Previously
I spoke of the necessity of “finding context” for oneself, noting that we are “lost”
until we “find a center to ourselves,” a place in which we belong and in which
we are “safe.” Context, in itself, may internal and/or external, that is, we
may have it “within” ourselves and/or find “belonging” outside of ourselves.
Some of us attain an internal context while never finding an external one,
while others find an external context, such as religious group, nation, “cause,”
etc., without ever having an internal one. Of course it is probably best if one
can attain to both contexts, though external contexts change over time rather
too quickly and radically at times, while internal contexts may also change as
we change in our self-interpretations and worldview. While “having a context”
is utterly important if one is to have a “ground of being” within oneself and a
“place” in one’s community, if such a context is in fact false, we have a
problem with and in our very existence and being. People may collectively
choose a religious or a political context for themselves which leads to their
individual and collective destruction due to its inherent falseness and unreality,
as when the Germans elected Hitler as their leader in the 1930s. Individuals
may also interpret their own “true feelings and insights” incorrectly, for
instance, if they have a belief that God does or God doesn’t exist, or the body
is good or the body is evil, or people of a different race are a threat or are
also human and can be trusted as such. Thus, a wrong context can lead us to
personal and/or collective disaster, as evidenced throughout history.
In my blog, Metaphysical Forces in
Flux: What on Earth Is Happening? (metaphysicalforcesinplay.blogspot.com), I asked
a question of the Yijing (I Ching), the ancient Chinese oracle,
which I have studied and worked with over the last fifty years. I would like to
be able to provide the history of this oracle system with its 4096 possible
permutations that occur in the moment and movement of time but will resist in
this moment. On October 28, 2016, I specifically asked: “What is happening in
the world at this juncture in time?” I posed this question with a desire to
understand what was occurring politically and socially in the United States,
given the upcoming presidential election. Normally I tend to ask questions
relating to my own life but this was more of a collectively-focused question.
The response was telling. Rather than interpreting it myself, I will convey the
actual words of the text, The Taoist I
Ching translated by Thomas Cleary, both quoted and somewhat paraphrased. As
you read, consider it a response to the circumstances of the presidential
election process that had been continuing for eighteen months. My minor
comments are in brackets. I have italicized sections that are worthy of note. I
would hope that the reader will draw his or her own conclusions.
First, the “current moment” is
presented. Hexagram (or gua) 32:
Constancy. Long persistence. Thunder, active, above, wind, penetrating, below.
Acting gently as the breeze, active yet serene, neither identifying nor
detaching, the mind steadfast and the will far-reaching, therefore constancy. This is genuine application
in real practice. Following upon the previous hexagram fire, or illuminating the inward and the outward, aiming at
profound attainment of personal realization, so that illumination is
all-pervasive. But this is not possible without a constant mind, which means
single-mindedly applying the will, the longer the stronger, not slacking off.
Thereby one may comprehend essence and life, revealing a path of development. [18
months of campaigning definitely demonstrates “constancy.”] However, constancy must be correct;
abandoning the real and entering into the false is not developmental and is
faulty. Blind practitioners in the world go into deviant paths, taking what is
wrong to be right, aggrandizing themselves, boasting of their practices and
cultivating vain reputations, striving all their lives without ever awakening;
most assuredly capable of constancy but constant in aberrated paths, not in the
right path. To seek eternal life in this way hastens death; when your time is
up, you will have no way out and cannot escape the blame. Therefore correctness
is necessary. Even correctness is only possible through constant practice of what
is correct. What is correct is the true principle, which is the Tao of body and
mind, essence and life. This path appropriates yin and yang (or negative
and positive), takes over creation, sheds birth and death, escapes compulsive
routine. It requires flexible, gentle, gradual advance, ascending from low to
high, going from shallow to deep, step by step treading in the realm of
reality; only then can it be effective. A great affair which endures long
unchanging requires great work that endures long unceasing before it can be
achieved. The constancy that is
beneficial if correct is the constancy that is beneficial if it is going
somewhere. But if you want to practice what is right, first you must know what
is right, investigating truth, reaching the basis of essence, thereby arriving
at the universal order. The work of comprehending essence and arriving at the
universal order of life is all a matter of thoroughly penetrating truth.
Next, there are the “moving lines”
which denote changes that are occurring and will occur or are recommended to
occur before the final “outcome” hexagram. They are in chronological order. As
the “current situation” hexagram, the parallel and correspondence to that of
the presidential election is, to my mind, uncanny, and evident enough:
Moving
Line 1. Deep constancy; fidelity brings
misfortune. If one does not distinguish right from wrong, one enters deeply
into false ideas so that they persist extensively. If one plunges in deeply
without clearly understanding true principle, even if one wants to seek what is
right, on the contrary one will bring on misfortune. [This occurrence can pertain to both
leader and followers.]
Moving
Line 3. If one is not constant in virtue,
one may be shamed; even if right, one is humiliated. One may be strong and
correct and determined in practice of the Tao, but if strength is not balanced
and one is in a hurry to achieve attainment, one may advance keenly yet regress
rapidly, thus not being constant in virtue, and shaming oneself. What is the
shame? It is the shame of setting the heart on virtue but not being able to be
constant in virtue, setting the will on right yet being unable to constantly practice
what is right. Following the path in practice yet giving up, even though one is
correctly oriented, one is humiliated. [I would say that we have seen this
occurrence come to pass.]
Moving
Line 4. No field, no game. When strength is in the body of action, the time is
for doing, like having fields to plow. If one dwells in a position of weakness,
the will inactive, constantly embracing the Tao but unable to put it into
practice, is like empty fields. This is constancy without action.
Moving
Line 6. Constancy of excitement is bad.
Thinking one has what one lacks, that one is fulfilled when one is really empty
and aggrandizing oneself, concerned with oneself and ignoring others, is called
constancy of excitement. With constant excitement, the culmination of
aggrandizement is inevitably followed by ruin, the culmination of elevation is
inevitably followed by a fall. Ultimately one winds up being destroyed. This is
constancy fooling oneself and bringing on misfortune. The proper way was never
taken. [It seems that the “fall” with its “ruin” and “misfortune” are yet
to happen, however, they are
foretold.]
This
is followed by the “outcome,” the hexagram that follows from the current
situation and the changes it holds:
Hexagram
41: Reduction. Diminishing excess. Above,
still, mountain; below, joyous, lake. Having something to rejoice over, yet
immediately stilling it; by stilling the joy there is no errant thought. Strength and flexibility are balanced,
emptiness and fullness are in accord; strength does not become rambunctious,
flexibility does not become weakness. Reduction
is therefore diminishing what is excessive, adding to what is insufficient.
This is the existence of increase within reduction. Previous to this is halting, in which one can stop where
there is danger, preserving the primordial Tao in the midst of the temporal,
which requires the removal of acquired conditioning [which is social and
cultural belief that has been “learned”], i.e., traveling the path of
reduction. Reduction as a path means
not following desires but stopping desires; many people cannot be sincere in
it, and if one is not sincere, one cannot finish what is started, will fail,
and will also bring on blame. Whereas if
one can be sincere, every thought is true; sincerity of mind naturally shows in
action. Good fortune comes even though one does not try to bring it about.
However, such sincerity must be correct, such reduction must be correct. People
in the world who contemplate voidness, stick to quietude, forget about people,
forget about their own bodies, and go on like this all their lives without
change, are certainly sincere about reduction, but they are faithful to what
they should not be faithful to, and reduce what they should not reduce—thus
there is decrease with increase, which is still faulty. So if one can be
correct in sincerity in reduction, discern whether it is right or wrong, whether
it is false or true, understand it in the mind and prove it in actual events to
the benefit of all. Actual practice in real life is most important, to finish
what has been started. As long as one
has not yet reached the serene, equanimous realm of the middle way, work cannot
be stopped; one must daily reduce for the sake of the Tao, daily increasing
one’s accomplishment. When strength and flexibility are balanced, there is
flexibility in strength and strength in flexibility; strength and flexibility
are as one. One has gone back to the origin; the spiritual embryo takes on
form, and from this one receives the bliss of freedom and nonstriving. One’s fate now depends on oneself, not on
heaven. Be sincere in reduction, and within reduction there is increase.
This is no small matter. [The “serene, equanimous realm of the middle way” in
which there is “balance” between “flexibility” and “strength” is the kind of
reality that is seen as our future.]
I felt
compelled to present the oracular view of “context,” both as truth and as
untruth. Now, how do we find real, true, “correct” context? Reality and Truth,
that in which we seek “live and move and have our being,” are most elusive,
though not illusive. To see it, we must be it. there have been many people
throughout history who have given themselves to this quest for reality and
truth. I am aware of the sentence in the preceding hexagram: One’s fate now depends on oneself, not on
heaven. There is a Tibetan Buddhist chant: Om mani padme hum. It was
translated to me as “You hold the lotus in your hand,” which can be taken to
mean that we contain our fate, or at least an aspect of it, within ourselves.
Our fate lies within our hands. Like “God” or “the universe,” it is not just “out
there”; it is also “in here,” within ourselves, even as we are within it.
TO
BE CONTINUED
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