{"id":30,"date":"2009-07-01T00:50:01","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T07:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetolteciching.com\/blog\/?p=30"},"modified":"2021-01-30T23:04:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T06:04:41","slug":"inspired-action-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/inspired-action-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired Action [2]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired Action cannot be defined or even imagined beforehand.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because it must be tailored to the moment.\u00a0 It has to be a response that circumstances evoke from us.\u00a0 It needs to be an act of collaboration with the Living Whole.<\/p>\n

It cannot be premeditated or calculated because we cannot know what the moment holds until it arrives.\u00a0 We cannot sense what the whole of circumstances requires until we are fully immersed in it.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Inspired Action reveals the wellspring of rejoicing forever bubbling just beneath the surface of appearances.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is not so much something we do<\/em> on our own as much as it is music we hear and feel and long to play, a dance we cannot wait to join.\u00a0 It arises from our depths to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.<\/p>\n

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\u2014if where we stand is authentic, our actions will be inspired.<\/p>\n

Flower-and-Song<\/h3>\n

For the ancient Toltecs and the civilizations they spawned, the highest expression of a spirit warrior embodied the mystical philosophy of Flower-and-Song.<\/p>\n

“Flower-and-Song” is a difrasismo<\/em>, a common form of expression in Nahuatl that uses two words to form a metaphor for a third, more expansive, concept.\u00a0 It is often translated as “poetry” but its meaning is more comprehensive than that, demanding that its practitioners live a “poetic life”.\u00a0 Examining the difrasismo<\/em> a little makes this clear.<\/p>\n

“Flower” in this context involves a three-stage engagement with the world.\u00a0 The first stage involves seeing each moment\u2014and whatever that moment holds\u2014as perfect as a blossoming flower.\u00a0 The second stage involves seeing each moment\u2014and whatever that moment holds\u2014as already fading and passing into death.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Without flinching from the perfection before us, we are driven to our knees in awe at the impossibility of spirit taking form in matter.\u00a0 Without flinching from the inevitable death of everything we know and love, we cannot help but burst apart with grief and empathy.<\/p>\n

“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.\u00a0 It is the spirit warrior’s courage to authentically feel, Everything I know and everything I love is perfect and dying<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“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”.\u00a0 This is the reason that the difrasismo<\/em> is generally translated as “poetry”.\u00a0 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”.\u00a0 It involves treating this entire lifetime as a single act of expressing the continuous vision of “Flower”.<\/p>\n

Inspired Action makes use of every thought, word and deed to embody the ancients’ philosophy of Flower-and-Song.\u00a0 Treating all things as miracles that pass away too soon, our thoughts, speech and actions take on a new caliber and timbre:\u00a0 We concentrate on what is present instead of what is absent and we discover new depths of patience and tolerance.\u00a0 Our lives take on greater meaning and our contributions meet with greater success.\u00a0 We treat everything and everyone more nobly and we are enriched immeasurably.<\/p>\n

Inspired Action enters each moment asking these two questions\u2014<\/p>\n

What is in front of me?<\/em><\/p>\n

How am I treating it?<\/em><\/p>\n

The answer to the second question is much simpler than the first.\u00a0 What is in front of me?<\/em> forces us to confront the ultimately unknowable nature of the world.\u00a0 It forces us to accept the extraordinary mystery always veiled by ordinary appearances.\u00a0 It forces to us to look harder:\u00a0 Is this merely what I have become accustomed to through daily contact\u2014or is it the sea of spirit in all its manifest forms?<\/p>\n

How am I treating what is in front of me?<\/em> demands that we watch our inner actions\u2014our thoughts and intentions, our wishes aimed at things outside ourselves\u2014as well as our outer demeanor and reactions.\u00a0 Am I acting nobly or mean-spiritedly?\u00a0 Am I ennobling my life or trivializing it?\u00a0 Am I rising above pettiness or descending into it?\u00a0 Am I treating others like superiors and inferiors, all in pursuit of my self-interest\u2014or as peers bravely facing their own death as well as they can?\u00a0 Am I spreading ill will, discord and sorrow wherever I go\u2014or compassion, collaboration and joy?<\/p>\n

None of this, however, should be interpreted as thinking or acting naively.\u00a0 Of course, not everyone will treat you as you treat them.\u00a0 Of course, there will be those who seek to take advantage of you.\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 But how others treat you is beyond your control.\u00a0 None of us can control what happens to us.\u00a0 The only thing we can control is how we respond to what happens to us.<\/p>\n

Inspired Action does not imply being a doormat or punching bag for untrustworthy people.\u00a0 Wisdom is based on solid clear-eyed discernment, seeing things for what they are.\u00a0 Understanding is based on a wide array of experiences, providing a keen grasp of human nature.<\/p>\n

The question of ethical strategies is one we will take up in the third installment of this Inspired Action theme.\u00a0 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 naivet\u00e9 out the front.\u00a0 There is little purpose to devising strategies, in other words, until we have undertaken the effort to rid ourselves of ulterior motives.<\/p>\n

As we read in Hexagram 6, “Fostering Self-Sacrifice”\u2014<\/p>\n

“One of the ancients\u2019 great teachings is that acting out of self-interest to the detriment of the whole injures all.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

And again, in Hexagram 62, “Conceiving Spirit”\u2014<\/p>\n

“…..the spirit warrior breaks through the barrier separating matter and spirit.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Breaking through such a mental barrier is a matter of constant training, as well:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

\n

\n

The Toltec I Ching<\/em><\/a>, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications.\u00a0 It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams.\u00a0\u00a0 Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World<\/em> hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired Action cannot be defined or even imagined beforehand. Why?\u00a0 Because it must be tailored to the moment.\u00a0 It has to be a response that circumstances evoke from us.\u00a0 It needs to be an act of collaboration with the Living … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[335,20,19,14,6,18,17,15,16,5],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-toltec-i-ching","tag-335","tag-benefit","tag-ethics","tag-flower-and-song","tag-i-ching","tag-intent","tag-intention","tag-nahuatl","tag-self-sacrifice","tag-toltec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}