Category Archives: peace

Aha, AHA, AHA!!!

Often, when I open my eyes first thing in the morning, I reach for my handheld recorder. As I speak. ideas flow from one to the next.

Recently, they came together. I clicked the recorder on and started. “Aha! AHA! AHA!!!!”

Please stay with me. For those seeking illusive world peace, starting with political unity at home, it’s worth the ride.

“How many different ways can I say this?!!! First things first. Fix the paradigm. Only then does all else follow.” 

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, that center of the quantum Life Wheel which the current paradigm rules out. Human survival depends upon returning to the essence of the perennial philosophy which allows direct, immediate personal access to inner authority.

For the curse of the obsolete, materialistic empirical science paradigm which rules out everything which can’t be measured and quantified is to be stuck on the surface with a pervasive sense of lack. Of not-enoughness.

Of the m=mass level of the quantum Life Wheel, it has been written:

Paradoxically, out of balance, abundance on the material plane seems to foster an insatiable sense of neediness. Lack of connection with the center breeds insecurities and greed. Infinite variations of the same eternal pattern are misconstrued as grounds for cultural conflict and competition for illusory supremacy.

As it is now, institutionalized human authorities, secular and sacred, manipulate to enslave and disempower the masses with the ultimate “malinformation:” a paralyzing worldview. So long as we’re locked into the straitjacket of a limiting paradigm, efforts to bring about positive change, however well-meaning, remain tragically futile.

Change the first things first. 

The courage and inspiration needed to overcome the globalist agenda reside within the deeper levels of the quantum Life Wheel which “science” rules out. We sometimes, by accident, get an occasional glimpse. But without a complete and accurate map, we don’t know how and where to consistently access what’s needed.

Even Einstein’s access was sporadic at best. 

Aha. AHA. AHA!!!!

The hollowed-out, materialist paradigm rules out awareness of the inner levels of energy and light. For this reason, we confuse, mistake and inappropriately express the inner energetic, poetic and spiritual meanings of the “hero’s journey.”

We act out on the surface level, in a literal way, that which is actually an inner urge for self-actualization. We seek to control others, rather than focusing on self-mastery.

The patriarchal, control and dominance paradigm doesn’t allow us to recognize the true nature of the archetypal impulse. Perhaps by design, it’s been rendered unconscious, inaccessible, and inexpressible in appropriate, inner ways.  

We venture forth to explore ever more distant new frontiers, capturing and conquering other peoples, as if this could satisfy spiritual longings. When in fact, that’s not the real, urgent need.

To reclaim the dynamics of the universal, internal impulse to growth, we first need to restore the complete and accurate Quantum Paradigm to collective consciousness – one that allows for the dynamic levels where the true hero journey actually takes place. One that would truly restore “power to the people.” 

Religious institutions too often enforce stagnant dogmas that put a lid on inner energies, preventing access to the inner authority we spontaneously crave and seek. They impose stale rituals as a substitute for genuine, real direct, spontaneous and immediate personal experience — connecting with Source.

Self-awareness and self-mastery are the appropriate satisfactions of inner urges which are too often misdirected outwardly as the impulse to aggression. That’s the real issue which must be recognized and addressed. Humanity urgently needs to reclaim and redirect inner urges historically expressed as invasions — warlike conquest.

To repeat: To correct and redirect this energetic dynamic, we first need to expand the paradigm. Align it with quantum reality.

First things first.  

Aha. AHA. AHA!!!!

It’s the inner, meditative journey imaged in the quantum Life Wheel to which we’re called, of which the outer, literal hero’s journey is only symbolic. It’s time to finally figure out what we really want and go after the real experience: the inward journey. Symbolic external conquest neither satisfies nor completes. 

Just maybe, one can hope and pray, we’ll get it right this time around. We’ll come to understand what we really want. What our basic value is. It’s the same freedom of worship which pilgrims on the Mayflower sought. They didn’t intend to exchange one religious persecution for another.

They quested for the freedom to experience directly for themselves the essence, the deepest truth which religions express. Not just the outer shell, a puritanical dogma. But consciousness itself. The awareness that we are each one with God. That we are made in the image of God. That each and every one of us are co-creators of reality, potentially powerful beyond measure.  

My pilgrim ancestor, William Kirby Brewster, left his homeland, braving the perils of an ocean voyage on the Mayflower to reach a “new world.”

It’s the same impulse that drives most illegal immigrants today. Why would anyone otherwise leave the familiar, risking the unknowns of the unfamiliar? Again, at the deepest, subconscious level, they’re impelled by the timeless call of the hero’s journey.  

They’re expressing literally, on the material level, something for which they have no map or model to articulate. They’re really trying to get back to wholeness, completion – to access and align with their own true selves — with the core center of unconditional love, from which all mental/emotional and material abundance flows.

What I now recognize is that the Phoenix Response described in Chapter Five of The Quantum Solution is a variation of the archetypal hero’s journey.

The tragic mistake of the narrow-minded, materialist thinker is to take symbols literally, as if what in quantum reality an inward soul journey of self-mastery were merely an outward adventure of exploration, conflict, domination and victory over others.

Only with the complete and accurate life map of the Quantum Paradigm does the intriguing, enticing wisdom of Lao Tze make sense, becoming truly achievable in our own daily experience.

Only in the context of the quantum Life Wheel does the Christian poetic imagery of being reborn make sense: Humans have the potential to die to the old by repeatedly returning to the quantum center and then extending outwards again, renewed and empowered, during the same lifetime.

Most often, this renewal is achieved through the intentional discipline of meditation.

In this context, repeated allusions to the timeless creative process envisioned in the world-loved Tao Te Ching make sense. References to the process of traversing the levels of quantum Life Wheel are found from the very first passage — which is why I called my version Two Sides of a Coin:

In a recent revisit, I was struck by how many passages repeat the quantum Life Wheel pattern of return to Source followed by extension back to the surface. Balanced moderation — integrating both sides of the process — is compared with the dangers of adhering to one extreme or the other — withdrawal OR attachment to manifested experience. Here’s one example:

Hence also the repeated references to youthful vitality and the sage’s likeness to a newborn. For example:

Here’s the contrast between the worldly rewards of focusing upon others versus the inner reward of self-knowledge:

The expanded version of the same passage contrasts the dangers inherent in the extreme, exclusively external, materialistic version of the hero’s journey, compared to the value of the quantum, inward trek towards self-mastery.

This wisdom applies on every scale of magnitude. Just as the advice to “mind your own business” as a top priority holds true inside families, communities on up to national affairs, it applies to international relations as well.

It was a well-known strategy in Maoist China, for example, for the tyrant to distract from dissatisfaction on the home front by redirecting attention, venting valid frustrations against an outside enemy.

It’s time for that repeating dynamic to stop.

Put the other way around, unless and until we see the universal impulse towards personal self-improvement through a clear, quantum lens, and harness it in appropriate ways, efforts on the large scale towards peacemaking, reconciliation and unity cannot succeed.

This natural dynamic cannot be suppressed. Nor should it be exploited, harnessed and misdirected by cynical warlords to serve destructive, unnatural ends.

From now on, let it be better, more wisely expressed.

At stake is human survival.

The Way of the Sage is the Hope of the Future 

In ancient times, sages – wisdom seekers who practiced Taoism — first sought to know, then to live in harmony with the primal source of love, light, and power: the all-pervasive yet unnamable Truth they called Tao – the Way. 

The WAY embodies the hero’s journey of set-backs, discoveries, tests and triumphs as well as a fundamental attitude – one of good will, service and respect for all of life. 

What about now? How has it come to pass that today, most have lost their way . . . that in a world flooded with information, we’re starved for simple, life-sustaining wisdom? 

This has been my lifelong question, my search and path of discovery. I’m here to share with you what I’ve found. There IS a way home – for those sufficiently disillusioned of the world, who are ready to change and remember who they truly are. Always were. Always will be. 

It is as if inside of me there dwells a sage-like Chinese soul, born with an ancient memory of forgotten wisdom and a predestined calling to return it to the world, when and as the time is ready and right.  

What I’ve been given in trust to share with the world is a re-vision of timeless wisdom, clear and simple in form, suited to the needs of the times. 

The form is two-part, consisting of a mutually reinforcing map and a manual. One is an overview, a snapshot of quantum reality. The other, with good reason, has been called The Ultimate Personal Survival Guide.  

Wherever you start, each leads to the other. 

But I must take you on a detour. Please stay with me. 

Originally, I planned to fill in the details of a meticulously outlined post – one fully factual and true.  

But it didn’t satisfy me. An inner nudge warned, “Speaking through and to the head isn’t enough. ” 

So I asked in my heart, “How do I speak to the hearts those who read? What is the way to communicate the wonder and value of this wisdom, make it real and desirable?”  

I asked my Self, “Please. Help me translate the verbal language of the head into the feeling knowledge of the heart.” 

What came to me is the vision of a wish-granting angel hovering over planet Earth, listening to the chorus of humanity’s cries floating up to heaven.  

WHAT DO THEY PRAY FOR?  

Truth. Freedom.  

Peace, first within, then without.  

Harmony and health.  

Loving, supportive relationships at home,  

in the community, on the job, and in the world.  

An end to confusion, conflict and corruption. 

An understanding of how the world really works. 

A return to simplicity and goodness.  

And sure enough. The universal answer to humanity’s collective prayer — the gift that the Blessing Angel comes to bestow — is always the same. 

The second answer that entered my heart is the memory of a favorite fable. It starts with a bratty, demanding princess who wants it all. She threatens the royal chef with his life. Either give her what she wants, or he dies. 

She craves the most delicious food in the world. It has to be both hot and cold, light and dark.  

As a matter of survival, he creates the food that satisfies her desires. And that is how the hot fudge sundae came to be. 

Just so. The mutually reinforcing pair of wisdom tools — the Book of Change and its spin-off, the quantum Life Wheel — are the hot fudge sundae of universal wisdom traditions. They satisfy in all respects.   

Can I adequately support these claims? It would take a lifetime. And a library of books. 

And how have I come to know that all I tell you here is true? First and foremost, it comes from personal life experience. God willing, I’ll share my story in one of the myriad books on the drawing board: Who I AM to Say: A Journey of SELF-Discovery. 

Second, what I know and say comes from a lifetime of research, all of which, given the time and opportunity, I could, as the hope of future generations, document in an unending series of blogs compiled into books, one bite at a time. 

But for now, until the next time, be well. All best.  

Patricia West is author of The Common Sense Book of Change and Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change. She’s currently working on The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn – in the Same Lifetime. 

Choose LOVE – 011621

We have a shared vision, Patrick Byrne and I. Who is he? Why do I say this? What is the vision? And what does the Chinese Book of Change have to say to the world about this vision?

I’ll let Patrick, widely recognized as a modern day renaissance man, tell you in his own words. Here’s a quote from an interview with Dave Rubin:

I’m a great admirer of the Chinese. Yeah. I’ve loved China. I’m an old China hand. I grew up loving China. If I had a historical role in the world, it was going to be to somehow to build . . (here he made his point with a hand gesture):

I think the best thing that could happen for the world is some sort of merger of the U.S. and Chinese principles that actually could create healthy perpetual peace for the world. . . We have a lot to learn from the Chinese. They do some things very well.

What is merger Patrick has in mind?

Their family, their traditions, their focus on education and on building human capital. All kinds of things I saw in China and I thought, “Boy. This is what we need to see more of here.”

But what I love about our system is freedom. And there needs to be some sort of merger of those interests.

Perpetual peace? Though I personally can’t see that far and wide, it’s certainly a noble ideal. For starters, I’d be quite content if a merger served to support the goal of human survival, which Einstein warned us, can no longer be taken for granted.

What I have to contribute to Patrick’s version of the vision is the reality map of the Life Wheel, the embodiment of Einstein’s intuited Unified Field Theory. It serves as the foundation of genuine UNITY – not of just of the States of America, but humanity as a whole. It embodies the underlying wisdom of the timeless (not merely “ancient”) Book of Change. It supports, not as philosophic theory, but as scientific fact the quantum reality which en-compass humans everywhere throughout all time:

The archetypal Life Wheel is easily adapted to show freedom and individuality on the surface, compatible with enduring commitments to family and country at a deeper level, both sustained by fidelity to Conscience at the eternal, unchanging Center (alternatively called Source, Creator, God, or simply nothing at all).

I really wanted to know what the I Ching – China’s enduring heritage (though currently censored by the anti-life CCP) — has to say to the world about this shared vision. So that’s what I asked in the reading which follows.

We’re not taught to look to the Book of Change for answers to our deepest questions. That’s why I’m bringing the book to you.

DECLINE is the original but dynamic answer to the question, “What does the Book of Change want to tell the world about the vision of merging U.S. and Chinese values to create healthy, perpetual peace for the world?” It reads:

Economy of means is required by DECLINE. The cycle of time is entering a period of decreasing resources. Make necessary adjustments with patience and strength. Be ready to accept changes of lifestyle cheerfully. A return to simple living is for the best. Resistance would only make things worse. Avoid bitterness.

The initial reading describes our immediate starting point. Unavoidably, things are going to get even rougher before they get better. But just as there were opportunities hidden within 2020’s COVID crisis, the hidden blessing of 2021 may well be the (necessary) return to simplicity and grace (not coincidentally, the subject of Paul Selig’s next series.) To quote Patrick:

Really, the way to handle [pressures on large organizations] is just keep everything simple. Keep the Truth the Truth and keep the rules simple. Simple rules for a complex world.

* * *

Advice of the bottom line reads, “Be balanced in giving and receiving. Think through your priorities.”

Each culture has much to offer the other. Each fills in a blind spot in the other. These compliments have the potential to make both whole. A balanced, respectful exchange of values and ideas, neither side claiming superiority, would be immensely beneficial across the board. The priority? Human survival may well be at stake.

When the advice is heeded, it changes to Immaturity, which reads:

Problems experienced now may stem from IMMATURITY rather than from any basic fault. Decide what you need to learn and seek out unselfish people who can help you gain experience. If your mind is open, you will not be denied. If you are a teacher, look for sincerity. Avoid arrogance.

Immaturity here may be one of ignorance, best repaired by education. To quote Patrick, who was chosen by Milton Friedman as his successor:

Milton thought that the way you save the nation was with school choice. He used to say that our current government school system – our socialist school system — is gonna teach socialist values. A free market system would teach freedom. He saw that’s how we save the country in the long-term.

This is another, related vision Patrick and I share in common. I endured the painful process of earning a Ph.D. in Educational Administration for the sake of the credential required to build an alternative “School Without Walls.”

* * *

Advice of the second line reads, “Effective relationships depend on knowing how to time your actions.” When the advice is heeded, when we choose to grow up, outgrowing immature beliefs and ways, it changes to Growth, which reads:

People seek help according to what they need for their own growth. Unless hunger is fed with the right food, no amount of input will satisfy. To understand others, watch how they nourish themselves. Nature provides for all. Leaders promote those who have the ability to serve many. Avoid greed.

Above all, people everywhere crave love and acceptance within human family. In balance, they also hunger for truth, freedom, independence and self-respect. These values must be merged and harmonized. Making them an either/or choice is a death-trap.

* * *

Advice of the third line reads, “Single people attract companions while groups of three break down.” Being alone, as if the only star in the sky, is isolating and invites the complement which completes it. When the advice is heeded, it changes to Restraint which reads:

Exercise RESTRAINT in your actions. Seek the company of people who can advise on the best way to use your resources. The skills you have learned earlier can now be used to benefit others. Multiply the benefit of what has already been done by sharing results. Avoid careless waste.

Exactly. Seek out the company of advisors (including The Book of Change) to assist in this cultural cross-fertilization. Sharing the best of what each has to offer (and sometimes have forgotten) multiplies benefits across the board.

* * *

Advice of the fourth line reads, “Hold yourself to high standards, but be patient with others.” The thoughtful assimilation of and transition to the Quantum Paradigm will not occur over night. Patient forbearance is required. When the advice is heeded, it changes to Opposites which reads:

OPPOSITES attract. When they are skillfully balanced, they unite to form a heart with a common center. When they clash, the conflict is destructive. Blending opposites is not easy. Rely on the unity beneath all diversity to bridge the gap. The result will be a creative flowering. Avoid stubborn resistance.

In immediate context, the apparent opposites with the potential to either merge or fatally clash are the values of the U.S. versus those of China. Parse each book-worthy sentence as if gold. In combination, they offer the way out of current madness.

A famous quote from The Ballad of East and West, a 19th century poem by British author Rudard Kipling, keeps coming back into mind. It speaks to the historic clash but potential transcendence of paradigms, obsolete and future. The message holds true despite sexist assumptions, and even though East and West in this case are China and the U.S., not India and England. It starts:

It continues:

* * *

When the advice of each line is heeded, the combined, final outcome is Travel, which reads:

When you have outgrown a situation, it is time to TRAVEL on. Staying longer would prevent attainment of important goals. Commitments made now probably would not work out. In dealing with strangers exercise careful self-control. Talk little. Listen much. Learn from everyone who has information to share. Avoid dangerous exposure.

In the immediate circumstance, what has been outgrown is false paradigm of fracture, conflict, competition, and fear-driven dominance and control. While turning away from obsolete ways of governance in hopes of a better future, don’t, however, underestimate the vindictive backlash of old paradigm power-holders. They’re dangerously motivated by the fear of their impending extinction. Act accordingly.

In sum, as during the biblical times of Exodus, the Creator is giving humanity a choice with dire consequences. “Choose Life or choose death.” I know what mine is. I choose Love of Life. What is yours?

In conclusion, Dave Rubin commented, “I think you’re gonna help us navigate the freaking nasty, really rough waters we’re about to go through.” He asked Patrick, “Is there something we should be thinking about?”

His answer? The same one I’ve repeatedly offered in past posts. Keep the faith. I do not think we’re gonna lose this. I actually think that we’re gonna win. KEEP THE FAITH.

Look for the map of the next four years in The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future, available on amazon at the end of January 2021.

If you’d like a copy of the Common Sense Book of Change, or extras to give others, click here.

To order Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, click here.

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

At-one-ment – IC – 092820

Getting ahead of the story again, PEACE is the original outcome of today’s I Ching reading.

It isn’t the peace one usually thinks of, merely the absence of inner conflict or world war.

Far more, it’s the profound joy of wholeness, experienced when we’re deeply at one with ourselves and with the world.

It’s the state of being that arises when the pairs of opposites – yin and yang, heaven and earth, male and female, black and white, mind and body — are harmoniously balanced. This was the vision of seers, described in Hexagram 11:

When the forces of nature

unite in profound harmony,

heavenly PEACE fills the earth.

It’s the perfect message for today . . which “just happens” to be Yom Kippur, the high holy day of atonement. At-one-ment.

Is inner peace actually achievable? If so, how can we reach this blissful state?

Through repentance.

Before you balk, first check out the following definition. By my count, in two brief paragraphs, the key word CHANGE repeats nine times.

Repentance fundamentally means to change your mind about something. It has to do with the way you think about something. You’ve been thinking one way, but now you think the opposite way. That’s repentance — the changing of the mind.

. . . Repentance is a decisive change in direction. It’s a change of mind that leads to a change of thinking that leads to a change of attitude that leads to a change of feeling that leads to a change of values that leads to a change in the way you live.

Now, this isn’t a theological tract. Nor am I a theologian. Nevertheless, the implications are worth considering.

Given the amount of conflict, pain and suffering going on in the world right now, change doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Scientists and psychologists agree that our thoughts and beliefs create our reality. Creating a different, better reality starts with changing how and what we think.

In a world at critical mass, change has become a matter of survival. Einstein put like this:

By definition, atonement involves admitting sins, meaning “mistakes.” Sin is simply missing the mark, being off-target in our thoughts and actions. It’s focusing exclusively on the surface of the Life Wheel, out-of-alignment with the inner levels of experience. It’s being unaware of Source and acting without conscience.

So IF repentance consists of recognizing and correcting mistaken thoughts, words and deeds, THEN the reward of realigning daily experience with the inner levels of the Life Wheel is Wholeness. Unity. Peace, first within, then without.

Hint: working with the Book of Change is an excellent way to start changing the way one thinks. (It certainly was for me!!)

It gives us a practical way to align awareness and actions with the larger reality of the Unified Field.

We’ve not been trained to come to the Book of Change for answers to our deepest questions. That’s why I’m bringing the book to you. Let these bi-weekly readings serve as an opportunity to make the unfamiliar familiar.

The original answer to the question, “What should we be aware of NOW?” is:

Profound peace is the gift of this holy day, Yom Kippur. Heart-felt repentance opens the door to at-one-ment. This option stands in stark contrast to what’s going on in the world right now. The final warning, “avoid disorder,” gives caution to widespread unrest.

Which is probably why today’s Peace doesn’t last; two changing lines result in a very different outcome. In the notebook, the changes look like this:

The changing line in the 3rd place reminds us, “Nothing remains the same.” The familiar world as we knew it, which we mistakenly assumed would last forever, disappeared in 2020. And it’s not coming back.

So we’re warned, “Avoid decay by changing with the time.”

Holding on to familiar beliefs and focusing with regret on what’s been lost is a prescription for suffering.

Our old ways of thinking got us to the point of critical mass. Clearly, familiar beliefs weren’t serving us well. So changing our fundamental beliefs – especially about change itself – is critically important now.

Creating the new, better world we want for ourselves and our children depends, a la Einstein, on improving the way we think.

For those who heed the warning to change with the times, the 3rd line becomes ADVANCE:

Shifting to a complete and accurate paradigm reaps rewards across the board. It’s especially important for leaders to understand this.

Next, the changing line in the 5th position focuses in on leadership. “The way to lead is to serve without pride.”

From long observation, seers knew that leading with ego-driven agendas ends up causing grief for everyone involved. That’s why, in the I Ching world view, leadership is seen in terms of service, not power or control.

For those who adhere to I Ching leadership practices, the 5th line changes to:

Today’s path of repentance and atonement — the one that leads to PEACE — requires clarity, confidence, courage and determination.

Patience is a key virtue in the I Ching armory. Like Peace, it stands in sharp contrast to the fear-and-hate-driven energies tearing the world apart right now. It’s a counterbalance to insanity. Let the practice of calm, kind patience be a healing salve to our gaping wounds.

Finally, the outcome of combining changing lines in the 3rd and 5th places is:

LIMITS brings us full circle back to the blessing of this holy day: At-one-ment: PEACE.

“To find peace within, reduce desires.”

Again, I’m not a theologian. But my first take is that the advice of LIMITS resonates with the teachings of attained seers throughout the ages.

It wouldn’t hurt for you to think through the applications of all this to your own way of thinking, acting, and ultimately, to the feedback you’ve been getting from the Universe.

I’ll be publishing collected readings as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like your very own copy of the CSBOC to work with, to answer your own unique questions at your own convenience, or want extras to give others in need of insight, solace and support, it’s available here. : )

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

Fate or Free-Will?

Our life is such a curious mix of givens and decisions.

St. Francis of Assisi captured the eternal give-and-take dance between what we can and cannot change:

Now. Let’s take these three God-given variables – SERENITY (peace, calm composure), COURAGE and WISDOM – and put them in I Ching perspective.

For it has been my experience that using The Book of Change as a wisdom-fulcrum tips the balance in favor of what can be changed.

I’ll give you a dynamic example from recent experience.

In an unsettled state of mind, I queried the book asking, as I often do, “What should I be aware of NOW?” The result was Hexagram 47 with a changing line in the 4th place.

The description was right on, matching my mood exactly. It was a chicken-and-egg-like situation. Which came first, the economic or mental stress, I do not know.

But reassurance that “the time will pass” was what I needed right then. It gave distance to seemingly endless difficulties. The advice, “use hardship to develop inner strength” reinforced St.  Francis’ SERENITY option.

The critically important insight, however, was embedded in the dynamic changing line:

Line 4: Placing trust in unreliable people puts your goals in danger.

Aha! I was letting difficult people and their on-going circus dramas distract me from my goals. I let them push and pull me down, forgetting my True Self. A host of spiraling problems all stemmed from that single basic mistake. Correcting that fault had the potential to turn many things on many levels back in a positive direction.

The first step was to take this important hint to heart and have the courage to act on it. The key point of interception was to refocus on my values, on whom I love and whom I serve. Put first things first.

“Coincidentally,” identifying the root cause of “danger” indicated in Line 4 resulted in Hexagram 29, DANGER, which offers further advice on the right way to proceed.

I was especially impressed by the resonance between the two readings. Both highlight the importance of holding fast to goals and avoiding negative thoughts/emotions.

 The I Ching WISDOM-fulcrum changed emphasis from SERENITY to the COURAGE option of the St. Francis prayer, tipping the balance away from passive acceptance of what cannot be changed towards that which can.

So it is that magical transformations on many levels begin with changing negatives to positives. Again, almost sage-like, espousing the way of spiritual alchemy, St. Frances gave us a key to positive change:

Please. Do take a minute or so of your precious time to think about this. Let it resonate with you. Ask, Where is your focus? Are you able to tip the balances in your life, giving weight to the positive side of the seesaw?

Maybe, just maybe, if you’re not already friends with the I Ching, it would be well worth your while to try something new. Working with The Common Sense Book of Change might just give you a new way to leverage the balance between fate and free-will in a positive direction.