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

Tao Te Ching – Verse 12

Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.

(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)
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The five colors make one blind in the eyes
The five sounds make one deaf in the ears
The five flavors make one tasteless in the mouth

Racing and hunting make one wild in the heart
Goods that are difficult to acquire make one cause damage

Therefore the sages care for the stomach and not the eyes
That is why they discard the other and take this

(translation by Derek Lin, 2006)
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Colors blur sight.
Sounds blur hearing.
Tastes blur the Nectar.
Chasing drives Bliss away.
Lust blurs calm.
In the Nothingness of Zero is Unimaginable Peace.

(translation by Jeremy M. Miller, 2013)
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from I Ching Online

Today: Contemplate on the consequences of your past actions.  You will then know how to proceed. – from the I Ching

Contemplate on the consequences of your past actions.  You will then know how to proceed.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan

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

Meditation: Contemplate in Shuniya from the Spine

No Superstition and the Vagus Nerve – HNS Class Golden Bridge 2012-12-12

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20 – Twenty. Kuan / Contemplation

The gentle Wind roams the Earth:
The Superior Person expands his sphere of influence as he expands his awareness.
Deeply devoted to his pursuit of clarity and wisdom, he is unconscious of the inspiring, positive example he is setting for others to emulate.

You have cleansed yourself; now stand ready to make your humble, devout offering.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The situation marks a rising to new heights.
As you climb for a better view of the panorama, you make yourself more conspicuous to those below.
This hexagram is also known as the Watchtower, because the shape formed by its lines resembles the ancient guardposts manned by Chinese soldiers.
These towers were placed on mountainsides to give a better vantage point.
To those below, the watchtowers served as landmarks to help them find their way.
The quality of your search for clarity in this situation serves as such a guidepost for others along the Way

Nine in the fifth place means:

His future is shaped by the quality of his influence on others in the past.
Be blameless.

Contemplation of my life.
The superior man is without blame.

Contemplation

Contemplation

A man in an authoritative position to whom others look up must always be ready for self-examination. The right sort of self-examination, however, consists not in idle brooding over oneself but in examining the effects one produces. Only when these effects are good, and when one’s influence on others is good, will the contemplation of one’s own life bring the satisfaction of knowing oneself to be free of mistakes.

16 – Sixteen. Yü / Enthusiasm

Thunder comes resounding out of the Earth:
Similar thunder roars up from the masses when the Superior Person strikes a chord in their hearts.

Whip up enthusiasm, rally your forces, and move boldly forward.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

There is a rhythmic force, a world music, that lives deep in the Unconscious of each of us.
It’s a primitive drumbeat, a shaking rattle, a tribal chant that invokes the primal self to rise up and join the dance.
This is the enthusiasm that is generated now.
Not rhetorical persuasion, not a play on the emotions, but a charismatic, irresistible Call of the Wild.
Confucius said that the person who could comprehend this could ‘rule the world as though it were spinning in his hand.’
This is a time for instinct, not intellect — the Thunder from the Beneath.

 

Today:”Twenty seconds inhale, twenty seconds hold, twenty seconds exhale. It is called praana path.” Yogi Bhajan

“Twenty seconds inhale, twenty seconds hold, twenty seconds exhale. It is called praana path. Moment you achieve that status, your intuition will open up. You’ll know everything. And when you know everything, you don’t have to worry about anything. When you don’t worry, you are clear.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

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What else Yogi Bhajan said

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

Tao Te Ching – Verse 11

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)
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Thirty spokes join in one hub
In its emptiness, there is the function of a vehicle
Mix clay to create a container
In its emptiness, there is the function of a container
Cut open doors and windows to create a room
In its emptiness, there is the function of a room

Therefore, that which exists is used to create benefit
That which is empty is used to create functionality

(translation by Derek Lin, 2006)
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It is the gaps that define.
That definition is perfect.
Ornate vessels hold water —
So it is Nothingness which has been defined, not the vessel.
The unwise have been tricked.

(translation by Jeremy M. Miller, 2013)
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from I Ching Online

Today: As better times return, do not be tempted to hasten the fall of the wicked people whose dark alliance is imploding.  Your message of renewal will be widely received.- from the I Ching

As better times return, do not be tempted to hasten the fall of the wicked people whose dark alliance is imploding.  Your message of renewal will be widely received.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan

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

Meditation: Contemplate in Shuniya from the Spine

No Superstition and the Vagus Nerve – HNS Class Golden Bridge 2012-12-12

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23 – Twenty-Three. Po / Splitting Apart

The weight of the Mountain presses down upon a weak foundation of Earth:
The Superior Person will use this time of oppression to attend to the needs of those less fortunate.

Any action would be ill-timed.
Stand fast.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is a situation easily mistaken for Stagnation (Hexagram 12) or Revolution (Hexagram 49).
It just depends on which side you’re on.
During a time of Stagnation, human worms invade to feed on the decay.
During a time of Revolution, oppression is being overthrown.
But in this situation, oppressors are violently seizing power.
Pay special heed when you receive this hexagram, because the oracle is often warning you of a situation of which you are totally unaware.
You are about to be blindsided.

Nine at the top means:

Refusing fruit offered by the serpent, he gains a carriage when the snake swallows its own tail and the light is restored.

There is a large fruit still uneaten.
The superior man receives a carriage.
The house of the inferior man is split apart.

Large fruit

Here the splitting apart reaches its end. When misfortune has spent itself, better times return. The seed of the good remains, and it is just when the fruit falls to the ground that good sprouts anew from its seed. The superior man again attains influence and effectiveness. He is supported by public opinion as if in a carriage. But the inferior man’s wickedness is visited upon himself. His house is split apart. A law of nature is at work here. Evil is not destructive to the good alone but inevitably destroys itself as well. For evil, which lives solely by negation, cannot continue to exist on its own strength alone. The inferior man himself fares best when held under control by a superior man.
2 – Two. K’un / Receptive Force

Earth above and Earth below:
The Earth contains and sustains.
In this situation, the Superior Person should not take the initiative; he should follow the initiative of another.
He should seek receptive allies in the southwest; he should break ties with immovable allies in the northeast.

Responsive devotion.
Receptive influence.
Sublime Success if you keep to your course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

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.

 

Today:”Mind is like a pendulum. It can only be controlled when your breath will be one-minute.” Yogi Bhajan

“Mind is like a pendulum. It can only be controlled when your breath will be one-minute. You will not dream, you will sleep like a baby when you want, you can get up when you want, your time clock will be fine. But you have to breathe one minute: twenty seconds inhale, twenty seconds hold, twenty seconds exhale. Mind then has nothing left but to serve you, serve you, serve you.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: Breath to Conquer Time Space and Destiny

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What else Yogi Bhajan said

No Superstition and the Vagus Nerve – HNS Class Golden Bridge 2012-12-12

Hari Nam Singh
Sat Nam Rasayan® Class
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 -- 4:00 p.m.
Bodh Gaya Room
Golden Bridge -- Hollywood, California

Tune-in.  Ong Namo….

So what is it that’s supposed to happen today?

Student:  Lots of people are getting married today.  That was what they said on the radio.

Are they inducing labor, too?

Student: So that people don’t forget their Birthday maybe.  Lots of people are getting married today because they want their husbands to remember their wedding anniversary.

I guess that’s pretty practical.  Well, actually it makes sense.  For many years my wife and I could never remember what day our wedding anniversary was.  We had a tendency to think it was a day later for some reason.

Numerologically or astrologically you can discern certain tendencies that are produced.  It doesn’t mean that something’s going to go boom on one day or another.  We have in general tendencies to put a lot of energy into these things, thinking that one thing or another is really special.

It amounts to a lot of superstition that we hold.  Superstition is making an assumption about something because you think that something is supposed to happen.  It doesn’t mean that something isn’t going to happen.  We have the tendency not to base our perception on our experience.  Our experience is what counts, and really nothing else.  If we just assume something because everybody says this or that, that’s just really superstition.  So it’s really pretty useful for us to get beyond that tendency that we have of doing that, just be in the moment in the experience, and then see what happens with that.

We could relate with something through a numerological relation, and that has a lot of potential and perhaps even a lot of power; however, that’s just a matter of relating through our experience in that to see how we’re affected by that — not putting the cart before the horse and saying, “We expect this or that.”

That’s one thing that we’ve been working on a lot lately.  Especially in Guru Dev Singh’s Classes, the topic of superstition comes up a lot.  It’s something we can acknowledge, and don’t need to engage in so much.

So in order to mitigate that to some degree, Guru Dev Singh did give us this Meditation, which Yogi Bhajan gave us, which is useful in our time to be engaged with.  Is anybody doing this Meditation?  I thought we’d do that one.

Meditation For Faculty Of Self-Engagement:
Mudra:  Bend your elbows into the sides of the body.  Extend the forearms out in front of the body, and tilt them up at a 45-degree angle.  Have the palms flat, fingers’ pointing straight ahead.  The right palm faces the ceiling, and the left palm faces the floor.  The palms are at the level of the heart center, and the wrists are bent slightly.
Hold the position, and keep the spine straight the entire time.
Eyes:  Stare at the tip of the nose.
Breath:  Breathe long and deep in through the nose.  Breathe out long and deep through the mouth.  Mechanically breathe.
You are bringing a balance between Heaven and Earth in this posture.  Let your thoughts go.  Don’t work your brain.  It will take you through your non-reality, and go deep into Meditation.  Just breathe consciously.
Time:  22 Minutes, 45 Seconds
To End:  Inhale deeply, press your hands together in front of your chest really tightly, press hard.  Hold for 11 Seconds.  Exhale.
Inhale, really squeeze very hard, using the shoulders to add all the pressure you can.  Hold for 11 Seconds.  Exhale.
Inhale, squeeze your spine, vertebrae, muscles, hands, legs, everything, from the base to the top.  Hold for 20 Seconds.  Exhale.
Relax.

Okay.  Take your partner.

Round One :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Feel how the sounds inside you are affecting your Field.  In particular feel how the sounds are affecting your emotional sensations.  Within you feel the sensations of flow.  At the same time feel the sensations of no-flow or where there is numbness.  Feel all those sensations at the same time.  Keep researching how the sounds are affecting you.  Where you feel sensations of numbness or no-flow, feel that from within Shuniya, within Silence.  Feel how it feels from within Silence.  Give it space.  Give space to all those places inside you that feel numb with the intention to alter the perception of those points to be more like those where you perceive a flow.  Relate with your partner.  Feel how that relation is affecting the flow in you.  With your intention in the Silence, give space to those points of numbness — the intention of altering the perception to that of increased flow.  Hold the relation in the Silence.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Two :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Feel how the sounds are affecting you.  Feel the sounds inside you, in particular how they are touching emotional sensations.  In your Field of Perception, recognize sensations of flow and sensations of no-flow.  Allow that to be the Mandala superimposed on your Field.  Relate with your partner.  Allow your partner to affect your Field, still being aware of flow and no-flow.  Give space to those points of numbness in the Silence.  Feel those points within the Silence.  Choose to relate with your partner’s Vagus Nerve.  Feel in the area of your left eye and in your face any sensation of numbness.  Allow that to be present in the Silence.  Allow the Silence to affect those sensations.  As those sensations alter, follow the resistances down the length of the Vagus Nerve.  Give space to the resistances as you encounter them, researching the length of the Vagus Nerve through the body.  Allow the sensations of flow.  Balance the sensations of numbness to being more like the sensations of flow.  Allow the sensations of numbness and flow to begin to merge.  Feel it.  Don’t push it.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Three :  Take your partner.  Open the space.  Relate with your partner, and in particular the Vagus Nerve, and first of all the area around the left eye and the resistances in that area.  Allow them.  Give them space.  Allow those resistances to mingle with the sensations of flow in your body.  As the perception of those points of numbness begins to alter, follow the resistance down the length of the Vagus Nerve, down the face and the left side of the body.  Begin to recognize how all of the sensations of flow, numbness, and everything related with the Vagus Nerve are affecting your brain.  Allow all the sensations to appear as though they’re happening in the mind.  From that vantage research those sensations along the entire length of the Vagus Nerve, and feel the sensations as a whole.  Give space to that flow that appears in the mind.  Feel how it’s affecting all your sensations.  Let the nature of that flow as a whole come into balance.  Feel it inside your brain.  Balance the sensations there, and the sensations as they are suggested to the mind.  Let all of them interact as One Field.  Come to conclusion.  Switch.

Round Four :  Open the space.  Recognize your partner in you, in particular the space of the relation with the Vagus Nerve of your partner, and the sensation of the points of flow and the points of no-flow.  Feel those points in you, from the vantage of how it’s affecting the brain.  Feel those points of numbness in the brain, and how they’re affecting the flow of the mind.  Give space to those points.  Bring the points of numbness in the flow into balance.  Give space to the points of constriction in the mind.  Let them balance with perceptions that have more flow.  Allow the Field to be One Unified Space.  Just with your intention bring it into balance.  Come to conclusion.

So we can maintain some form of reference to sensations that appear in the body; however, we can allow them to be more generalized in a way that they become more diffuse and represented in a more unified way, something that appears in the mind as well.  By maintaining that reference to the body, we can see how we’re doing.  Where we place our intention is in the Overall Field, which includes more than just those specific sensations here and there.

So does anybody have any questions?

We feel something perhaps here or here, and they seem present in the body.  If we allow those sensations and feel how they’re affecting how our brains feel, we can begin to feel how that’s affecting the brain and affecting the mind.  So it’s not just those specific physical things, rather a little bit more diffuse and generalized.  So it’s not just there.  It’s more everywhere.

You can feel where there is flow somewhere.  Feeling where there’s numbness is a contrast to that.  So it gives you some point of a polarity that you can start to balance, not that you push anything through somewhere; however, you feel the difference.  You just give space to those places that feel numb.  We do that with Shuniya.  We go to that place that’s completely Empty, and then see what happens to the flow.  Shuniya is something that’s everywhere.  It doesn’t have a location.  So we would like to start to go beyond just having everything have a location.  Maybe that’s where we can start because our body is a Mandala, which can represent something that’s happening in our Perceptive Field; however, then we can take it further than that and include all perception.  Perception can include what’s happening in the mind.  That’s more where our intentions are held.  We use our mind.  So we don’t need to try to change the perception directly in some place.  There can be a lot of resistance to that.  So what we’re doing is making it a little bit more efficient.  That’s something that you can do more quickly.

You don’t have to believe ahead of time that it’s based in something that’s held emotionally.  You can perhaps discover where in the Emotional Body or in that part of your Mandala it’s appearing in you.  It will touch someplace in your perception where it’s appearing in you.  We deal with it directly there.  We don’t have to assume ahead of time that it’s anywhere.  We don’t have to give it a location.  Just allow whatever then appears in your Field as resistance, and deal with it there.  Just relate with it there.  If it is affecting some kind of emotion, then you can deal with that.  You can relate with that in that way there, and give that space.

It’s a good thing that you’re not thinking in terms of a disease or in terms of something with a cause-and-effect or something that has a position like a sore throat.  You may want to say, “Okay.  Let’s go with the throat here, and see what we can find in our throat.”  We don’t have to do that.  You can use your intention and say, “Well, let’s relate with the throat because that seems to be a gross manifestation.”  Beyond that it’s going to take you to someplace in you where you’re feeling something. You relate with it there, wherever you’re feeling it in you.  It could be an emotional thing.  It could be a flow perhaps somewhere in the body.  You let it be whatever it is.

If we do that, then we’re minimizing our tendencies to be superstitious about it.  Superstitious would be maybe, “Well, let me try to release a blockage in the throat.”  Well, there could be a big assumption in that because often things that happen with people and conditions are much more complex than that.  So the least that we can assume about something and the least superstition we can hold about it and the least belief we can hold, then the more effective we can be.

We’re finding that we can heal things in the most unexpected ways.  Whatever presents itself is your reality.  You can rely on your perception because your perception is what you know, just as it is, unfiltered, and without having to have the commentary, “Oh, well, this is that; this is that,” and start interpreting.  Feel it where it appears in you.  If you can remain stable in Shuniya, then something will start to happen.  You’ll get a broader experience of what’s going on, and allow the complexity of everything that’s going on to start to emerge.  You may find that you’re in a place, relating in a way that’s very different from where you started.

You could ask somebody, “Well, what’s going on?  How do you feel?  Where does it hurt?”  If you ask that question, that’s fine.  The answer is:  What happened in you when you asked the question and there was some response?  That’s the answer:  What happened in you?  Where did you feel that?  Where did you feel the reaction?  Where did you feel the sensation that appeared?  It will always relate with your question; however, you don’t have to interpret the Tiny Pet’s answer because that is irrelevant.  Do you understand what I’m saying?

When you apply an intensity to something like asking the Tiny Pet, “Where does it hurt?” that puts a little intensity somewhere.  There’s going to be a reaction, and it’s going to manifest in some way; however, you are relating with that Tiny Pet; and you’ll feel in you where that’s happening.  That’s where you start.  Forget what the words are of that they say, or not.  You could include that if you want; however, that’s not the point.  That’s not the answer.

Okay.  Maybe we had better finish.

Sat Nam.  Sat Nam.  Sat Nam.  (silent prayer….)

 

Today: Your efforts are merging with broader, more powerful forces, producing general well-being.- from the I Ching

Your efforts are merging with broader, more powerful forces, producing general well-being.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan

Tao Te Ching – Verse 8 – The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to.

Meditation: TCH20 02 960722 – Increase the Power of the Infinite Within

No Superstition and the Vagus Nerve – HNS Class Golden Bridge 2012-12-12

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46 – Forty-Six. Shêng / Upward Mobility

Beneath the Soil, the Seedling pushes upward toward the light:
To preserve his integrity, the Superior Person contents himself with small gains that eventually lead to great accomplishment.

Supreme Success.
Have no doubts.
Seek guidance from someone you respect.
A constant move toward greater clarity will bring reward.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

You are progressing, rising inch-by-inch toward certain success.
What makes this assured is your refusal to tilt headlong toward your goal, slamming into obstacles and going mad with frustration.
You have a clear map before you of the steps necessary to reach your objective.
With faithful patience and a careful conservation of personal energy and resources, you will run this long, slow distance.

Six at the beginning [yin at bottom] means:

ou rise to a level where you are made welcome as a peer.

Pushing upward that meets with confidence
Brings great good fortune.

Wawona Drive-Through Tree

Wawona Drive-Through Tree – Yosemite National Park1

This is the situation at the beginning of ascent. Just as wood draws strength for its upward push from the root, which in itself is in the lowest place, so the power to rise comes from this low and obscure station. But there is a spiritual affinity with the rulers above, and this solidarity creates the confidence needed to accomplish something.


1. The Wawona Tree, also known as the Wawona Tunnel Tree, was a famous giant sequoia that stood in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, USA, until 1969.
It had a height of 227 feet (69 m) and was 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at the base.
The Wawona Tree fell in 1969 under a heavy load of snow on its crown.
The giant sequoia is estimated to have been 2,300 years old.
When the giant tree fell, there was much debate over what to do with it.
It has remained where it fell primarily for ecological reasons, but still serves as a popular tourist destination.
Because of their size, giant sequoias can create vast new ecosystems when they fall, providing habitat for insects and animals and allowing new plant growth.
It is now known as the Fallen Tunnel Tree.

Fallen Tunnel Tree

Fallen Tunnel Tree


Other “tunnel tree” sequoias

At Calaveras Big Trees State Park the iconic “Pioneer Cabin Tree”, also known as “The Tunnel Tree”, was carved out to emulate the Wawona Tree.
It fell during a rainstorm and flooding on Sunday January 8, 2017.
Measuring 33 feet in circumference, its exact age and height were not known.
In the 1880s the tree was hollowed out by a private land owner, so that tourists could pass through it; the tree was chosen in part because it bore a large forest fire scar.
The tunnel caused severe damage to the tree.
For many years automobiles drove through it as part of the “Big Trees Trail”.
It shattered on impact with the ground.

11 – Eleven. T’ai / Peace

Heaven and Earth embrace, giving birth to Peace.
The Superior Person serves as midwife, presenting the newborn gift to the people.

The small depart; the great approach.
Success.
Good fortune.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

It doesn’t get any better than this.
Everything is in harmony, all obstacles are cleared from your Path, anything you could ask for is right at hand.
This is the Elysian Fields, the Garden of Eden.
The only thing wrong with Peace is that it, too, must change.
Whether you are in this state of harmony now or it is predicted for your future, recognize it as your greatest opportunity to build your resources against less harmonious times.

 

Today:”One breath per minute optimizes the cooperation between the left and right brain hemispheres.” Yogi Bhajan

“One breath per minute optimizes the cooperation between the left and right brain hemispheres. There is an experience of great calmness and openness to spiritual experience. Intuition is developed. The whole brain works, especially the brain stem and frontal lobes.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

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What else Yogi Bhajan said

Today: Today is a day of action.  Everything in heaven and earth supports  your endeavors.  Do now what you may have put off.- from the I Ching

Today is a day of action.  Everything in heaven and earth supports  your endeavors.  You have the power.  Do now what you may have put off.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan

Tao Te Ching – Verse 8 – The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to.

Meditation: TCH20 02 960722 – Increase the Power of the Infinite Within

Recap: Healing Intensive with Hari Nam Singh at Park Slope Brooklyn October 12-13, 2018

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1 – One  Ch’ien / Creative Activity

Heaven above and Heaven below:
Heaven in constant motion.
With the strength of the dragon, the Superior Person steels himself for ceaseless activity.

Productive Activity.
Potent Influence.
Sublime Success if you keep to your course.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

The time for action has come.
You now have the focus and the stamina necessary for accomplishing great tasks.
The path before you is being cleared and reward lies ahead.

yang
yang above: Ch’ien / The Creative, Heaven
yang
yang
yang below: Ch’ien / The Creative, Heaven
yang

 

THE FIRST hexagram is made up of six unbroken lines. These unbroken lines stand for the primal power, which is light-giving, active, strong, and of the spirit. The hexagram is consistently strong in character, and since it is without weakness, its essence is power or energy. Its image is heaven. Its energy is represented as unrestricted by any fixed conditions in space and is therefore conceived of as motion. Time is regarded as the basis of this motion. Thus the hexagram includes also the power of time and the power of persisting in time, that is, duration.
The power represented by the hexagram is to be interpreted in a dual sense—in terms of its action on the universe and of its action on the world of men. In relation to the universe, the hexagram expresses the strong, creative action of the Deity. In relation to the human world, it denotes the creative action of the holy man or sage, of the ruler or leader of men, who through his power awakens and develops their higher nature.1

THE JUDGEMENT

The creative works sublime success,
Furthering2 through perseverance.

ACCORDING to the original meaning, the attributes [sublimity, potentiality of success, power to further, perseverance] are paired. When an individual draws this oracle, it means that success will come to him from the primal depths of the universe and that everything depends upon his seeking his happiness and that of others in one way only, that is, by perseverance in what is right.
The specific meanings of the four attributes became the subject of speculation at an early date. The Chinese word here rendered by “sublime” means literally “head,” “origin,” “great.” This is why Confucius says in explaining it: “Great indeed is the generating power of the Creative; all beings owe their beginning to it. This power permeates all heaven.” For this attribute inheres in the other three as well.
The beginning of all things lies still in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to become real. But the Creative furthermore has power to lend form to these archetypes of ideas. This is indicated in the word success, and the process is represented by an image from nature: “The clouds pass and the rain does its work, and all individual beings flow into their forms.”3
Applied to the human world, these attributes show the great man the way to notable success: “Because he sees with great clarity causes and effects, he completes the six steps at the right time and mounts toward heaven on them at the right time, as though on six dragons.” The six steps are the six different positions given in the hexagram, which are represented later by the dragon symbol. Here it is shown that the way to success lies in apprehending and giving actuality to the way of the universe [Tao], which, as a law running through end and beginning, brings about all phenomena in time. Thus each step attained forthwith becomes a preparation for the next. Time is no longer a hindrance but the means of making actual what is potential.

The act of creation having found expression in the two attributes sublimity and success, the work of conservation is shown to be a continuous actualisation and differentiation of form. This is expressed in the two terms “furthering” (literally, “creating that which accords with the nature of a given being”) and “persevering” (literally, “correct and firm”). “The course of the Creative alters and shapes beings until each attains its true, specific nature, then it keeps them in conformity with the Great Harmony. Thus does it show itself to further through perseverance.”
In relation to the human sphere, this shows how the great man brings peace and security to the world through his activity in creating order: “He towers high above the multitude of beings, and all lands are united in peace.”
Another line of speculation goes still further in separating the words “sublime,” “success,” “furthering,” “perseverance,” and parallels them with the four cardinal virtues in humanity. To sublimity, which, as the fundamental principle, embraces all the other attributes, it links love. To the attribute success are linked the mores, which regulate and organise the expressions of love and thereby make them successful. The attribute furthering is correlated with justice, which creates the conditions in which each receives that which accords with his being, that which is due him and which constitutes his happiness. The attribute perseverance is correlated with wisdom, which discerns the immutable laws of all that happens and can therefore bring about enduring conditions. These speculations, already broached in the commentary called Wen Yen, later formed the bridge connecting the philosophy of the “five stages (elements) of change,” as laid down in the Book of History (Shu Ching) with the philosophy of the Book of Changes, which is based solely on the polarity of positive and negative principles. In the course of time this combination of the two systems of thought opened the way for an increasingly intricate number symbolism.
 

Atlantic sunset

 

Conjuction of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury above the Atlantic Ocean
La Palma – Canary Islands – May 25th 2013 – photo Lex van den Bos

THE IMAGE

The movement of heaven is full of power.
Thus the superior man makes himself strong and (quite) untiring.

SINCE there is only one heaven, the doubling of the trigram Chien, of which heaven is the image, indicates the movement of heaven. One complete revolution of heaven makes a day, and the repetition of the trigram means that each day is followed by another. This creates the idea of time. Since it is the same heaven moving with untiring power, there is also created the idea of duration both in and beyond time, a movement that never stops nor slackens, just as one day follows another in an unending course. This duration in time is the image of the power inherent in the Creative.
With this image as a model, the sage learns how best to develop himself so that his influence may endure. He must make himself strong in every way, by consciously casting out all that is inferior and degrading. Thus he attains that tirelessness which depends upon consciously limiting the fields of his activity.


1. The hexagram is assigned to the fourth month, May-June, when the light-giving power is at its zenith, i.e., before the summer solstice has marked the beginning of the year’s decline. [The German text reads “April-May”; this is obviously a slip, for the first month of the Chinese lunar year extends approximately from the beginning of February to the beginning of March. New Year is a variable date, falling around February 5. Two or three other slips of this sort occurring later in the book have been similarly corrected, but without special mention.]

2. [The German word used here is fördernd, literally rendered by “furthering.” It occurs again and again as a key word in Wilhelm’s rendering of the Chinese text. To avoid extreme awkwardness, the phrase “is favorable” is occasionally used as an alternative.]

3. Cf. Gen. 2: 1 ff., where the development of the different creatures is also attributed to the fall of rain.

 

Today:”Let the breath be longer so that you can live longer, healthier, and richer.” Yogi Bhajan

“Let the breath be longer so that you can live longer, healthier, and richer. If you take a long breath and you can control your breathing to five breaths per minute, you can never be poor, period. Normally you breathe fifteen times a minute and when you are upset, you breathe sometimes twenty-five times a minute. The longer the breath, the longer the life… more opportunities, good luck.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation:  One Minute Breath

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Today: Give up your fantasies, desires and delusions. Develop a practice of self awareness, first to recognize them, then drop them.- from the I Ching

Give up your fantasies, desires and delusions. Develop a practice of self awareness, first to recognize them, then drop them.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan

Tao Te Ching – Verse 7 – The Tao is infinite, eternal.

Meditation: NM190-19951031-Connect Yourself to the Reality

Brooklyn May 2018 – Healing Intensive.

See Previous reading

See Previous previous reading

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Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's, Thomas Cleary's, Brian Arnold's and other translations of the I Ching
4 – Four. Mêng / Inexperience

A fresh Spring at the foot of the Mountain:
The Superior Person refines his character by being thorough in every activity.
The Sage does not recruit students; the students seek him.
He asks nothing but a sincere desire to learn.
If the student doubts or challenges his authority, the Sage regretfully cuts his losses.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is a time of interchange between a mentor and pupil.
Whether you are the teacher or the student, it is a time of companionship along a mutual path.
This hexagram also emphasizes the eternal, cyclical nature of the mentor/student relationship — a mentor is merely a more seasoned pupil, further along on the journey.
A pupil holds within himself the seed of a future Master.

Six in the fourth place means:

You are so terrified of being wrong, you leave no room for learning what is right.

Entangled folly brings humiliation.

Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536) – author of Encomium Moriae (In Praise of Folly)

For youthful folly it is the most hopeless thing to entangle itself in empty imaginings. The more obstinately it clings to such unreal fantasies, the more certainly will humiliation overtake it.
Often the teacher, when confronted with such entangled folly, has no other course but to leave the fool to himself for a time, not sparing him the humiliation that results. This is frequently the only means of rescue.
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?

 

Today:”Whatever your spirit of mind is, that is your breathing. If you can control your breathing you can directly control your mind.” Yogi Bhajan

“Whatever your spirit of mind is, that is your breathing. If you can control your breathing you can directly control your mind. A person who breathes only eight breaths a minute has a self control. He can guide his destiny. He can carve his own way. But the difficulty is, we forget. We don’t remember that the breath has got any importance to us.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: Breath to Conquer Time Space and Destiny

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 7 – The Tao is infinite, eternal.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 7

The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings. Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 7 – The Tao is infinite, eternal.”

Today:”May we all understand, in the breath of life we can be Infinite and with our fearlessness and character, we can achieve all the riches of the earth to share them with mankind.” Yogi Bhajan

“May we all understand, in the breath of life we can be Infinite and with our fearlessness and character, we can achieve all the riches of the earth to share them with mankind.” Yogi Bhajan

Meditation: NM142 19940615 – Bless the Planet Earth and Let the Heavens Descend in You

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Tao Te Ching – Verse 6 – The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.

Tao Te Ching – Verse 6

The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.
Continue reading “Tao Te Ching – Verse 6 – The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.”