Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold…” – Bob Marley

 

 

Have You Found Your Higher Ground Yet?

“There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime.” – Maxwell Anderson

Everyone can contribute, some can create, some can do, some can co-operate, some can facilitate.

But all can be part of the movement to raise the level, moment by moment, piece by piece.

Every day, little by little we can all contribute in some shape and form. Every small improvement, new habit formed and an old one forgotten all stack on top of each other to create the platform to reach the new level.

All of it is within your reach if you keep on moving forward.

Here are a couple of songs of the same title

Playing for Change – Higher Ground

Red Hot Chili Pepper’s version

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

All of nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds. Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul now become the meaningful language of nature.” - Rudolf Steiner

Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you. Allow your love to nourish yourself as well as others. Do not strain after the needs of life. It is sufficient to be quietly alert and aware of them. In this way life proceeds more naturally and effortlessly. Life is here to enjoy!” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

How To Use The I Ching For Insights, Improved Intuition And Your Personal Development?

I Ching and the old ways

As Martial Artists or those interested in Eastern Wisdom you cannot really escape the I Ching and possibly more importantly why would you want to?

It is a huge gem not a little one. And for those who are not so familiar let’s start with a little potted history and then move on to why it is a very relevant aspect of our personal development journey.

If that which is within is not right, it is futile to pray for that which is without.” – Japanese proverb

The I Ching has been dated to be around 3,000 years old, we have possessed this knowledge for a long time yet in our recent history we choose to ignore or think we know better perhaps? And if you are like me you are beginning to think actually we don’t know better do we? Yes we might be technologically super advanced; having an amazing plethora of knowledge and information BUT spiritually and in our fulfilment we are often disillusioned and screaming for something different and sometimes left feeling empty.

There’s no coincidence that those drawn to the martial ways of old who start to dig through history and philosophy – I don’t know about you but I found far more than I bargained for or could of ever expected, as they say ‘you don’t know what you don’t know. And still 20 years later I’m still finding out something new every day or week, I also know of others who’ve had 40 years and are still finding, it never ends. Which is a good thing, our curiosity and interest keeps us evolving and eternally youthful.

I am very passionate about Eastern or Ancient Wisdom in particular because it never appears to be wrong. Of course all interpretations can be perceived differently and updated certainly but the essence and its insights are timeless and no wonder we call them ‘classics’.

From one perspective it can seem that we are drowning in knowledge of the scientific and academic nature that as a species we have lost touch with our inner most expression such as our instincts and intuitive responses which inhibits our ability to operate at a higher level of unconsciousness and vibration in terms of Universal Principles.

To follow Tao look within and return to the universal Self.” – Lao Tzu

That basically means we’ve lost the plot a bit. We are busy little bees, busy doing.  In some cases that could be life saving, world changing, family nurturing and educationally very important work but what I mean more specifically is going back to the beginning of our life purpose, creating the life that we were destined for.

Only by taking note of the ancient wisdom that’s all around us and ready for us – when we are ready for it can we begin to piece of our personal jigsaw together. It should be viewed as an exciting discovery and not dismissed as a history passed not relevant to the world today. The direct opposite is true it is essential for our world today to become a more balanced harmonious soul by taking a breath and embracing what we have always known we have experience and success already in the co-existing ancient wisdom and modern culture so that isn’t something we cannot conjoin.

You already know the way, you already are the way, it’s just some of us are sleep walking our way through life and need a kick, a jolt a way up call to get in touch with our spiritual selves and start being a bit more in tune with ourselves, it can take some practice and effort if you have been disconnected from Source (The Universe) but like anything a bit of dedication and practice it will become effortless because this is our natural path so you are not carving anything new here!

A belief is a preconceived attitude based on the past.” – Richard Wilkins

Books like the I Ching being thousands of years old, tells us we were way smarter back then than we have given ourselves credit for because people always talk about now being the best time to be alive and yes it is in terms of comfort, hygiene, health, convenience, science and technology for example but at what price? With a few adjustments we can indeed have it all and be the walking wisdom of the past, the embodiment of the present and be those amazing visions of the future because we have proven that our thoughts are king and we can indeed be, do or have anything we so wish.

The I Ching as it is commonly known was historically seen as an Oracle so the hope it offers precedes it. It was originally written for people to be in touch with the Gods or Tao (The Way), the unconscious mind which is why it is a close relation to what we call today instinct, intuition and in the Law of Attraction our outputting vibrational energy.

The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.” – Samurai Maxim

We are our thoughts, our thoughts are what we transmit in energy, our energy is what we give and therefore receive and our original feelings will become something in one way or another. So as usual it is all inter linked and we should be mindful of this and not ‘blame’ one another, circumstance, bad luck and any other attribute. It is my friends all down to you and me, the good and bad that occurs in our lives. Tough to bear, most certainly, impossible to fix, absolutely not.

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” – Chinese proverb

I know this is sometimes hard to swallow and Law of Attraction practitioners have a hard time convincing some people that they have ‘attracted’ the bad luck, the x,y, z in to their lives. But if we consider this in terms of the martial arts world we could think of it like this. We all begin as a white belt, some quit some graduate and move on, some graduate and some quit, some move on and so on all the way up to Black Belt and beyond. What’s the difference – it all boils down to the person and their mindset, they already knew long before they did anything whether they were a fighter or a quitter.

Most martial arts professionals are ‘fighters’ of one sort or another it’s in our spirit, it’s the way we are because a, we either just knew that or b, we tapped in to it and trained ourselves to be that, c, we discovered it along the way d, someone else pointed it out to us.

Either way we didn’t quit, we overcame the obstacles as we all know there are indeed countless on this path but it was a mental choice, a spiritual calling and instinctive compelling. This is no different to any other tough and demanding mental or physical quest. Climbing mountains, running for hours on end, taking a PhD, travelling around the world, in essence its all the same, you are either going to do it or you’re not – dependant on your mindset i.e. you have already decided right before you begin whether you will complete this or not.

The originally meaning of ‘I Ching’ is class and comes from about 200BCE when five classic books were outlined in China. Before that about 1100BCE the I Ching was known as Chou I which means ‘Encompassing I’. And in turn the book is simply called ‘The I’.

This underlines a premise that you are the student and the teacher, the seeker and knower. Some people just haven’t quite got with that yet, if they choose to then the flood gates will open up and you will be soon spotting the Universe’s signs faster than you can write them down, it seems! Keep them closed and you will see nothing.

There is nothing, no tragedy too great, no malady so incurable, that we cannot find something to counteract it if we do not forget to go within.” – Paramananda

The Book of Changes as its commonly known is often seen as change or changes and is meant to depict a specific type of change; something out of the ordinary and it explains how you can go about dealing with it and most importantly about not being so rigid in your beliefs and ideas. This coincides with paradigms about what is at the core of our mind and that we can automatically in an autopilot way just keep spewing out the same old same old. We do this unconsciously unless we really notice it and DECIDE to do something about it.

The Chinese word can be viewed with either a lizard or chameleon picture, or sun and moon. Additionally the word ‘I’ was also used to mean ‘give a gift to someone’.  Historically when people have researched the words and meanings some date back some 3,500 years old which had originally come from ancient shamanic traditions of songs, stories and chants and  used by diviners.

The way of interpreting the hexagrams which were the whole and open lines that collectively result in a series of outcomes which will give you the wisdom for that particular formation was originally done with yarrow stalks. Today we also use coins throwing them down and using the heads and tails version translate those in to the hexagrams. Some feel this isn’t as powerful as it is a quick way of doing it but unless you find otherwise by a process of trying out both methods, the intent is important and therefore the answer will always reveal itself at the right time.

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese proverb

For those familiar with martial arts history here is where we see Neo-Confucianism (Tae Kwon Do based people will see these mentioned in hyungs) they had a particular way of viewing the order of the world but it is widely thought that there was an older more creative and non hierarchical way of viewing this and it seems that mankind being what it was, the then ruling class would have typically ‘arranged’ the order to put them at the top and in control of the minions at the bottom, of course, what else would you expect? We have made some progress since but we are still striving for more still. The juxtaposition of humanity is a thread running through our whole history and we can’t be sure if this can be evolved out of us or not.

On a practical level the I Ching helps you tap in to the other side, that is energy which is not visible to the naked eye but is kinaesthetic to our instincts, as experienced when some something feels right versus when it feels wrong.

This is where the I Ching can serve as a guide, a prompter or a way of viewing something from another perspective, something that it shares with Zen wisdom and is closely connected with Taoism.

The Creative knows the great beginnings. The Receptive completes the finished things.” – The I Ching

The I Ching as a guide can serve on many levels so it is highly recommended that you give it a try if you haven’t already or as a reminder to re-look at it. I think it might be nice to include it in your personal development mix and either / or use it on  a daily basis to give your day an overview or consult it when you are unsure about something or when you are planning and preparing your vision, goals or anything in that manner. I say this as a diary note because it is very easy for us to read books, learn things and then not actually bring them in to our daily lives or form new habits. I see no reason why you can’t put a diary note to yourself that you intend to call on the I Ching on whatever basis you decide.

Water, everywhere over the earth, flows to join together. A single natural law controls it. Each human is a member of a community and should work within it.” – The I Ching

To use the I Ching as it is seen in terms of the hexagram, six places which are counted from the bottom to the top with a break in the middle, so essentially two sets of three trigrams. Each line is then either open or closed and as you lay each one down from start to finish you can then see that there are many different combinations that can arise and this is where the finished hexagram derives from.

To make it slightly more complicated the lines are made up of stable yin and yang and transforming yin and yang. In our quick method we basically throw a coin six times where the traditional and noted more accurate mathematical way is to use yarrow sticks and count out 50 of them. If you have the inclination, patience and time the old way is considered the best.

It often takes more courage to change one’s opinion than to stick to it.” – Geoffrey F. Abert

The I Ching book itself consists of 64 hexagrams and for the purposes here we can use the I Ching for an answer, guidance, insight or inspiration. We would throw the coins, write out the hexagram and read the appropriate narrative. That is very simplistic for illustrative purposes for the general idea.

If you have been inspired and want to give it a go the book I have used predominantly here is ‘The Way of I Ching’ by Stephen Karcher. I used this one because Stephen carefully explains the history and origins, the method and meaning and he points out that he has taken out anything pertaining to the moral and political systems  that some can sway towards, which is the way I think is best to serve our development needs.

 It is only change that is at work here.” – The I Ching

On that note I will leave you to explore your own life and destiny with the aid of the I Ching as your own personal oracle, I believe you won’t be disappointed. Enjoy – it is truly a gift to us from our ancestors.

No amount of reading or memorizing will make you successful in life. It is the understanding and application of wise thought which counts.” – Bob Proctor

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

 

 

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

 

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan