Our simple seeker was struggling to abide by the rules and regulations
seemingly demanded by a nameless control freak operating from the safety
of the world wide web, wherever that was.

She had listened to the ominous messages that kept warning her that
her antivirus service was about to expire. So, she purchased an
updated version, but not online. Would that have made a difference?
Not that it mattered anymore.

The old system still had eleven days to go and refused to be replaced.
She didn’t exist. Her name and email belonged to somebody else, she
was informed.

Do you have an alias?

I can hardly remember me.

Then, what are you going to do?

I’m turning everything off. That’ll teach them, whoever they are. I’m
taking time out to enjoy that glorious sunshine.

Problems will not go away, you know.

I don’t care. I did what I could and…

Spirit shares His understanding of I Ching.

Hexagram 29 – Double Pitfall – presents with
two Water trigrams stacked, one on the other.
This symbolic representation of flooding
warns us of a hidden and unexpected danger;
a trap or ambush.

As in the deck being stacked against me
in a game of cards?

Something like that.

How could I ever know in advance?

It would be too late to know if you did not
know then.

How to develop the skill to avoid walking
into a trap?

It doesn’t require a specialized skill.

What does it require?

It requires right, or appropriate, thinking
and action.

That advice sounds like the eight-fold path.

It is the eight-fold path.

Including right or appropriate livelihood?

Yes.

To avoid associating with those who might
be tempted to take advantage of my simplicity?

Yes.

That might require me to become less simple.

Yes.

Spirit shares gems of wisdom.

Spirit tells me that everything I say or do should be for a reason
that I understand and can accept responsibility for.

He encourages me to live life here and now, day by day, and to create
a living and lived philosophy of life, and to become what I know I can
become; more and more what I really am, by living with purpose and
meaning.

That sounds beautiful but how do I set attainable goals.

These are attainable goals.

But, the horizon is too distant and unattainable for me. I need
structure.

Yes, and there is none, none that is lasting.

A simple seeker was meditating on
the concept of emptiness.

What would it look like?

It wouldn’t look like anything.

What do you think emptiness means
to a spiritual seeker such as
yourself?

Without form.

What is without form?

Potential.

What potential?

Any and all.

Where does this emptiness
that is potential exist?

Perhaps wherever there is no form.

Where is there no form?

You’re leading me somewhere.

Where might I be leading you?

To asking you to explain
what it’s all about?

Yes.

Please explain.

What?

What emptiness is and where it is
and what it might look like
it I could recognize it.

Emptiness and nothingness are
never empty or nothing. They are
potential, as is everything and
everyone that is neither emptiness
nor nothingness

Then we each have a never-ending
potential?

To what?

To be and do.

To be and do what?

To become.

What?

More aware.

Now do you understand Kabbalah?

You know I’m totally over my head and I can’t swim.

Then relax and let your mind float until you develop more skill.

Our simple seeker was reading The Practical Kabbalah guidebook, by C.J.M. Hopking, and was puzzled about the author explaining that the trees representing each of the Four Worlds interpenetrated each other. Fortunately, for Georgia, the author quoted CG Jung as saying that “problems which we encounter on our path of spiritual growth :are not solved, they are transcended.” Georgia felt quite smug about connecting Jung’s thought to the way each of the worlds on the Ladder of Light emerged from the one beneath it, except for the bottom one, of course.

Spirit seemed to take credit for planting the insight in her mind. Yes, from the one tree, which represents a path to spiritual wisdom, higher and ever higher levels of awareness…

Today’s I Ching – 36 – Damage to Illumination

Earth above, Fire below.

Damage follows Advance in the Order of the Hexagrams.

Spirit explains:

Advance expresses progress. Fire is above the earth and can move freely.

This is not the case with Damage to Illumination, where Fire is below the earth, with it’s light and heat constrained, contained. This can appear to damage our sense of freedom.

What now?

To everything there is a season – the ancient wise people knew this truth.

Accept what is but prepare to move forward when opportunity permits.