Today: “Practice self discipline.  Move to action only when it is appropriate.  Act decisively.” – from the I Ching

Practice self discipline.  Move to action only when it is appropriate.  Act decisively.  Then enjoy the consequences.   Remember you are not the doer and cannot create reality.  It just is.

Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's and subsequent translations of the I Ching

#60, Line 2, #2

The Superior Person examines the nature of virtue and makes himself a standard that can be followed.  Self-discipline brings success; but restraints too binding bring self-defeat.
Cultivating the proper disciplines and the proper degree of discipline are the concerns of this hexagram.  By limiting options, you may give more attention to priorities.  One who is all over the map is no less lost than one without a map.  Avoid asceticism, however.  Deprivation is not wise discipline.  The key here is regulation, not restriction.
When the time for action has come, the moment must be quickly seized. Just as water first collects in a lake without flowing out, yet is certain to find an outlet when the lake is full, so it is in the life of man. It is a good thing to hesitate so long as the time for action has not come, but no longer. Once the obstacles to action have been removed, anxious hesitation is a mistake that is bound to bring disaster, because one misses one’s opportunity.
Responsive devotion.  Receptive influence.  Sublime Success if you keep to your course.
This is a time for dealing with reality as it is, not as you would have it be.
If you realize that in this situation you are the receptor, not the transmitter of the stimulus, you will find yourself reaching goals that seemed unattainable under your own steam.  If you persist in futile efforts to be the Shaper rather than the Shaped, you will completely miss this unique opportunity.

Meditation

Tao Te Ching – Verse 76

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