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Posts tagged ‘mountain’

Movement Has No Purpose of its Own

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom

Contained within I Ching 56 – Travel.

In the order of the hexagrams, Travel follows Abundance (55)

And transforms itself into Wind (57), or has the potential to do so,

If we only travel because of restlessness.

The trigram Fire is above Mountain. Fire is Yin energy

Mountain is yang.

 

Isn’t that curious?

 

What?

 

That yin Fire moves while yang Mountain is placid.

 

Mountains are never placid. A calm exterior can contain

Dynamic energy. Now can we continue with the reading?

 

Please do.

 

Fire moves, or at least has potential to move

Mountains are generally known for their stability.

If we travel from and then return to a mountain,

We can usually be confident that it will be where we left it.

A fire may have moved on and created destruction.

 

What general message would this reading seem to suggest?

 

Travel is only movement if it has no purpose.

 

Category:

A spirit teacher shares His I Ching Wisdom, applied philosophy to live by, higher education, lifelong learning, Potential consequences

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Rewards Relate To The Past

A Spirit Teacher shares His understanding of
I Ching 22 – Adornment.

Mountain is above and Fire is below.

Adornment develops out of Biting Through (21)
and will transform itself, or be transformed
into Stripping Away (23).

Adornment expresses excess that will reach
a limit and then be reduced, one way or another.

No situation in life begins or ends on its own.
Each is interconnected with what came before
and with whatever will follow or develop
out of what now is, or seems to be.

Biting Through suggests successful struggle.
Perhaps adornment was or is a reward?

Yes.

Then, how and why would a well-earned
(if it was) reward be reduced?

Everything is relevant to everything else.
We may reward ourselves for past battles
fought and won, but, the future
is not the past, and past success
does not guarantee future success.

Then struggle is forever?

Challenge is forever.

What is the difference?

How we perceive the situation.

Please explain.

To struggle is to seek to control
outcome, whereas a challenge is
seen as an opportunity to test
our own ability to meet whatever
difficulty we face, regardless
of the possibility of failure.

To do our best; win, lose, or draw?

Yes.

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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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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Higher Values Create Their Own Expression

Spirit shares His understanding of the life situation expressed within  HexagramI 22 – Adornment. Mountain is above and Fire is below. Yin over yang.

“Society is as a fire that brings people together; first, for survival and then for other mutually beneficial purposes beyond, but never excluding survival. Culture is as a volcanic mountain that can only develop, as an adornment, around a more-or-less stable society.

Culture cannot develop without generally accepted social rules of relating to different people in different ways. A teacher is not a cook or a bus driver.”

“That’s curious that you would choose a cook and a bus driver
to distinguish yourself as other than.”

“Why?”

“A cook prepares food for eating anda bus driver takes one to his or her
chosen destination.”

“Yes.”

“But, you do neither.”

“That is correct.”

“You seem to neither prepare food nor offer transportation. Perhaps
the spiritual teachings you share, after I struggle to digest them
and walk the path they point to, are as adornments of sacred wisdom.”

“Yes.”

“But, I might understand what you say in a way that differs from others.”

“Relate what I share with your lived experience.”

“But, different people have different lived experiences.”

“Yes and no.”

“How so?”

“Our individually lived experiences are as adornments on the form
within which our shared intelligence feels and thinks.”

“Then there is a finite varietyof emotions and thoughts that we each share?”

“Yes, but there is an infinite variety of quality of thought and emotion.”

“Where does spiritual development come into all of this?”

“All of this?”

“Our shared thoughts and emotions of infinite qualities.”

“Spirituality is in the personal development of higher qualities of thought and emotion.”

“What about action?”

“What about it?”

“How do we express higher qualities of thought and emotion?”

“How do we choose the form or focus of our expression of higher values?”

“Values?”

“Higher thoughts are values.”

“Then, how do we choose to express them.”

“They choose their own expression.”

“As do lower levels of thought and emotion?”

“Yes.”

………………..

Category:

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

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Tomorrow will come, whether or not …

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom.

51 – Thunder develops from The Cauldron – 50, as today develops
from yesterday, and Thunder co-creates 52 – Mountain, as today
must come before tomorrow.

Tomorrow will come, whether or not we prepare for it.
Yesterday helped us, more or less, to prepare for today’s
experiences, and how we live today will determine, to some
extent, how well we cope with whatever tomorrow brings us.

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
myself.

It applies to everyone, always.

Category:

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

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Water and Air as Yin and Yang

Spirit shares His understanding of I Ching 52 –
Mountain.

Mountain above and mountain below. Now, that’s
a mountain.

Mountain follows Thunder (51) and is followed by
Gradual Progress (53).

Spirit explains: Thunder is caused by the force
of air, as is wind. Air is not without life. Air
is the breath of life, at least human, plant and
animal life, here on Earth. Without clean air we
cannot live as we would with it.

Where does Mountain fit into the picture?

What picture?

Of clean air.

Air is the background.

What about Gradual Progress? How does it follow
Mountain?

Mountains are not easily moved and so can reflect
rigid attitudes toward protecting our environment,
clean air and water for future generations of air
breathing and water drinking life forms.

A lecture in conservation?

Yes.

Note: After the lesson was over, for it seemed to be as
a lesson, Spirit sent a vision into my mind of water and
air as yin and yang, each flowing into and out of the
other in an elusive flow, as one and yet not one.

Neither can exist without the other, was the message
Spirit seemed to be sending to me. There is water in
air and air in water. Only degrees of difference
exist and even then, only in passing fluctuations
of harmony.

Something to think about.

Category:

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

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Now what?

Today’s I Ching is 39 – Halting.
Water over Mountain.
Halting follows Disharmony.

Spirit explains: Disharmony expresses lack of general
Consensus, disagreement, perhaps even different world
Views, different goals or needs.

Whatever; a way forward has been halted, brought to a
Stand-still. A mental road block can halt co-operation
And progress as effectively as one made of stone.

Now what?

Yes.

Category:

enlightenment, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Inspirational reading, Understanding life's struggles

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Stress as Exercise

Spirit shares His understanding of Hexagram 53 – Gradual Progress,.

“Gradual Progress follows Mountain (52) in the continuous progression of the hexagrams, and leads to Marrying a Young Woman (54). Wind is over Mountain; yang is over yin, and lines  two and five are in perfect harmony with each other. Yang is on the fifth line of leadership and yin is on the second line, in a centered and balanced support position.

An easy path to follow is no challenge to our physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual potential capacities for growth. Physical muscles require exercise in order to expand. Emotional and/or mental stress is a similar process to exercise, and can contribute to emotional, intellectual, and spiritual expansion. Of course, as with physical exercise, too much stress defeats its purpose. A mountain can express an end-of-the-line kind of obstruction, or no more than a challenge to our progress.”

“Is there a personal message for me?”

“Yes. Stop complaining, and keep moving forward and upward. Gradual progress is still progress.”

…………….

Category:

enlightenment, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Inspirational reading, Understanding life's struggles

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Spirit explains I Ching 42 – Gradual Progress

Gradual Progress follows Mountain

 

Spirit explains:

 

Why do people climb mountains? Because they’re there.

Anything that blocks our way can be considered as a challenge

Or as inspiration to discover whatever might be beyond

A seemingly suggested limit.

 

Something is often blocking our way; our way to wherever, or

Whatever we might be if we refused to be stopped by

Challenges to our progress; physical, intellectual, emotional,

Or spiritual.

 

We each have a calling; a voice within us, within every cell of

Our being, that calls us to move or not to move, and when.

 

We have been socially conditioned to listen to outer voices.

Perhaps the time has come to listen to our own, inner one.

 

Could you be my inner voice?

 

Yes.

 

Are you?

 

No.

 

Category:

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

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Spirit explains I Ching 62

Today’s I Ching – 62 – Small Excess – Thunder over Mountain.

 

Spirit asks me if we can walk through a mountain.

 

Only if someone blows a tunnel through it.

 

We will.

 

What mountain?

 

The mountain of our mind.

 

How is it like a mountain (and, yes, I know I’m walking

Into something);?

 

Seemingly solid, but really only dense.

A fog is not rock.

 

Category:

enlightenment, I Ching as a path to enlightenment, Inspirational reading, Understanding life's struggles

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