Live your life humbly without trying to control too much.  You will be happier.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for the day

Tao Te Ching – Verse 14 – Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped.

Meditation: Breath to Conquer Time Space and Destiny

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52 – Fifty-Two. Kên / The Mountain

Above this Mountain’s summit another more majestic rises:
The Superior Person is mindful to keep his thoughts in the here and now.

Stilling the sensations of the Ego, he roams his courtyard without moving a muscle, unencumbered by the fears and desires of his fellows.
This is no mistake.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a higher vantage point available to you, but it is obscured by the visible peak of personal ambition.
To climb to this higher plane, you must shake off the desires and fears of the conscious, visible world around you.
To make this journey you must quiet the Ego, empty your mind of past and future, and dwell totally in the moment at hand.
Thorough mindfulness of what is before you is the only tranquility.
Be. Here. Now.

Nine at the top means:

His constant goal is an end to striving.
Good fortune.

Noble-hearted keeping still.
Good fortune.

‘Rest from Work’ (after Millet) – Vincent van Gogh, 1890

This marks the consummation of the effort to attain tranquillity. One is at rest, not merely in a small, circumscribed way in regard to matters of detail, but one has also a general resignation in regard to life as a whole, and this confers peace and good fortune in relation to every individual matter.

15 – Fifteen. Ch’ien / Modesty

The Mountain does not overshadow the Plain surrounding it:
Such modest consideration in a Superior Person creates a channel through which excess flows to the needy.

Success if you carry things through.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The Cosmos is moving toward equilibrium.
Extremes are being tempered, excess is beginning to shift toward the empty.
You can use these moderating influences to strike a balance in the world around you.
Remember, though, that this Leveling will not come about through an arrogant confiscation of excess, but through subtler persuasions.
Modesty and moderation are the keys.

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To know who you are dealing with, you must view a person from the view of his psyche.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for the day

Tao Te Ching – Verse 12 – He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky.

Meditation: Know the Psyche of the Other

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61 – Sixty-One. Chung Fu / Inner Truth

The gentle Wind ripples the Lake’s surface:
The Superior Person finds common ground between points of contention, wearing away rigid perspectives that would lead to fatal error.

Pigs and fishes.
You may cross to the far shore.
Great fortune if you stay on course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The subject of this hexagram discovers a key to Tranquility by first gaining insight into his own nature, then turning that vision outward.
By resolving inner conflicts and being at peace with himself, he learns to gain insight into others.
In effect, he enters another, sees with the other’s eyes, listens with the other’s ears, feels with the other’s heart.
He then returns to his own center, with new perspective and understanding.

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Be careful about trusting something more powerful than yourself.  You cannot control it.  You can only control yourself.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for the day

Tao Te Ching – Verse 12 – He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky.

Meditation: LA950 A00214 20000214 Develop Self-Reliance

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52 – Fifty-Two. Kên / The Mountain

Above this Mountain’s summit another more majestic rises:
The Superior Person is mindful to keep his thoughts in the here and now.

Stilling the sensations of the Ego, he roams his courtyard without moving a muscle, unencumbered by the fears and desires of his fellows.
This is no mistake.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a higher vantage point available to you, but it is obscured by the visible peak of personal ambition.
To climb to this higher plane, you must shake off the desires and fears of the conscious, visible world around you.
To make this journey you must quiet the Ego, empty your mind of past and future, and dwell totally in the moment at hand.
Thorough mindfulness of what is before you is the only tranquility.
Be. Here. Now.

Six in the second place means: Relaxing his legs. He sees he cannot rescue the one he follows. He resigns himself to sorrow. Keeping his calves still. He cannot rescue him whom he follows. His heart is not glad.

The leg cannot move independently; it depends on the movement of the body. If a leg is suddenly stopped while the whole body is in vigorous motion, the continuing body movement will make one fall. The same is true of a man who serves a master stronger than himself. He is swept along, and even though he may himself halt on the path of wrongdoing, he can no longer check the other in his powerful movement. Where the master presses forward, the servant, no matter how good his intentions, cannot save him.

18 – Eighteen. Ku / Repairing the Damage

Winds sweep through the Mountain valley:
The Superior Person sweeps away corruption and stagnation by stirring up the people and strengthening their spirit.

Supreme success.
Before crossing to the far shore, consider the move for three days.
After crossing, devote three days of hard labor to damage control.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are blessed with an opportunity to resuscitate that which others have abandoned as beyond repair.
This ruin wasn’t caused by evil intention, but by indifference to decay.
Just by addressing yourself to the problem, you exhibit a new awareness, a fresh perspective.
This is a time of recovery, renewal, regeneration.

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Strong and steady.  Wait for the fruits of your efforts to develop.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for the day

Tao Te Ching – Verse 11 – We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

Meditation: NM0336 – For Inner Strength

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32 – Thirty-Two. Hêng / Durability

Arousing Thunder and penetrating Wind.
Close companions in any storm:
The Superior Person possesses a resiliency and durability that lets him remain firmly and faithfully on course.

Such constancy deserves success.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Endurance is the key to success in this situation.
However, durability is not synonymous with stone-like rigidity.
True resilience requires a flexibility that allows adaptation to any adverse condition, while still remaining true to the core.
Can you maintain your integrity under any circumstance?
Can you influence the situation without giving opposing forces anything to resist?
Then you will endure to reach your goal.

Six at the beginning [yin at bottom] means: He pledges his love too hastily, and awaits her promise in return. This stunts the natural growth of affection. Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently. Nothing that would further. Lao Tzu

Whatever endures can be created only gradually by long-continued work and careful reflection. In the same sense Lao Tzu says: “If we wish to compress something, we must first let it fully expand.” He who demands too much at once is acting precipitately, and because he attempts too much, he ends by succeeding in nothing.

55 – Fifty-Five  Fêng / Abundance

Thunder and Lightning from the dark heart of the storm:
The Superior Person judges fairly, so that consequences are just.

The leader reaches his peak and doesn’t lament the descent before him.
Be like the noonday sun at its zenith.
This is success.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are in a position of authority in this situation.
Archetypally, you are the New King, returned from your quest to claim your throne.
However, you are enlightened enough to realize that you are merely a part of a cycle, and that you must someday yield your throne to the new kid in town, the younger, faster gunslinger, the young turk, the next returning hero, the next New King.
Fretting about the inevitable descent is senseless.
For now you must play your role to the hilt and use this gift of power to govern your world as best you can.
You are the best person for the job.
That’s why you were chosen.
Give it your personal best.

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You must withstand all of the obstacles before you.  With determination can prevail.

See Yogi Bhajan’s quote for the day

Tao Te Ching – Verse 10 – Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?

Meditation: Release obstacles in your path

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38 – Thirty-Eight. K’uei / Estrangement

Fire distances itself from its nemesis, the Lake:
No matter how large or diverse the group, the Superior Person remains uniquely himself.

Small accomplishments are possible.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are working at cross-purposes with another.
The distance between you is very wide.
The gap can be closed, however, with no compromise of your integrity.
You are not adversaries in this case — just two persons addressing individual needs.
Ask yourself: are these needs mutually exclusive?
Is there common ground here?
Must there be one winner and one loser?
Could you become partners in seeking a solution that would allow for two winners?

Six in the third place means: Bandits stop his oxen team and board his wagon. He is scalped, his face is disfigured, and he is left to die. Not only will he survive — he will endure and triumph. One sees the wagon dragged back, The oxen halted, A man’s hair and nose cut off. Not a good beginning, but a good end. Sphinx Giza

Often it seems to a man as though everything were conspiring against him. He sees himself checked and hindered in his progress, insulted and dishonored.1 However, he must not let himself be misled; despite this opposition, he must cleave to the man with whom he knows he belongs. Thus, notwithstanding the bad beginning, the matter will end well.

1. Cutting off of the hair and nose was a severe and degrading punishment.

26 – Twenty-Six  Ta Ch’u / Recharging Power

Heaven’s motherlode waits within the Mountain:
The Superior Person mines deep into history’s wealth of wisdom and deeds, charging his character with timeless strength.

Persevere.
Drawing sustenance from these sources creates good fortune.
Then you may cross to the far shore.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There are important precedents in this situation.
Others have trodden this Path before you, overcoming the same obstacles facing you now, and making crucial decisions at the same crossroads.
Study their journals, watch for their trail markings.
Gain inspiration and wisdom from the heroes and learn from the mistakes of those who chose a sidepath.
All were Seekers, explorers whose daring mapped a course you can follow.
The words and deeds of the finest can imbue you with the courage necessary to face what lies before you.

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