a period of increase

now you have everything you need

 

Powerful improvements

are underway.

 

The coming of the hexagram I signifies a period of increase when the power of heaven descends to surround and invigorate our lives. Like all phases, this too will come to an end, but if “we make hay while the sun shines,” tremendous progress can be made at this time.

It is in the nature of human beings to relax and become careless when things begin to go well. The I Ching teaches us that we should not do this if we desire the fullest blessings of the beneficial hour. Indeed, our rewards are multiplied if we increase our conscientiousness in auspicious times, rather than decrease it. There are two ways in which the I Ching especially encourages us to do this.

Our first task is to make sacrifices for others. In all of your interactions now, embody generosity in thought and action. Forgive what is inferior in others and seek out the good. By giving, encouraging, and assisting, you will draw the superior person in everyone into devoted action.

Your second task in this time of increase is to go on strengthening yourself “as thunder and wind strengthen each other.” This means that if you see something good in another, you imitate it, and when you discover something inferior in yourself, you eliminate it.

These simple practices, if continued conscientiously over time, will improve your character and fortunes immeasurably. Through service and self-improvement you assure yourself of great progress in the days ahead.
 

from The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 42, I / Increase

 

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try to praise the mutilated world

travel light

 

Try

to praise

the mutilated world.


Remember June’s long days,


and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.


The nettles that methodically overgrow


the abandoned homesteads

of exiles.


 

You

must praise

the mutilated world.


You watched the stylish yachts

and ships;
 one of them had a long trip

ahead of it,
 while salty oblivion awaited others.


You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,


you’ve heard the executioners

sing joyfully.


 

You

should praise

the mutilated world.


Remember the moments when

we were together 
in a white room and

the curtain fluttered.
 Return in thought to

the concert where music flared.
You

gathered acorns in the park in

autumn 
and leaves eddied

over the earth’s

scars.


 

Praise

the mutilated world


and the gray feather a thrush lost,


and the gentle light that strays

and vanishes
 and

returns.

 

Adam Zagajewski

 

aid should all be clear and free

pieter bruegel the elder

 

As you

help people and

respond to their potential,

it should all be clear and free. You mustn’t

roll around in the nest of weeds or play with your

spirit in the ghost cave. If the supposed teacher uses

contrived concepts of “mysteries” and “marvels” and “the

essence of truth”, if he cocks his eyebrows and puts a gleam

in his eye and cavorts around uttering apt sayings and thereby

binds the sons and daughters of other people’s families

with doctrines he claims are absolute realities, then

he is just one blind man leading a crowd of

blind  people — how can this produce

any genuine expedient

teaching?

 

Yuanwu

zen letters

 

when the mind is seen for what it is

jenny holzer

 

The purpose

and result of quietly

observing the self is to forget

the self. When the mind is seen for

what it is and fascination with

its activities dissipates,

reality, which was

always present,

appears.

 

It is at

this point that we

understand that nothing

is problematic and life

becomes thoroughly

enjoyable.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 46

Paperback / Kindle here

iPad/iPhone

iBooks

 

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You

can now buy

Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a

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