You are

temporarily restrained.

It is a time for taking

small steps.

This

hexagram signifies

a time when darkness has temporarily

enveloped the light. The Creative power is present

in the background, however, and will come forward

in time. Your responsibility in this moment

is to accept restraints quietly and

remain content with

taking small

steps.

…Do not

forget that the inferior

elements within yourself, others,

and the time itself may only be restrained

now — not fully removed. Do not be tempted into

any engagement which will serve to unbalance you.

Instead, hold quietly to the center and take

small steps until the Higher Power

has tamed the obstacles

in your way.

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 9, Hsiao Ch’u / The Taming Power of the Small

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The

true master

understands that

enlightenment is not the

end, but the means. Realizing that

virtue is his goal, he accepts the long and

often arduous cultivation that is necessary to

attain it. He doesn’t scheme to become

a leader, but quietly shoulders

whatever responsibilities

fall to him.

…If you

aspire to this sort of

mastery, then root yourself in the Tao.

Relinquish your negative habits and attitudes.

Strengthen your sincerity. Live in the real world, and

extend your virtue to it without discrimination in the daily

round. Be the truest father or mother, the truest

brother or sister, the truest friend,

and the truest

disciple.

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 80

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Cultivate

goodness in your self,

and goodness will be genuine.

Cultivate it in your family, and goodness

will flourish. Cultivate it in your community, and

goodness will grow and multiply. Cultivate

it in your country, and goodness will be

abundant. Cultivate it in the world,

and goodness will be

everywhere.

How

do I know

the world works

like this? By

watching.

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 54

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To

wait with a

proper attitude invites

the assistance of

the Higher

Power.

There is

a situation at hand that

cannot be corrected by force or

 external effort. The Creative will provide

the solution to one who waits with a

correct attitude. This is a time

for patience and careful

attention to inner

truth.

Do not

give in to doubt

and agitation now. You are

not meant to wait in a state of desperate

longing but in one of patient inner strength.

Without certainty in the power of truth, success

is impossible. Attempts to force a change,

rather than allowing it to mature

naturally, will only cause

misfortune.

You

would be wise

to strengthen and reaffirm

your reliance on the Creative. When

you indulge in fear and doubt, you flood the arena

where the Higher Power is attempting to work.

Your principal responsibility in life

is to keep this arena — your

own consciousness —

free of negative

influences.

By

accepting

things as they are and not

making fruitless comparisons to the

situations of others or some imagined ideal,

one engages the power of the Creative.

If one then remains balanced,

modest, and independent,

good fortune will

come to

hand.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes:

Hexagram 5, Hsu (Waiting)

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kate beaton is irie

The

cords of

passion and desire weave

a binding net around you. Worldly

confrontation makes you stiff and inflexible.

The trap of duality is tenacious.

Bound, rigid, and trapped,

you cannot experience

liberation.

Through dual

cultivation it is possible to

unravel the net, soften the rigidity,

dismantle the trap. Dissolving your yin energy

into the source of universal life, attracting the yang

energy from that same source, you

leave behind individuality and

your life becomes pure

nature.

Free of ego,

living naturally, working

virtuously, you become filled with

inexhaustible vitality and are

liberated forever from the

cycle of death and

rebirth.

Understand

this if nothing else:

spiritual freedom and oneness with

the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts,

but the rewards of conscious

self-transformation and

self-evolution.

Hua hu Ching of Lao Tzu, Chapter 70

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Humility

is the root of greatness.

Those in high positions do well

to think of themselves as powerless,

small and unworthy. Isn’t this

taking humility for

the root?

Attain honor

without being honored.

Don’t shine like jade,

or chime like

bells.

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 39

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When the mind is at peace,
the world too is at peace.
Nothing real, nothing absent.
Not holding on to reality,
not getting stuck in the void,
you are neither holy nor wise,
just an ordinary person who
has completed their work.

P’ang Yun

The

hexagram Hsieh

signals the beginning of

a deliverance from danger, tensions,

and difficulty. The I Ching instructs

you here on both the cause of

deliverance and how you

must act in order to

fully benefit

from it.

Where the

great function turns,

entire sky moves.

Dogen

If you

seek reality you

must set yourself free

of all backgrounds, of all cultures,

of all patterns of thinking and feeling.

Even the idea of being man or woman, or even

human, should be discarded. The ocean of life contains all,

not only humans. So, first of all abandon all self-identification,

stop thinking of yourself as such-and-such, so-and-so, this or that.

Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare,

material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross

or subtle, stop thinking of achievement of

any kind. You are complete here and

now, you need absolutely

nothing.

It

does not mean

that you must be brainless

and foolhardy, improvident or indifferent;

only the basic anxiety for oneself must go. You need

some food, clothing and shelter for you and yours,

but this will not create problems as long

as greed is not taken for a need.

Live in tune with things as

they are and not

as they are

imagined.

 
Nisargadatta Maharaj

 This

hexagram

suggests that a deepening

of one’s modesty now is a sure means

of improving the situation. There is no power

so great as modesty for compelling the assistance of the

Sage — nor one so hindering as immodesty. Those in high places who

retain their modesty are loved by all and continually prosper;

those below who cultivate modesty inevitably rise

on the strength of their merits,

without making enemies

along the

way.

But

what does modesty

mean? Certainly it entails a refusal

to boast or act imperiously with others, even in

small ways. But beyond this steadfast humility it also means

that our effort to discern what is right and then do it is constant;

we do not work against ourselves, and we do not indulge

in doubts about the wisdom of correct conduct.

This unwavering commitment to what

is correct might be called “the

modesty before

the Sage”.

So there is

in modesty a component of

nonaction — that is, not indulging in arrogant,

ego-centered behavior — as well as a component of active effort:

looking for opportunities to correct ourselves, to assist

justice where there is injustice, to feed where

there is hunger, to give solace

where there is

pain.

Finally

and most plainly,

modesty means holding to innocence,

sincerity, and openness in every situation.

To do this is to empty ourself and

make room for the blessings

of the Creative to

take root.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes:

Hexagram 15, Ch’ien (Modesty)

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painting: daniel dociu