As I added the title above I was aware that for some people the word heaven might have all sorts of implications.
And I get that, so, for those of us who might struggle with this title, here is an alt option that feels equally effective for me, and, maybe, for you.
Alt title;
The ground we stand upon and the sky above us and, the stuff in between.
Choose whichever you prefer.
This theme today came from opening my copy of the I Ching. The Taoist book of change.
There are 64 symbolic hexagrams (called a gua and having it’s own title), and each one focuses on a situation in life and love and offers thoughts on managing that situation with the aim of maintaining peace and harmony… in life and love.
I had shown someone my I Ching book yesterday and it was still sitting on the chair I went to sit in this morning.
So I opened it thinking I would check out two gau’s, number 17 and number 28, no reason other than they just popped up in my mind.
Although I know the I Ching quite well, I wasn’t sure what 17 and 28 were, I just thought I’d dive in and see what they offer me this morning.
However, the page that opened landed on the gua number 30, which in my copy is, Mutual Influence.
Each gau is made up of six lines. The lines can be a solid line ( yang ) or a broken line ( yin ).
Number 30 is made up from;
The bottom three as two broken lines ( yin yin ) and one solid line ( yang ).
The top three lines as two solid lines ( Yang ) and one broken line ( yin ).
This translates as mountain… being the bottom three… and lake… as the top three, so, this in total reads as;
mountain below, lake above, and describes this gua, the six lines together, as meaning Mutual Influence.
Gosh, I didn’t realise how complicated it is to explain the basics of the I Ching and how it works.
I mean, I know it can get really deep in all things human, otherwise and philosophical, and, having used it for so many years in so many ways, it seems kinda simple to me in terms of how it develops 64 themes and offers each as having a message and/or learning.
Where was I going with this, that’s a rhetorical question, me thinking out loud, sort of, yeah, it’s about the mountain reaching upwards towards the sky, the heavens, and the lake sinking downwards, towards the earth below.
Heaven being all that (obscure) stuff that we know but struggle to understand or deal with, and the earth below that we came from and we know (and are of) so well via our bodies and feelings and emotions so they feel familiar and tactile and… here within us.
I am noticing a sense of panic in me now, I started out feeling that by describing my falling across the gau number 30, mutual influence, I could share something about how we humans manage our relations ships when we work together, when we bring love into acknowledging that if we work (live and love) together as a couple or a community or a species, we might practice having and giving and sharing… mutual influence.
That seemed so simple in my head about 30 minutes ago, now, it seems massive and obvious and complex.
Not the first time the I Ching has offered me something to consider and I go;
“Oh yeah, that make so much sense, when we do this and that with this and that intention and attitude, harmony and peace show up all around us… around me, you, they, them… onwards and within our shared planet.
So simple hey, although… when I consider how I behave… that’s much more complicated that I first thought… arrghh… ok, breath, go back to the gua and just sit with it, focus on today, the next person I meet, and practice being non judgmental, sincere, whatever, whoever, shows up today, be like a clear sky and a clear lake. The mountain supporting the lake, the lake the moisture to keep the mountain alive.”
Something like that, in that general ball park.
What has shown up for me here, is that I can find a simple pattern that is useful and can become my practice, while explaining this in simple terms and few words is really beyond me… and as I write this line, I have an image (and a need to stretch), of me reaching for the the sky above and grounding on the earth beneath.
And that reminds me of the value that qi gong and tai chi have for me… and maybe for you.
Thanks for getting this far in my ramble around the I Ching and the gau number 30 and my connection and forever hazy understanding of the core paradoxes of the Taoist ways. I find a smile showing uo as I recognise the first line in the Dao De Ching by Lau Tzu;
The Tao that can be named, is not the true Tao.
Best wishes to you and yours, here’s to reaching for peace and harmony in all our relations, MT.