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Posts tagged ‘experience’

Tomorrow Will Come

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
expressed within the I Ching hexagram 51 – Thunder. Thunder
is over Thunder, expressing a form of yang that has double
its normal potential of active energy.

Thunder develops out of the situation expressed by The Cauldron
(50) and, in turn prepares the foundation for the experience
referred to as Mountain (52).

Every situation we experience today can help to prepare us for
whatever tomorrow will bring to us. We develop skills and
increased awareness of what skills will best serve us in
whatever particular situation.

Tomorrow will come, whether or not we prepare for it.
Yesterday helped us, more or less, to prepare for today’s
challenges and, as life is an endless series of situations
and experiences, how we live today will determine, at least
to some extent, how well we’ll cope with whatever tomorrow
brings our way.

Life is a Master Teacher, and provides us with experiences
that offer incentives to master personal skills and coping
strategies. How we cope with whatever challenges that
tomorrow brings will depend very much on how we live today.

Wow! I’m glad that message applies to people younger than me.

It applies to everyone, always.

Category:

A spirit teacher shares His I Ching Wisdom, applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, Potential consequences

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The Horizon as a Well of Mind

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of
Hexagram 48 – The Well, from the ancient source
of wisdom that is I Ching.

Wrapping timeless wisdom in simplicity and
mystery, He tells me, helped to ensure
the survival of both the teachings and
the teachers, or at least some of them,
in a world of shifting degrees of hostility
to messages of love and integrity.

The series of sixty-four I Ching hexagrams
expresses the natural and endless
development of situations and experiences
that we each must face and pass beyond
throughout, as well as before and after,
our journey of a human lifetime,

Do they express the principle of cause
and effect?

The necessary sequence of cause and effect
is much more than a principle. It is
a Universal Law.

Is it a predetermined law?

In what way?

In that a seer would know.

Know what?

The future.

Everyone knows the future.

Perhaps to some extent …

To what extent?

We can’t see beyond the horizon.

Why not?

How would it be possible?

It isn’t possible. There is nothing
to see beyond an endless horizon.

How does this relate to a well?

The water in a well never contains
more or less than it is capable of
containing, regardless of how much
is added or withdrawn.

How can a well’s capacity compare
with the horizon?

The horizon or an horizon?

Are wells as the horizon?

No.

Then, what?

Horizons are as wells.

Horizons?

Yes. The horizon of your mind,
as well as that of others, has
an endless potential to expand.

Or to shrink?

Yes.

What determines it’s fate?

Not its destiny?

No. I accept your teaching of endless
potential as my destiny.

Not yours alone. We each and everyone
share the same destiny; each in her
or his own time and way.

Category:

A spirit teacher shares His I Ching Wisdom, applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, I Ching as a path to enlightenment

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Some Can Recognize Detour Signs

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

Today’s focus is on Hexagram 28 – Great Surpassing.

How does one greatly surpass?

What?

Anything.

Or anybody?

Oh!

Yes, we greatly surpass those whom we do.

For whatever reason?

No.

We have a reason to go beyond?

Yes and no.

Please explain.

We go beyond where we once were, not necessarily
to pass another, but ourselves.

Great Surpassing follows Nourishment (27). Why?

Something has fed our need to move on.

Experience?

Yes.

But, the same experience doesn’t seem to have
the same effect on everyone.

Inspiration …

Inspiration is an experience?

Yes.

And we each respond to experience,
or inspiration, in our own unique way?

Yes. It is the same as with food.

Please explain.

If we allow our natural taste for specific foods
to become corrupted by a desire to please others,
then our socially conditioned body’s response to
specific foods will influence our choices and
we will develop eating habits that may not be
healthy for our particular body type.

Then, great surpassing may suggest success
in resisting the temptation to follow
where some others might lead?

Yes.

What about Double Pitfall (29)? Why or how
would resisting temptation lead to problems?

No situation described within the I Ching
circuit of life experiences necessarily
follows or leads to any other specific
situation or experience.

Then, how can it be described as a circuit,
or endless loop of situations or experiences?

Because it is.

Please explain.

Those who have eyes to see can recognize dangers
ahead of them, and take action to protect
themselves, by changing their plans, or
path of travel.

Detour signs?

Yes.

Category:

Potential consequences, Power comes from within, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, spirituality without intelligence is not intelligent spirituali5y

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Life Is What It Is

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

Today’s experience along the way is expressed by
Hexagram 50 – The Cauldron. Fire is above Wind.

Wind would certainly agitate Fire. But, why is
the situation referred to as a cauldron?

The sixth or top line is yang, and is as a lid,
while the first, or bottom line is yin, and is
as a pair of legs that form the base of the body
of the pot.

So yang keeps a lid on yin?

Yes. Intellect must rule over emotion.

Another Universal Law?

Yes.

But, it doesn’t make sense.

In what way?

How could yang do anything without yin?

It cannot.

Then, why must intellect rule emotion?

Intellect rules emotion only in the sense
that …

It has more sense?

That, too.

So, if intellect rules and yet can do nothing
of value …

It can do nothing, period, without yin;
of value or otherwise.

So, we need both intellect and emotion?

Yes.

How do they relate to each other?

As husband and wife.

Or as man and woman?

That isn’t the same.

In what way is it not, if men are superior?

Men are not superior.

Then, please explain.

Husband and wife is a relationship between
two people.

Go on.

Are you ready?

I think so.

Then, here it is. Every team or group requires
a leader to direct it, if that team, group, society,
or married couple share a common goal. We each
contribute what we are best able to contribute,
depending upon our natural attributes, knowledge,
skills, and potentials.

And women are designed to keep the home fires burning?

Yes.

A lot of women, myself included, would call you
a male chauvinist.

Names do not change reality. Life is what it is.

Until it changes?

It never changes from being Life.

Category:

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

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Going Nowhere is an Illusion

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

Today’s message relates to Travel, hexagram 57.
Life experiences develop out of previous life
experiences and lead to future life experiences,
within an endless loop that expands.

We never return to an earlier experience,
even when we do, if we do. Something has
changed and so have we.

Our understanding of ourselves grows, as does
our understanding of the world we live in,
and everyone and everything within that world,
within our world.

The problem arises or, rather, problems arise
when we resist our own awareness of the changes
in our relationship to the changing world
we call our way of life.

We stumble when we fail to notice detour signs.
Things are never as they never were.

We see with an inner eye, while safe travel
requires looking ahead with an outer focus
of attention.

Illusion is created, self-created. It does not
exist in itself in any form.

Like the song, “A man sees what he wants to see
and disregards the rest?”

Yes, but the rest is still there, whether we
focus on it or not.

You’re getting close to home.

Yes. Perhaps our travels in the physical world
are or can be used as a diversion; an excuse
to avoid inner challenges to inward travel.

Wow! And the message?

Travel is a necessity of life, whether we go
anywhere, and we cannot go nowhere. That is
an illusion.

Even to imagine that we are or might be going
nowhere is an illusion?

Yes.

Category:

A wide (33%) middle way., applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, destiny, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Universal laws apply even today

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Our Desired Outcome May Not Choose Us

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

First, He explains to me that the purpose
of using the 64 I Ching hexagrams
to share ancient wisdom is to enable
seekers to learn to accept that
nothing happens totally separated from
what has or what might yet happen.

Life and all situations we experience
are intricately connected together.
Before and following are relative terms
that have no separately existing
meaning but are always and must be
part of what is happening now.

The finger that points back to where
we have been is the same finger
that can point ahead to where we are
or may go, unless we choose to follow
another path, or another way of life.

Hexagram 46 – Rising represents today’s
I Ching situation. Rising follows
Gathering and leads, or can lead to
Exhaustion, unless we choose to travel
in a different direction.

We gather what we value, at any given
time and in any given situation.
Harvest is a season to gather crops
that have reached an ideal stage
of development.

We also gather certain people we know,
as friends, when our relationship
to them has developed to a certain stage.

How does Gathering lead to Rising?

The numbers or quantity of whatever
we gather rises as we gather.

Then, how can Rising lead to Exhaustion?

We can only rise as high as we can
without exhaustion.

Please explain.

We gather to ourselves whatever we seem
to need or, with some, as much as they
can above their personal needs, and are
not satisfied until the effort involved
in continuing to rise exhausts them.

Could seeking knowledge and understanding
have the same result?

Yes.

Then, quality of what we choose to gather
to us has no effect on outcome?

What outcome?

Our chosen outcome.

Do we choose outcome?

Don’t we choose outcome?

No.

Wow!

What does that mean?

It means, as I’m sure you know,
that I now understand that we
can choose our desired outcome
but it might not choose us.

Yes.

Category:

A wide (33%) middle way., applied philosophy to live by, cause and effect, destiny, I Ching as a path to enlightenment

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A Response-Free Emotion

Spirit explains I Ching 60 – Discipline.

Water is above Lake, and lakes have limits
to how much water they can hold.

To add more water, as in times of flooding,
results in loss of discipline.

Discipline implies limits; self-imposed or
socially determined.

Yang is above Yin in this instance, which
describes thought over emotion.

Then, rational thought should determine
the limits of acceptable emotion?

Yes.

How is that possible?

Self-control.

Self-imposed limits to emotional experience
or to emotional expression?

Yes.

What does that mean?

The role of self-discipline along our path
to enlightenment honours genuine emotions.

How can I know if my emotions are genuine?

Are they self-determined?

They are usually responses to outside
influences.

Then, you have answered your own question.

What emotion can be free from outside
influences.

Unconditional love.

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, The Way of I Ching

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Awareness Reduces Danger

Spirit shares His understanding of I Ching wisdom expressed in Hexagram 41 – Reduction. Reduction follows Solution (40) and leads to Increase (42).  Mountain is over Lake; yin over yang.

“Mountains have height while lakes have depth, and yet we measure deep and high from our own unique perspective..”

“That’s curious.”

“Why?”

“One mile or kilometre up or down is still the same distance.”

“It can make all the difference, if you applied the same measure to progress along the way, any way.”

“Our life as a way?”

“Yes, a chosen, more or less, way to live. And, as mountains and lakes, the ground beneath is rarely even. It dips and climbs in irregular intervals and to irregular degrees.”

“But, in a boat on top of the lake?”

“I think you know from personal experience how an ocean surface can become dangerously unpredictable.”

“Yes, terrifyingly so.”

“So it is with mountains. There is always a risk of uncertainty; landslides, mudslides rock slides, and avalanches, to name a few possible dangers that may present themselves with little or no warning.”

“You’re going to relate all this talk to Reduction. How?”

“Knowing possible risks and still choosing to follow a path, any path through life, is only foolish if you do not first prepare for whatever you might have to face along the way.:

“How can I know?”

“What?”

“How to possibly prepare for what has not yet happened?”

“Awareness.”

“Of what?”

“Awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses, based on …”

“Study and experience?”

“Yes, and that awareness will reduce the potential dangers along the way of life.”

………………….

Category:

applied philosophy to live by, Spirit shares I Ching wisdom, Uncategorized, Understanding life's struggles

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Destiny is not necessarily Doom

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom contained within the I Ching Hexagram 57 – Wind.

“Wind develops out of Travel (56) and moves into Pleasing (58). As we travel through life experiences we must learn to adapt to change,the winds of change that continuously move through our lives, seemingly with a will of their own. However, we each are responsible for choices we make along the way, without being completely in control of where, when, and how each situation  in this material life began, or where, when, and how our experiences will move us into worlds of more expanded potential, the worlds of spirit.”

“It sounds like the voice of doom.”

“Not necessarily doom, but necessarily destiny.”

“How can it be destiny? It sounds more like a mystery.”

“Yes. The so-called mystery is that we each travel through lifewithout ever not being life itself..”

…….

 

 

Category:

A spirit teacher shares His I Ching Wisdom, applied philosophy to live by, Inspirational reading, spirituality without intelligence is not intelligent spirituali5y

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Spirit’s I Ching 62 – Small Excess

Small Excess follows Sincerity.

 

Spirit explains:

 

Walking the Middle Way through life experiences allows for

Wandering off the path, now and then.

 

There can be no middle way without some deviation from a

Non-existent narrow path. There is always a danger of

Committing ourselves to a self-imposed and rigid structure of

Conformity 

 

How can anyone be a conformist while following a self-directed way?

 

Any self-directed way is a personal illusion of what the Middle Way means.

 

Pleasure is allowed?

 

Pleasure is necessary.

 

Category:

A wide (33%) middle way., enlightenment, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Inspirational reading, Understanding life's struggles

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