Today: “It is best to hold fast until a way out shows itself” – I Ching

It is a time of danger.  You cannot escape it.  It is best to hold fast until a way out shows itself.  It is in our connection with everyone through our subtle body that we fill find it.

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

Through repetition of danger we grow accustomed to it. Water sets the example for the right conduct under such circumstances. It flows on and on, and merely fills up all the places through which it flows; it does not shrink from any dangerous spot nor from any plunge, and nothing can make it lose its own essential nature. It remains true to itself under all conditions. Thus likewise, if one is sincere when confronted with difficulties, the heart can penetrate the meaning of the situation. And once we have gained inner mastery of a problem, it will come about naturally that the action we take will succeed. In danger all that counts is really carrying out all that has to be done- -thoroughness – and going forward, in order not to perish through tarrying in the danger.
Properly used, danger can have an important meaning as a protective measure. Thus heaven has its perilous height protecting it against every attempt at invasion, and earth has its mountains and bodies of water, separating countries by their dangers. Thus also rulers make use of danger to protect themselves against attacks from without and against turmoil within.
Here every step, forward or backward, leads into danger. Escape is out of the question. Therefore we must not be misled into action, as a result of which we should only bog down deeper in the danger; disagreeable as it may be to remain in such a situation, we must wait till a way out shows itself.
Inside each of us are dreamlike symbols and archetypes, emotions and instincts that we share with every other human being.When we feel a lonely separateness from others, it is not because this Well within has dried up, but because we have lost the means to reach its waters.
You need to reclaim the tools necessary to penetrate to the depths of your fellows.
Then the bonds you build will be as timeless and inexhaustible as the Well that nourishes them.

Meditation

Tao Te Ching – Verse 49

Previous readings
Today: I Ching

 

Author: harinam

Yogi, teacher, healer

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.