Acceptance and Contentment

Spirit shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.
He tells me that acceptance is contentment.

How can I feel content about accepting something
that I can’t change?

What else would you feel?

Defeated.

In losing a battle you know or believe that you
never could win?

What else could I feel?

Satisfied with yourself that you did, if you did,
everything you could do to win.

And satisfaction is contentment?

In this case, yes.

Are we referring to a specific case?

Yes and no.

As particular and general?

Yes.

We Each Change Everything

Spirit tells me that I can only be or become
the person I already am; the person I have
always been and always will be.

I can understand that I am who I was and
will be, but can I become other than I am?

Yes. We change everything and everything
changes us. We are not what we were or
what we may yet become.

So, I’m both a who and a what?

You are not a who; you are who. And,
you can never be a what, whatever what
you may have in mind.

What am I if I am not what I am?

You are a woman.

But, that’s not unique.

The woman you are is unique.

In what way?

No other woman is you.

Being is not enough.

Enough what?

Achievement.

Being doesn’t require much achievement.

But, I want to achieve.

What?

I don’t know.

Nothing can be achieved without effort.

And acquiring something requires effort?

Yes.

And effort requires intent?

Yes.

And intent comes before effort?

Yes.

And what comes before intent?

Desire and a chosen way to achieve
what is desired.

And opportunity?

Yes, but sometimes we must create
our own opportunities.

How?

Observation and preparation, with
help from synchronicity.

Chance?

Call it what you will, but first
do nothing until you know what to do.

How to do nothing?

Practice.

Meditate?

Yes.
But, I

Intentionally or Otherwise

My spirit teacher tells me that we are whom we are,
intentionally or otherwise, and that we each share
with the world we live in and are a part of
the essence of our life.

A rose is a rose even when it has been planted
among vegetables, and a sheep grazing with cattle
is still a sheep.

But, He tells me, a rose growing among vegetables
has an opportunity to become aware of being
different from her or his neighbours, as does
a single sheep among cattle, in a way
that would not have been possible if they each
had been surrounded only by their own kind.

Is this about individuality?

In what way?

Awareness of our uniqueness.

Yes and no.

Please explain.

What?

No. Why?

Why what?

Please explain why awareness of being different
from those around us is not about uniqueness.

Each of the cattle and vegetable plants
are also unique in some way.

But, not nearly to the extent that a different
animal or plant would feel.

Were we talking about feeling unique
or being unique?

How is one possible without the other?

Awareness or lack of.

How can awareness change reality?

Awareness is reality.

Awareness, Courage, and Faith in Self

Spirit tells me that we each know what we know,
even though what we know may not be so.

How can we ever really know anything?

Experience helps.

But, we can’t possibly experience everything.

That isn’t necessary.

Then, what is?

Awareness.

Of what?

Of what we are experiencing, when we are.

How can we not be aware?

We are always aware of what we are experiencing,
at least to some extent.

Then, to develop a deeper awareness?

Yes, and an ever-more expanded experience
of awareness.

So, awareness itself is an experience.

Yes. Awareness must necessarily be experienced.

How to experience awareness?

Of what?

Of awareness.

Meditation and quiet reflection.

Perhaps some of us do all that now, and do
experience awareness of being aware of the
complexity of our personal and social existence,
but are unable to do anything about them.

In what way?

To change them.

Awareness is not designed to change anything.

Then, what is?

Courage, and faith in self.

Is Acceptance Necessarily Contentment?

Spirit tells me that acceptance is contentment.

How can I feel content about accepting something
that I can’t change?

What else would you feel?

Defeated.

In losing a battle you know or believe that
you never could win?

What else could I feel?

Satisfied with yourself that you did, if you did,
everything you could do to win.

And satisfaction is as contentment?

In this case, yes

Are we referring to a specific case?

Yes, and no.

As particular and general?

Yes.

Endings change into beginnings.

Spirit explains I Ching 64 – Unsettled.

 

Fire over Water represents an unsettled situation, both in nature and

In human relationships. This unstable condition is represented in the

Hexagrams with active and forceful Fire being a yin trigram, but

Emotional Water being a yang trigram.

 

How is it possible for Water to be yang, and Fire to be yin?

 

All forms of life contain a blend of the same energies contained in

All other life forms, to a greater or lesser degree. Yang represents

Creative and forceful, if necessary, energy, while yin represents

Receptive and nurturing energy, but also contains assertive power.

 

Neither yang nor yin is subservient to the other. They constantly

Interact to develop a harmonious relationship without either denying

Their own or the other’s individuality. Sometimes they necessarily

Seem to oppose each other and, at other times they blend

Harmoniously as one, or as close to oneness as they each feel

Comfortable with.

 

So, even though Fire and Water could cancel each other out, they are

Aware that doing so would be self-destructive?

 

Yes. This awareness is a very appropriate setting for Unsettled, the 64th

And ending Hexagram. It sets the stage for the interactive cycle of life

To begin again, without ever having actually ended, with Hexagram 1,

The Creative.

 

 

We can pretend not to see.

Today’s I Ching – 36 – Damage to Illumination.

 

Spirit explains the Universal Law of Change, which, He claims, is

Connected to but separate from, other Universal Laws, such as Karma.

 

We have no power to prevent change, for we are part of all that is changing.

We co-create, with all life, not what changes but how it and we change.

 

Damage to Illumination expresses this Universal reality, but we can

Pretend  Not to see or accept even what we cannot honestly deny.

 

Why would we pretend?

 

Perhaps for fear of being required to accept responsibility for

An undeniable truth.

 

Such as?

 

That we each are part of what is, and we play a role in how

It will develop. Did we Advance (35) too quickly, or too slowly

To see how it would affect our Family (37)?….

 

How can we ever know?

 

What?

 

Anything.

 

Experience.

 

 

 

Today could not exist without yesterday.

I Ching 18 – Degeneration, follows Following in the order of

Life experiences represented by the hexagrams.

 

Spirit explains: Degeneration suggests loss of quality or value,

Whether due to neglect, obsolescence, change in fashion, or

Whatever. Society seems almost eager to discard what is not

Shiny and new.

 

Following expresses faithfulness to traditional lifestyles. This

Preservation of past traditions can create difficulties in

Adjusting to change.

 

How do we blend progress and tradition? Or, must we choose?

 

There can be no future without a past. When a branch becomes

Disconnected from its tree then it must be rooted or grafted

Onto another tree that has its roots firmly planted in the earth.

 

To completely disconnect from our past, if it was possible,

Would endanger our future. The past is the foundation of the

Present and the present is the foundation of the future. Today

Could not exist without yesterday. It’s as simple as that.

 

Free will is never free

Spirit tells me that in many ways the past cannot be changed, but

Our understanding of past experiences is, at least to a certain extent,

A reflection of our intellectual and emotional maturity, at any given time,

As well as the degree of truth of information we received from others

Concerning the events in our past.

 

Even facts can be misinterpreted, intentionally or otherwise. We may

Also learn to accept that any past events necessarily developed out of

Even earlier situations, as well as from choices made by ourselves or others.

 

Through a continuous process of change, caused by forces beyond our

Control, at least to some extent, the choices we make today will limit or

Expand the choices available to us tomorrow.

 

We are what we have become and we will be what we become.

 

Where does free will fit into the picture?

 

Free will is never free.