Hex. 59.6 and Spirituality

[Trojina]

Please desist with this line of thinking. Yes we do create our world and people do suffer because of their own actions and thoughts - any Buddhist or Hindu will tell you that. Just read about the life of the Tibetan Saint Milarepa and you'll see how harsh a Guru's love can be and how it turned a murderer into a saint. I expect you to answer my question, not attack my spiritual path. And line 6 could just mean that I have to dissolve my bad attitude.

I couldn't answer your question without considering what the harm was you had to flee from. When I learned you had been banned from praying at the temple because it was considered you polluted it I questioned what kind of path this was. When I heard your sanyasin responded to your being cheated with asking you to look inside, I questioned what they were really doing to you. Seemed to me it was them you needed the distance from not your attitude. Questions never hurt a solidly grounded faith.

 

[AnitaS]

Of course I too am reporting the contractor. You do what you have to do, but not in a hateful way. You don't moan about why it happened to you. You accept the situation. And at any level, Mind is that which creates. If you're really familiar with The Buddha's teachings, you'll know that. Compassion is seeing things as they really are, not pitying people. You do sympathise of course and if you really care for them, you will tell them to look within for the cause because only in that way they can be free. As for the pollution - I really am that with my aggression and vanity, If I go to the temple like this I not only disturb others with my words and vibes, I also create further karma for myself. As I said before, my life is transformed for the better and my path has saved me from many dangers. Why would I abandon it? When a child misbehaves, a good mother will let it know.

Read The Life of Milarepa whose Guru with his harsh love transformed him from murderer to saint. In Zen practice devotees are constantly humiliated by their gurus in order to help them dissolve their ego and therefore attain objectivity. As for prayer - I can pray at home and I always do.

 

[AnitaS]

Also - others before you on this thread have interpreted line 6 for me (another question but same context) - but none suggested I should abandon my spiritual path. This is the sort of advice anyone should think deeply about before offering it. Let alone insist on it. But it's ok Trojan. You taught me that spiritual practice is deeply personal and not to be talked about - especially with those not on the Path. For this I thank you.

 

[AnitaS]

I think Karcher would say that the line 6 moving takes you to hexagram 60 - which is about setting limits. Perhaps the Yi is telling me to know where my limits are, since I often cross them.

 

[eastern_girl]

Hi Circe,

I love what LiSe has to say about this line: "[FONT=&quot]Let go of fears, preconceptions, expectations. Give everything the space to be what it is, don't make yourself part of it, changing it to your own size and ideas. [/FONT]Things happen - so let them happen. Fears and rules make them more difficult than they need to be. "

 

[Trojina]

Also - others before you on this thread have interpreted line 6 for me (another question but same context) - but none suggested I should abandon my spiritual path. This is the sort of advice anyone should think deeply about before offering it. Let alone insist on it. But it's ok Trojan. You taught me that spiritual practice is deeply personal and not to be talked about - especially with those not on the Path. For this I thank you.

No problem, it must have been your karma to talk to me and to have this conversation.

If there are things your reading is not allowed to say then maybe you should state it at the start of the thread "I will not allow any suggestion of questioning my path" ? Maybe it's worth thinking before consulting what our readings are not allowed to say. If there are things Yi is not allowed to say are we really open to hearing what it's saying ?

In any case I think it's good to think about exactly what we wouldn't allow Yi to say. Very often there are things it won't be allowed to say. Pinpointing what those things are can clarify interpretation.

Given what you have described about the situation then it's not unreasonable IMO to suggest 59.6 may mean distancing yourself from these people. I don't insist on my on interpretation but I don't agree that 59.6 meant you being banished, for it is you who must distance yourself from what is harmful.

That's my take. I'm happy for you to disregard it and close our conversation


Good Evening and Good Bye :bows:

 

[AnitaS]

Thank you Eastern girl. Yes let it be. Don't get stressed over it.

 

[bradford]

I for one think it's a big mistake to universalize a "law of Karma" into some version of retributive justice or "life lessons plan" for individual in reincarnation. For me the best argument against this is found in the common destiny of certain large groups. Did some cosmic law or force round up all those souls in need of particular lessons and cause them to be born as European Jews prior to WWII? Or American Indians or African blacks prior to their own holocausts?
I think that seeing karma as some kind of lesson plan is a big misunderstanding of the idea. So is making it a universal and applying it to the evolution of spirits (which don't exist in real Buddhism).

 

[AnitaS]

I don't see why this discussion has got sidetracked into the question of karma. All I wanted to know was how I can be humble. Yes karma does apply to every sentient being - the universal law. We create it. It's not punishment or reward from above. It's simply cause and effect. If there is a cause there must be a result. Bad cause bad result, good cause, good result. What's so complicated about that? It's pure logic. And anyway, I don't think anyone has a right to demand I divulge information as Trojan has done. I can't help feeling bullied on a forum I always believed friendly and respectful.

I beseech readers not to misunderstand or blame a truly genuine spiritual path which is certainly not a cult. A cult is led by a mad, megalomaniac. But on this path there are many gurus. Negative thinking about a genuine spiritual path creates serious karmic repercussions. I have seen this happen to some people.

It is a path that would rather starve than accept offerings given from one who has no wish to understand Self . It is more interested in your welfare rather than its own. It will teach you with great love and compassion and at times when you don't understand that compassion can be harsh. Whatever is required for your spiritual growth. I have been on this path for more than a decade and I will not abandon it. It has transformed my life for the better in so many ways. And life is only a manifestation of your inner self.

 

[Mira72]

Circe,

I just got this...so I kind of am in the same mindscape, as in another who might have received it.

In reading your thread, I had to kind of rush through, for so much of it is familiar.

And in the end, I am not sure if it was resolved for you.

I went back to your question. What struck me was the deep innerscape of your questioning space.

Could it be that the yi is saying, quit such terrible thinking? There is no way out of such an attitude? Towards one self? That I am plywood inside, that my spirituality is superficial...

The emotion bound up in the thinking, the feeling quality of applied to oneself?

Since spirituality is ultimately about learning ourselves...i offer this reflection in an attitude of service and helpfulness. Please take in the right way. Also, of course the whole situation is a long time ago.

But as one also in the path, and seemingly now found myself here...

Could what you describe be an attitude on internalised feeling of "not enoughness"..."never going to be good"..."i am fake"...except you are afraid that it is the yi that is saying...

such attitudes we wear so tightly wrapped around us, emanate and influence the air around us.

obviously the plywood is a trigger into a feeling state. or just as well, the mind in its warped space projects this story on to the story of the altar.

you are the one building it. where in the process, it becomes a symbol of you, helpless to change it?

A deep breath. Into the feeling space of that might not be helpful, for it might take you in deeper than helpful in the present moment?

So in conclusion, I think yi might be saying don't be terribly hard on yourself...practice the opposite...howabout some metta for oneself?

Metta for all.

(obviously it is a note for anyone else who wanders down this dark alley...not for the circe of that moment...i suppose this is my way of responding to the helpless despair of 59.6...you are not helpless, go far away, even if only in thought, or internet action

metta is the practice of loving kindness.

 

[radiofreewill]

From Cleary's "Taoist i-Ching":

59.6 ~ Dispersing the blood, going far away, there is no fault.

"At the end of dispersal, strength and flexibility are blended; this is "dispersing the blood, going far away." Dispersing the blood means the human mentality cannot injure the mind of Tao; going far away means the mind of Tao can repulse the human mentality. When the mind of Tao is present and the human mentality goes, then the human mind also sublimates into the mind of Tao; the gold elixir crystallizes, the spiritual embryo takes on form. At first yin and yang were fragmented and there was fault; finally yin and yang are blended and there is no fault. This is regaining integration when dispersal ends.

"So when the human mentality arises, the mind of Tao leaves; when the mind of Tao arises, the human mentality leaves. The human mentality is enough to disperse and fragment yin and yang, while the mind of Tao can unite yin and yang. Being able to unite what has been dispersed, returning to the origin, reexperiencing the fundamental being, is the culmination of the path of resolving dispersal."

 

[Mira72]

Beautiful!

Thankyou!

 

[AnitaS]

Hi Radiofreewill. You are right. I was too hard on myself just like they were in that Temple. It's all behind me. I am Buddhist now and enjoying my spiritual journey.

 

[Mira72]

Got this one again today...also in reference to my 'spirituality' so to speak...which made me revisit this thread. It is becoming a marker of sorts for me, this one.

Now circe, reading through the lot (excepting the Trojina part...somehow this part always feels like it is about something else...I am not sure, so I end up skipping it)... some observations...questions.

Gene...am not nitpicking, but are you a little contradictory...at one point, you are saying it is to be practiced for a higher cause or goal...and else where, to practice for practice sake...

Circe, where in radiofreewill's quote are you reading that s/he says that you are too hard on yourself? am i missing a post or something? or were you really conflating my previous post where I am wondering if you were too hard on yourself with radio's?

And finally, could you please talk about what is all behind you? the particular temple? was it not buddhist then? did you leave this particular sangha? was trojina right after all?

could you clarify please?

 

[AnitaS]

Dear Mira

Sorry, it WAS you who said don't be too hard on yourself. And yes Trojina WAS right. I keep this short because both of my previous replies have just not appeared. I'm a happy Buddhist, having taken the pratimoksha and bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2014. But I learnt a lot from my previous path - Sentendaido, believed to be the source of Buddhism. If you like, I'll post a link to my spiritual memoir Çhasing Happiness'here once I complete it. It's already over 100,000 words!

Love and Light to you

 

[moss elk]

59.6
work on your temperment, specifically anger/hot bloodedness.

 

[Mira72]

Boy, oh boy, did I need to hear that today Moss Elk...Thank you

 

[Mira72]

Lovely to hear of your process Circe. HH is a precious jewel.

 

[AnitaS]

Hi Mira72

Thank you. 'Precious Jewel. 'You sound Buddhist.

Best

 

[Mira72]

Hi Mira72

Thank you. 'Precious Jewel. 'You sound Buddhist.

Best

Hello Circe,

I don't believe in any isms. Actually beliefs in the conventional sense have never been quite my thing. Yet, I might have fallen prey to the process...and only have ever really suffered from it.

But I have met HH a few times, always very profound and full of overwhelming and simple love and recognition. I absolutely adore him

Buddha, I had to warm my way into his philosophy.

It is not that I disbelieve either. I honour the tao...so to speak, as and when I encounter it and find myself having to rediscover my own 'te' all over again.

Such as I am sure you find as well, to be the process. finding and losing, finding and losing, until somehow it stays with you, or you it.

much love and many blessings to all beings, everywhere.

 

[AnitaS]

An update. I am still with the temple and still a Buddhist keeping all my commitments. Mira I think you especially want to know. I posted another thread regarding my recent disillusionment that came about via the human error of materialism which prompted me to pull them up. I was all set to never return but then they compromised. Requested me to conduct prayers again. I obliged. Considering how few the devotees are on this beautiful challenging path, I am needed. Just two or three of us have the ability to conduct and right now it's only me during this pandemic. I live across the road . I moved here.long ago to be close to the temple. I helped build it. I am needed to help the sanyasin mop the floor of the prayer hall and conduct prayers. Maitreya Buddha needs my services. And the sanyasin has seen the error of her ways.