A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
expressed within the I Ching hexagram 41 – Reduction.

Reduction emerges from Solution (40) and develops into
Increase (42).

Mountain is above Lake. Mountain is Yang and Lake is Yin.

Mountains have height while lakes have depth, and yet
we measure deep and high from our own unique perspectives.
That’s curious.

Why?

One mile or kilometer up or down is still the same distance.

It can make all the difference if you applied the same
measure to progress along the way; any way.

Our life as a way?

Yes, a chosen, more or less, way to live. And as mountains
and lakes, the ground beneath is rarely even. It dips and
climbs in irregular intervals and to irregular degrees.

But, in a boat on top of the lake?

I think you know from personal experience how an ocean
surface can become…

A spirit teacher lures a simple seeker down (or up)
the garden path of enlightenment.

This simple seeker was meditating on existentialist
philosophy.

That’s not the usual focus of spiritual meditation.

So what?

As in, who cares?

Yes.

Also, did you know that your so-called existentialist
heroes were French revolutionaries?

Because they were with the underground resistance?

They were more than resisting.

Yes, perhaps, but in the process of resisting, in
their own way, they were also developing a
revolutionary philosophy of life.

Which came first?

The chicken or the egg?

Yes.

Perhaps they were never separate.

Exactly.

What does that mean?

We hone our skills, our thoughts, and our emotional
development, not to mention spiritual development,
in experience.

Then, why were Sartre and Camus not called
experientialists?

Experience is never enough. They and every deep, or
not so deep, thinker must first exist in order to
experience anything.

Were…

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of ageless wisdom.

A simple seeker was enjoying a warm and misty afternoon
beneath gently moving foliage. The trees shaded her from
direct sunlight, or would have, if the bright sun had been
able to reach her North facing patio at this time of day.
Fortunately, for her, her neighbours across the hall would
be dealing with summer heat while she enjoyed the breeze.

That thought distracted her from a message the trees were
sending to her. Their branches and leaves were anticipating
rain and were quivering with delight at the expected
pleasure.

Now, moist air or the hint of moist air turned her attention
to the sky. She saw what the trees may not have. The wind
had picked up and was moving the clouds away, unless more
were going to replace them.

Meanwhile, Tarot as a Way of Life, by Karen Hamaker-Zondag,

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
contained within I Ching 43 – Removal.

Lake is over Heaven. Lake is Yin and Heaven is Yang.

Yin, in this instance, is as a butterfly on a rock. What
interaction or common ground can the two possibly share;
frail over solid?

A rock is not easily crushed nor moved, but neither can it
move itself; while a butterfly is easily crushed, but it has
power to move itself out of the way of danger – lightness
and mobility over weight and immobility.

Removal follows Increase (42) and develops into Meeting (44).

That’s a curious sequential order.

How so?

I can understand that increase can become clutter and requiring
downsizing, or removal of whatever no longer serves us well, but
how does this lead to Meeting?

Meeting is coming together.

With whom or what?

Awareness.

Of what?

Of whatever is necessary…

A simple seeker was lost in thought. What thought? She was meditating
on The Fool, the Tarot’s anti-hero, or so he seems to be, at least as
he begins his journey through Life. He isn’t even given a number, unless
zero can be considered as such.

Like herself, or as she sometimes is, he seems to be full of high hopes
and self-confidence. But, again, as she once was …

How are you any different, now?

I don’t quite fit the picture any more, if I ever did.

In what way?

The Fool, at the beginning of his journey, has no real life experience
and is totally unaware of personal dangers, let alone those that are
waiting for him, somewhere down the line. He’s lost in thought, enjoying
the perfume of the rose in his hand. He doesn’t see the cliff he is
about to step off, into a high…

A simple seeker clasped her head between her hands, to clear it from
the overwhelming visions that Spirit seemed to be flooding into her mind.

She needed a cup of warm water, not just to drink but also for something
to hold onto. Her mind was going into overload mode.

The concept of herself and everyone else as each being a Kabbalah-like
Tree of Life moving up a limitless Ladder of Light, with ever-merging
trees representing and reflecting the Universal and Sacred Triad of
Power, Wisdom, and Creativity, and then these three energy centres
merging together as Love and Compassion reaching down to everyone
reaching up, and everyone was/is reaching up to receive, whether or not
they were or are consciously aware of this pressure gradient type of
two-way energy flow.

Wow! It’s just too much for me to deal with.

Then don’t.

What does that mean?

We see what…

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
contained within the I Ching Hexagram 61 – Settled.

Water is over Fire.

It’s curious to me that Water is Yang and Fire is Yin.

Why?

I would consider Fire to be more powerful than Water.

How so?

Fire can rage out of control.

Water seems to be able to control Fire more easily
than can Fire control Water.

Fire can heat Water.

Not without human help to control it.

I’ve distracted you from the reading.

No. You’ve distracted yourself, alone.

So, Water over Fire settles or calms Fire?

Settled refers to closed, as in, this issue has been …

What issue?

Whatever issue.

Our discussion?

Yes.

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
contained within the I Ching Hexagram 61 – Sincerity.

Sincerity follows Discipline (60) in the sequential order of
events and situations experienced by everyone during each of
our human lifetimes, as we move toward enlightenment, and we
do, each in our own way and in our own time.

Wind is over Lake and affects the water in a way that the
water cannot but respond, by releasing its moisture into
the air above it. This is a universal law affecting all
life. We each affect whomever affects us, but not
necessarily in the same way.

What has that to do with discipline and sincerity?

When discipline and sincerity travel together and
interact with each other, within the mind of a seeker
of wisdom and truth, then progress is certain.

What if they’re both going down the wrong road?

Then, progress is…