GUIDING HANDS

Now, perhaps more than ever, we could do with divine intervention, but really it’s up to us, the people, to get ourselves out of this apparently never-ending horror. Having said that, asking for guidance is a good idea. Some situations are so strange and scary that we need a hand to hold. 

Whilst I and many, many others of like mind are hugely optimistic that the tide will turn and we will emerge into a far better world than the one we left behind, I still get the impression that there are those who firmly believe we can return to the previous reality. I do not believe we will emerge unscathed, far from it, but emerge we will. I am not talking about those whose suffering has been immense, I am talking about those of us who have had a far easier time. No matter how we have coped with the lockdowns et al. I think our spirits have been crushed and, in some cases, broken. We need to get ourselves back up to strength and ready to tackle rebuilding our lives or, at least, deciding how we would like to ‘be’ in the future.

Many of you will have heard of or been regular consulters of the I Ching, the Chinese 
Book of Changes. The explanation on the fly leaf tells us that ‘The I Ching represents one of the first efforts of the human mind to place itself in The Universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for three thousand years. Beginning in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, The Book of Changes outgrew its limitation when ethical values were attached to the pronouncements of the oracle: it became a book of wisdom, eventually one of the Five Classics of Confucianism and provided the common source for both Confucianism and Taoist philosophy.’

How can this book be relevant to our current situation? What can it tell us that is valuable? I have frequently found referring to the I Ching in times of confusion has been very helpful. It doesn’t predict the future but guides the consulter along a path of thought or approach that is appropriate. I am reminded here of the great Viktor Frankl who famously said:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

Which leads naturally to another of his wisdoms: 

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

But what if we are simply incapable of conjuring up a comfortable and powerful response? That is where the I Ching comes in. How do we refer to it? There are two methods, either we can throw yarrow stalks or coins as the means of sending our question into the ether. I use three coins. How they fall on the table will give us a heads or tails number which will represent a line. We do this six times to create a hexagram – six lines one on top of the other. Two of the scores will give us a changing line which can create a further hexagram. We then look up the meanings of the hexagrams. 

No doubt that sounds very weird probably because I have deliberately only referred to the physical act of throwing the coins. The most important aspect of the exercise is our frame of mind, our feelings and our spiritual state at the time of framing our question. Without the absolute focus of these three, the answer/s the book provides will be meaningless. 

At the top of this post, I wrote about needing guidance to get back up to strength and be prepared to take on whatever new reality presents itself in the future – either the immediate future or in the long term. The I Ching can help us make plans that will not only be plans to work towards, but plans to build back up our whole being. 

To give a truncated idea of the gist of a typical reading, in fact the one I did last night concentrating on our current dilemma: 

The hexagram is named ‘Before Completion’ –

‘This hexagram indicates a time when the transition from disorder to order is not yet complete. The change is prepared for but the (various aspects) are not yet in place….

The conditions are difficult. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion and back to order. But it is a task that promises success, because there is a gaol that can unite the forces now tending in different directions. At first, however, (we) must move warily, like an old fox walking over ice. In times ‘before completion’ deliberation and caution are the prerequisites of success, thus the superior man is careful.’

I was very cheered by this as it emphasises the trends I have been observing in my copious researching online. Optimism with caution and patience. All will be well.

Very frequently I find myself reaching for a book that I haven’t read for some time. There is always a reason for this synchronicity. (I’m not talking about fiction by the way) 

On my way to bed last night, I picked out two books that subconsciously I knew would make inspiring pre-sleep and just-waking reading. Some of you will have come across the trilogy Neale Donald Walshe’s ‘Conversations with God’. Who better than to give reassurance and love.

The books are absolutely not what people might imagine. Pre-judging is, as we know, unwise and usually inaccurate. They are not about religion in any way. They are channelled. The answers to the writer’s questions flow through him as from a divine source. We can call that source whatever we like – God is favourite, but it could be The Field, The Universe, The Creator, The Originator, The Reason Why or our unique Subconscious. The important point is that the answers are of huge spiritual significance and loaded with wisdom and insight, as we would expect.

As I thumbed through the two volumes, I found, not unusually, that I had marked up lots of paragraphs that had resonated with me when I first read the books about 25 years ago. I was introduced to them by an extraordinary young man who lives up-country from here. Whenever I see or speak to him, which isn’t that often these days, we reconnect completely. Thank you Shankara! Love you.

So, to give you a taste, here is a short passage:

‘To some of you, I am a man. To some of you, I am a woman. To some, I am both. To some, I am neither.

To some of you, I am pure energy. To some, the ultimate feeling you call love. And some of you have no idea what I am. You simply know that I AM.

And so it is.

I AM.

I am the wind which rustles your hair. I am the sun which warms your body. I am the rain which dances on your face. I am the smell of flowers in the air, and I am the flowers which send their fragrance upward. I am the air which carries the fragrance.

I am the beginning of your first thought, I am the end of your last. I am the idea which sparked your most brilliant moment. I am the glory of its fulfilment. I am the feeling which fuelled the most loving thing you ever did. I am the part of you which yearns for that feeling again and again. Whatever works for you, whatever makes it happen – whatever ritual, ceremony, demonstration, meditation, thought, song, word or action it takes for you ‘reconnect’ – do this in remembrance of me.’

To conclude Book 3, God says: ‘And so I end this dialogue as it began. As with life itself, it comes full circle. You have been given truth here. You have been given joy. You have been given love. You have been given here the answers to the largest mysteries of life. There is now only one question remaining. It is the question with which we began.

The question is not, to whom do I talk, but who listens?’

Indeed!