I Ching says 18/45

[dharma]

I had two very 'uncomfortable' dreams back-to-back last night. The distress that each one elicited was the same yet the content and sequences were quite different. On closer examination, I began to see that they shared a common theme. I am pretty certain I know exactly what they are refering to. However...

I would like to deal with the issues that they are speaking about but unfortunately, the dreams themselves do not indicated how I can *overcome* the obstacle or *be* different --I am clearly not objective enough under the circumstances to see how to deal with this better than I have to date.

I Ching says 18/45 (all lines change except the 1st). Does anyone have any ideas that might help me figure this out?

Dharma

 

[candid]

Hi Dharma!

I'll contribute on an intuitive level with you on this one. The main reason is that I had a rush of impressions as I ready your changes. See if I'm on or not.

This pertains to working on something (or things) that have been around a long time. Its rooted in your past and hasn't been dealt with in the manner which you are prepared to deal with it now. That's why there are so many change lines. Its a cumulative issue and point of focus. I can't say for certain, but it may well have roots within your family. The word, ancestors also comes to mind.

Another view is the different manners and ways this issue is being worked on. Each change line representing an authority figure. However, rather than being corrected by the authority, it is you who are doing the correcting for their past mistakes. You are setting some old things straight. As I said, this isn't something new.

This dynamic is further illustrated in 45. Gathering together, a central figure whom others may gather around. Again, ancestors comes to mind. There's something sacred about it.

This isn't over. That which has unfolded will continue to unfold. Fortify your heart so that you will be ready.

This sounds like a really exciting passage for you, Dharma! I believe that the combination of working on your book and personal things, have managed to unlock some doors for you, allowing these significant dreams to play out. I'm excited for you!

Be well, my friend.
~Candid

 

[louise]

Without the dreams - its hard to say how the question, answer and dreams inter-relate.

 

[dharma]

Candid, you're right about this having roots in the past. It has to do with distinctive family behavior traits that, aside from being ineffective are oftentimes painfully isolating. It's been easy to recognize in other members of my family for years but much harder to see within in myself.

Though I have come to a point where I *do* see them in myself, I also feel disturbingly 'controlled' by them and at a loss for how I can correct or change things. It's distressing (for now) because I don't see wherein my 'salvation' lies. However, I truly can appreciate your enthusiasm about the future potential that it contains. If I could only figure out *how* then the major-breakthrough possibilities in this would change things indisputably for me --I agree.

It's true that this is far from over. This is something that *I'm* going to have to correct because no one else is. It seems that I am not just the only one really *aware* of the dynamic, and the only one truly affected as a result, but the one who apparently has signed up to absorb the direct karmic impact. But this isn't anything *new* to me...it's a common storyline theme for the family I've been born into. I am the original blacksheep-turned-shepherd who consistently leads the rest out to greener pastures. C'est la vie que je sais bien...c'est *ma* vie, vraiment!

Perhaps writing the book is responsible for these buttons being pushed [again] and maybe it will also serve as the cathartic release as I work through it. Thank you Candid. Your insight is appreciated and your friendship greatly valued.

.....

Louise, I didn't think that the dreams were relevant since I personally understood their implication. Since I knew what they were *about*, I only wished to know the best way to work through the issues by understanding the *how* of 18/45. I guess I felt overwhelmed by all the changing lines and wasn't sure what to look at or focus on exactly. In anycase, without going into all the details and images of the dreams themselves, I will share the relevant summary from each..

The first dream was about someone who, in reality, deceived and lied to me, and in the dream *finally* admitted doing so. However, the admission did not come with an apology and so only served to pronounce the betrayal and disillusionment already present.

The second dream was of some woman who would not admit to an error she made and instead manages to shift the blame onto me. As a result, despite my longstanding and upstanding reputation I am forced to take the fall [seemingly forever] in a critically important situation.

Both times I am left with the distinct painfulness that none of this is new --the feelings are so old that they don't even hurt anymore --I'm just consciously aware of the underlying distress that they cause. I've incorporated them into myself or I've become a part of them --either way, my feelings about it are so natural that I can hardly tell them apart from myself.

Therein lies my dilemma Louise...I recognize the crux of the problem but haven't a clue where the solution lies. I was hoping that I Ching's 18/45 would give me a glimpse that would help me to begin unraveling this.

Hopefully this extra information will help you to make better sense of the hexagrams and share them with me. Thanks.

Dharma

 

[alisa]

Dharma,

I printed and retyped this page from the Yi software I recently purchased. This is only a very short description of Hexagram 18.

18 GU Decaying


The trigrammatic structure of the hexagram is not favourable. The lower triagram is XUN, the eldest daughter. Although she represents the gentle and penetrating power of the intellect, she is also somewhat listless and purposeless, tending to let things drift along there course. The upper trigram is GEN, the youngest son. Whilst he represents (as the Mountain) that from which and to which all things flow, he is also motionless and prone to rigid inertia. One the one hand, we have inner weakness and irresolute drifting, and on the other inaction. This leads to spoiling, for if things are left alone they inevitably decay and fall apart; it is the law of inertia. In total, we are faced with a situation where things have been allowed to get out of hand and where long periods of neglect have resulted in the present state of decay and deterioration. Hence, several of the line texts speak of the decay and the deterioration being caused by the father or mother, which refers to the fact that the state of affairs is one inherited from past circumstances: namely, long neglect in the time up to the present.

However this stagnationis not unalterable or permanent. It is the nature of the cosmic law as expostulated in the Changes, that all things change. Whilst the hexagram itself postulates a time of degeneration, the lines themselves are occupied with correcting the situation, although it is only the fifth which brings the work to a completion. Unless the great man brings all his creative activity to bear on the situation, the law of interia states that decay will inevitably result.

Therefore the situation is one of decaying which demands improvement, hence the hexagram is called not simply "decaying" but also by some interpreters "working on decay".

The "success" promised, though, depends upon proper preparation and deliberation. It is not enough to simply plunge ahead blindly, believing that any change is a change for the better, in the belief that any movement will improve matters, especially if it is energetic. It is absolutely necessary to carefully deliberate upon the possible causes for the present situation. Unless such considerations of the origins are deep and searching, unless the possible implications of any reform are far-farsighted, then the decadence will not only continue, but may well become greater. If the true cause is not treated, then a true remedy will not be found. One may labour to solve the problem, but not reform will be effected. This is why the text speaks of "germinating" (the representation of the sign of JIA, the starting point, the beginning). The refers to the moment we begin the wrok of reform. "Three" "days" means that the searching out of the pondering should be lengthy and deep, whilst "before" speaks of the orignis, and "after" speaks of the implications.


Hope this helps!

 

[candid]

Hi again Dharma,

I don't know if this helps or not, but the answer seems to be in two parts. One is in the unseen and the other, in the seen. Both are matters of 'gathering together' your different components. One is within, and the other, to gather others around you or to gather around another figure in the family. Maybe a way of gathering those persons outside of yourself, within yourself.

There's another possibility here too. Maybe "the great offerings" you are to bring, is forgiveness toward those who have caused darkness in your life. An acceptance maybe, that they are who and how they are, and that you can meet them acceptingly, unconditionally. Perhaps this might bring liberation from the ancestral hold they've had on you.

Warm regards,
Candid

 

[hilary]

You know, one of the wonderful things about experiencing this Community, for me, is the time difference! I look at a reading... think about it a bit... go to bed... and in the morning there's a page-full of insights. So the question becomes - have they (has Candid!!) left me anything to say??

Not much, methinks. It's evidently very, very hexagram 18. Going back to the very beginnings of this hexagram, it seems to record an ancient practice of divining to find out which ancestor was responsible for a misfortune. These days we think in terms of inherited family patterns! Finding the spirit responsible is a vital part of sorting it out - part of the three days before seedburst. In other words, important not to be so intent on tackling the problem that you fail to get to the bottom of its origins.

Next - has anyone touched on the Daxiang (Image) here? The Name, and the lines, start you off by exploring murky corners and taking the lid off nasty, writhing things (possibly the original can of worms!). The Judgement says firmly this is part of a process of renewal: return to the source, start afresh, take the risks to move on to the next stage of the journey. The Image is also part of this -

'Noble one rouses the people, nurtures {te}'

'Rousing' means grabbing and shaking up, galvanising into action - turning the ill wind (winds blowing down from mountains have a bad reputation all over the world) into winds of change. The people - when, as here (I imagine) they're not literally other people, they suggest a mass of potential that is not being fully used. The trigrams suggest that your unused potential can be stirred and roused under the protective bulk of the mountain, suggesting real and present achievements.

Hexagram 45 I tend to think of as a great investment and concentration of energies. You're writing that book (let us know how it gets on!), gathering your resources, focussing on a higher goal - all these things are reflected in the Judgement. The king approaches the temple: that part of you with ultimate responsibility for maintaining a vital and healthy connection between spirit and 'ordinary life' is at the centre. The sacrifices that open the channels and make royal authority possible are about to be made. There is a huge sense of the importance of the connection, and the occasion. The Judgement just keeps hammering it home: harvest in seeing the great person (an advisor, a model - an inner model, a higher Self?); harvest in constancy; good fortune in using big animals for the sacrifice; harvest in having a sense of purpose. Many issues, many personal roles and strengths - maybe some unexpected and disquieting - all meet in one place, but there is a single vision, and a single focus in the king's sacrifice.

The Daxiang recognises that the great investment is potentially overwhelming. Something like water in a lake 'above the earth' - perhaps a reservoir close to the village, a vital provision against drought but itself bringing the risk of flood. Benefits and risks, everything is on a larger scale. Stay awake! Have someone on watch... keep the tools ready for repairs...

I would think that #45 is a large part of the answer to your 'how' question. It's the atmosphere that allowed #18 to arise now; it can also be a creative response to its demands, through your preparedness to bring large sacrifices, to allow it to be important. What Candid says about this, the inner and outer aspect, is, um, brilliant. If you do have to be the vessel in/through which a lot of old and ugly patterns are worked out, then why not transform this from a nasty bit of poisonous magic in a lidded jar into a grand open-air ceremony showing the vigorous health of the whole (inner or outer) community? Yes, with so many eggs in one basket you have to stay awake, but this is still the way through.

What we haven't done yet, of course, is to tackle those 5 lines. We have an excuse: lines in #18 are acutely personal. 'Mother's corruption' for me and 'mother's corruption' for you may share some general themes (nurturing, acceptance, origins...) but will tend to look very different. So I'll simply throw some ideas your way for you to be selective about. (A sort of interpretative lucky dip...)

Line 2 - mother's corruption. Why 'not allowing constancy'? In the older meaning this is 'not allowing a divination': somehow the whole process of getting from source to insight to action is blocked. There is the Wilhelm interpretation, of course: don't be too resolute, be gentle. I think the way for the gentleness is a (???) more womanly kind of magic: not 'call spirits, get answer' from somewhere beyond - not investigation and interrogation - but dwell in the centre, experience how things are and come into being in practice. This line points to #52, with its utterly inward-focussed, non-reactive sitting meditation, not even seeing other people.
A personal take on 'mother's corruption': caring too intensely, and hence reacting too intensely. Sometimes mother is reluctant to allow children to become adults.

Line 3 - father's corruption, small regrets, no great mistake. It is hard enough to tackle this that there are small regrets - some inner division, some 'it was a lot better when I left this well alone' - but these are not a sign of a mistake.
Personal thoughts about 'father's corruption' - in control, directing, providing. (How good is father at caring when he is not in control?) Rational scepticism. Investigating everything. The disciplinarian, who works through diagnosing and creating new solutions, not just accepting things as they are. But at the end of all that - this points to #4, the young learner who has to accept that learning comes through practical experience and a time of being in the dark, not just from asking endless questions.

Line 4 - still with the father, this is an alternative course to line 3, saying that in practice it is better to work with the way things are run, add your co-operative energy to the existing ways of governing and resolving issues. Evidently it isn't - this gets nowhere. This points to the Vessel (#50) as to a major demand: found a new, sounder way of governing.

Line 5 - a subtler approach, gradual and indirect influence like the sculpting wind (very Taoist...). For 'praise' think perhaps of positive thinking, acknowledging achievement, celebrating whatever is attained.

Line 6 - the ultimate perspective on the entire process, and one that perhaps becomes most obvious once you've worked through those other lines. All this 'politicking' is not what you are really about: you are here to 'honour the highest'. And, from the Step of Change (#46), to push upward towards it without anxieties, purposefully as a growing plant.

Hope there is something in this outsized 'sawdust barrel' you can relate to! Thanks for sharing this: I know what #18 can be like...

 

[dharma]

Just taking a moment to thank you ~Alisa, Candid and Hilary~ for your generous inputs. I will need to take a step inward to absorb and ponder everything. Once sorted through, I will return to share my personal insights --I don't know how long it will take.. If you or anyone else has something more to say please feel free to add it and I will considerate it along with what I already have to work with.

...More dreams last night...a thick layer of light, fluffy, fresh-fallen white snow...it covers the *whole* world like...a secure blanket...

I think that's the feeling I get from Clarity...secure, yes...and so full of potential (imagining all the snowmen and snowangels I could make)

Dharma

 

[louise]

Very simply i would only echo what the others have said, more or less.
45 is linked very much with sacrifice to the needs of the group..
Wilhelm "The perpetuation of this gathering in groups is acheived through the sacrifice to the ancestors". Perhaps then in some sense you have been the 'sacrificial lamb' on whom the karmic forces within your family have centred - and somehow isn't it always the 'black sheep'(as you described yourself)that acts as a pivot of change within the group - and ultimately becomes the shepherd. The dreams show you have blame unfairly laid against you. The symbolism (with sacrificial lamb/black sheep/shepherd)reminds me a bit of the Christian notion, (that I have never fully understood)that one person, ie Christ, can somehow carry the burden of sin for others, and thereby, as an act of love absolve them from it.
Not that I am comparing you to Jesus, only that I'm saying, its a story very familiar to me - and I'm trying to locate it somewhere ?? I'm sure there are myths on the meaning of sacrifice - but I'm not too knowledgeable about them...Someone help me out ???
So maybe all the shared group karma of your family/ancestral spirits- have for you in this lifetime given you the 'part' of 'sacrificial lamb'. Obviously the more aware a person is of this role the less likley the playing of the role will entail them as 'victim'. As i think Hilary expressed -'if you do have to be the vessel..'for the sacrifice it doesn't have to mean being victim
or 'taking all the poison' - if you have greater awareness of the forces involved - which I'm sure you have - the 'sacrifice' is turned into a very powerful, cathartic, revolutionary energy which shifts the energy field of the whole group or family - in the way Christ is believed to have shifted the consciousness of the whole race - simply by playing out his allotted path.
(sorry to keep bringing Christ in - I have no other example at my disposal)
Possibly taking this 'function' in the family would be very hard as a child because you did not the awareness to deal with it and it may have caused you harm.. However now I think 18 is saying to you, 'you've done alot of work - dealt with alot of 'poisons', soon you can leave this scenario behind as you reach line 6. Line 6 in effect tells you you are no longer obligated to 'serve kings and princes'. I take this to mean that until ones karma in any field is worked out, one is almost held to it, obligated to serve it. Line 6 says its more your choice from now on. You are not bound to your sacrificial role anymore - its done you can leave it behind, leaving you more free to be more purely you. You can still help out in this group/family but the energies that 'held you fast' are gone.
If I am right, this is very good news Dharma, and maybe your book is an external manifestation of the freed up energy ?
You say you don't know HOW to make the reforms suggested by 18, but my feeling is just that it is your time to be free. You have already made the reforms - and they weren't limited to you, but part of a whole cycle/pattern of group 'karma'
Your dreams seem to suggest a deep resignation - the feeling that justice will never be done - that unless the person apologises nothing is better. Perhaps this dream just mirrors your conscious minds need for justice - which it isn't getting. Perhaps though as I have suggested you have already gone on higher and you really don't need the outward vindication - because you are already absolved form these ties.
I think I have got a little carried away here - but anyway I hope some of it helps.
By the way last night I had a very strange urge to write a poem - all I wanted to write on was SNOW !! I thought why do I want to write a poem about snow ?? I didn't even know exactly what I wanted to say about it - and I rarely have an urge to write poems anyway. I literally stood there baffled thinking WHY SNOW ?? Then tonight I arrived here to find you talking about snow angels and snowmen ??? Mmmm yes snow...(I didn't write the poem - but maybe you should ??)

 

[nks]

Hi all,
I've been typing a snow-related password in here all week, hee hee...

I don't have a lot to contribute on interpretation, but I do know that at times the advice, "concentrate on what, not on how" is useful.

I would also echo the observations about inner and outer. You may come to an inner resolution of the issues long before an outer one comes about. And even sometimes all that is necessary is the inner one, that just makes the shift and others follow without even quite being aware of what has changed.

And, I don't know how it is for you, but for me, a series of dreams often comes in three nights. I tend to find that the dreams of one night often group themselves, as yours did, and it is the new night that offers the next point. In that case, #45 might be suggesting, "Keep dreaming - this is laying out the spread, and you only have one card down so far."

 

[pocossin]

Hello Dharma,

Thanks for the interesting posts you have made.

Question: What is the issue in my 'uncomfortable' dreams?
(I'm assuming that all issues really reduce to one.)

18: 2,3,4,5,6 = 45
unyoked (yin Water) : action, struggle, association, communication, limitiation = spirit gate.

In 2 BC Yang Hsiung characterized hexagram 18 as 'Endeavor' and 'Duties' (26th and 27th tetragrams of the taixuanjing) and summarized them as

"The person achieves autonomy in her area of responsibility."

"The area of responsibility expands as the person's capabilities are demonstrated."

Tetragrams 26 and 27 end the expansive phase (Heaven's Mystery) of the year. The emphasis for Yang wasn't on "what has been spoiled" but on fulfilling the promise of maximum vitality.

King Wen saw hexagram 18 (IMO) as the effort to staunch dynastic decay (personnel flowing away). The component trigrams may be read (bottom to top) as Dispersal (Sun: Wind/Wood) Stopped (Ken: Mountain) or Stilled.

Considering all this, I think your unease is from unfulfilled potential rather than past injustice, or perhaps the injustice has held you back.

Would a pilgrimage (hexagram 45) help resolve this issue? Considering the season, perhaps you could make sand-angels there. Please think of what those angels symbolize for you.

Good luck,
-Tom

 

[dharma]

"Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal." --E. Joseph Cossman

I know better than anyone that if I want to accomplish something I have to make the effort. In truth, I am never at a loss for ideas, so writers-block is not an issue for me. Over the months I've written and collected a lot of material for my book, so I HAVE been putting in effort. However, my collection has grown into something so unbelievably huge, and it desperately needs to be gathered-together-around-one-central-idea (sounds like #45 to me) but I haven't been able to accomplish this. I haven't been able to find enough TIME to begin making a significant dent in this project and the more time that passes the heavier my load becomes because I keep ADDING to it in a haphazard way. So my unease is indeed due to unfulfilled potential rather than any past injustice, as Tom says.

Before 18/45, I couldn't see how anything could ever really change from the way that it was because I thought, "where exactly was the VALUE in making ALL that effort??" Many others might find the potential for material rewards reason enough to dissolve their obstacles and move ahead, but not so for me - material reward simply has never been enough for me. I need a much higher vision to sustain me and I didn't have one. So, imagine me with all my huge ideas and dreams (remember I don't do small scale) stuck behind the dead-end injustices of my past. I could easily SEE the potential but I could not yet see it's VALUE. Everyday my efforts became that much harder because my ideas and dreams (my present) kept piling up and weighing me down more in the cul-de-sac (my past) and the actualization of my potential (my future) had no reality.

So what have I learned here? I've learned that the next part of fulfilling my life's purpose lies with finding the courage to complete this book. Investing more of my valuable time to it is a critical factor because my concentrated energies are required for a successful conclusion. It IS overwhelming because the benefits and the risks are equally on a huge scale --there are a number of personal past issues that arise, some unexpected and some disquieting, that want to be included in the book and their sometimes easier to ignore by focusing my attention on something or someone else rather than consider what to do with THEM. I must prepare for and allow the book to be an ALL important element in my life because there is no other way to be 'rewarded' for my past sufferings and tribulations but to EMBRACE them in, what seems a most ironic, celebration.


Alisa, this new software you have seems to be quite useful, perhaps I will look into it. Thank you for going to the trouble - from the amount of information you keyed in I can see that it may have taken up a good amount of your time and I appreciate you caring enough to do so. It was an added bonus that reiterated and thus clarified much of what the others said.


Tom, by the time I received your input I was in the process of gathering together my own personal insights gleaned from the 'snowfall' of ideas everyone else had shared with me. I had by then begun to imagine myself making 'sandcastles' because the weather began to feel balmier and the abundance of snow I had been working with had turned to a beach-front of sand.

Candid, I'm happy to know that I can always count on you to jump right in and share your insights and always with the least of information to work with.

You trust your intuition enough to follow where it guides you at a moment's notice --this is nothing but a boon for us all!

The truth is, I've really worked through all my personal emotional issues with my family - if not with them directly, definitely within myself. I know the truth without a shadow of a doubt -that others can only give what they have. This is most clearly grasped and understood. Having fully accepted and forgiven the individual people from my past then, makes me realize that I've been looking for vindication from Life itself. "Where is my reward for all the sacrifices I have made???" I ask. "Even Christ's crucifixion had an end!" but, ahh! therein lies the "decaying" mind-set --this is my inherited family pattern at work...precisely the sort of thinking that forced me into inheriting the role of victim/blacksheep in my formative years. If I am looking for MORE then MORE effort and sacrifice is required. I have failed to see that the 'crucifixion' has been over for some time and that the 'resurrection' is at hand. This shepherd has a new flock to gather and she has her work cut out for her!

.....

Hilary, I was quite captured by your description of the temple king and the emphasis on making big sacrifices and harvesting purpose. I also found the clarification of the lines most useful --I was able to relate to them much better than the descriptions found in my own books. Each line describes *how* I should go about this.

2- Escape from my familiar habit of thinking...it is causing me to be blocked and the answer lies not in being resolute but completely inward-focused and non-REACTIVE (meditatively centered within myself.) 3- The difficulty inherent in tackling something of this magnitude will naturally bring about a feeling of inner-division and make me wonder about the worthiness of my efforts. This is inevitable under the circumstances and therefore not a sign or indication that I am screwing up. Message received. 4- I am also reminded to develop a newer, more practical way of working with it all and, 5- that through it all I must have a postive attitude by acknowledging and celebrating any achievements I make along the way. 6- In the end, the process will be seen for what it is, through my own deliberate effort of upward-pushing, my process yields growth.

.....

Louise, perhaps you thought that using Christ as a symbol might detract from what you were trying to say but it was a significant element that allowed me to relate it to my own experience in a rather significant way. In fact, I believe the theme of his life/death is a template that anyone of us can use as a comparative pattern.

So, as I begin to see it, this isn't so much about my family per se but about where I've come from and how I am to *work* with my past and put it to use at another [higher] level. Gathering together my different components...the seen and the unseen...those which originated outside of myself are now present within myself requiring the ruler (my kingly self) to arrange and group so as to "turn the ill wind into winds of change". To gather together my accumulated resources and to focus them to serve a higher purpose.

What else would be the reason for enduring all that I've endured, if not to alchemically transform them into something loftier. Even Christ's life would have remained meaningless had he not accepted the full task of *completing* his works by resurrecting. It was his final 'act' that made the lasting impression. All he endured would have been for naught had he not brought to completion his life purpose.

.....

Nks, I have taken your advice and I have paid close attention to the dreams that have surfaced since the two that gave rise to this discussion. They tied all the loose ends together and added the missing color to the whole. (I include them for those who are interested.)

Night 2: I found myself back in my childhood home looking out at the lovely snow covered landscape. None of my family were present - just myself and a select group of associates - like this was our place of business now. I envision the dream's layout as though it were a 'bullseye' -I am at the center in my home, safe and protected...the outer [snow] environment spread out around me...rippling out into the distance... --- {so I am working WITH the past FROM the present FOR the distant future, and the bullseye is the symbol for how my efforts and actions will radiate outward from within me and affect others out beyond from where I began - rippling out like the water in a pond as when a pebble is tossed in.}

I am responsible for the 'arrivals' -people who keep coming to the back door to be let in - I can't seem to change this fact nor the conditions, though I would like to. I feel I really don't have a choice but to let them in when they come. All I have is a vertically hanging belt with buckle to lock my inner door with - the outer gate is not within my power and has no lock... --- {here is my difficulty in finding the time for my project - because of all the different people and things that arrive and who I feel responsible for. The belt is, of course, the 'hint' that buckling down is the only way for me to do what has to get done.}

Then I'm involved in a televised cooking show where I am showing everyone how to put together a gourmet recipe that requires very specific steps be taken until, finally, everything changes to 'another world'... --- {perhaps in a way, this is a very concise way of telling me HOW to compile the book for public consumption. And ultimately the book's evolution will create 'another world' into which I will find myself.}

Night 3: There is a brief image of 'aiming incorrectly' followed by a discovery I make when studying a geographical map. The map is very old, torn and hard to re-fold yet still useful and practical if not visually appealing. Surprisingly, I realize that there's another way OFF this island and that new territory is much closer for me to explore than I expected. Though the 'city' I am aiming for is likely a lot further inland than it appears on the map, the location of the border between where I am now and the other side is an easy drive... --- {so I now recognize that my aim was off and that I needed repositioning. Also, the map I am using -I Ching perhaps??- is old and hard to work with but still very useful and practical. From it, I discover that though I still have a long way to go, I can enter the new territory sooner than I thought.}

Then the dream shifts to my accepting, without worry of misunderstanding, an invitation to tag-along with my ex-husband. And finally, in my rush, I accidentally swallow more vitamins than necessary. --- {my ex-husband here emphasizes how things have already changed on the outside for the better though I have chosen to not notice and interestingly, the last image I am left with is my potential for overdosing on something meant to enhance my health. As if to say that too much of a good thing is not necessarily better and that Life doles out our rewards in the form of change in small doses for very good reason though the reason may not be apparent to us.}

.....

This has been a wonderful excursion for me - thank you all for being a friend and for holding my hand for a short time while I sorted through my illusions to find the truth. I hope that this part of my own journey has added to your own experience in a postive way. I would be very interested to know in what way your participation here with me has enhanced your own process. Any snowmen, snowangels or even sandcastles you'd like to share?

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." --Oliver Wendell Holmes

Dharma

 

[candid]

Dharma,

All I can do is read with appreciation, the dance of life as it plays out in you. This would not be possible if you didn't have the courage to share yourself so transparently. That this has "gathered together" in your mind, is inspiring to witness. The dreams, the book, the family and the oracle, even snow angels. Inspiring.

I personally believe that there's only so much to know, with many views of seeing it. The rest is a matter of how live it. That's the real sacrifice. Love is the motive and the reward.

Tai,
Candid

 

[Frankelmick]

Dharma,

I finally got around to reading this incredible thread.

Amazing stuff! You are so brave and honest. And your dream interpretations are great.

Best best wishes for happiness and success,

Mick

 

[louise]

Hello Dharma, you asked "in what way has your participation here with me enhanced your own process". Well it bought home to me how subjective my thinking can be - it made me wonder if it is possible for me to look at others dilemmas without my own issues clouding the view -for example I may find myself giving others advice that I would like to hear myself. It makes me wonder if ANYONE can get away from their own projections and subjectivity, when they consider anothers problems - and if they do, how do they do it ? I became aware of this while writing my post to you above, when I had the sneaking suspicion "hang on - am I talking to Dharma or to me here ?". So I think thats what I got out of participating here, an awareness of what seems to be an inescapable subjectivity for me when looking at others problems.

 

[candid]

Hi Louise,

To my father, I'm a son and to my son, I'm a father. Can either see me any other way? Its very subjective. I believe that its true, we view others as we relate to them.

I also believe that humans who live in a raised state of awareness, can and do see things *more* objectively. They can do this because they are able to see themselves and their situations more objectively. This is an effect of sitting before a Master or teacher. One is able to receive a truth from a perspective other than their own, hopefully, a more objective view. (20)

That said, we are creatures with a collective past, at least within this one lifetime. We've developed perspectives based on our own human experience. For this reason, I don't think its possible for anyone to be completely objective, other than in the theoretical sense. And, even that is based on our personal experiences.

One of the reasons I like to jump right in there, even before having all the details of the inquirer, is that my initial intuitive response is less likely to be influenced by factors which may create a bias. True, a bias is still present, due to my own subjective experiences, but it still keeps the field of focus concentrated, objectively. The less I know, the less likely I am to project my own view of it into the equation.

This, of course, is only my subjective point of view. Or is it?

~Candid

 

[dharma]

Hi Louise,

It is inevitable that you will look at an other's dilemma in the light of your own issues. You are *one* of the many, not the omniscient ONE and in that respect you may sometimes be actually telling someone else what is most right for you. Of course, this doesn't mean that the message or the advice you give is not relevant to the other person. The fact that you are in communication with this other person at this particular time is *no* accident. And so, the response that comes to *your* mind regarding *their* issue will be necessarily one that addresses something for you while addressing their situation at the same time --thus it becomes the common ground that you share and stand upon with them. Thanks Louise.

Also --thank you Candid --thank you Mick.

Hmmm... --transparent AND brave-- a Madonna-meets-Joan-of-Arc blend... now there's an image!

<amused>

Dharma