Image for meditation 45.5.6>57

[Endless]

Image for meditation 46.5.6>57

Good morning Clarity friends !
As every day, I made my short meditation after casting a hex. which for today was 46>57.
I never took yoga classes nor meditate in a group, but my cousin has tought me the way they do with their master, a Swami living in some part of Andalusia. Those exercises are very useful, just a bit of stretching and squating before getting to the smooth breathing and calming the mind.
(I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly, sorry)
As I said, I never joined a meditation group. I used to love a more dynamic kind of exercises as Qigong and Taoyin but, as I'll stay in my little town for a while, I don't have the oportunity to continue with them. What I do have near me is a yoga center (but I don't really like meditating in group).

I'm saying all this because I feel there's a point in yoga practice that none can reach by herself or himself if not with a certain guidance. My cousin is not around in the summer and I feel a bit of discouraged when I start the exercises. I wonder what Yi wants to tell me about the way I meditate. Maybe I've got to endure and keep trying, insisting, but no need for outside guidance ? Pushing upward and subtle penetration, hmmm ?

It would be helpful to read your insights,

Endless

 

[Hujambo]

Hi Endless, what was the question you asked Yi?

 

[Endless]

Hi !
I usually ask for an image to focus during my meditation. I was wondering if the answer I got today was reflecting my incapacity to progress after a first ascending period (46.5.6).
Thanks !
E.

 

[Hujambo]

I don't quite understand, sorry. 45.5.6 does not transform to 57 from the way I see it. Where is this pushing upward, do you mean 46?

 

[Endless]

Oh, yes !
It's 46>57
I'm so sorry
I've edited the post, but I can't save changes in the title of the thread uch:

 

[Hujambo]

All good. It's kind of funny actually...

I definitely think Yi is encouraging you to find a teacher. Are you sure there is no way to locate a Qigong teacher that is convenient for you? What if you just went to yoga and learnt the physical practice and focused on the meditation more when you were alone. I know the body has to be strengthened in line with the meditation to achieve the best results. One without the other doesn't achieve much. Progress must be made slowly as I understand it.

Anyway, I will give you some of the words from Thomas Cleary's, Taoist I Ching, as I think it most appropriate for the subject of meditation so it might give you a little inspiration.

46.Rising
Rising is greatly developmental; it calls for seeing a great person, so there will be no grief. An expedition south brings good fortune.

46.5 Rectitude brings good fortune. Climbing stairs.
"Emptying the human mind and seeking the mind of Tao..." and "...this is rising by flexibly opening the mind."

46.6 Rising in the dark. Benefit lies in unceasing rectitude.
"When one is ignorant and acts arbitrarily, clinging to one's own mundanity while vainly imagining one will grow and rise in the qualities of the Tao and comprehend life and essence, the more one rises the more one is in the dark - how will it be possible to get out of darkness and advance to lofty illumination? If you want to rise without darkness, you must seek a teacher's instruction. The benefit is in ceaseless rectitude, eliminating anger and covetousness, stopping falsehood and maintaining truthfulness, getting stronger as time goes on; then you can still rise to the stage of clarifying the good and restoring the original. This is the rising of one who is weak but returns to rectitude."

I have focused more on 46.6 because in many sets of instructions it is regarded as the ruler in a reading with two changing lines.

 

[Hujambo]

More from Cleary....

57.Wind
Wind is small but developmental. It is beneficial to have somewhere to go. It is beneficial to see a great person.

You would do better/feel more comfortable with a teacher - is my interpretation of this reading.

 

[Endless]

Thank you Hujambo, I'm very pleased to know there is a version of IChing conceived for meditation, I'm not really connoisseur of english translations. I think I will try to acquire Cleary's volume.
I can see the point in 'an expedition south' 'to see a great person', maybe the teacher I need. I thought I could progress through intuition and practice, and I also need to eliminate certain anger before I commit myself in a meditation group lead by someone I already know.
Your insight was really clarifying,
I wish you the best in your journey,
:bows:
Endless

 

[Tim K]

I don't think you absolutely must have a teacher to advance further.
If you have a basic training, understanding of the method, then just follow it, step by step 46.5.

Wilhelm: not to try to skip any stages; he must go on slowly, step by step, as though hesitant. Only such calm, steady progress, overleaping nothing, leads to the goal.

Wilhelm 46.6:
it is important to be constantly mindful that one must be conscientious and consistent and must remain so. Only thus does one become free of blind impulse, which is always harmful.
This line also warns about wanting too much too soon.

Transitional hex is 48.6, Crowley: Here to the brim it bubbles - go thy way!
It could have two meanings - you have all the knowledge inside, and a warning that too much water will eventually spill and go to waste.

Be constant in your practice, like the wind blowing in one and the same direction, and there will be progress, step by step.

 

[Hujambo]

hmm, imho that warning in 46.6 makes it clear. Endless asked for an image to meditate upon. It doesn't say to go and get a teacher because he/she asked for an image, but it does say to think about that option. Kind of, "you're off to a great start, now think about - in which way are you going to progress and stay free from too much difficulty with it?"

 

[Endless]

Ashteroid, you're right, the transitional hex is 48.
I will also keep that in mind. The no master option makes me feel free. But if some day I find an appropriate mistress, I'd be glad too Or maybe I'm that mistress

 

[Endless]

Thank you Hujambo and Ashteroid !