The Toltec I Ching Blog

Gradual influence is both the seed and the fruit of Insight.

It is the seed of Insight in the sense that external factors gradually influence our internal state, building up greater sensitivity until it triggers a new Insight.

It is the fruit of Insight in the sense that our inner Insight gradually influences the external situation by consistently encouraging harmful things to change and beneficial things to be preserved.

So although Insights seem to come full-blown and of a sudden, they actually result from a slow accumulation of subliminal experiences that gradually sensitize us to our surroundings.  We are not suddenly more insightful, in other words—rather, a growing awareness of something new works its way up through our unconscious until it crosses the conscious threshold and we can grasp it conceptually.  Insights seem to arrive suddenly because we have unconsciously been preparing for them by building up an emotional tension to be released once they enter conscious awareness.  This is why Insights are experienced as important and meaningful:  they arrive as the marriage of a new idea and a profound emotion—a marriage whose union gives birth to the breakthrough experience.

And although it seems that our Insights do not significantly impact our surroundings, this actually reflects a failure of our own perseverance.  Once we accept that each thing is on its individual path to perfection, then our influence can only add to or subtract from the other’s momentum:  criticism and conflict cause friction that impedes momentum, whereas approval and encouragement help propel each along its path.  The way of gradual influence, therefore, is the way of facilitation and accord:  we are able to put our Insights into effect when we methodically and consistently help others break through the impasses holding them back on their path.

The lower self will argue that this may sound nice enough but it is not practical because not everyone is a good person deserving of goodwill or kindness.  In fact, it will argue, there are those who are so cruel and malevolent that they deserve only cruelty in return.  This kind of argument—reducing issues to their extremes, as if that disproved a point that holds valid in a vast number of other cases—is a favored tactic of the lower self when it feels its interests threatened.  Wisdom does not express itself in obvious arguments against a compassionate and egalitarian ideal.  Anyone, after all, can construct hypothetical cases in the extreme that show how religious, spiritual, and philosophical ideals cannot work in the real world.  It takes the Insight of the higher self to see how they can.

For example, it is self-evident that if everyone everywhere was treated from birth with kindness, approval, and encouragement, generation after generation, so that no one anywhere experienced any cruelty or malevolence, then the number of people who became cruel and malevolent would drop each succeeding generation until the trait all but disappeared.  Those who claim this itself is impossible will admit that under the right circumstances they themselves would be able to extinguish their own tendencies toward cruelty and malevolence—but they will not admit that others would be able to do the same.  Such is the nature of the lower self, which fears most of all the prospect of living up to the potential of its light half.

As already stated above, although it seems that your Insights do not significantly impact your surroundings, this actually reflects a failure of your own perseverance—it requires the long view and a faith in the principle of metamorphosis for you to keep acting in a way that ennobles all when so many others appear to be doing just the opposite.  However, once you accept that your ideas, goals, and endeavors are all part of your own individual path to perfection, then the conduct of others no longer has any bearing on your own.  Rather than you being impacted by others’ actions, in fact, it is your conduct and demeanor that gradually influence others to change what is harmful and keep what is beneficial.  This form of inner power emerges because your attitude and behavior stem from inner Insight rather than short-sighted self-interest.

Success of every kind depends on this alternating expression of Insight:  on the one hand, external events gradually bring about internal breakthrough experiences and, on the other hand, internal breakthrough experiences gradually affect external events.  In this sense, we become more sensitized to our surroundings, which leads to more penetrating understanding, which we express through our actions, which better sensitizes others to their surroundings, which leads to their own Insights.  And just as we are motivated to act in accordance with our Insights, others are motivated to act in accordance with theirs.  By allowing others to influence us, in other words, we are able to influence them.

Fail to keep increasing your sensitivity to your surroundings, however, and you will lose the creative momentum that keeps you moving from success to success.  Fail to keep increasing your sensitivity to your surroundings, furthermore, and you will lose touch with what motivates those you seek to influence.

Failure of every kind depends on a lack of Insight.

What is holding me back?

Increasing my sensitivity to everything in my surroundings may not always be enough to answer this question.  There are times when I need to turn Insight back upon myself in order to advance the next step on my individual path to perfection.  This is both simpler and more complex than deriving Insight from my external surroundings:  simpler, in the sense that my internal impasses depend wholly on me for their existence—and more complex, in the sense that much of my identity is formed around my internal impasses.  Once I break through them and leave them behind, they no longer exist—but so long as they do exist, they deform the natural flexibility and adaptability of my personality and character in much the same way that dams change the natural flow of a river.

This brings us to the Seventh Paradox Of Wisdom: the more fixed my internal impasses, the more fixed my sense of personal identity.  If I do not periodically look for and identify my internal impasses, then I come to live with them so long that they seem to be part of me.  If I do not find a way to pass through them and resume my original direction, then the very course of my life is changed by the artificial reactions I have to my surroundings as a result of the habits that have replaced the natural flexibility and adaptability of my personality and character.

I am not fully myself, in other words, until I resolve all the internal impasses still haunting me.  Which is to say that I cannot reach my full potential so long as I fail to break through my internal impasses.  This is because I allow these internal impasses to create friction and conflict in my life—I myself slow my own momentum on my individual path to perfection.  If I am to reverse this tendency, I must increase my sensitivity to my unconscious habits of thought, emotion, memory, and instinct, identifying and then breaking through each in turn.

A straightforward approach to that end is for me to ask evocative questions and then follow the train of associations that my answers set in motion.  It does not take long to see how each habit has developed into an internal impasse that has shaped my reactions, and therefore my relationship, to my surroundings—

My habits of thought come to light when I inquire, What do I believe strongly?

My habits of emotion come to light when I inquire, What do I strongly dislike?

My habits of memory come to light when I inquire, What do I react to with alarm?

My habits of instinctual drives come to light when I inquire, What do I feel compelled to do?

As I encounter each impasse, I identify it quickly and accurately—is it a true impasse, a false impasse, a receding impasse, a sticky impasse, a hard impasse, or a soft impasse—and then treat it accordingly.  Using these questions to draw my impasses out of the unconscious and into awareness where I can break through them consciously, I feel myself progressively lighter and lighter, as if burden after burden has been lifted from me.  As impasse after impasse is penetrated and passed through, my sense of buoyancy and good will spontaneously result in my reverting to the natural flexibility and adaptability of my true personality and character.  In this way, my authentic reactions to my surroundings are restored and my relationship to the world more accurately reflects my individual path to perfection.  I regain my creative momentum and find it many times easier to break through the external barriers to good fortune.  My ideas and plans are part of the underlying harmony of the world and I find collaborators with whom to reap success.

This is called using Insight to release trapped power.

It is a principle otherwise expressed in the Eighth Paradox Of Wisdom: the longer an internal impasse goes undetected, the more powerful the resulting breakthrough experience.  Once broken through, in other words, it is the oldest, deepest, and most unconscious impasses that are the most liberating.

What is holding me back, it turns out, is what ultimately propels me forward.

Freed from internal impasses, where does Insight propel us?

Or, perhaps more to the heart of the matter, What are the further reaches of Insight?

As impasses are penetrated and left behind, we gradually realize that we ourselves are becoming Insight, in the sense of a special form of awareness, of attention, that, like a beam of light penetrating the dark of night, cuts through the entangling vines of the senses to perceive the real nature of existence.  We don’t want to be misled by the words special form, however—this metamorphosed form of Insight is simply the natural and normal awareness of the higher self.  As the barriers to contentment and fulfillment fall away like a butterfly’s cocoon or a serpent’s shed skin, so do the persistent misconceptions and uncertainties that plague the lower self.  As these impasses dissolve and melt away, our identity undergoes a gradual but profound transformation:  we identify less and less with the single lifetime of this material body, and more and more with the immortal lifetime of this immaterial awareness.

It is at this point that Insight is turned around to shine full upon itself, like light reflected back upon its source.  It is here that Insight empties out into the source of awareness, like a river empties out into the sea.  And it is here that Insight comes to embody a living emptiness, a dwelling place where all life might dwell, a timeless garden where all might ripen to perfection.  Insight turned back onto itself is the gate of the Great Reunion.

The further reaches of Insight, it turns out, extend all the way back to its origin in the Beyond.

Exercise One—Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply.  Visualize a dark grey stone wall before you.  Visualize your attention as a steady gentle wind blowing against the wall.  Visualize that wind gradually eroding a hole through the wall.  Visualize that hole growing larger and larger, until the wall gives way and falls.  Once you have succeeded in breaking through the wall, begin the exercise again, this time repeating the catch phrase:  Is this the limit of awareness?

Exercise Two—In the routine of everyday life, see each person you encounter as having an enlightened master within them.  See each person’s inner master as testing the quality your spiritual perceptiveness by pretending to be opinionated, hypocritical, greedy, ambitious, self-centered, and driven by instinctual needs.  Hone your Insight until you can see the enlightened nature of each person’s inner master peering out from behind the persona of the lower self.  When you can hold this perception steadily for periods of time, then turn your Insight around and see the enlightened master peering out from behind your own persona.

Just as there cannot be good fortune without wisdom, there cannot be wisdom without Insight.  And there cannot be Insight without gradual penetration of the impasses that afflict us within and without.  When we break through all impasses, we return to the state of wholeness.  When we return to the state of wholeness, we relive the time before we were ever wounded.  When we relive the time before we were ever wounded, we reclaim our perfection.  But we don’t want to be misled by this word perfection—this is not the static stereotyped perfection of the temporal imagination but, rather, the ever-evolving individual perfection of eternal Insight.  In this sense, the higher self is the Wind Of Light coursing through the Night Of Matter, patiently, gradually, carving the one infinite impasse into a perfect mirror of the Beyond.

So what the lower self calls success is achieved when we are able to influence our surroundings in a way that furthers our goals, whereas what the higher self calls success is achieved when we are able to influence our surroundings in a way that furthers the perfection of the Whole.  Treat all of existence as a single soft impasse through which you are flowing, wearing away all the detritus until only the hidden diamond remains:  fulfill your role as part of the great spiritualizing influence and the unrelenting wind of your good will and encouragement will assure your ultimate success.

~

The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.

If you’d like to learn more, visit the website:  http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/

~

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just received a Silver Award in the 2010 Nautilus Awards.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.  Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.

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There are different kinds of impasses.

There is the true impasse, from which we can only turn back and withdraw.

There is the false impasse, which, when seen accurately, is actually an obstacle that can be circumvented.

There is the receding impasse, at which we become trapped because we do not believe we have actually come to an impasse.

There is the sticky impasse, to which we keep returning despite being turned back every time.

There is the hard impasse, which can only be broken through by using sharp, abrupt force.

And there is the soft impasse, which can only be broken through by using slow, gentle pressure.

Each of these impasses can, in turn, exist externally or internally.

Come to recognize true impasses quickly and accurately.  Don’t waste energy testing them.  Turn around and return to your last decision—reconsider it in light of what you now know and make whatever course correction you need to.  True wisdom does not waste a single moment on true impasses.

Come to recognize false impasses quickly and accurately.  Repeatedly test their resistance to your advance, looking for the motives behind the obstacles.  Review your recent decisions and actions, considering whether the present obstacles are a backlash to your own doings.  Clarify your own motives, both to yourself and others.  Just because it is not a true impasse does not mean you are heading in the right direction:  make sure your true path lies on the other side of such obstacles before trying to overcome them.

Come to recognize receding impasses quickly and accurately.  These impasses are like the horizon—they constantly recede as we advance, giving the illusion of unimpeded freedom of movement.  And like the horizon, they also follow us when we retreat, always keeping the same distance from us, for it is their seeming remoteness that creates the bounds and limits of our opportunities.  Don’t blindly accept others’ claims about the quality of your freedom or the absence of better alternatives.  Think for yourself.  Judge for yourself.  The largest cage is still a cage.

Come to recognize sticky impasses quickly and accurately.  These impasses are like gravity—they exert a constant pull on us, so that no matter how often we appear to escape their influence, we feel compelled to return to them time and time again.  Here the wish to change something is just as profound as our inability to do so.  This in turn creates a situation in which we simply cannot let go of something we know we should.  Keep reminding yourself that you have gone over this same ground many times and each time realized that the problem cannot be solved nor the hope fulfilled as things stand now.  Promise yourself that you will return to it again if things ever change.  Every time it comes to mind and you are tempted to revisit it, push yourself away just as you would from the dining table when you are too full to eat another bite.  Pull your attention back to the present moment and don’t allow it to be pulled away into the past or future.

Come to recognize hard impasses quickly and accurately.  Such impasses appear formidable but they have a brittle nature.  Because its presence is so imposing and intimidating, the hard impasse is unaccustomed to any reaction but acquiescence and compliance.  This makes it susceptible to unexpected and forceful reactions that upset its equilibrium—especially reactions that shock its rigid and often hypocritical sense of propriety, dignity, or morality.  It is the weight of authority and established precedents that gives the hard impasse its sense of indomitability—but these very strengths can be confused and overcome by the truly novel and incongruous response.  Do not test its strength beforehand—feign compliance until the moment comes to strike.  Then forego all timidity and act with absolute confidence and certainty of purpose.  Strike like a thunderbolt at its blind spot and the hard impasse will splinter and collapse.  Of all the kinds of impasses there are, this is the rarest.

Come to recognize soft impasses quickly and accurately.  Such impasses are impenetrable in the short run but can eventually be breached by stubbornly patient encouragement.  This kind of impasse is built of weakness:  it has been attacked, betrayed, undermined, and ignored to the point that its defenses are the only part of it that show.  Distrust and hardship have made it strong:  nothing can enter without its explicit permission and that permission is long in coming.  Take the long view and adopt a demeanor of polite respect and disinterested concern.  Like the wind working against the soft places in stone until it erodes a hole right through, gradually prove your trustworthiness through consistently beneficial actions.  And just as the wind does not react to the stone but, rather, acts upon the stone, don’t react to the ingrained defenses thrown up by this impasse but, rather, exert a uniformly encouraging influence on its protected heart.  It is by gradual influence upon the heart of the soft impasse alone that we are granted permission to pass and advance on our way.  Of all the kinds of impasses there are, this is the most common.

This is the I Ching trigram for Wind.  It symbolizes the ability to gain entry everywhere by means of steady, gentle effort.  As such, it represents spiritual penetration and the gradual unfolding of understanding that leads to wisdom.  It speaks of our need to dedicate ourselves to the lifelong perfecting of character whereby our blinders of opinion fall away, freeing us to perceive the world as it truly is.  By sensing the patient influence of Wind within, we train ourselves to embody inner Insight.

~

The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.

If you’d like to learn more, visit the website:  http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/

~

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just received a Silver Award in the 2010 Nautilus Awards.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.  Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Inner Curiosity is attained by expanding our field of interests to infinity and exploring the least interesting detail within that field in the present moment.  By including all things everywhere within our field of interest in this way, we open ourselves to encountering just those unexpected connections that spark our next creative leap.  But it is only by taking the step, that of exploring the least interesting thing of all, that we maximize the potential of such connections and their impact on the rest of our lives.

Why the least interesting thing?

Because it lies outside the routine of what we consider important.  By pursuing new lines of thought, especially those you are least likely to pursue, you gain entry into a greater field of possible discoveries.  Exploring the depths of the very details that do not attract your attention—the most innocuous leaf in the forest, the least significant word on a page, the most boring person at a gathering—grants you entry into a secret web of hidden connections that shatters old habits of thought and evokes new associations that lead to deeper understandings, sharper intuitions, and greater opportunities.  It cultivates, in other words, a richer imagination.

This is not to say that every uninteresting detail opens new opportunities for success.  Many will seem to dead-end without producing any noticeable results.  But their usefulness may lie in the future connections they establish with as-yet-unforeseen experiences.  The cumulative effect of widening the range of your interests like this weaves a highly-sensitive web of far-flung strands, each of which triggers excited curiosity in the center whenever it catches something new.

Outer curiosity, however, merely reflects a narrow field of interests based on personal tastes and lifestyle.  Pursuing the most interesting things within that field on a recurring basis, which is what we typically do, brings us to a different kind of dead end eventually.  Like a mine that has been played out, such a narrow field of interests inevitably stops producing anything of value.  Stale ideas, uninspired connections, and untenable plans—such is the sad legacy of the habit-ridden mind.

Our ability to operate at peak performance, on the other hand, depends on our capacity for sustaining a sense of wonder.  Without cultivating a lifelong sense of excited curiosity, we fall prey to the been there, done that self-defeating frame of mind.  Perpetually maintaining a childlike curiosity about all of existence, however, allows us to follow in the footsteps of the ancient who observed in wonderment, You cannot step into the same river twice.

In order to rise above mediocrity and triviality, we must see the world with new eyes, touch it with new hands, and hold it with new hearts.  Even though our heart’s desire may be a still-evolving concept, if we are ever to actually attain it, we need to experience all of existence as a sacred game and our own participation in it as sacred play.

A game is an activity whose rules intentionally set it aside from the realities of life.  Play is an individual’s adherence to those rules in order to temporarily step aside from the realities of life.

Experiencing all of existence as a sacred game, therefore, implies that there is another, more fundamental, reality from which this one has been created.  It follows that sacred play means we intentionally enter into this sacred game for the express purpose of temporarily stepping aside from that other, more fundamental, reality.  This further implies that entering into this created, secondary, reality has a transcendental goal, the attainment of which benefits us in that other, more fundamental, reality. For this reason, it is a sacred game.

For something is sacred when it is created by, and reveals, the transcendental.

All water in the sea tastes of salt.  But when it evaporates to form clouds, it leaves the taste of salt behind.  And when it rides the wind inland as rain clouds, it falls upon the mountains as freshwater.  Yet once it rushes from brook to stream to river and, finally, back into the sea, it regains the taste of salt it shares with all sea water.

Within that other, more fundamental, reality, we all possess the sense of Oneness.  But when we depart it, however temporarily, we leave the sense of Oneness behind.  And when we enter this created, secondary, reality, we enter as Individuals representing the One.  Yet once we move through all the stages between birth and death and, finally, return to that other, more fundamental, world, we regain the sense of Oneness we share with all awareness.

In considering this analogy to the cycle of water, let us not forget that it is during its time as freshwater that it actually nourishes all life on land.  Similarly, we need to remember that it is during our time as sacred players representing the One within its created, secondary, world that we have the opportunity to benefit all life within this sacred game.

To see the ordinary as the transcendental—that is the art of sacred play.

To see the least interesting detail as the sacred—that is the art of inner Curiosity.

To see the present moment as both the fruit and the seed of eternity—that is the art of sustaining a lifelong sense of wonder.

To see every life, including our own, as necessary and essential to the ultimate outcome of this sacred game—that is the art of attaining the ecstatic life.

To see all of existence as a sacred game whose rules, goal, and even other players are all unfathomable mysteries—that is the art of breaking through all resistance to the heart of childlike exploration that leads to discovery, inventiveness, and creativity.

To see our own intent as a molecule of water, moving with all other molecules of water through the cycle of sea water, cloud, rain, river, and back to sea water—that is the art of awakening the inner power to bring the best ideas to life.

To see that seeing things in the right light is the distinguishing characteristic of personal transformation—that is the art of keeping our feet firmly on the path of good fortune.

No matter how many times you do something, there is some new detail you have not yet examined.  No matter how familiar you are with something, there is still some undiscovered detail of it that is strange and unfamiliar.  No matter how well you know something, there is some seemingly irrelevant detail that continues to elude you.

These are the details that hold the missing keys to unlocking the full potential of your endeavors.  But they cannot be explored as a matter of course, as a purely mechanical exercise—you must see past what you have already experienced, you must see through what you expect to happen.  Without an attitude of sincere curiosity and a real heartfelt eagerness to discover what lies outside your habit-driven attention, you will plow the same field in the same way, over and over, without ever finding the treasure buried right beneath your feet.

Exercise One—In the midst of your everyday routines, look for what you always overlook.  Notice what you never notice.  Pay attention to what never attracts your attention.  For example, take note of the painted lines on the road.  What kind of paint is it?  What kind did it replace?  Why?  How is it applied?  With what machine and who invented it?  How was it done previously?  How was it first done?  When?  Where?  Whose idea was it originally?  How was it accepted?  What other alternatives were explored?  Who makes the paint?  How much does it cost?  How much is spent worldwide every year on it?  What shortcomings does it have?  What alternatives are currently being explored to improve on it?  How long does it last?  And so on:  the more you look into each question, the more questions ought to be raised.  Once you have explored one detail as far as you can, move on to another.  In performing this exercise, don’t look for connections to your own endeavors—if you are conscientious in following this training regime, then the connections will come naturally and of their own accord.

Exercise Two—Study other people, both strangers and those you know well.  Watch more closely.  Listen more closely.  Use the passive attention you have been cultivating to notice what you usually ignore.  Ask more questions, following up on statements or ideas that you would otherwise find lackluster.  Try to see the world through their eyes for the moment, delving into the details of what they have found interesting and meaningful.  Treat each person as mysterious and unpredictable, revealing through their surface behavior something deeper and more universal about life.  Give them more room to express themselves more fully.  React to their actions with honest curiosity, eradicating approval and disapproval from your verbal and nonverbal conversation.  Keep in mind that the very jewel you hope to find may lie barely hidden beneath the surface of just such an interaction—the only obstacle blocking the successful completion of your endeavor may well be broken through by the next thing the person in front of you says.

The open awareness of Nonresistance that you cultivated in the previous lesson is essential to your development of inner Curiosity—and particularly to your developing a sensitivity to the inter-connectedness of all things.  Please keep in mind that if the things that have interested you in the past have not taken you all the way to where you wish to go, then becoming interested in new things may well provide the momentum for you to finish this leg of the journey.  Destroy your idea of what is “interesting” and “uninteresting” and the whole of existence is a goldmine of inspiration that can never be played out.

~

The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.

If you’d like to learn more, visit the website:  http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/

~

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just received a Silver Award in the 2010 Nautilus Awards.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.  Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

This is the I Ching trigram for Fire.  It symbolizes both the power and the vulnerability of knowledge, for although fire illumines the dark, it is utterly dependent on the wood that fuels it.  As such, it represents the conscious mind’s desire to know, which leads us to great wisdom and great folly, both.  It speaks of our need to be conscious of our conscious mind, honoring it as our first tool even as we recognize that we are still learning how to wield it honorably.  By sensing the spiritual longing of Fire within, we train ourselves to embody inner Curiosity.

Absolute openness of awareness draws us back into seeing the world with new eyes.  By developing passive attention, our minds relax and do not seize upon images and impressions as soon as they appear.  This way, we stop leaping from the present moment to others we associate with the past or future.

The governing of attention does not, however, mean we remain in passive attention all the time—rather, it means we train ourselves to remain in passive attention longer than we are accustomed to.  This allows us to store up creative energy that, once it has gained enough momentum, is discharged in creative acts forged in the fire of active attention.

The governing of attention, therefore, means that we train ourselves to shift back and forth between active and passive attention as the moment requires.  Few of us nowadays, though, can sustain the undirected and unfocused knowing that precedes meaningful action.  Indeed, it is our very thirst for meaning that pulls us out of the undifferentiated source of creativity and back into the conscious differentiation of mental categories and personal associations.

This kind of thirst for meaning is inauthentic because it stems from our discomfort with the oceanic experience of the one awareness that is the source of creativity, insight, problem-solving, and belonging.  Rather than taking joy in temporarily dissolving the limitations of the conscious self by communing with the Universal Self, we fear the loss of our individual identity and pull back from the brink of awe before we are transformed.

By not staying in awe long enough, we lose our sense of wonder and no longer look at each moment as utterly new and full of unimaginable potential.  By not staying in awe long enough, in other words, we no longer see things as they really are.  And so we stop advancing easily and naturally along a course infinitely more rewarding than any we could have plotted for ourselves.

This inauthentic thirst for meaning arises from our belief that the highest expression of free will lies in exercising control over the circumstances in our lives by making decisions consistent with our values and goals.  Honing our intent to serve our own self-interest like this means that all our actions are predetermined and predictable—the very opposite of the free will we had sought.

The more predictably we act out of short-sighted self-interest like this, the more we react to large-scale circumstances in the same way as everyone around us.  While such lemming-like behavior allows us to be accepted by those around us, this kind of conformity breaks our spirit, deadens our creativity, and trivializes our life.

Instead of finding meaning, we create meaninglessness.  This is so because something acquires meaning only when we can place it within a larger context—when everything relates to my own self-interest, however, I lack the larger context within which to place my life.  Without anything greater than myself against which to situate my actions, I am left with a profound sense of loss, alienation, and meaninglessness.

Keep in mind here that we all claim to have something higher we believe in and to which we dedicate our lives.  But we are trying to speak honestly here and to reason through our common obstacles, so let us not indulge in self-deception or dissembling.  For the moment, set aside what you say, set aside what you want others to think of you, set aside what you want to think of yourself—when it comes to actions, you are a rare and exceptional individual if you place the interests of others ahead of your own.

Yet all this goes against the wisdom teachings of the elders, who make it abundantly clear that the ultimate expression of free will lies in surrendering to the higher will of the universal source.

What then does such surrender feel like?  What is the inner experience like?

It feels like drifting on the great ocean without rudder or sail.  It is the recognition that, although I know how to navigate by the stars, I have no concept of my destination.  I voluntarily give up my efforts to direct my own course—and quite naturally allow the breeze to carry off any maps drawn by others.  I trust the soundness of my raft, fashioned from the timbers of passive attention and lashed together with the cord of active attention.  I move with the vast serpentine currents of the great sea, carried where it goes.  No longer embroiled in a journey with a goal and destination, I embark on the primordial journey of exploration.

The inner experience of such surrender is your sudden recognition in a moment of calm that the journey of exploration is itself the destination and that, without striving for it, you have entered the ecstatic life.

There is an absent-minded pirate who wanders aimlessly, wondering aloud, Now where did I bury that treasure?

The problem is that we ourselves have grown so absent-minded that we would not recognize our part in the story even if we had an eye patch, a peg leg, and a parrot on our shoulder constantly repeating in our own voice, Now where did I bury that treasure?

We have forgotten, in other words, that we ourselves hid our priceless treasure in just that place we would be sure to look once we were prepared to use it wisely.

Even worse—we have forgotten to keep looking.

The wisdom teachings are replete with such stories.

A widow fell ill, for instance, and lost all her belongings except the priceless jewel she had inherited.  Fearing creditors would try to steal it, she sewed the jewel into the coat of her only child so that he might never want for anything.  But her illness worsened suddenly and she died before telling her son about the jewel sewn into his coat.  The young man fell on hard times.  Impoverished and homeless, he wandered the land, suffering gravely in his loneliness and misfortune.  One day, as he was performing another menial task for another bowl of thin broth, his threadbare coat caught on a nail and tore open.  To the young man’s amazement, out toppled the priceless heirloom, changing his life forever.

Or, similarly, a desert saint taught the people of his village by one day riding his donkey through the crowded marketplace, whipping it into a frenzy, upsetting carts and scattering the busy barterers, all the while shouting accusingly at everyone he passed, Who stole my donkey?  Who stole my donkey?

And so on.

We possess immeasurable wealth without knowing it.

The very thing we are seeking has been carrying us through life all along.

And the treasure is buried right before our eyes.

~

The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.

If you’d like to learn more, visit the website:  http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/

~

The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just received a Silver Award in the 2010 Nautilus Awards.  It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.  Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.

Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.

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