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Wake Up and Evolve! – Richard’s Commentary
This whole notion of “waking up” has been with us for millennia. The Aborigines of Australia refer to life here on planet earth as “dream-time”; death is a form of waking up! Twenty-five hundred years ago, Shakyamuni became The Buddha by “waking up” to the reality of his Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, and all the lessons and sutras that followed. To a large extent this idea of awakening is about a choice; it is a conscious choice to “Wake Up”!
Here’s the key sentence from Rosemary’s article:
But, when you really decide to grow, to wake up, to evolve, you can change your beliefs!
Decide. Decide to grow, wake up, evolve. And once this choice is made there is no end to the awakening. As soon as some new concept is grasped another comes along to either build on it or tear it all down and build another conceptualization of some aspect of reality. Here’s the best part: there is no end to penetrating the truth or reality because as soon as we think we have it in our grasp, it evolves!
What, reality is evolving? What kind of notion is this? I suppose even this expansive concept is just that, another concept, another belief. But, if reality is in fact, the sum total of everything we “know” – our consciousness and our knowledge – then, our consciousness is growing, or evolving, and reality is evolving!
Rosemary and I are a part of a wonderful group of people who get together every first Wednesday evening of the month to discuss “spiritual” topics. We call our group The Spiritual Exploration Group. And our only “rule” for the group is “we gather for discussion, not dogma.” Our topic for the month, and probably the next several months, is “Consciousness.” In fact one of the articles we shared with the group stated that “spirituality” is really an outmoded term; “consciousness” creates a much larger context and is, perhaps, the more apt word to encompass the totality of our discussion topics. (We are in the process of renaming our group The Consciousness Exploration Group!) Another of our articles for consideration is by Ken Wilber who has thought and written extensively about consciousness. In his Integral Model of the world of consciousness he has defined levels; and he sees no end to the development of additional levels as we continue to expand our knowledge, our consciousness. This is evolution!
And we have a choice to be part of this evolutionary process. We can continue to learn, to think, to meditate, to study new concepts, to discard beliefs and form new ones, to tear down our ivory towers and open to the wide world of expansiveness, to “wake up.”
Some days it is easier to sit back and relax in our current set of beliefs, our world-view and enjoy the flow of life without strain. But there is so much happening in the world of consciousness, from discovering the very mechanisms of consciousness in the physical plane, to penetrating the mystery of how consciousness effects the physical plane that it is impossible for awakening people to sit still! It is these awakening ones who are pushing the envelope of consciousness, who are evolving!
Are you comfortable in your slumber or are you awakening? It’s a wonderful, expanding world out there! Join us.
I Ching for the New Moon in Pisces
For each New Moon I use the I Ching to provide an indication of what we can expect the energies coming in might bring us. The moon went through her “death and rebirth” this past Saturday, early morning here on the east coast. And after her rebirth I cast a Gua (a hexagram of yin and yang lines); I use the yarrow stalk method, a very meditative process of manipulating 50 “sticks” to obtain the six lines (note these lines are digital, just like computer bits, either open, zero, yin or closed, one, yang; maybe given my computer background this is why I am so attracted to this ancient method of divination!)
The Gua I cast for this New Moon and the next month (or Moonth) is Gen, pictured here. This Gua is made from the doubling of a single trigram, also Gen. This trigram means “mountain” so the picture we have is mountain standing on mountain. Can you picture a more solid image?
The translation of Gen is “keeping still.” What could be more logical? But what does this mean for the month?
First recall that the Gua I cast for last month, and since it was a New Year, that Gua has influence over the entire year (see earlier post) is Tai, meaning Advance. Now we come up to Keeping Still. After a fast start to the year through February it may be time to slow down, consider, regroup, and be sure of our plans! We are still in winter for another few weeks; inner work remains on the agenda. While the overall year may be one for advancing, we do need to ensure plans are correct and in alignment with our overall goals and our purpose!
Here is my journal entry on this Gua: “Mountain over Mountain – keeping very still. After the Advance it is time to become introspective. Be certain of plans, consider them carefully, sit in stillness to contemplate further action.
“The overall Gua and energy for the year is to advance. However, plans for that advancement need to be revisited. Think before action. This Gua contains great power, great energy – potential, not kinetic energy. Something great is coming. It is good to wait for it!
“By the next new moon we will be beyond the Spring Equinox. Take this last few weeks of winter to review and revise plans. Master Alfred Huang, author of The Complete I Ching writes: “keeping still is meant to prepare one’s mind and spirit to progress when the time comes.”
Also Master Huang quotes from Confucius’ treatise, The Way of Great Learning:
The way of great learning is to illustrate brilliant virtue, to love people, and to rest in conduct that is perfectly good.
By knowing how to keep still,
one is able to determine what objects he should pursue.
By knowing what objects he should pursue,
one is able to obtain calmness of mind.
By knowing how to obtain calmness of mind,
one is able to succeed in tranquil repose.
By knowing how to succeed in tranquil repose,
one is able to obtain careful deliberation.
By knowing how to obtain careful deliberation,
one is able to harvest what he truly wants to pursue.
Master Huang adds: “In the final stage of one’s life, if one can manifest one’s brilliant virtue, love people, and maintain one’s goodness to the end, it is a true blessing, and there will be good fortune.”
Seems to me it might be well worth the time to sit, reflect, and confirm the plans for “advancing” for the year!
PS: my dear friend and favorite “cosmic astrologer” Gloria Hesseloff, says this about the New Moon in Pisces: “MEDITATION is Pisces favorite activity and is highly recommended… this New Moon, is a powerful time to set intentions. The New Moon in Pisces is a significant time to activate the Consciousness of ONENESS throughout the planet.” As always her readings are exactly in alignment with the I Ching!
MONDAY’S POEM: Medusa
This past Friday I started another Qigong class; I’m offering a morning class for those finding it difficult to make it to my Monday evening classes. I am enjoying these opportunities to share one of my loves, ancient Chinese wisdom, the Tao and Qigong. Today I mix up a bit of the East with the Greek to explore common understanding.
Medusa
Death to Life.
Composted negative energy
Through the death process
Creating positive energy.
Vital Life Force – Qi!
Medusa’s dark blood births
Pegasus, the Flying White Horse:
Instinct, wisdom, imagination,
Intuitive understanding – Vital Life Force.
Flying Wood Horse Year,
Pegasus rising from Water Serpent,
Medusa. Negative to positive, dark to light,
Death to Life.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Gaia, The Dark Womb
I am working with a new card deck with artwork by Susan Seddon Boulet and her amazing Goddess images. The other day I drew Gaia; the image, the words about Gaia by Michael Babcock and Lao-Tzu’s Taoteching inspired today’s poem:
Gaia, The Dark Womb
Gaia holds us in all of our empty states:
She bathes our soul in her deep dark water;
She sustains our physical bodies when we emerge
As breathing life in her atmosphere;
And, she welcomes us home into her moist warm
Soul (soil) when we are finished with these bodies.
There she nurtures and gestates us again until
We are ready to free our spirits completely
And merge with her Loving Presence.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Heaven and Earth
I don’t know about you but I’m still basking in the energy of the New Moon and the New Year! And it’s going to be a great year; just look at my post last Friday: ADVANCE!
I wrote today’s poem on Lunar New Year’s Day, the 31st, with references to the I Ching Gua I cast for the year and the “moonth.”
Heaven and Earth
Six line, three strong
Heaven below, Heaven on Earth?
Support for the Way
Wood Horse gallops forward.
Six lines, three weak
Earth above, Earth on Heaven?
Lifted upward, floating on water,
Flowing peacefully ever onward.
Six lines, auspicious Gua;
First Gua for the New Year.
Tidal Gua in its rightful place;
Rough ways smooth, returning.
Six lines, Advancing;
Auspicious for prosperity and peace.
Remember, Advancing leads to
Hindrance, Heaven above, returning.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
I Ching Gua for the New Moon and New Wood Horse Year: Tai-Advance!
I love my new “habit” of casting an I Ching Gua just after the new moon of every month (moonth). And with this new moon that we experienced yesterday (4:38 pm Eastern time), the new moon in Aquarius, we also ushered in the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year which is the year of the Wood Horse. What better time to do a divination using the I Ching and the yarrow stalks I manipulate to cast a Gua or six-line hexagram to help sense the energies coming in to support our journeys?
And I am very excited by the Gua I cast. It is pictured here as three solid, yang lines on the bottom, the trigram for Heaven, and three broken, yin lines on the top, the trigram for Earth.
The Chinese word, Tai, is very auspicious. In fact Alfred Huang, author of The Complete I Ching writes: “Tai is one of the most auspicious words in the Chinese language.” It has many meanings, including peace, safety, security and good health. It originally meant “more than” or “most.” It indicates the condition of being “more than great.” Master Huang chose the meaning “advance” for Tai. The image he paints from the ideograph for Tai is one of “running water proceeding forward smoothly and with great ease.”
There were no changing lines in this Gua. Sometimes this can be inauspicious indicating stagnation in the energy. In this case I think what it means is we can expect the energy of advancement in a peaceful way for the entire year! It is a Wood Horse year after all with lots of energy coming to us for strong support.
Another indication that this Gua extends for the entire year is that it is a “tidal” Gua, which means it is associated with a particular lunar month of the year, the first month; in other words the exact month for which I cast it! Not only is the Gua itself auspicious, it is in an auspicious place, its natural place, for the year.
There is also a strong meaning of cooperation held in this Gua. Heaven, the lower trigram seems to be in the opposite place, below Earth, the upper trigram. The meaning here is that Heaven and Earth are working together to support humanity, just as Horse and Human work together for great productivity, advancement!
This energy is already beginning to play out in my life. Last weekend Rosemary held her first annual Possibilities Playshop, a gathering to create a guide book for the lunar 2014. She and I worked together to conduct and video the Playshop so we could share it with people who couldn’t attend in person. It was a great success and people who did attend gained great benefit, clearing blocks, gaining a guide for the year and laying out the lunar year, all 13 moonths, beginning with today. We are letting the moon energy guide us through the year!
And with this tremendously auspicious Gua, I am ready for a fantastic year!
Do you feel this “advancing” energy?
Monday’s Poem: Tonglen
As we move toward the close of the old Water Snake year and toward the Wood Horse year I am doing some “housecleaning.” Tonglen is a practice a bit like housecleaning!
Tonglen
Eagle flying high
Eagle-Eye
Beating heart
Wing rhythm
Revealing depth.
Deep winter sky
Layers of white
Pale Sun
Struggling to warm
Still returning.
Sleeping bear
Bear breath deep
Slow rhythm
Taking in the dark
Breathing peace.
Power to each breath
Inhaling misery
Transmuting rhythm
Alchemy of Love
Exhaling tranquility.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
The Last of the Water Snake
I don’t know about you but I’m glad we have a New Moon and a Chinese New Year coming in a week from today. Yes, this is the last week for the year of the Water Snake and I’m not sorry to see him slither away!
We are soon moving into Wood Horse, or Green Horse energy. The New Year begins on January 31 and I am sensing some very good energy coming our way. I’ve hinted at this before and will expand a bit on my thoughts today. For next week’s Friday post I will report my I Ching Gua cast and reading, not just for the new month but for the entire New Year. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile here’s what I think we can expect for the Wood Horse Year. First Horse aspects: from Wikipedia we can read the characteristics of Horse energy and people:
Idealistic and impulsive, the Tiger, Horse and Dog [note Horse is a member of this trine] follow the beat of their own drum. Defiant against injustice, these three signs wilt without large amounts of physical affection and loyal support for causes. They are productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable. They can also be rash, rebellious, quarrelsome, hot-headed, reckless, anxious, moody, disagreeable, and stubborn. Although these three signs are loyal, they can be very protective when lied to.
I sense a lot of energy coming in with the Horse Year; “productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable” are excellent energy descriptions for what is coming.
Furthermore, it is a Wood Horse Year we are coming into. Not to get too technical here, but the fixed element for the Horse is Fire. Wood feeds Fire, naturally, so a Wood Horse Year will be all “fired up.” Fire is of the heart; Wood will feed the “enthusiastic, engaging, dynamic” characteristics of the Horse.
I am particularly looking forward to this Wood Horse Year because I am a Wood Rooster. First, Horses and Roosters get along well. Second, my Wood element will feed the fiery Horse with even more Wood element. What I have to watch for is not to “burn my energy” too brightly or hot (no “hot-headedness” for me).
I am not one to put a lot of trust in predictions. What I do enjoy is sensing the energies intuitively through the various tools I use, from drawing and reading cards of various decks to casting I Ching Gua (hexagrams) for the New Year and each of the subsequent New Moon. It’s working with these intuited energies that can make a difference rather than relying on a reading of astrological signs. That said I do believe that the overall energy of the Chinese Zodiac can have an impact on events. Why? Because we are always at choice; our choices are influenced and made based on what we believe. If I choose to believe the incoming Wood Horse Year has good, plentiful, helpful, productive energy in store for us, then I will tend to look for and feel these positive effects.
What is your birth sign and element? How do you think you may interact with the Wood Horse energy? Do a little research; have fun with it! Here is a link to the Wikipedia page to get you started: Chinese Zodiac.
And say goodbye to Water Snake!
Monday’s Poem: Dark Lady
We are now on the downward slide to the new moon and the Lunar New Year. At the end of January we will be celebrating the Chinese New Year and move from Water Snake energy to Wood Horse energy. I am very much looking forward to this change. For one thing my dominant element in both my Chinese astrology chart and as determined by my personality and behavior traits is Wood. So, I am anticipating great things in 2014. But first we have some cleaning up to do. We have another dozen days to clear away, let go of the old energies and staleness of the ending Water Snake year. It’s time to use the waning moon energy to take away the dreck of 2013. Release the old to make room for the new!
And to celebrate this feeling of cleaning house and letting go, the shrinking of the moon to darkness, I offer this poem I wrote about four years ago, at another pivot point. From January 28, 2010:
Dark Lady
Companion of the night,
You lead the way down
Where the Moon hides in the Sun.
All secrets are revealed.
Lover of darkness,
You show deep shadows
Where the Sun cannot reveal.
The unknowable rests there.
Wife to my healing spirit,
You carry me down
To discover there, together,
The deep Truth known through all time.
©2010 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Practice
I mentioned in an earlier post this year that my “word for 2014” is Patience. Some days I think it is my word for this lifetime! But I am actually in conscious practice of all Six Paramitas, the Six Transcendent Perfections. My thought-poem for today is my meditation on these Paramitas:
Practice
Generosity begins with self, home.
Giving of oneself, even life itself,
Gains everything: Peace, joy, long-life
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Ethics begin with the mind, thoughts.
When the mind is clear, present,
The words of speech and
The actions of body follow, as does
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Patience is the pivot point of all practice:
Anger is the teacher,
Patience is the lesson,
Long-lasting happiness is the path to
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Joyful Exertion is the power
Fueled by courage and determination
That propel ordinary beings to Buddhahood,
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Meditative Contemplation is the only
Pathway home, to neutral mind,
To virtuous mind, to True Self,
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Wisdom, the exact nature of things:
All is impermanent,
All that is impure is suffering,
All is emptiness:
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 