In order to exercise the right to change things for the better, we must first allow ourselves to be changed for the better.  This means allowing the relative self to be changed by the true self.  Voluntarily submitting to the higher self’s purpose like this allows the relative self to awaken to the life within its life, to remember the life beyond its life—by becoming more than just the sum of our body’s experiences, we let go of the personal history that has conditioned our reactions and we begin acting without being constrained by precedents and preconceptions.  Rather than acting only on our own interests, we become devoted to making things better for the people, animals, and nature around us.  When we allow ourselves to be changed by the true self, in other words, we are no longer concerned with how circumstances affect us—what concerns us is how we affect the circumstances around us.

Undergoing this self-transformation leads us to the Fourth Paradox Of Wisdom:  it is only by voluntarily submitting to the will of the true self that the relative self achieves Autonomy—it is only by recognizing its dependence on the true self that the relative self achieves real independence. But the will, ambition, and impatience of the relative self are not easily tamed and it requires sincere dedication to the true self’s purpose if we are to master the kind of self-control that carries us along the path of wisdom.

We may be devoted to changing things for the better, for example, but the interconnectedness of everything means our actions become part of a web of causes that is interwoven in increasingly complex ways, making it impossible to ever predict the ultimate effects of any single action.  This is why one of the principal symptoms of wisdom is humility:  we can act in good faith that our motive will guide our action to its intended effect, but we must not harbor the pretense of knowing its final outcome.  To exercise creative power and the right to change things for the better without a firm grasp of the governing principles is the precise opposite of wisdom.

Humility, then, is the practical face of Autonomy:  we can be devoted to changing things for the better, but we cannot be attached to the results of our efforts.  Rather than imagining we can control all the potential ways our actions might interact with all other actions over time, we must free ourselves from the relative self’s perspective and adopt that of the true self:  the successful fulfillment of the true self’s purpose cannot be understood as spanning a single lifetime but, rather, must be viewed as a long-term enterprise spanning many lifetimes.

Freedom, therefore, is the ideal face of Autonomy—the freedom to act and react without being unduly influenced by externals, the freedom to act and react without being controlled by past experiences, the freedom to act and react without being inhibited by fears and expectations of the future.

The freedom, in other words, of the untroubled spirit.

And herein lies the difference between freedom and imprisonment—for the untroubled spirit is untroubled no matter how difficult things get, whereas the troubled spirit is troubled no matter how good things get.

If we are to exercise the freedom of the untroubled spirit, we need to relinquish control of events and take control of the troubled spirit—yet because this is the precise opposite of how most people conduct themselves, we come across few people after whom we can model our behavior.  Even though this makes finding our way in life more difficult, it does force us to find our own way.  There was, of course, a first enlightened person.  A first healer.  A first shaman.  A first artist.  A first poet.  A first storyteller.  Autonomy forces us to live as if we were each the first person to see the world and respond to it in a wholly unpremeditated and original way.

Freedom is what happens when the relative self and the absolute self act as one.

Autonomy must not become just another kind of strength to be relied upon in our effort to overcome others in the competition for social resources.  It needs to be the center from which we act and feel and remember.  It needs to replace the sense of identity that has been unintentionally patched together by the relative self through its reactions to the body’s experiences.  Just as the vulnerable caddis worm crawls along the streambed picking up bits of debris it passes and then attaching them to its body to make a protective shell, the relative self builds up a reassuring sense of identity by piecing together a personal history out of the random events to which the body has been exposed.  Autonomy needs to become the sense of self from which all our actions and reactions arise without any ulterior motives.  Once our only motive is the creation of constructive change, the only obstacle to success is our desire to succeed:  by detaching our attention from any sense of success and failure, we have already succeeded in shifting our sense of personal purpose away from what is created and toward the act of creating.

Herein lies the short path to Autonomy.  By experiencing the act of creating first-hand, we are led to recognize that all of creation stems from a single source.  And by withdrawing our attention from the creation itself, we are subsequently led to experience the inexpressible purpose driving the act of creating itself.  After that experience, it is no longer possible to create anything counter to the underlying purpose to the whole of creation:  from that point on, our personal purpose is wholly aligned with the single purpose of the universal source.  Taking an active part in the universal act of creating, in other words, leads us to discover our own personal purpose in the grand scheme of things and, thereby, the unique sense of identity that transcends our individual lifetimes.  The short path to Autonomy runs straight through the quagmire of cultural conditioning without ever diverging into the quicksand of self-importance.

With this background in mind, let us turn to our training exercises and receive, in the experiences they engender, the answers that the Lesson Of Autonomy gives to our most stubborn questions.

Exercise One—Sit quietly with eyes closed, silently repeating to yourself, My Heart Is Another Sun.  Concentrate your attention on the center of your chest, visualizing a grapefruit-sized sun there radiating light and warmth out into the world.  Allow the visualization to sink into your emotions, so that the sun-heart within your chest emits unconditional loving-kindness and goodwill out into the world.  After these first steps are accomplished, allow the emotional feelings to sink deeper yet into your material body, producing physical sensations of a corporeal sun from which emanate life-sustaining rays of golden light.  After this stage of the training is mastered, carry the exercise out during all your daily activities until it becomes second nature.  Keep in mind that no shadow can ever fall upon the sun as you silently repeat the catch-phrase, My Heart Is Another Sun.

Exercise Two—Sit quietly with eyes closed, visualizing a spider web upon whose every knot there gleams a dewdrop.  Visualize further that each of these many dewdrops is reflecting every other dewdrop and, indeed, that each dewdrop is reflecting the whole of all the dewdrops together.  Once you can sustain this image, place yourself in the visualization as one of the dewdrops and then place everyone and everything you know as the other dewdrops on the web.  Allow yourself to feel how you are reflected in each of those dewdrops.  Allow yourself to feel how everyone and everything you know is reflected in you.  As you stabilize this image, allowing yourself to feel both how each dewdrop is reflected in the whole and the whole is reflected in each dewdrop, silently repeat the catch-phrase, All In One, One In All. When this stage of the exercise is mastered, extend the spider web to infinity and eternity, allowing everything in all places and in all times to become a dewdrop similarly fixed on the living web of creation, radiating All In One, One In All.

Ultimately Autonomy means to sense the omnipresent Act Of Creating and then aligning ourselves with it rather than going along with those who are not aware they are being motivated in large part by a mass hypnosis that has, over the generations, settled upon human nature.  Strive to see the world the way it really is rather than allowing yourself to be unduly influenced by the received wisdom of civilization, since that world view is the one that has created the history of suffering we are trying to change.  True Autonomy allows us to exercise freedom of perception and judgment, even as it draws us into a more passionate and compassionate involvement with the times in which we live.  Similarly, true strength allows us to defeat the self-defeating habits of thought, feeling, and memory that make us confuse weakness for strength, failure for success, and folly for wisdom.

Of all the exercises in this training regimen, the Lesson Of Autonomy is the most trying, for it demands the most of us, prodding us on to climb heights we never imagined attempting.  So take your time, re-read the background material regularly, and practice the exercises by steeping yourself in the feelings they evoke.  Move from the abstract to the bodily, making your experiences ever more concrete.  What we are searching for is not something that happens to us—it is something that we ourselves produce.

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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/

~

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.

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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Inspired action flows spontaneously from an inspired mind.

When we replace trivial and undignified thoughts with substantial and ennobling ones, we are focused ahead of time on perceiving and interpreting events in the best possible light.  In this way, we take the energy we previously devoted to the pursuit of self-interest and channel it into acts that benefit all.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

An inspired mind flows spontaneously from an inspired heart.

When we replace selfish and self-important feelings with generous and all-embracing ones, we are positioning ourselves ahead of time to respond to events with loving-kindness and goodwill toward all.  In this way, we take the energy we previously devoted to self-defeating attitudes and channel it into creative acts that benefit all.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

An inspired heart flows spontaneously from being attuned to this single wish of the Living Whole:  that all benefit as one.

But how are we to give up our separate sense of self-importance and open our heart to this living wish when so many around us are acting out of greed, superstition and fear?  How are we to refine our thoughts and emotions when we are bombarded from every quarter with ever more sophisticated attempts to capture our attention?

It is one of the oldest lessons:  If your intention is clear of ulterior motives, then even distractions and confusion are The Way.

Self-defeating thoughts and emotions, from this point of view, are viewed as the enemy-within, the constellation of habit attitudes and habit behaviors that constantly throw up stumbling blocks to the spirit warrior’s progress.  Indeed, the spirit warrior is best defined as a woman or man who clarifies their intention by consciously training to (1) recognize Spirit within all matter and, (2) defeat the self-defeating habits of the enemy-within.

Freeing our intention of ulterior motives by focusing on these two goals, we find that confronting the distractions and confusion thrown up by the enemy-within becomes more like practicing with a sparring partner than an out-and-out battle.  More and more, the enemy-within is experienced as an artificial sense of self that was formed by the conditioning it received from family and culture.  As we get to know it better, it seems most like a recurring dream opponent trying to awaken us to our true potential.

For example, even if we were born to the same parents on the same day, it is obvious that were we then raised in a completely different culture, say the Mbuti of central Africa or the Inuit of the Arctic tundra, we would have a completely different personality, a completely different sense of self in relationship to the world-at-large.  Once the hollowness of this illusory, conditioned, self is fully experienced—like recognizing that the distorted image in a funhouse mirror is not our true reflection—we stop reacting automatically to events around us.  Our actions become more creative, more spontaneous, and meet with greater success.

In this sense, inspired action, an inspired mind, an inspired heart, and attunement to the wish of the Living Whole all spring from living each moment with an intention free of ulterior motives.

I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.

Spirit, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

When we clear our intention of ulterior motives, we are no longer beleaguered by our inner talk—Spirit rushes in to fill the clearing we have made for it.  Our heart-mind becomes its nest.

And of what is this nest constructed?

Lessons:  the accrued wisdom of the ancients, who first learned to stop their inner talk and then recorded what Spirit whispered to them in that shining silence.

By taking Spirit’s voice to heart, we, like the ancients, replace unworthy and self-destructive thoughts and emotions with ennobling and beneficial ones.

An Oracle is the voice of Spirit, speaking to us across the ages in the language of lessons.

Lessons are wisdom teachings, a body of ethical principles that can be adapted to the ever-changing circumstances of life.  As in sailing, you don’t set your sails to go with the wind in the same way you do to tack against the wind—nor do you drop anchor in the open sea just because it works when you are in port.  Lessons and their ethics guide our responses to change. Lessons make us better adapted to events, more competent, more improvisational, less predictable, and more creative.  Their ethics make us more generous, more compassionate, less competitive, more collaborative, and more successful.

The Toltec I Ching incorporates the lessons and ethics of the Oracles of two of the world’s great civilizations.  From ancient Mesoamerica, comes the Oracle of the Tonalpoalli, or Sacred Calendar, with its lessons inspired by the great civilizing spirit of the Toltec sages.  From ancient China, comes the Oracle of the I Ching, or Book of Change, with its lessons inspired by the great civilizing spirit of the Taoist sages.  We invite you to explore further your own inner path—and to carry the timeless wisdom of the ancients back into these troubled times.

This article appeared originally in Volume 8, Number 4 of Evolve! magazine.

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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For the ancient Toltecs and the civilizations they inspired, the highest expression of their lifeway was embodied in the mystical philosophy of Flower-and-Song.

Flower-and-Song is a difrasismo, a common form of expression in the Nahuatl language that uses two words to form a metaphor for a third, more expansive, concept.  It is often translated as “poetry” but its meaning is more comprehensive than that, indicating that its practitioners strive to live a “poetic life”.  Examining the difrasismo a little makes this clear.

Flower in this context involves a three-stage engagement with the world.  The first stage involves seeing each moment—and whatever that moment holds—as perfect as a blossoming flower.  The second stage involves seeing each moment—and whatever that moment holds—as already fading and passing into death.  The final stage involves bearing these two visions simultaneously in the heart, engaging the moment and what it holds with the full emotional realization that it is perfect and dying.

Far from an intellectual exercise, this practice demands the greatest courage, for to face these two soul-shattering emotions at the same time requires us to open ourselves to the profoundest joy and grief all at once.  Without flinching from the perfection before us, we are filled with awe at the impossibility of spirit taking form in matter.  Without flinching from the inevitable death of everything we know and love, we cannot help but burst apart with grief and empathy.

This is a lifeway, in other words, of spirit warriors, those who exert constant effort to defeat their self-defeating attitudes and behaviors.  It is the lifeway of those who use death to awaken authentic gratitude for being alive and sharing this shape-shifting perfection with others.  When we experience it fully, Flower evokes a kind of spiritual nostalgia for the present moment that ennobles us and all our lives touch.

Song in this context means that the most authentic act we can perform is to give expression to the dual realization attained in Flower.  This is the reason that the difrasismo is generally translated as “poetry”.  But the deeper implication of this mystical philosophy of life means that Song involves treating every moment as an opportunity to express the truth of Flower.  It involves treating this entire lifetime as a single act of expressing the continuous vision of Flower.  It means using every thought, word and deed to embody the lifeway of Flower-and-Song.

Treating all things as miracles that pass away too soon, our thoughts, speech and actions take on a new caliber and timbre.  We concentrate on what is present instead of what is absent and we discover new depths of patience and tolerance.  Our lives take on greater meaning and our contributions meet with greater success.  We treat everything and everyone more nobly and we are enriched immeasurably.

As a spiritual practice, Flower-and-Song enters each moment asking two questions:  What is in front of me?  How am I treating it?

What is in front of me? opens us to the ultimately unknowable nature of the world.  By questioning the absolute nature of our perceptions, we come to accept the extraordinary mystery everywhere veiled by ordinary appearances.  It is a question that, once taken seriously, forces to us to look closer at the world:  Is this merely what I have become accustomed to seeing through daily contact—or is it the sea of spirit in all its manifest forms?

How am I treating what is in front of me? demands that we watch our inner actions—our thoughts and intentions, our wishes aimed at things outside ourselves—as well as our outer demeanor and reactions.  Am I acting nobly or mean-spiritedly?  Am I ennobling my life or trivializing it?  Am I rising above pettiness or descending into it?  Am I treating others like superiors and inferiors, all in pursuit of my self-interest—or as peers bravely facing their own death as well as they can?  Am I spreading ill will, discord and sorrow wherever I go—or compassion, collaboration and joy?

In our book, The Toltec I Ching, Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and I discuss the deeper implications of such a spiritual practice—

…..the spirit warrior breaks through the barrier separating matter and spirit.  Such a barrier is erected in our minds by the constant training we receive from those who find advantage in promoting the separation of people from nature, from each other, and from their own true self.  If people everywhere perceived matter and spirit to be the same thing, after all, the ignorance, cruelty, and suffering that make up much of human history would end.  If we were all to experience the material form of nature as spirit, we would stop harming it by diminishing it faster than we help it replenish itself.  If we were all to experience the material form of people everywhere as spirit, we would stop harming one another by acting as if our own rights and desires were superior to their own.  If we were all to experience the material form of our own individual bodies as spirit, we would stop harming ourselves by doubting that every thought, feeling, and action plays a pivotal role in eternity.  Breaking through such a mental barrier is a matter of constant training, as well.  If we do not use every thought, feeling, and action to intensify our experience of matter as spirit, we continue to desecrate the temple of nature, the temple of civilization, and the temple of individuality.

Those following the lifeway of Flower-and-Song find that it reveals the wellspring of rejoicing forever bubbling just beneath the surface of appearances.  It engages the world as a vast mystery of unimaginable potentials and aims to participate in its ongoing creation in ways that benefit the most.  It is not so much something we do on our own as much as it is music we hear and feel and long to play, a dance we cannot wait to join.  It arises from our depths to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Holding to such a practice 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 has certain unforeseeable consequences, as well.  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 forms move.

The Lifeway of Flower-and-Song, then, is a spiritual practice of Inner Activism—it sensitizes us to our tendencies toward self-interest and alienation, replacing self-defeating habits with those of spontaneity, creativity, and good will.  It shifts our focus away from personal success toward a heartfelt longing for peace and prospering for all.

And it constantly reminds us that the Golden Age of Humanity is within our reach if we but dare hold out our hand.

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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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The illustration below comes from Hexagram 61, “Strengthening Integrity”, of The Toltec I Ching—

Image:  A female warrior and a male warrior are seated on a woven reed mat.  Behind them, the sun hangs suspended above a great pyramid.  Their bearing and clothing show that they are people of great dignity and merit.  They are jointly seeking advice from the creators and ancestors by consulting the divinatory instrument drawn on the ground before them.

The opening section describes the elements and action of the illustration.  By warrior is meant a man or woman who uses their everyday experiences to recognize and defeat their own self-defeating reactions.

Interpretation:  This hexagram depicts the way for allies to strengthen the warrior’s spirit in one another.  The union of the female warrior and the male warrior symbolizes an alliance between individuals whose natures are complementary and mutually reinforcing.  That they are seated together on the woven mat indicates that their alliance is based on a shared vision.  That they are seated in front of the sunlit pyramid means that they acknowledge that they are descendants of great warriors who have gone on to live forever in the house of the sun.  That they comport themselves as people of great dignity and merit means that they dedicate their lives to making both their ancestors and descendants proud.  That they seek advice from the creators and the ancestors by consulting the divinatory instrument before them means that they honor and fulfill the ancient covenant between the visible and the invisible.  Taken together, these symbols mean that you align yourself with others in order to transform your weaknesses into strengths.

This second section interprets each of the elements and actions of the illustration, explaining their symbolism.  The focus here is on how  people share a particular world view, especially one in which certain spiritual perceptions contribute to sincere good will toward one another.  Such good will takes the form of willingly acting as the whetstone upon which the other hones the edge of their spirit.

Action:  The masculine and feminine halves of the spirit warrior vigilantly treat one another with the respect, courtesy, and authenticity accorded great warriors.  The skills and the knowledge of the old ways are of little value if they are not applied to present-day circumstances:  in this sense, spirit warriors create relationships with one another in order to train themselves to live a balanced and harmonious way of life with the utmost integrity.  As in every relationship, there are those who lead and those who follow—but among spirit warriors, these roles are extremely fluid and change constantly.  One takes decisive action and another goes along, providing the utmost support.  One moves in an indirect manner to increase harmony and good will, and another gives up the need for identifiable goals and concrete solutions.  One challenges and another nourishes.  One opens to new experiences and another gives up the need to control change.  One takes on the role of the masculine half, another the role of the feminine half.  One takes on the role of the feminine half, another the role of the masculine half.  Back and forth, exchanging roles constantly, such allies face circumstances as a united front:  moving along with things when appropriate, creating resistance to things when appropriate, they use circumstances to train themselves to apply the old ways with honor, sincerity, and integrity.  Because you make yourself such an ally, you find such allies and bring great benefit to all.

The action of this hexagram revolves around the attitudes and behaviors that ennoble and solidify relationships:  treating one another like great warriors instead of trivializing the relationship; maintaining a degree of formality beneath even the greatest intimacy rather than demeaning the relationship; and, shifting roles in response to circumstances rather than allowing one to dominate the other.

The forces at play here can be appreciated by analyzing the interaction of the trigrams making up this hexagram:  Earth within and Water without, Fulfillment within and Mystery without.  When I feel fulfilled personally and view the other person as ultimately unknowable, then I experience the other as a sacred mystery instead of taking them for granted and making light of their life and inevitable death.  “Strengthening Integrity” corresponds to hexagram 8, “Holding Together”, in the traditional King Wen sequence.

Summary:  Treat everyone as if they have a wise and immortal teacher within—and see everything they do as the teacher’s subtle strategy for testing the depth of your perceptions.  Treat everyone with respectful intimacy, avoid informal familiarity.  Treat everyone like a great warrior armed with spear and shield, don’t try to read others’ minds.

The text ends with a reminder that how we treat those closest to us should be how we treat all.  When I treat everyone and everything as a shining manifestation of spirit, then my thoughts, words, and deeds will always shine like spirit reflecting spirit and echo like spirit calling to spirit.

Real allies spar with wooden swords.  They never draw real swords.  They never draw blood.

Help one another make the most of this lifetime and nothing will want to pry you apart.

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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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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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I take a deep breath and ask the Oracle my question out loud, determined not to flinch:  At what crossroads does our global civilization stand now—and in what direction does good fortune lie?

A rare thunderstorm shatters the Oregon twilight.  Lightning strikes the foothills, thunder rattles the windows, the wailing wind drives sheets of rain sideways against the house.  The lights blink off on off on.  I shake the coins, drop them, count them, six times.  The squall passes on to the next valley.  The Oracle speaks.

IMAGE:  A male warrior holds the funeral bundle of his child, preparing to place it in its burial site.  His face reflects the shock, anguish, and horror that fills his heart.

I almost flinch.  This is surely the most ominous of the 64 hexagrams.

INTERPRETATION:  This hexagram depicts the inevitable result of carelessness and irreverence.  The male warrior symbolizes the versatility and fortitude that are at the core of outer nurturing.  That he prepares to place the funeral bundle of his child in its burial site means that strength cannot accomplish afterwards what nurturing can accomplish beforehand.  That his face and heart are filled with shock, anguish, and horror means that he is in the grips of the most terrible truth:  that which we most cherish cannot be replaced.  Taken together, these symbols mean that you avoid causing suffering by honoring and nurturing all that your spirit touches.

Animism is the world’s oldest Life Way.  It’s a world view in which everything has spirit, in which every thing is alive and aware.  A world view in which all is sacred—humanity no more or less than anything else.  It is not driven by self-interest but by reverence.  It’s not that I treat nature right so that I might live better, for instance.  It’s that I treat nature right because it is the living body of the One Spirit.

The corpus of practices by which people interact with Spirit in a mutually beneficial way is called shamanism.  The way in which human beings communicate with Spirit is a principal concern of shamanism and that gives rise to systems of divination.  An Oracle gives voice to the essence of situations and the trends developing out of them—it is the spontaneous response of the One Spirit to an individual’s act of divination.  The I Ching is one of the world’s best-known Oracles, having been in continuous use for at least 3,500 years.
For all who perceive the world as something grander and more noble than a merely materialistic set of mechanistic causes and effects, the Oracle issues this dire warning of imminent loss.  The last line of the Interpretation reminds us that the only thing that cannot be taken from us without our permission is our spirit of reverence and good will toward all.

ACTION:  The masculine half of the spirit warrior draws back from the brink before it is too late.  It is not a time for pursuing desires and ambitions:  those who cannot temper their strength run the risk of losing a source of that strength.  When our masculine half goes too far in pursuit of goals and becomes short-sighted and impatient, it is necessary to balance it with the strongest medicine possible:  real problems can be avoided only by balancing the masculine half with the power of the feminine half’s protective love.  It is the feminine half’s sense of caring and reverence that holds the key to fulfilling the real goal of happiness, companionship, and a clear conscience:  those who do not hold the emotions of caring and reverence dear to their hearts run the risk of causing pain for themselves and others.  Just because we can acquire something doesn’t mean we should, just because we can accomplish something doesn’t mean we have to:  stopping to really consider what we are risking, allowing ourselves to feel the full brunt of such an emotional loss—this is the protective and loving nature of the feminine half’s medicine.  Likewise, stubborn pursuit of goals even in the face of warning signs, longing for something that threatens to cause suffering for others, refusal to change course when it endangers the greater good—this is the short-sighted and zealous nature of the masculine half when it loses its balance and sense of proportion.  Because you treat nature, other people, and your own creations with the care and reverence you would your own infant child, you counteract every self-defeating action before it ever arises in thought or feeling.

The spirit warrior is a man or woman who aims to defeat his or her enemy-within, his or her own self-defeating habits of thoughts, feelings, and reactions.  The dual nature of Spirit, whether cosmological principles on the largest scale or complementary halves of each individual, are symbolized by the terms masculine and feminine.  The masculine half is often thought of as direct purposeful action, such as the act of tunneling through a mountain to get to the sea.  The feminine half is likewise thought of as unconditional open-hearted nurturing, such as the river that waters everything it touches as it winds around mountains to get to the sea.  Obviously, the goal of the spirit warrior is to bring her or his two halves into the kind of dynamic balance that allows for the optimum response to circumstances in the most timely manner.

Here, it is the stubborn pursuit of obsolete and self-destructive goals that the Oracle warns us against—and encourages us to envision the irreparable loss of the true benefits of civilization, to feel the emotional pain of those losses ahead of time in order to motivate ourselves to immediate action.  As it makes clear, this is not the kind of action that has brought us to an impasse:  we can’t get out of a hole using the same shovel we dug it with.  As the Life Way of ethical values and behaviors becomes more widespread and replaces the consensus of self-interest and needless consumption, the rigid patriarchal hierarchies supporting—and supported by—such decadence give way to self-directed egalitarian groups coordinating their efforts to protect what is valuable.  It’s this emotional connection to what needs to be salvaged, this treating all things as we would our own child, that forges us together in a sense of shared purpose and mutual respect.

INTENT:  The foolish ruin even that upon which they depend.  When we recognize the sanctity of life, however, and work to protect it from unnecessary and pointless harm, then we safeguard our own spiritual foundation and that of all who touch our spirit.  Consider what cannot be replaced and then cherish it, planting seeds of intent in the spirit realm to nurture it and keep it from being lost forever.  Shun materialism and self-interest as you would a poisoned well:  keep to the path of the balanced and harmonious way of life, revering all that the life-giving and life-sustaining forces themselves love.  By maintaining an unbroken alliance with the helping spirits, the community of spirit warriors ensures that the hidden storehouse of life-giving power is never depleted:  only in this way can human nature continue to draw upon the power to create its own, unforeseeable, future.

Not everything can be quantified and brought down to plans of action.  Those who simply act as if they care and merely feign sincerity continue to make bad decisions because their intentions are still rooted in self-interest.  Those who sincerely maintain that all of matter is imbued with spirit, on the other hand, do so from direct personal experience and treat their thoughts and emotions as inner actions that are just as consequential in the field of intentions as physical actions are in the field of material cause-and-effect.  Within the shamanic Life Way, our inner actions are as significant as our outer ones.

The text of this hexagram closes with this demand on those wishing to transform civilization while there is still time—that we open our hearts, drop off all the trappings of cynicism, and consciously wish the best for all.  The curative demeanor for the coming Age is the feminine face of loving-kindness and good will, not merely a re-painted mask of the patriarchal grimace of conquest and dominance.

Typically, the Oracle’s answer involves two hexagrams, the first of which refers to the present or near future and the second of which to the future developing from those present trends.  The present reading is no exception, involving line changes in the second and fifth places.

2nd    The primal relationship between humans and nature has been disrupted by your predecessors’ short-sightedness.  Look upon nature as you would your beloved and work to repair this rift.  Begin by puncturing the bubble alienating you from the affection surrounding you.

The second line refers to local leaders and groups.  Here the concern is clearly with remedying environmental problems, which have been initiated by earlier generations.  As before, the Oracle advises us to become inspired not by appealing to our heads but to our hearts.  But now, it reminds us that we have stopped pouring out open-hearted affection toward nature because we have closed ourselves off to the love and generosity pouring into us from the natural world.  Being too absorbed in the strictly social sphere deprives us of the time and attention we need to share in the strictly natural realm.  It takes no leap of imagination to foresee that we must strive for greater intimacy with nature if we are to salvage civilization or, in the worst case, survive its fall.

5th    You have made a good start but do not really have the stomach for some of the difficult decisions ahead.  Find someone trustworthy to enact reforms.  Focus on encouraging people to advance by reminding them of the positive accomplishments of their predecessors that will remain in place.

The fifth line refers to leaders at the highest levels.  Here it clearly faults them for lacking the character and resolve to make the necessary reforms.  While we have little hope that they will voluntarily step aside and hand over the reins any time soon, we can see that the Oracle envisions a smoother, rather than a more drastic, transition of power.  Ultimately, however, difficult decisions will have to be made, which entail reforms that can only be enacted by someone that people whole-heartedly trust.  If a successful transformation of civilization is to take place, then the sacrifices people have to make will be made easier if they know what they are sacrificing for:  a better world that will carry over the best of the past while jettisoning the rest.

Whereas the first hexagram and its line changes can bee seen to answer the first part of the question, At what crossroads does our global civilization stand now, the second hexagram can be viewed as answering the second part of the question, In what direction does good fortune lie?

Image:  A great feathered serpent hatches out of the earth as if from an egg.  Its feathers are adorned with conch shells and it senses its surroundings with its bifurcated tongue.

The Plumed Serpent is the symbol of the enlightened human being.  In a historical sense, it refers to the great Toltec spiritual and political leader, Quetzalcoatl, who lead his people into a time of great peace, prosperity, and cultural flowering.

INTERPRETATION:  This hexagram represents the great forces released by the accumulated efforts of spirit warriors over the ages.  The feathered serpent symbolizes the collective intent and vision shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place.  That it hatches from the earth as if from an egg means that the community of spirit incubating within the material world emerges as a living, dynamic force of creation.  The conches adorning its feathers symbolize the call for all to join the community of spirit.  Its bifurcated tongue symbolizes the duality that is one.  That it uses its bifurcated tongue to sense its surroundings means that you are attuned to the universal presence of the masculine and feminine creative forces.  Taken together, these symbols mean that you align yourself with those whose only need is to bring benefit to their surroundings.

Though times are dark, we are the light bringing it to an end.  For millennia, women and men with the highest motivations have dedicated their lives to the creation of a Golden Age of Humanity.  That their names are not always celebrated in history books is of little matter—their spirits live on just as ours will.  Just as a pyramid is raised stone by stone, the world we wish to bequeath to the future is built life by life.  The cumulative effect of light-bearing individuals inevitably tips the scale to an equally long period of history in which universal good will prevails.

Beyond this, the very nature of the One Spirit is to benefit all in equal measure.  Joining forces with others who wish to practice unconditional benevolence is the path of good fortune.

ACTION:  The spirit warrior reverses the flow of power, channeling it inside instead of outside:  by storing up power internally rather than expending it externally, we are able to both free ourselves of habits and gain control over our actions.  This inner autonomy also extricates us from social influences that strive to mold us into obedient marionettes even as it allows us to be more tolerant of the deeper motives of those social influences.  From the spirit warrior’s perspective, the original intent of religion is to awaken the higher soul to its potential freedom while purifying the lower soul of fear, greed, envy, and hate—just as the original intent of government is to awaken the higher soul to its responsibility to others while instilling in the lower soul the capacity for self-control.  From this perspective, the fact that religion and government acquire ulterior motives over time and begin to act in their own self-interest merely demonstrates that they are managed by human beings and must be viewed accordingly.  Similarly, the fact that all religions and governments strive to awaken the higher soul and purify the lower soul—even when they have forgotten how and why—simply demonstrates that the quest for metamorphosis is a universal and irresistible force.  Just as our inner autonomy releases us from the trap of depending on social influences for our sense of self, in other words, it also releases us from the trap of not seeing how those social influences contribute, however unintentionally, to the gradual unification of humanity.  Reversing the flow of power, we gain inner autonomy and, paradoxically, become one with the universal civilizing force.

We give away our power when we are dependent on something, especially when we are dependent on it for our sense of self.  We reclaim our power when we pull it back from externals and cultivate an independent sense of self, one not reacting to circumstances in a predictable and automatic way.  When we can no longer be manipulated by others or controlled by our own unmanageable desires, we achieve the kind of autonomy that is free to respond to the needs around us in creative, innovative, and successful ways.

Such autonomy also frees us from seeing overly simplistic snapshots of complex processes.  It allows us to consider the potential value of social institutions that have fallen into disrepair and disrepute, especially by considering their original value and working to revive it.  When a temple was to be rebuilt or enlarged in ancient Mexico, for example, the old temple was not torn down and replaced—the new temple was built around and over the old one because it was recognized that it was the site itself that people already held sacred.  The shock of dramatic transformations of culture can be mitigated by slowly and methodically reshaping the institutions people have long held in esteem.  History holds clear examples of failed reforms that attempted to remake society from the ground up.

INTENT:  The wise become independent even from what they revere.  Like children who are grown up and independent of the parents they love and admire, spirit warriors take their place among the community of spiritual equals.  Because you use this lifetime to bring the most benefit to others, you incubate the higher soul that is preparing to hatch from the lower soul:  joining in the collective labor shared by spirit warriors in every time and every place, you contribute directly to both the fulfillment of humanity’s destiny and the creator’s vision.  Becoming part of the universal civilizing spirit, you contribute directly to the founding of a free and harmonious world of equals right here within this world.

Wisdom isn’t so much knowledge as it is freedom—freedom in every sense imaginable.  Freedom even from what we have held valuable, since everything changes, rigidifies, loses its original impetus and takes another direction.  And freedom, especially, from emotionally-charged words, since they are among the most potent manipulators of behavior.

Breaking through the barriers that have long been used to divide and conquer a world of peers, we are, individually, a microcosm of the greater metamorphosis at work on the whole of civilization.

Thunder still echoes in the distance but the rain has stopped.  I close the book, put away the coins.  Not quite as ominous as it started out, the Oracle’s answer to my question doesn’t just point to the darker side of human nature—in fact, it spends much more time illuminating the light half of our nature.

Perhaps, ironically, it is easier for us to stare into our darker half than it is for us to gaze into our own nobility.  It would be the cream of the jest if civilization faltered and crumbled simply because we averted our eyes from the Smoking Mirror’s reflection of the grandeur of our true nature.

—Oracle Cast  2 June 2009

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.

This article first appeared on the Reality Sandwich website July 7, 2009:  http://www.realitysandwich.com/oracle_and_smoking_mirror

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Why?  Because it must be tailored to the moment.  It has to be a response that circumstances evoke from us.  It needs to be an act of collaboration with the Living Whole.

It cannot be premeditated or calculated because we cannot know what the moment holds until it arrives.  We cannot sense what the whole of circumstances requires until we are fully immersed in it.  To imagine how we ought to act beforehand causes us to fall into predictable patterns of behavior that fail to express the miraculous nature of the ever-new creation within which we live.

Inspired Action reveals the wellspring of rejoicing forever bubbling just beneath the surface of appearances.  It engages the world as a vast mystery of unimaginable potentials and aims to participate in its ongoing creation in ways that benefit the most.  It is not so much something we do on our own as much as it is music we hear and feel and long to play, a dance we cannot wait to join.  It arises from our depths to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s talking to a stranger, shopping for food, driving to work, watching a movie, starting a new endeavor, walking in nature, meditating, repairing a relationship, making love, or creating art—if where we stand is authentic, our actions will be inspired.

Flower-and-Song

For the ancient Toltecs and the civilizations they spawned, the highest expression of a spirit warrior embodied the mystical philosophy of Flower-and-Song.

“Flower-and-Song” is a difrasismo, a common form of expression in Nahuatl that uses two words to form a metaphor for a third, more expansive, concept.  It is often translated as “poetry” but its meaning is more comprehensive than that, demanding that its practitioners live a “poetic life”.  Examining the difrasismo a little makes this clear.

“Flower” in this context involves a three-stage engagement with the world.  The first stage involves seeing each moment—and whatever that moment holds—as perfect as a blossoming flower.  The second stage involves seeing each moment—and whatever that moment holds—as already fading and passing into death.  The final stage involves bearing these two visions simultaneously in the heart, engaging the moment and what it holds with the full emotional realization that it is “perfect and dying.”

Far from an intellectual exercise, this practice demands the greatest courage, for to face these two soul-shattering emotions at the same time requires us to open ourselves to the profoundest joy and grief all at once.  Without flinching from the perfection before us, we are driven to our knees in awe at the impossibility of spirit taking form in matter.  Without flinching from the inevitable death of everything we know and love, we cannot help but burst apart with grief and empathy.

“Flower” forces us to a profound gratitude and appreciation in the face of perfection even as it forces us to honor each perfection for its nobility in the face of inevitable death.  It is the spirit warrior’s courage to authentically feel, Everything I know and everything I love is perfect and dying.

“Song” in this context means that the most authentic act a spirit warrior can perform is to give expression to the dual realization attained in “Flower”.  This is the reason that the difrasismo is generally translated as “poetry”.  But the deeper implication of this mystical philosophy of life means that “Song” involves treating every moment as an opportunity to express the truth of “Flower”.  It involves treating this entire lifetime as a single act of expressing the continuous vision of “Flower”.

Inspired Action makes use of every thought, word and deed to embody the ancients’ philosophy of Flower-and-Song.  Treating all things as miracles that pass away too soon, our thoughts, speech and actions take on a new caliber and timbre:  We concentrate on what is present instead of what is absent and we discover new depths of patience and tolerance.  Our lives take on greater meaning and our contributions meet with greater success.  We treat everything and everyone more nobly and we are enriched immeasurably.

Inspired Action enters each moment asking these two questions—

What is in front of me?

How am I treating it?

The answer to the second question is much simpler than the first.  What is in front of me? forces us to confront the ultimately unknowable nature of the world.  It forces us to accept the extraordinary mystery always veiled by ordinary appearances.  It forces to us to look harder:  Is this merely what I have become accustomed to through daily contact—or is it the sea of spirit in all its manifest forms?

How am I treating what is in front of me? demands that we watch our inner actions—our thoughts and intentions, our wishes aimed at things outside ourselves—as well as our outer demeanor and reactions.  Am I acting nobly or mean-spiritedly?  Am I ennobling my life or trivializing it?  Am I rising above pettiness or descending into it?  Am I treating others like superiors and inferiors, all in pursuit of my self-interest—or as peers bravely facing their own death as well as they can?  Am I spreading ill will, discord and sorrow wherever I go—or compassion, collaboration and joy?

None of this, however, should be interpreted as thinking or acting naively.  Of course, not everyone will treat you as you treat them.  Of course, there will be those who seek to take advantage of you.  Of course.  But how others treat you is beyond your control.  None of us can control what happens to us.  The only thing we can control is how we respond to what happens to us.

Inspired Action does not imply being a doormat or punching bag for untrustworthy people.  Wisdom is based on solid clear-eyed discernment, seeing things for what they are.  Understanding is based on a wide array of experiences, providing a keen grasp of human nature.

The question of ethical strategies is one we will take up in the third installment of this Inspired Action theme.  But to study strategies before we work to clarify our intent is to invite cynicism and self-interest in the back door even as we’re showing false hope and naiveté out the front.  There is little purpose to devising strategies, in other words, until we have undertaken the effort to rid ourselves of ulterior motives.

As we read in Hexagram 6, “Fostering Self-Sacrifice”—

“One of the ancients’ great teachings is that acting out of self-interest to the detriment of the whole injures all.  Because profit brings gain for one at the expense of many and benefit brings gain for many at the expense of one, the logic of benefit is superior to the logic of profit.  Because self-interest cannot injure the whole without injuring oneself and self-sacrifice cannot benefit the whole without benefiting oneself, the logic of self-sacrifice is superior to the logic of self-interest.”

And again, in Hexagram 62, “Conceiving Spirit”—

“…..the spirit warrior breaks through the barrier separating matter and spirit.  Such a barrier is erected in our minds by the constant training we receive from those who find advantage in promoting the separation of people from nature, from each other, and from their own true self.  If people everywhere perceived matter and spirit to be the same thing, after all, the ignorance, cruelty, and suffering that makes up much of human history would end:  if we were all to experience the material form of nature as spirit, we would stop harming it by diminishing it faster than we help it replenish itself; if we were all to experience the material form of people everywhere as spirit, we would stop harming one another by acting as if our own rights and desires were superior to their own; if we were all to experience the material form of our own individual bodies as spirit, we would stop harming ourselves by doubting that every thought, feeling, and action play a pivotal role in eternity.  Breaking through such a mental barrier is a matter of constant training, as well:  if we do not use every thought, feeling, and action to intensify our experience of matter as spirit, we continue to desecrate the temple of nature, the temple of civilization, and the temple of individuality.  Because you increasingly see the invisible within the visible, your thoughts are filled with insight, your feelings with good will, and your actions with benefit.”

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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