The Toltec civilization of ancient Mexico influenced all those that followed it, especially in the important arena of the spirit warrior’s philosophy of life, which came to be called Flower and Song.
Flower in this sense means that the spirit warrior looks at everyone and everything as a perfect blossom—something wondrous and mysterious and movingly beautiful. Something ultimately unknowable, since the source of its perfection is invisible. Something ultimately awe-inspiring, because its perfection invites intimacy and communion. And, unavoidably, something passing away right before our eyes, as transient and ephemeral as a fading bloom.
So, Flower in this sense means feeling the perfection of each moment while simultaneously feeling the inevitability of its passing. Whether engaging a loved one or a stranger, a favorite activity, a wild animal, a mountain, the stars, or even all of nature itself, the spirit warrior is fully immersed in this dual awareness of its perfection and mortality. Indeed, it has been said that only true warriors have the courage and fortitude to hold these two profound impressions in their heart-mind at the same time.
Song here means that the only thing truly worth speaking, even to oneself, is the truth of Flower. Anything else lacks the authenticity to fully reflect the nobility and compassion of the spirit warrior. In this sense, Song is the individual expression of the spirit warrior’s lifeway, the moment-by-moment way she or he thinks, feels, speaks, and acts.
Taken together, the phrase Flower and Song is a traditional metaphor for Poetry.
From this we can see that the spirit warrior is one who lives a poetic way of life—creative and empathetic, courageous and respectful, attuned to the world outside and the world within, spirit warriors live whole-heartedly, aware that all the perfection they know and love is passing away before their eyes.
Holding such a state of mind for extended periods of time has certain foreseeable consequences. By forcing us to focus complete attention on appreciating the perfection of everything as well as mourning its inevitable passing, it trains us to attend fully to the moment, drop off inner talk, participate in life authentically, and honor everything as an equal knowing it must die.
But it also has certain unforeseeable consequences. By blurring the imaginary boundary between self and world, it opens new senses and allows us to perceive the spirit within all matter. By blurring the imaginary line between flawed and flawless, it opens our hearts to the sacredness of all form. By blurring the imaginary boundary between animate and inanimate, it opens our eyes to the formless awareness forever transcending the very form it inhabits. By blurring the imaginary line between time and space, it opens our minds to the unchanging presence through which all changing form moves.
With this introduction, let’s look at the illustration and text for Hexagram 30 of The Toltec I Ching.
Image:. The skeletal form of death is shown in the childbirth position, giving birth to new life. Both the blood accompanying the birth and the bones of the skeleton have jade beads affixed to them. Over the heart of the newborn is the spiral cross section of a conch shell.
Interpretation: This hexagram represents the immortality that is born from mortality. The skeletal form of death symbolizes those remains of an individual that are common to all people. The newborn symbolizes the spirit warrior, who is delivered from the body’s death to return to the spirit realm from whence it comes. The jade beads affixed to the blood symbolize the precious nature of that which sustains life. The jade beads affixed to the bones of the skeleton symbolize the precious nature of all those who have come before us. The spiral of the conch over the heart symbolizes the wisdom and power of divine intelligence that fills the soul of the newborn spirit warrior. Taken together, these symbols mean that your body is the womb within which the embryo of the spirit warrior is carried.
Action: The spirit warrior contemplates the inevitable extinction of the body’s spark in order to illuminate the perfection of the present moment. It is a time for studying the end of things, for opening the heart fully to the reality of death: the need here is to reach beyond the intellect’s dead rationality in order to grasp the emotional reality of the body’s mortality. Instead of waiting for death to approach you, take the lead and approach it in order to experience that part of yourself that does not die. Because you have the courage to authentically accept the end of bodily experience, your heart fills with joyous appreciation for each moment that blossoms anew with the timeless perfection of creation. Because you have the loving-kindness to authentically accept that death inspires fear and doubt in other people, you find ways to express your emotions that encourage others to gaze unflinchingly into the bittersweet awareness of mortal perfection. Those who continue to avert their eyes from death’s face, however, see imperfection everywhere and find it uncomfortable to genuinely contemplate or discuss their mortality. Those who treat death as the midwife who delivers them into the ancestral homeland of the spirit warriors, on the other hand, increasingly come to view creation through the eyes of the immortal that is being born every moment. Because you prepare for the end of things, you are ready for the beginning that lies beyond.
Intent: Knowing that death transforms us after the body’s light is extinguished requires little more than intellectual knowledge. Knowing that we transform death before the body’s light is extinguished, however, requires first-hand experience of the deathless. For the spirit warrior, death is not the absence of life. It is the felt presence of the gateway between the visible and invisible realms—it is the loving presence of the guide home. We transform the extinction of the body by becoming the spirit warrior who carries its spark back to the universal fire of creation. We transform the way we view the world by appreciating the preciousness of every moment we are honored to spend in the visible realm.
Summary: Your spirit is growing stronger, take care what you create. Keep in mind the end of things and you will begin only what you wish to be remembered for—keep in mind the unpredictability of fate and you will not waste time or energy or petty goals. Transform death into your ally and you will make every moment count. Transform death into the spirit of renewal and you will find peace of mind.
The lesson we glean from this hexagram, then, is that immortality is not something that happens to us after we die—it is, rather, this present mind, in all its perfection, aware of itself as each mortal form passes through it. We recognize the perfection of this present mind, furthermore, by identifying with the unchanging now rather than the changing flow of time moving through it.
On the day-today practical level, this gives rise to a lifeway in which we treat everything as sacred, including ourselves, and experience everything as a manifestation of universal goodwill. We attune ourselves to the benevolent intention of the world, furthermore, by facing death so authentically that we come face-to-face with the deathless.
The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications. 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.
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