Friday, September 23, 2016

Doctor Allen's House


"Slowly and gently one weaves one's seal into everything one does or is. It is an unceasing process which gives one's life and all one's actions one's own pattern. Even an unborn child is already shaping his life. The result of this process is a character and destination which can hardly be changed anymore, like the liquid metal which is very hard after cooling down. So be careful with the moments when you still can shape things." - Oracle from the 5th moving line of Sun, the 57th Hexagram.

We understand that our day-to-day experience is an illusion.  We get it, but that illusion is so persistent and compelling that it keeps us from attaining the peace and calmness we desire.  We want to break through the illusion and embrace all manners of different practices and intellectual reasoning to get there.  But it is not only the day-to-day experiences that are an illusion, it is also the concept that we are somehow separate from that peace and calmness which we desire.  In other words, it's the conceptualization of peace and calmness that prevents us from experiencing peace and calmness.

The oracle tells us to pause, take a backward step, and carefully consider our actions before engaging in them.  We can't get out of our own way by repeating the patterns of the past.  We can't get out of our own way by initiating new patterns.  In stillness, we can realize that the present moment and the destination are one and the same.  

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