Place of Greatest Service 53.3,4>12

[philish]

Back again.

Today I had an opportunity to try meditation as creative visualization. The woman who led us through the meditation asked us at one point to project a question into the pond in our visualization, so I asked, "What is my place of greatest service?" (Looking for a Big Life Vision right now.)

The pond began to undulate and then roll, and I had a sense of gestation in the image which I interpreted as "my place (both metaphorically and literally) is under construction."

So I asked the Yi to show me the reality of my vision, and it came back 53.3,4>12. I'm not liking the "misfortune" angle on this reading, but if I read it correctly, I could avoid misfortune if I follow a superior path. Otherwise this reading seems to say that I may have gotten ahead of myself and need to chill a bit --in other words, I think it's reinforcing my interpretation of "gestation."

Any other ideas?

 

[dobro p]

I'd say the Yi's suggesting that it's time for you to advance gradually toward the ideal of service, because if you start into service bigtime right now, you'll come to some grief, and be obstructed in the end. Which means I think you read it more or less correctly yourself.

See, it's like this (not just for you, but for everybody). You can't serve until you've dealt with a ton of your own junk, until you're well and truly beyond your conditioned self, and until you're so committed to the spiritual path (whatever you understand by that) that there's little danger of you actually making the situation turbulent or worse through some sort of misguided activism. You've got to have at least *approached* a degree of selflessness in order to serve, otherwise it's just fuel for the ego and maybe mischief besides. Until then, I think service is pretty much limited to random acts of kindness and giving people lifts in your car and giving money to trusted charities.

 

[willowfox]

Yes, you have a lot of outstanding problems to deal with by yourself before you can be of real service to anyone, develop yourself first then you can find your perch in life.

 

[rosada]

Yes, it does seem the I Ching is telling you, "Please, just stay out of trouble!" Knowing this, perhaps now you can ask a question that doesn't have such a large goal. Rather than asking about your Greatest Service maybe just something like, "What work should I focus on today?"

 

[jesed]

Hi Philish

Just in case the comment could be useful

I can see 2 diferent way to understand your answer

1.- You asked about the reality of your vision in the visualization. The answer is saying you hadn't got a a real vision. To have/receive a Long Life Vision is something that needs time and gradual development; not something to expect in your first excercises. Line 3 talks about abortion... the excersice hadn't born a vision; nevertherless, you shouldn't stop doing meditation, but be pacient and adaptable (line 4).

2.- The answer is saying your vision is to star a fliying pilgrim onto Heaven. But nowadays, you can't fly, because confusion in your life or bad companies (line 3); be pacient, and find a transitional place for the moment. Is not time to fly, yet.

I feel more accurate interpretation 1

Best wishes

 

[dobro p]

The answer is saying your vision is to star a fliying pilgrim onto Heaven.

Huh?

 

[jesed]

Hex 53 is of great implications about spirtual path: inner alchemy.. spiritual development, the fly of the goose from line 1 to 6 as symbol of the human travel from earth to heaven.... called it as you want, it is all metaphora of the same.

 

[philish]

Wow.

Well it seems to me that each of you, though expressing your interpretations through your individual voices are seeing a similar message, ie: "you are well intentioned, but you ain't there, yet, babe!"

Step by step, I will find the vision, though. And yes, I have much to address in my life before I can begin looking to the far horizon. It's comforting to know that the Yi can acknowledge my heart with such an appropriate message. Thanks, jesed, for pointing out the spiritual implication of the hexagram. I'll think on that one.

 

[ben_s]

You can't serve until you've dealt with a ton of your own junk, until you're well and truly beyond your conditioned self

Dobro, I truly admire these words of wisdom. I've shoveled out about 3/4 ton so far. At this rate I should be 80% free of negative conditioning in another year or two...

Philish, I agree the oracle is telling you: as of right now, with your current level of development, the best you could do is to "gradually draw near... perhaps find..." then get stuck at stagnation. This does not mean your ultimate path after you develop yourself further, as Dobro explained.

From my own experience, I have found a couple of things that helped me deal with goals.

One was David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system. He comes from a software background, so his work is a bit geeky. The point that I thought of for you is that sometimes, you need to clear off the runway before you can look at the 50,000 foot overview. If your mind is too busy juggling next-actions (the runway), current-projects (10,000 foot level), etc. it is very hard to soar to a higher level.

The other was the ebook "success on purpose" from ThinkTQ, at http://www.thinktq.com/downloads/resources/Success-On-Purpose.pdf (might require free registration to download). This is a book about how visions, values, and roles interact to define a mission. I found it very useful to clarify my goals.