The Gentle, Penetrating Wind

Quan Yin, Nelson Museum, Kansas City

Maha-atmas come in all forms and status. Two recently left us and we give thanks for their gracing our lives. Heartful poet Neil, and truth-speaker Hugo, champion of the people and land, we remember, mourn and celebrate their transition to the next level of our collective journey. 

Today is a day for random "notes to self". Any applicability to visitors/readers' situational moment is a bonus for what I would like to be a 365 virtual cyber give-away festival venue here on these pages. 

from John Trudell:
"We're not going to change Sexism until we address how we live with the Mother Entity, the Earth, and that's the reality of it. And we're not going to change and deal effectively with Racism until we change how we live with the Living Plants and Animals and World that is the Earth. And if we ignore these two things, then no matter what the people do and create for themselves, there will always be Madness and Chaos, because they're only Pretending to be connected."


Mark calendar now for 2015, when this legislation can next be introduced...WTF? WTF?  

A recent subject here was what was referred to as "The Book of the World", with a related quote of lyrics from Shankaracharya's Nirvan Shatakam, which was supposedly uttered by him at the tender age of 8 to a sage in the Himalayas. And as Shivaratri festival is soon come I have been tapping deeper into comparable core teachings as is usually the case around this time. It seems to be even more than ever important (though it should always be!) that we allow the ever-present daily shocks of the outer world to flow through our consciousnesses and pass into the Earth, the Cosmos, the Unknown...to be composted, as our concentration remains in a state of Trust in however we each view the 'higher power'. The author cited below likens the process to "free them mentally as we would let a bird out of a cage"...hmm, ok, that works for me. Since I cannot but give thanks and praise to the activists of the world, on behalf of the world, I must admit that I continue to find it difficult to always balance passions with the teachings of the masters regarding detachment, but it is necessary for maintaining our perseverance and longevity. 

I've said before that personally I have connected to 'that Book' mainly through the Vedic/Sanatan Dharma traditions and the words of the Taoist sages. My first journeys to India/South Asia were with only the Gita and I Ching in my backpack (but picked up the Mathnawai of Rumi on the way). A couple of decades ago I was given a volume that is an interesting merging of the two above traditions, called A Guide to the I Ching by Carol K. Anthony. What follows is primarily for the purpose of sharing some relevant (for me) quotes from that book, coming from the pages relating to the Hexagram 57 - "Sun/The Gentle (The Penetrating, Wind)". 
And, referring to a couple posts back, on the first page of the Guide it says, "Time is not of the essence, time is the essence". Synchronicity abounds (heh). 

"Only consistently firm, yet gentle, inner thoughts penetrate to others with good effect.
'The Gentle' refers to the way the Sage's thought penetrates to us, and to the way our thoughts penetrate to others. It describes an influence on others which is unconscious and automatic. This influence occurs through maintaining a ceaselessly correct inner attitude in which we are balanced, detached, innocent, and independent through all the changing events...
The self-correction most often needed is to cease striving to influence. Because striving is based on inner doubt, it negates any influence we might have. Our doubt further inhibits others' ability to find their way, and prevents the Higher Power from intervening in the situation...
Sometimes, on perceiving how events are marching toward an appropriate conclusion, we develop an enthusiasm to hurry things along....We should keep desire and fear, and the ambition they generate, at bay....keeping in mind that once we turn the matter over to the Sage/Cosmos, he has the means which are beyond our understanding. 
We should also cease reacting to shock. We need to bend like the bamboo...without becoming broken through rigid resistance to the situation...We need to ask why we keep reacting after the shock has passed. Do we like clinging to negative possibilities? Do we find solace in distrusting the Cosmos?...Who is the one demanding the reward? Who seeks the comfort imagined at the end of the journey? The root of impatience may be the fear that those we seek to influence will not find their way to the truth...
Our ego may also insinuate that, in the end, our efforts will come to nothing and we will be cheated of happiness, because history, or literature, or experience has proven time and again that 'the course of true love never did run smooth', or 'life is meant to be nothing but suffering', or is a paradox, or only a dream and doesn't exist at all, or some other idea that supports our negative mood. We sometimes listen to these ideas...forgetting the myriad miracles we have experienced regarding the power of truth. We also need to reassure our anxious [inner] inferiors that in the end everything will work out better than we could have expected."

And a bit more that came up today, which may or may not have relevance to our collective and the readers' individual 'changes' and evolutionary journey, or whatever we might call this crazy time of deep unknown and uncertainty, even as we are witnessing, on a regular basis, the light of truth shining into many severely dark places: 
"Kuei / Breakthrough (Resoluteness)"
"When our situation improves, a new sort of resoluteness must be undertaken...When success comes we should not allow ourself to be hard or proud, nor should we congratulate ourself for being in the right. We neither rest on our virtue, nor measure our progress. Resoluteness means that we continue humbly forward, determined to stay balanced and on course. 
In dealing with weeds, firm resolution is necessary. Walking in the middle remains free of blame. We must be resolute  against losing inner independence and balance, and against allowing others to cause us to want, worry, or wonder. We must keep our sincerity. It is necessary to let people who wish to err go on their way, while we remain firmly resolved not to give them up as hopeless. We should not give up on ourselves, either - on our ability to persevere and endure others, and to endure the general situation. 
"Ta Chuang / The Power of the Great"
"Our true self is always objective, reticent and reserved...
We often fail to realize that our inner thoughts communicate to others without any intention or effort on our part; we feel their inner attitudes as well. These are non-verbal perceptions which we are trained in childhood to distrust. 
Persevering in the use of power means that we wait for the right time to speak or act...Everything we say or do proceeds from a sense of what is fair, just, and essential, and we rely on the power of good in others, trusting that their sense of truth (however suppressed) will emerge to support what is right."      - Carol K. Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching

I do not overlook the fact that the above refers, in my view, to the normal true human beings among us, and does not apply to the terminally Wetiko-infested substantial percentage of our human population who seem to direct, manage, and social-engineer the anti-Life processes which facilitate the continuance of the death-culture shocks which assault our multi-dimensional selves daily throughout this time. There is also the problem/situation that true human beings lack ability to even access face-to-face the Wetiko kings, popes, politicians, CEOs, and generals, and their minions, in this time of ('endless') boundary-less 'theater of war' and universal 'enemies'. Here in this new world we desire to create, we are in unknown country without maps, guidebooks, or even trail-blazers, and have to weigh individually how we walk the good road. Every day, an unprecedented challenge, but truly new and full of potency. 
Giving support to those who share the middle of the stream with us, and when necessary, a helping and healing hand. 
>onelove<
>om namah shivaya<
>bom shankar bholenath<