The Toltec I Ching Blog

Overview

The Unity of all things dwells in an undifferentiated state of living potential.  Neither awake nor asleep nor dreaming, it is the shining awareness everywhere present, the fount of time and eternity.  It is still and silent, utterly at peace and filled with harmony.

The Unity of all things produces a secondary world of birth and death when its living potential is activated by the intention of its parts.  This is unavoidable, since the harmony of the Whole could not be perfect if it denied in any way the natural creative impulse of its parts.  The unitary nature of the living potential produces a single field of intentions, so that no intention exists in isolation but, rather, enters the universe of intentions, where it becomes part of the vast interconnectedness of cause-and-effect.

The living potential bifurcates its generative energy along a line of further-dividing dualities:  the 1 becomes 2, the 2 become 4, the 4 become 8, and so on.  These numbers represent the ways in which generative energy distributes intention throughout the phenomenal world.  They are entities in the sense that they are comprised of intentional parts and comprise an intention of their own as a part of a larger whole:  the 8 trigrams is an entity that both contains all 8 of its trigrams and extends the intention of the 4 bigrams. The 4 bigrams double the original duality of solid and broken lines, producing two pairs of dualities.  The 8 trigrams double the duality of the 4 bigrams, producing four pairs of dualities.  This process continues until the 64 hexagrams produce 32 pairs of dualities. None of these entities, however, actually precedes another:  they all exist simultaneously and symbolize the multiple points of view required of human perception to appreciate its environment and respond to it successfully.

This cosmological process is perceptual in nature because it cannot be divorced from human perception—it represents the identification of human nature with the whole of the universe.  Because our perception arises from the same process as the rest of creation, we perceive the unfolding of the cosmos by perceiving the unfolding of our own perception.  That unfolding comes in a series of emanations coincident with the vast undifferentiated One.  Awareness stirs within the stillness of the Unity of all things, its creative urge producing a division in the unity.  Now there are two.  Thus is born Number.  Which produces Symbol:  in the case of Two, it is the Duality of complementary feeling-tones of Autonomy and Love, for the movement out of the unity requires independence of spirit even as it establishes the relationship with the Whole.  From Symbol comes Name:  in this case, yang and yin, masculine and feminine, heaven and earth, creative and receptive, movement and stillness, and so on.  With names, things enter into the universe of all other names and the ensuing relationships they form produce an intricate web of Meaning that explores all the possible distributions of generative energy within civilization.

The cosmological process whereby the material universe gives body to the spiritual Unity of all things, in other words, is mirrored in the process whereby civilization gives body to the original undifferentiated perception of human nature.  In both cases, it is the cosmological unfolding of ever-dividing dualities that creates a relational order and structure to the world of phenomena and experience—an order and structure resulting in the natural tendency of all things toward increased disorder and decay.

The unfolding of the Many out of the One, then, is the Way of Fate, where all things and relations between things forever spontaneously changes in the direction of greater disintegration.

And it is the return of the Many into the One that is the Way of Freedom.

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Reversing the Course of Fate

The return of the Many into the One is an ancient formula symbolizing the spiritual transformation we undergo when we cultivate our present self to the point where we spontaneously re-experience our original undamaged nature.  This return to our true self as it exists before and after social conditioning is likewise called uniting heaven and earth.  It comes about because we train ourselves to stop viewing the inner and outer world as pairs of dualities (like good and bad, right and wrong, self and other) and develop greater sensitivity to the Unity of all things.  This is commonly referred to as the mystical experience arising from the reunion of subject and object:  it points at the profound metamorphosis we undergo when there is no longer any distance between us and the universe nor is there any boundary between our individual mind and the one mind.  This is called reversing the outflow of generative energy and has long been associated with the real person, or sage, whose enlightened nature has been reclaimed.

As noted in the previous two posts, the Way of Fate is the entropic process carrying all things and the relationships between things ever further into disorder.  From the perceptual cosmology, this is the result of the initial division of the Unity of all things and its subsequent doublings into further dualities.

The Way of Fate is the realm of birth and death.  Everything that enters this realm must progressively deteriorate and die.  This is the first and greatest of the perceptual dualities.  From it arise all the other dualities comprising the law of Fate governing the lives of so many.

Running counter to the Way of Fate is the circulation of generative energy.  This is the flow of the subliminal force that gives life to life.  From the perspective of spirit, generative energy is matter.  From the perspective of matter, generative energy is spirit.  From the perspective of entropy, generative energy is information.  From the perspective of life, generative energy is mind.  It circulates among all things, entering all the dualities in order to hold them together in the Unity of all things.  It is the subliminal force that can postpone the arrival of Fate indefinitely.

The true person, the sage, the enlightened person, have long been those who cultivated this generative energy of the universal return within themselves and others.

~

The Oracle of Freedom

Uniting heaven and earth is an act that happens within the human being.  It occurs within us in the present mind-moment when we stand at the center of the compass and open our heart-mind to the ever-present Unity of all things.  We bring the one spirit of heaven and the one body of earth back together within ourselves every time we re-experience the nonduality of reality.  Reuniting the one spirit and the one body in a conscious act is an act of conception that gives birth to a timeless intention—fueled by the generative energy of the return of the Many into the One, it reverses the course of Fate by spontaneously and immediately returning to the Act of Creation.  Such experiences not only benefit those who undergo them but spill out into the world of intentions, contributing to the metamorphosis of civilization itself.

There are many traditions of self-transformation whose goal is the mystical experience of nonduality.  Our complete metamorphosis into a true person that constantly stands at the center of the compass takes many years of genuine insights and sincere cultivation.  Standing at the center point of nonduality, voluntarily collapsing the distinction between subject and object, voluntarily letting go of all boundaries between my self and the One—this is the method and the goal of self-realization practices.  It is not a practice undertaken lightly nor attained effortlessly.  It is the Path of Freedom in every sense and those who keep it underfoot their whole life are still too few.

But it is not the only way of uniting heaven and earth.

There are many, equally old, traditions of divination whose goal is to make the voice of the one spirit accessible to the one body.  Across cultures and the millennia, the tradition of priest-diviners has arisen to give voice to the ancient Oracle guiding humanity away from the cliff edge of self-destruction and back toward the Living Monument of self-creation.  It is a tradition based on the recognition that our self-awareness works according to the same laws as the rest of creation:  our spirit speaks most directly and powerfully to our body in our dreams, just as the one spirit speaks most directly and powerfully to the one body in its symbols.  Long considered the first language, symbols speak with a directness and power that words cannot—laden with complex layers of meaning and emotional associations, they appear all-at-once, spatially, rather than in the linear, temporal, string of words of conscious language.

Divination, then, is the art of translating the symbols of the Oracle.  It is the human awareness breaking through the barrier of subject and object, voluntarily merging self with the one spirit, re-coupling the primal duality of spirit and matter.  It is the spontaneous and immediate act of uniting heaven and earth.  It is not necessary for the diviner to consciously strive to effect such a union—the act of divination collapses the subject-object duality by its very nature.

Engaging the Oracle automatically entails stepping back into the Unity of all things.  We cannot seek an answer from the Oracle and hold ourselves separate from the one spirit, we cannot receive the Oracle’s answer and hold ourselves separate from the one body.  To open ourselves to the invisible realm of unity underlying this world of the senses is to lose the ego-self and step into the oceanic dreamtime of nonduality:  this is called becoming the site of the return of the Many into the One.  As has long been said of the I Ching, inquiring of the Oracle is not a matter of any special knowledge or skill— the divinatory act activates a mysterious conjunction of dualities solely by the power of the questioner’s sincerity.

The Oracle is the speaking of the generative energy that circulates between the beginning and end of time, between the Act of Creation and the Act of Completion.  It circulates in the same way that the ocean’s water evaporates, forms clouds that are carried by the wind to the land where it falls as rain that accumulates in streams and rivers in order to flow back into the sea.  It is an all-at-once-ness circulation that is spatial and not a linear progression of time.  It is the flow of the unchanging life-that-gives-life behind the flow of perceptible change.  To life, generative energy is the unborn mind that moves at will backward and forward between the beginning and the end of time:  it is unborn because it does not ever enter the realm of birth and death and so stands forever outside the realm of Fate—it can move at will between end and beginning because it is the circulation itself.

The 64 hexagrams constitute the map of Fate.  They show the 64 possible mixtures of yang and yin generative energy that produce the world of phenomena.  They show the pitfalls and traps everything and everyone faces in the realm of birth and death.  They show the vast archetypal landscape of entropic change driving all changing phenomena.

Engaging the Oracle activates the creative intent of the living moment, revealing the way to transcend Fate and create a lifetime of good fortune.  Circulating among the lines of the hexagrams, the generative energy calls us to follow the way of freedom in every sense.

The Oracle speaks to us by selecting from the 64 possible hexagrams just those that represent the present situation we face and how it is developing into the coming situation.  In doing so, it points out the choices we have if we are to keep the path of freedom beneath our feet.

The Toltec I Ching is the newest iteration of the Oracle’s speaking.  By recasting the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico, its interpretative material gives a new voice to the emerging Dynasty of the Open Secret.  By marrying the two great cosmovisions of the indigenous civilizations of China and Mexico, it unites the East and West hemispheres for today’s global civilization.  By interpreting each hexagram with both original illustrations and written material, it unites the right and left hemispheres of the brain for today’s global consciousness.

I cannot distance myself from the I Ching anymore than you.  Those who haven’t yet internalized the I Ching may think the above considerations to be mere abstractions but those who know that the 8 trigrams are their own sense organs have already discovered that the 4 bigrams are the opening and closing of the Gate of Good Fortune.  May benefit pour out of you to cover heaven and earth.

~

Next:  Reading the Map of Fate

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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.

~

Why do we never see butterflies carrying around their old cocoons?

Why do we never hear of snakes saving up their old sloughed-off skins?

Obviously, because the new replaces the old.

Yet, there is continuity between the old and the new:  even under the extremes of metamorphosis, there is something unique that can be identified as having moved from the old condition to the new.  In the human being, this unique element is called the identity.

It appears self-evident that my identity is determined by what I identify with—and although I certainly identify with my way of perceiving, I identify even more intimately with my ingrained character traits.  Even after undergoing a transformative experience, therefore, it is nearly certain that my identity will carry some of its old traits forward into its new form.  In this sense, the transformative experience impacts my awareness first and my character second.  Like rain on a tree, it takes only a little to wet the branches—but it must rain really well to saturate the ground and reach the roots.

To transform awareness is easy, in other words, but to transform character is hard.

Yet the transformation of awareness is only half a transformation.  If I do not undergo a metamorphosis of character, then my clarity of perception will forever be obscured by my old habits of thought, emotion, and reaction.  If the rain does not eventually reach the roots, the branches will ultimately dry up and wither—if the transformative experience does not continue long enough to saturate my character and transmute my old traits, then my new perception will eventually be compromised by its need to accommodate the most stubborn qualities of my identity.  For this reason, I need to prolong the transformative experience until my character is fully re-formed.

If I cannot relinquish my angers and resentments, for example, then even my transmuted perception will be forced to rationalize in myriad ways in order to justify my continuing to act and react as before.  If I do not feel compassion for others, then, likewise, my clarity of perception must be deformed in order to place responsibility on others for my continuing to act and react as before.  Similarly, if I hold on to old desires and aversions, then the purity of my perception will be contaminated by something as arbitrary as my personal tastes.

If I do not burn away all the dross from the gold of my character, in other words, not even the refinement of my awareness can disguise the impurities of my character.  I become the butterfly who cannot leave behind its old cocoon, the snake guarding its shed skin.

I am able to awaken from my sleep.

But I am unable to awaken from my dreams.

The path of good fortune ultimately leads to a kind of vital happiness that can neither be decreased nor increased by external circumstances.  Just as a reliable well produces cold clear water regardless of the political or social changes in the town around it, those who achieve the ecstatic life produce a kind of robust happiness that wells up from deep within them and overflows out into the lives of others.  Such a life should not be pictured as an ideal of moment-to-moment uncontrollable bliss but, rather, an ideal of conducting oneself so that, from some point of transformation onward, one’s life as a whole is felt to be a state of sustained ecstasy.

This is to say that the result of personal transformation is joy.  That the consequence of wisdom is laughter.  That the upshot of awakening is exuberance.  It is to say that a return to the natural state of communion with all is a return to the newborn’s state of open astonishment.

How can we say that all our knots are untied if we drag our past sorrows along with us?  How can we say that we are wholly open to everything we encounter if we carry our past attitudes and behaviors along with us?  How can we say that the light of the present has eclipsed the shadow of the past if the new has not yet replaced the old?

The transformation of the lower self into the higher self occurs when my character follows my awareness into the Current and is carried, along with my awareness, forever away from the past.  Suddenly uprooted from all I ever identified with, I am forever part of the one unfolding moment that is the living edge of the breaking wave of the Current.  This communion with all evokes the complete change of heart that crystalizes my transformed character into a perfect reflection of my transformed awareness.

The metamorphosis of the lower self into the higher self triggers repercussions in the field of spiritual cause-and-effect that can only be likened to the bursting forth of a new supernova in the nighttime skies.  With the emergence of each new higher self from its cocoon, the light of the inner universe grows exponentially brighter, increasingly dispelling aloneness and revealing the universal communion inherent to creation.  That the fullness of time’s potential should follow as the natural result of our personal evolution in this way is a bottomless mystery, the very source of all our longings, joys, and triumphs.

This is called following the inner path all the way to the end.

Drink in the rain of transformation until the roots of your dearest thirsts are fully quenched.

Trust that every turning point in your life is an opening through which inner power is accumulated.

Immerse yourself in the moment-to-moment ecstasy of this all-pervading creation.

Take pleasure in using your endeavors to further the success of others.

With every advance, allow the new to replace the old.

At the end of the inner path lies another path, for this is where the path of freedom begins.  Where the path of personal transformation becomes the path of spontaneity.  Where the path of wisdom turns into the path of ecstasy.  It is the point where our transformation is complete and we move on to the next stage.

Personal transformation is not, after all, the goal of personal transformation—the actual goal is freedom, spontaneity, and ecstasy.  It is the freedom to think, feel, and act according to our best intentions, without being compelled by any force within or without.  It is the spontaneity to respond to everything we encounter without preconception, uneasiness, or artificiality.  And it is the ecstasy that comes when we clearly perceive the miracle of being alive within matter.  The path of the cocoon does not lead to the cocoon—it leads to the path of the butterfly.

The ecstatic life is the creative life, the productive life, the rewarding life.

For the butterfly, the ecstatic life is found flitting from one perfect blossom to the next, consuming only the nectar produced by perfect beauty and, in so doing, propagating the next generation of perfect beauty.

For us, the ecstatic life is no different.

~

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.

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.