reduction and leads to Removal.

Wind is over Thunder.
They each influence the other.

Increase following reduction suggests
replenishment of reduced reserves or
resources.

How do they differ?

Reserves and resources?

Yes.

We may still have some reserves on hand,
while resources may refer to potential
sources of supply.

Yes.

What does that mean?

We can only increase whatever we have
the potential to increase.

How does that lead to removal?

Through the Universal Law of Cause
and Effect.

Please explain.

Wisdom suggests that we carefully
consider the potential consequences
of depending upon a potential supply
of whatever from a potential source

A bird in the bush is not in the hand?

Yes.

Then, what is the message for me?

Who is your teacher?

You are.

Am I a potential source of learning
or a secure source?

Secure?

Secure.

You are my teacher while you
choose to be.

And while you choose for me to be?

For me, there is no choice.

Yes.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Potential consequences, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom

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Until We See More Clearly

Spirit shares His I Ching wisdom.

Today’s I Ching is 24 – Return.
Earth is over Thunder.

There could be an upheaval?

There has been an upheaval.

What now?

The dust settles and we return to
a more settled way to live.

Who is we?

You and I, and everyone else.

Something is not as it was?

Yes, and something is always as it was.

An endless loop?

Not exactly

Then what?

Life situations develop out of
a limited variety of possibilities,
and then we choose what to accept
as acceptable ways to live,
just as different languages
are formed with a limited number
of sounds, chosen or provided
from a larger but also limited
variety of sounds.

No two languages choose, or are
provided with exactly the same
limited selection of sounds.

But no human sound is not from
the buffet of sounds available?

Exactly.

So, what has that to do with
an after the storm situation.

It’s the same situation.

In what way?

There is still an opportunity
and a required necessity
to choose how to live with
whatever options seem to be
available.

But, if we cannot see our options
for the dust …

Then the options we do see
are our available options
until we see more clearly.

The message?

Choose!

What?

How to live.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, higher education, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, initiation, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom

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We Need Help to Overcome

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

I Ching 13 – Association With Others follows
Obstruction and leads to Great Possession.

Obstruction suggests that something is blocking
our way.

Or someone?

It is never someone unless that someone is
our self, and it usually is.

We need help in overcoming whatever seems to
prevent us from following our spiritual path.

What if the community we now associate with
is itself the means of obstructing
our spiritual development.

Isolation is not the answer.

Isn’t meditation a form of isolation?

No.

How is it not?

Meditation is time out to reflect on
the situation and seek higher guidance
to develop awareness.

Develop awareness of what?

Of how to best contribute to our own
spiritual development without
unnecessarily obstructing the
development of others.

Looking at it from that perspective …

That is the only perspective.

Then, we could be obstructing those
who seem to be …

Yes.

Then how to overcome obstruction in a way
that leads to community?

Meditation.

And then?

Follow your heart.

And mind?

No, not in this instance.

Why?

Mind will overwhelm you with reasons
to stay.

To stay where?

Not where, what.

Then what?

Obstructed.

But, if obstruction is the problem …

Obstruction is a challenge. It doesn’t
exist in a material or physical form.
Not everyone would see the same
situation as an obstruction. We need
to change the way we see.

How?

By looking within for the answers
to life’s challenges.

What about community?

For that, too.

Category:

higher education, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, mystery schools, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Understanding life's struggles

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Indecision Never Wins

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

I Ching 31 – Sensing follows Fire in the sequential
order of situations and events that we each face
as we travel along our physical life journey.

As in cause and effect?

No.

Then what?

As in order or progression. The universe
does not operate on a system of cause
and effect, even if at times it might
appear to do so.

Then, why does Sensing follow Fire?

You might also ask why Sensing leads
to Withdrawal, or why that outcome
might be advisable.

Can we go back to Sensing?

We never left it, at least not those
of us who pay close attention
to whatever situation has developed
or shows signs of doing so.

Then, Sensing is as an instinctual
awareness?

Awareness is not instinctual, but does
or can develop from a natural response
to heat, among other things.

Could instinct be considered as
a prerequisite to sensing or awareness?

No.

Then, where does instinct fit in with sensing?

Instinct follows sensing.

So, when our physical senses send a warning
to our inner awareness, then awareness
triggers an instinctual response to withdraw?

Yes.

Then, fight or flight determine outcome?

No.

Then what?

We choose whether to withdraw or not to.

Then why does withdrawal follow sensing?

It is the usual recommended course of action
in extreme situations.

Then, whatever follows or leads into
any developing situation is contingent
upon …

Contingent upon what?

I’m not sure.

Yes.

What does that mean?

Indecision is also an option.

But, if instinct only offers two?

Then indecision would be over-ruled
by the most dominant instinct.

Or the less controlled one?

Yes.

Category:

cause and effect, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Universal laws apply even today

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What Universal Law(s) Apply to Awareness?

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

I Ching 12 – Obstruction, follows Tranquility.

Times of peace never last?

It is the nature of yin and yang to interact
with each other. The seasons, too, play
this game, as do day and night. The tides
rise high and then slip back only to rise
again, before …

Does it all go on forever?

What?

Up and down, in and out, win and lose.

The natural order provides a background
for all life to learn to adapt. It’s
a beginning.

A beginning of what?

Higher education.

What does higher education have
in common with tranquility and
obstruction?

We learn to reach high, while we can.

To make hay while the sun shines?

Exactly.

That sounds great …

But?

How can we advance beyond narrow …

Or shallow?

Yes. Limits were surely designed
to be expanded.

What limits?

The limits of human …

Why only human?

Then, of awareness, creativity,
imagination, and consciousness.

They have no limits.

Then, if universal laws apply …

And they do.

Then, what universal law or laws
apply to the expansion of
awareness, creativity, imagination,
and consciousness?

Cause and effect, karma, fate,
and destiny.

Each or all of them?

Each and all of them.

Category:

cause and effect, destiny, fate, higher education, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, karma, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom

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An Inner Will to Reach High or Low

Spirit shares His I Ching understanding.

Hexagram 33 – Withdrawal.
Heaven above; Mountain below.

Withdrawal does not necessarily mean retreat.

What other purpose would it have?

Possibly, many more than one.

Such as?

Situational responses require reflection
and reflection requires time out to
consider appropriate responses.

Withdrawal follows Constancy and
constant can refer to constant movement,
such as tides express. Their constancy
is a measurable high followed by a
measurable low.

Nautical charts reliably forecast,
or predict, the highest point tides
will reach, at any particular time,
anywhere in the world.

Then, tides withdraw when they have
reached a predetermined high?

Yes, and the high itself is constant
in that it reaches incrementally
higher until the high tide in a set,
and then withdraws its highest point
in a constant rhythm until its high
is as low as natural forces have
determined it will go.

It sounds so orderly.

It is.

But, how does that relate to
human life?

In what way?

What natural forces can help direct
our highest reach?

The same as help us reach our lowest.

And that is?

An inner will to reach high or low.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Understanding life's struggles

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Degeneration as a Universal Law

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom:

I Ching 17 – Following.
Lake is above Thunder.

Following follows Delight (16)
and leads to Degeneration (18).

The way of delight leading
to disaster?

Not necessarily so.

Please explain.

Delight in itself is neutral
as far as ethical outcome
is concerned.

Then it’s a matter of what
delights us?

Yes.

So, in the case of …

Yes?

I’m trying to express taking pleasure
or being pleased with activities
that bring pleasure to others
as well as to myself.

Go on.

In such a situation, how could
mutual pleasure lead to
degeneration?

Degeneration is a necessary part
of any outcome.

How?

It’s a Universal Law.

Then please explain how
this law works.

Everything changes.

When?

Continuously.

But, if shared pleasure is
an outcome then how can this
be considered as degenerating
anything or anybody?

When shared pleasure is increased
then displeasure or unhappiness
is decreased, or degenerated

The message?

That is the message.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, mystery schools, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Understanding life's struggles

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