Today: “To go through conflict, meet your opponents half-way” – I Ching

To go through conflict, meet your opponents half-way, rather than clinging to your being right.  Success lies in everyone seeing something new.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching

CONFLICT DEVELOPS when one feels himself to be in the right and runs into opposition. If one is not convinced of being in the right, opposition leads to craftiness or high-handed encroachment but not to open conflict.
If a man is entangled in a conflict, his only salvation lies in being so clear- headed and inwardly strong that he is always ready to come to terms by meeting the opponent halfway. To carry on the conflict to the bitter end has evil effects even when one is the right, because the enmity is then perpetuated. It is important to see the great man, that is, an impartial man whose authority is great enough to terminate the conflict amicably or assure a just decision. In times of strife, crossing the great water is to be avoided, that is, dangerous enterprises are not to be begun, because in order to be successful they require concerted unity of focus. Conflict within weakens the power to conquer danger without.

Meditation
Tao Te Ching

Previous readings
Today: I Ching

Today: “Life has a message for everyone” – Yogi Bhajan

SSSYWa“Life has a message for everyone. Life provides an opportunity for everyone. Fortunate are those who avail themselves of it, unfortunate are those who miss it.” Yogi Bhajan

Sat Nam!
Ram Anand

 

Meditation

Today: “Forget the self as ego.  Become who you truly are. ” – I Ching

Forget the self as ego.  Become who you truly are.  Seek a discipline that takes you within the vastness of your true self and quiets the distractions of the ego.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching

Religious forces are needed to overcome the egotism that divides men. The common celebration of the great sacrificial feasts and sacred rites, which gave expression simultaneously to the interrelation and social articulation of the family and state, was the means employed by the great rulers to unite men. The sacred music and the splendor of the ceremonies aroused a strong tide of emotion that was shared by all hearts in unison, and that awakened a consciousness of the common origin of all creatures. In this way disunity was overcome and rigidity dissolved. A further means to the same end is co-operation in great general undertakings that set a high goal for the will of the people; in the common concentration on this goal, all barriers dissolve, just as, when a boat is crossing a great stream, all hands must unite in a joint task.
But only a man who is himself free of all selfish ulterior considerations, and who perseveres in justice and steadfastness, is capable of so dissolving the hardness of egotism.
Under certain circumstances, a man’s work may become so difficult that he can no longer think of himself. He must set aside all personal desires and disperse whatever the self gathers about it to serve as a barrier against others. Only on the basis of great renunciation can he obtain the strength for great achievements. By setting his goal in a great task outside himself, he can attain this standpoint.
We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness-by which the jug is broken-is also disastrous. If for instance the military defence of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug.
And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man’s nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention-a partial education of this sort is as bad as none- or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.

Meditation
Tao Te Ching

Previous readings
Today: I Ching

Today: “When you ignore the truth, you will be ignored” – Yogi Bhajan

SSSYWaWhen you ignore the truth, you will be ignored; any person who can ignore the truth or true advice shall be truthfully ignored by the Supreme Existence, because truth is supreme.” Yogi Bhajan

Sat Nam!
Ram Anand

 

Meditation