The Toltec I Ching Blog

With this chapter, the bulk of our course comes to an end.  Our overall goal—to apply the spiritual principles of good fortune in such a way that we do not bring harm to the Whole—is nearly met.  We have done the transformative work that allows us to identify with the higher self, which in turn allows us to more effectively influence people and events around us.  But in doing so, we enter the arena of all those seeking to influence people and events.  This is not merely an arena in the sense of a common ground of shared activity, however.  It is also—and primarily—an arena in the sense of a highly charged and competitive environment.  And because many in this environment are motivated by nothing more than self-interest, our ability to act for the benefit of all is put to the test.

As competition intensifies, it becomes more and more difficult to capture the attention of those you seek to influence.  Since everyone else is having the same difficulty, even the competition for attention intensifies.  There are numerous ways to capture attention but the one people fall back on when they are hardest pressed is shock.

Shock gets attention.  Because it works, it is used whenever people demand attention.  Whether it is a matter of shocking claims against another or shocking images or shocking lyrics or shocking news or shocking volume or shocking humor or shocking stories or shocking games or shocking appearance or shocking behavior or shocking violence, shock is used whenever people will not be denied attention.  This raises two problems.

The first is merely technical.  Few of those who know how to get attention using shock have anything worthwhile to offer that will hold the attention once it has been captured.  They can get people’s attention but cannot hold it long enough to influence their attitudes or behavior.

The second has far-reaching ramifications.  Shock is like a drug:  the more it is used, the more of it is needed to get the same effect—and the more widely it is used, the more the social fabric is frayed and torn.  When people are bombarded from all sides with shock they get unnerved.  The general equilibrium of their lives becomes so disrupted that they begin to expect that more shock might be right around the corner.  And because shock is only shocking if it is more shocking than the last shock, the next shock—the one that is possible, the anticipated one, the one most feared, the one that may happen at any moment—is truly unnerving in its looming potential.  Those seeking attention in such an environment feel they must continue to increase the shock value of their message, which has a paradoxical effect on those they seek to influence:  on the conscious level, it makes them calloused to the tactic of shock, while on the unconscious level, it makes them habitually nervous and uneasy.

When this kind of assault on the senses is routine and wide-spread, people have difficulty even recognizing the degree to which they are being affected.  But so much over-stimulation does take its toll on people.  They no longer relax as they should.  They experience chronic stress, which adversely affects their mental, emotional, and physical health.  They always feel rushed and never have enough time.  They cannot stand being bored—they need constant stimulation, distraction, and entertainment.  They no longer appreciate silence or their own company, preferring other people’s music, words, or images to their own.  They lack patience, concentration, and true self-confidence.  They are chronically worried, nervous, anxious, fearful, and distrustful.  They become intolerant, feeling like they cannot take one more assault on their dignity.  They grow increasingly polarized in their reactions, some becoming irrationally emotional, aggressive, and explosive, with others becoming passive, withdrawn, and victimized.

Whether shock is used for profit or ideology, for oneself or one’s group, the long-term result is the same.

It is a tragedy when an individual suffers like this.

It is a disaster in the making when a society suffers like this.

Seeking my own personal success by adding to the suffering of the Whole is the very opposite of the path of good fortune.

The reason shock works is that people’s adverse reactions to it are relatively predictable.  This kind of influence is called guiding by backlash and refers to the practice of directing people’s attitudes and behaviors by provoking them to react against well-timed shocks.  In its more overt aspects, it is little different than using a cattle prod—the electric shock, when applied to the right place at the right time, drives the herd in the desired direction.  In its more subtle aspects, it is analogous to pruning—making a cut at the right angle above the right bud channels new growth into the desired direction.  While not an infallible tactic, using shock to create the desired backlash produces more predictable reactions than other tactics.

Whether it is a government defining an internal or external threat, a religion describing eternal punishments for wrong-doing, an advertisement announcing a new way to avoid becoming a social pariah, or a hungry infant crying upon waking, the tactic of using shock to elicit the desired backlash produces relatively predictable reactions.

Contrived or natural, however, shock cannot be overused or misused without producing unwanted backlashes:  the government that cries wolf too often loses credibility, the religion that proscribes all joy of life is abandoned, the advertisement that promises to fix a nonexistent problem becomes a parody of itself, and the infant that cries incessantly finds that some of its real needs go ignored.

As it turns out, all use is overuse.

And any use is misuse.

This is the I Ching trigram for Thunder.  It symbolizes the shock that follows an unexpected lightning bolt.  As such, it represents the power to initiate change by acting in such a way that others feel compelled to react.  It speaks of our need to defy expectations, timing our actions to maximize the impact of our influence.  By sensing the startling suddenness of Thunder within, we train ourselves to embody inner Surprise.

Inner Surprise is the culmination of the previous seven stages of this course.  It is the art of combining the skills we acquired in those stages and applying them in the least expected ways to the ever-changing circumstances we encounter.  It is the art of waiting until the crucial moment to act, in much the same way as the rain cloud must build up to the cloudburst.  It is the art of influencing people and events by echoing their inner state.  It is to shock what the butterfly is to the caterpillar.

There is nothing so surprising as finding ourselves in sudden resonance with something new and unexpected.  This experience of startling familiarity with the unfamiliar never fails to astonish us, for it reawakens us to the unfathomable mystery of the world even as it reassures us that we are a vital part of it.  How is it that something new and unfamiliar can strike us so immediately as intimate and familiar?  And how can that same thing strike others close to us as strange and inconsequential?  Because, for reasons beyond our scope of vision, we and not someone else are attuned to the same invisible essence as that which we find physically unfamiliar but spiritually familiar.

What the five senses of my lower self may not recognize as dear and valuable, the essential sense of my higher self may recognize immediately as a perfect match to some part of its intrinsic nature.  Such experiences demonstrate to me that I share certain motivations with people and events beyond myself—motivations that I may not even know I have until I experience firsthand their reflection in others.  Something touches me, in other words, and in so doing, influences me.  Something moves me, and in so doing, changes my attitudes and behaviors.  When this happens to me, I am influenced by the inner power of others.  When I am able to evoke such a response from others, they are influenced by my inner power.

But the inner power expressed by individuals does not arise from within the individual.

It is a manifestation of the chain of spiritual cause-and-effect that arises from within the Current.

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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/

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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.