{"id":64,"date":"2009-09-24T13:49:10","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetolteciching.com\/blog\/?p=64"},"modified":"2021-01-30T23:04:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T06:04:40","slug":"lessons-of-the-toltec-i-ching-daily-immortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/lessons-of-the-toltec-i-ching-daily-immortality\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Of The Toltec I Ching: Daily Immortality"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toltec civilization of ancient Mexico influenced all those that followed it, especially in the important arena of the spirit warrior’s philosophy of life, which came to be called Flower and Song.<\/em><\/p>\n

Flower<\/em> in this sense means that the spirit warrior looks at everyone and everything as a perfect blossom\u2014something wondrous and mysterious and movingly beautiful.\u00a0 Something ultimately unknowable, since the source of its perfection is invisible.\u00a0 Something ultimately awe-inspiring, because its perfection invites intimacy and communion.\u00a0 And, unavoidably, something passing away right before our eyes, as transient and ephemeral as a fading bloom.<\/p>\n

So, Flower<\/em> in this sense means feeling<\/em> the perfection of each moment while simultaneously feeling<\/em> the inevitability of its passing.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Song<\/em> here means that the only thing truly worth speaking, even to oneself, is the truth of Flower<\/em>.\u00a0 Anything else lacks the authenticity to fully reflect the nobility and compassion of the spirit warrior.\u00a0 In this sense, Song<\/em> is the individual expression of the spirit warrior’s lifeway, the moment-by-moment way she or he thinks, feels, speaks, and acts.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the phrase Flower and Song<\/em> is a traditional metaphor for Poetry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

From this we can see that the spirit warrior is one who lives a poetic way of life<\/em>\u2014creative 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.<\/p>\n

Holding such a state of mind for extended periods of time has certain foreseeable consequences.\u00a0 By forcing us to focus complete attention on appreciating<\/em> the perfection of everything as well as mourning<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

But it also has certain unforeseeable consequences.\u00a0 By blurring the imaginary boundary between self and world, it opens new senses and allows us to perceive the spirit within all matter.\u00a0 By blurring the imaginary line between flawed and flawless, it opens our hearts to the sacredness of all form.\u00a0 By blurring the imaginary boundary between animate and inanimate, it opens our eyes to the formless awareness forever transcending the very form it inhabits. \u00a0By blurring the imaginary line between time and space, it opens our minds to the unchanging presence<\/em> through which all changing form moves.<\/p>\n

With this introduction, let’s look at the illustration and text for Hexagram 30 of The Toltec I Ching<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"30\"<\/p>\n

\n

Image:. \u00a0The skeletal form of death is shown in the childbirth position, giving birth to new life.\u00a0 Both the blood accompanying the birth and the bones of the skeleton have jade beads affixed to them.\u00a0 Over the heart of the newborn is the spiral cross section of a conch shell.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interpretation:\u00a0 This hexagram represents the immortality that is born from mortality.\u00a0 The skeletal form of death symbolizes those remains of an individual that are common to all people.\u00a0 The newborn symbolizes the spirit warrior, who is delivered from the body\u2019s death to return to the spirit realm from whence it comes.\u00a0 The jade beads affixed to the blood symbolize the precious nature of that which sustains life.\u00a0 The jade beads affixed to the bones of the skeleton symbolize the precious nature of all those who have come before us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Taken together, these symbols mean that your body is the womb within which the embryo of the spirit warrior is carried.<\/em><\/p>\n

Action:\u00a0 The spirit warrior contemplates the inevitable extinction of the body\u2019s spark in order to illuminate the perfection of the present moment.\u00a0 It is a time for studying the end of things, for opening the heart fully to the reality of death:\u00a0 the need here is to reach beyond the intellect\u2019s dead rationality in order to grasp the emotional reality of the body\u2019s mortality.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Those who continue to avert their eyes from death\u2019s face, however, see imperfection everywhere and find it uncomfortable to genuinely contemplate or discuss their mortality.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Because you prepare for the end of things, you are ready for the beginning that lies beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n

Intent:\u00a0 Knowing that death transforms us after the body\u2019s light is extinguished requires little more than intellectual knowledge.\u00a0 Knowing that we transform death before the body\u2019s light is extinguished, however, requires first-hand experience of the deathless.\u00a0 For the spirit warrior, death is not the absence of life.\u00a0 It is the felt presence of the gateway between the visible and invisible realms\u2014it is the loving presence of the guide home.\u00a0 We transform the extinction of the body by becoming the spirit warrior who carries its spark back to the universal fire of creation.\u00a0 We transform the way we view the world by appreciating the preciousness of every moment we are honored to spend in the visible realm.<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary:\u00a0 Your spirit is growing stronger, take care what you create.\u00a0 Keep in mind the end of things and you will begin only what you wish to be remembered for\u2014keep in mind the unpredictability of fate and you will not waste time or energy or petty goals.\u00a0 Transform death into your ally and you will make every moment count.\u00a0 Transform death into the spirit of renewal and you will find peace of mind.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lesson we glean from this hexagram, then, is that immortality is not something that happens to us after we die\u2014it is, rather, this present mind, in all its perfection, aware of itself as each mortal form passes through it.\u00a0 We recognize the perfection of this present mind, furthermore, by identifying with the unchanging now<\/em> rather than the changing flow of time moving through it.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\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 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":"

The Toltec civilization of ancient Mexico influenced all those that followed it, especially in the important arena of the spirit warrior’s philosophy of life, which came to be called Flower and Song. Flower in this sense means that the spirit … 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":[20,37,38,14,23,6,29,39,17,9,40,5,27],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-toltec-i-ching","tag-benefit","tag-death","tag-deathless","tag-flower-and-song","tag-hexagram","tag-i-ching","tag-identity","tag-immortality","tag-intention","tag-shamanism","tag-spirit-warrior","tag-toltec","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","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=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1307,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/1307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thetolteciching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}