Hi all!

I would appreciate your ideas on this one.
My life is drastically different from what I want it to be, not sure why that happened though...

So I asked a somewhat naive, but truly desperate question:

How can I get the life I want?

got 38

Any ideas? I'm lost...

Seeing Things Differently

ichinglover said:

Hi all!

I would appreciate your ideas on this one.
My life is drastically different from what I want it to be, not sure why that happened though...

How can I get the life I want?

got 38

Click to expand...

You have to See things Differently...that is to say, you have to begin by transforming yourself, not the externals. Here is the commentary from the Wikiwing on H38:

"Certainly seeing differently. Maybe at an angle to normal reality, or seeing possibility vv ‘reality’. ‘Seeing’ is very important in the lines, especially seeing people and things obliquely, as omens."

Also...

" Seeing all the flows/tides, not identified with any one of them."

You want your external world to change, but what has to happen first in that your internal way of perceiving the world has to change.

This idea of transforming the inner world first has been said many times by great thinkers...Here is one quote.

"It is utterly useless to try to change the outer world, for it is but a reflection of inner causes. The true seeker seeks to change himself." Howard Vernon

I have mentioned to you before, in some older post, about not identifying with the current and future contents of your mind, not saying "I" to everything. Here is a quote from Eckhart Tolle.

"So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.

Other greats have spent much time trying to teach us to see differently, and to first master outselves, not being swept away by every thought that passes through.

"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens."
Epictetus

"No man is free who is not master of himself."
Epictetus

"... peace is to be found only within, and unless one finds it there he will never find it at all. Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one's own soul.”
Ralph Waldo Trine

"From the viewpoint of absolute truth, what we feel and experience in our ordinary daily life is all delusion.

Of all the various delusions, the sense of discrimination between oneself and others is the worst form."
The Dalai Lama


Best Wishes,

Tiger

Tiger,
thanks a lot...
Transforming myself, like exercise, plastic surgery, wardrobe change?

Thanks for all the wisdom..But I want to have a different life materially, and the philosophy
is way over my poor liitle head... I'd love to get some practical, down to Earth advice ...

I think with a single hexagram you're getting broad-brushstrokes advice. Something like...

Develop a clear vision of what you want, and how you want things to be different. Just sort of vaguely not-liking-things-but-making-do-anyway is not clear enough.

And then, rather than contemplating the vastness of the gulf between here and there, 'small affairs, good fortune.' Staring at the vastness of the gap can be completely daunting and paralysing, so you begin with something on a scale you can cope with.

... as a starting point.

ichinglover

There is on one level here, an opposition between the conscious mind, and the subconscious. The subconscious is stronger, and wins, and does not always give us what we think we want. Now the kicker is that all of us on planet earth have that problem to a certain degree, it is just a matter of how much. If we didn't have that problem, we would not be incarnating on the earth level, there is no need to. We would be like Lao Tzu, a flying dragon reaching the heavens." Since we all have it, it is evident that I have that same problem to a certain extent. In fact in at least two areas of my life I have that same problem, and it is frustrating because what we consciously want does not jive with what the subconscious wishes to bring us. This happens due to inner fears and frustrations, that can only be dealt with by the energies described especially in hexagram 57, (but to a lesser extent the energies of the entire I Ching) Since they are inner, we do not necessarily consciously know about them, but they are there, and they don't just go away. They must be brought into the light, so they can be seen for what they are. But this takes time, lots of time.

So, though the answer to your question was quite correct and pertinent, it is really only a small facet of the overall answer and that can only be done by continued guidance from the Sage, the I ching, or whatever personal guidance system you incorporate into your life. It is not going to be corrected by one I Ching reading. Personal growth takes many lifetimes.

Gene

Practical

ichinglover said:

Tiger,
thanks a lot...
Transforming myself, like exercise, plastic surgery, wardrobe change?

Thanks for all the wisdom..But I want to have a different life materially, and the philosophy
is way over my poor liitle head... I'd love to get some practical, down to Earth advice ...

Click to expand...

What would be practical would be for you to stop pretending (or actually believing!) that plastic surgery would make you happy! You would still be dissatisfied with yourself and want things, like a new man (see next thread)!

Tiger

You have to be realistic as you may not be able to get the actual life that you want because your dreams are too "high", that's why one aims high but settles for less.

Therefore, Hex 38 is advising you not to fight your circumstances as that will get you nowhere but to accept that life isn't perfect and never will be for you, but just too make the best of what you have and hold your head up high, so feel proud about what you have achieved to date as opposed to what you have not.

Look around at the people who live in squalor and plastic bags and then realize how much better off you are compared to them.

So, all you can do is to keep going in the hope that "things" will improve and that your dreams partially become a reality.

At WillowFox:

You say my dreams are too high, can you tell me what they are then?

To have family and kids is a dream too high for a woman?

Life will never be perfect for me?
And while I appreciate your input Willowfox, I don't think
it's your place to give me a verdict like that...It's not for you to tell me things that you have no idea about...

I don't think any human can give another human such a diagnosis

at Hilary

Thanks Hilary, I did exactly what you've said and my life is just so drastically different
from what I've written oncem that just as you said the gap is paralizing...

It seams I've never been aware of my dreams

At Gene

thanks a lot, I have to meditate on the answer

ichinglover said:

At WillowFox:

You say my dreams are too high, can you tell me what they are then?

To have family and kids is a dream too high for a woman?

Life will never be perfect for me?
And while I appreciate your input Willowfox, I don't think
it's your place to give me a verdict like that...It's not for you to tell me things that you have no idea about...

I don't think any human can give another human such a diagnosis

Click to expand...

No, to have a family is not really an overly ambitious dream for some but then again for some it is.

Life is never perfect and never will be for the majority of the human race and I know that you will indeed be no exception to that fact. Humans are never satisfied, just as you are not satisfied with your life at present.
So I say what I see, and I do indeed have an idea of what I am talking about.

Life sure ain't a bed of roses for the vast majority of us as you well know from your life to present.

But it is down to you to believe or reject what I have said, I am not forcing you to believe me, my words are only a guide to what your future holds.

Ok, I don't think there is any human on Earth who can tell me what my future holds with any certainty.. Plus in my case your predictions never came true, good or bad, so
again your verdict though quite harsh, is thankfully harmless

i ching just does not work that way...for me anyways...it never predicts one's whole life to you

and no to have a family is not an overly ambitions goal to anyone...

ichinglover said:

Plus in my case your predictions never came true, good or bad, so

Click to expand...

Well so our conversation ends, goodbye ichinglover, I hope you will find what you are looking for in your life, but I have my doubts.

Bye-bye.