Tag Archives: Book of Change

An Extraordinary Opportunity

In duality, as a Law of Nature, hidden within every danger is an opposite and equal opportunity. In today’s intensely dangerous times, if only we can see and reach out to catch it, at the center of the ferris wheel ups and downs of current events rests the prize of an extraordinary opportunity.

This came to me today (Friday, October 20, 2022) as a special message for our Chinese friends, who’ve shared with the world the treasure of the preeminent I Ching, The Book of Change.

It came about as the result of making a personal query. I’ve been coughing up karmic hairballs to release and heal for a few weeks now. This morning (one can hope), had to be the climax and finish of that process.

I tell you about it because I recognize that my personal experience parallels the collective one. My individual process of releasing karmic cycles in order to make a clean fresh start could well serve as a catalyst for a larger-scale healing of long-held grudges between China and the Western world.

The personal story involves the suicide of my cardiologist father, William Kirby West, in which opioid addiction played a part. In dream state this morning, I became aware that an ancient repeating cycle of karma was involved. I was at risk of playing it out once again. But this time, by recognizing the potential danger, I had the opportunity to break the cycle. Release it. Let it go and be healed forever.

What then flashed in mind was the parallel between my risk and a news clip I’d seen the day before. It featured a collage of the faces of thousands of Americans who’d died of fentanyl overdoses. It filled a full wall, representing not only their loss, but the ripple effect of suffering experienced by their families and friends.

Connecting the dots still further, I recognized that the U.S. border crisis that’s flooding the country with fentanyl imported from China is part of their revenge, tit for tat, for what had been done to them during the Opium wars. In an earlier century, European pirates and profiteers caused a demoralizing plague of addictions in China. Holding this grudge, they’re revisiting that plague on Westerners now. Round and round the cycle of retaliation, revenge and pay-back goes.

But it’s time to STOP it. Now. We have an extraordinary opportunity to recognize the repeating pattern and heal this suicidal no-win dynamic NOW.

In the 3D materialistic paradigm of competition, conquest and control, Chinese overlords imagined that their land was the center of the world. Their pride was bruised beyond measure when that bubble of illusory superiority burst. They’re challenging the U.S. as if to grab back their perceived rightful place in the world as its central dominant “force.”

But in 5D quantum reality, this is tragic nonsense. Control is a non-issue. Only God, Source, Tao, the Creator (however you choose to name it) – certainly no race, no nation, no gender, no religion — it is at the Center of the ferris wheel of life:

In the Unified Field Theory, encompassed in the archetypal Life Wheel, we have a complete and accurate reality map that supports universal change from the inside out. In shifting to this Quantum Paradigm world view, we have the extraordinary opportunity to finally, at last, come to understand and live by the awareness that everyone, everywhere is made in the image of Creator, endowed with the same creative potentials.

It’s time to give up the addiction to power, dominance and control. To forgive mistakes made in ignorance. To let go of an unfortunate past in order to focus on the extraordinary opportunity to heal and make manifest the potentials of a brilliant, hopeful future.

We have nothing of true value to lose, and everything to gain. Time is precious. Human survival is in the balance. Let’s go for it NOW!

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.

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.

Open Letter to Ray Dalio

Dear Ray: In response your interview with Tony Robbins, I humbly have a different perspective to offer on the subjects of principles and patterns of change.

By means of introduction, let me say I’m not a kid. (You’re 72 years of age. I recently celebrated my 77^th year.)

So, I’m as senior in years and experience as are you, albeit (for better or worse) I count my wealth in wisdom and inner strength, not dollars.

That being said, at the end of Wheels Within Wheels, I mentioned that there was enough material left in my notes for a post double in length. I now feel compelled to start here where I left off.

Just a brief recap before moving on to new territory.

This is my gift to Tony and his guests: an exquisitely simple model that expresses what they already know – have been practicing and separately teaching for years. It is a complete, and accurate QUANTUM paradigm. It places emotion in the middle e=energy level of the Life Wheel.
. . . experts are looking at cycles of human history on outermost, manifest and material m=mass level of experience. But there is more. Historical events are the off-shoots, the projections of subtle energy dynamics.
Today’s rare and powerful triple conjunction is setting the stage for massive shifts which astrologers anticipate (the magic word) will transform the world as we know it into a changed, unrecognizable place. Most think, in the long-term, much for the better.
Most importantly, wars cannot be correctly analyzed without a wheels-within-wheels, correct and accurate Quantum Paradigm. The wars we see on the public stage reflect the deeper war going on between good and evil.

Tony applauded your ability to recognize patterns. ““Understanding patterns can give you the ability to create greater quality of life for yourself, for your family, etc.”

You responded, “I needed to study history to understand not only the patterns, but more importantly, the cause and effect behind the patterns.”

To repeat, that’s exactly what the I Ching has to offer:

It gives an in-depth view of how the world really works. Not just this family or that institution or the other county. Not arbitrary and capricious, fluctuating fashions, but the constant anchor over time. It is a map of logical consequences, as inevitable as computer language. “If this, then that.”

Again, it seems that you’re looking for patterns in historical events which occur on the surface of the life wheel, not appreciating that they reflect dynamics going on at deeper levels.

For this, we need a larger viewpoint, the one embodied in the venerable Chinese I Ching. As the compendium of Natural Law, it speaks to the dynamics of the middle, e=energy middle level of the quantum Life Wheel.

This book represents the distillation of wisdom accumulated over 8,000+ years of collective experience. Were it returned to a central position in school curriculum, where it belongs, there’d be no need to learn things the hard way, reinventing the wheel of fortune in the school of hard knocks, as you’ve had to do.

One additional point: I humbly suggest that there is an important difference between principles and basic axioms. Here’s one list, detailed earlier as Seven Axioms of Positive Change. It deserves your careful consideration:

A complete and correct paradigm is key to personal well-being and success.
We are each a world complete, containing the potentials of the universe.
Unity and Diversity Are Necessary Compliments.
The consequences of action are inevitable; those who respect the Law of Karma succeed.
History is neither linear or progressive, nor can human survival be taken for granted.
Used as a linguistic tool, the quantum Wheel of Change promotes clear, accurate and effective communication.
With a correct paradigm, practical methods and useful tools, you can make yourself whole.

Also central to Natural Law is the premise that there are two sides to every coin. “Whatever has a front has a back. And the larger the front, the larger the back.” As a consequence:

Appearances can be deceiving. Often times intentionally so!

This concept applies directly to two subjects you spoke of: the market crash of 2008 and the January 6 storming of the Capitol. In both cases, a festering underbelly of corruption was at work, skewing the natural flow events.

In both cases, Patrick Byrne speaks volumes to the corruption driving the surface appearance of events.

From 2005, Patrick Byrne, then CEO of Overstock.com, was warning that the vast amount of corruption on Wall Street (naked short-selling) would make a market crash inevitable. Only after the 2008 crash did former detractors reluctantly agree he’d been right all along.

As a survivor of that battle, he’s again serving on the frontlines of a similar scam. As the mountain of facts continues to rise, again proving him correct, he’s being validated in his warning that election fraud occurred on a massive scale in 2020.

Further, though you repeatedly state that “January 6th is right out of the populist playbook, in other words, fighting for power,” a Life Wheel perspective deeper gives meaning to your point.

Mounting evidence shows that Jan. 6 was a diversionary event orchestrated by House Speaker Pelosi and implemented by feds who infiltrated the ranks of Trump followers. It prevented an early investigation into election fraud that, had it been allowed to proceed in an orderly fashion, could have prevented what as proven to be a disastrous Biden adminstration. The disgraceful, unconstitutional treatment of Jan. 6 political prisoners is an intentional warning meant to intimidate patriots.

Adding insult to injury, the false narrative of Jan. 6 is being exploited as a media circus to divert attention from valid issues. It’s outright evil.

Bottom line: Powerholders with a vested interest in a dying order are, predictably, defending the deep state like animals backed into a corner. It’s the deep state that’s desperately attempting to engineer civil war. They’re provoking patriots beyond measure, looking for a pretext to inter them in Nazi-like FEMA camps, exterminate opponents as if to cancel the wave of the future.

Once again, there’s much more that could be said. But I will stop here for now.

In conclusion, for a correct perspective on what’s going on politically in the U.S., I urge both you and Tony Robbins to contact AND support the work of The America Project founded by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. His CEO is Patrick Byrne, founder and former CEO of Overstock.com. See https://americaproject.com/

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.

Wheels Within Wheels

Tony Robbins and I go back a long way. His Awaken the Giant Within inspired the creation of the +A Positive Action Press and all that’s followed from it, including the website, rethinkingsurvival.com and a Mind Map envisioning proceeds of books being used to build intentional communities to survive Titanic times to come.

Now, it seems, we’ve come full circle. I have something of value to offer Tony in return.

Today’s post is exquisitely timed, occurring exactly during the peak of a rare and powerful triple conjunction associated with major, positive shifts in the world’s collective destiny. And that’s exactly what Tony wanted to talk about with experts on change.

Neil Howe is co-author of a highly influential book, one that presidents and their advisors have given careful attention: The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny

According to Howe, human history goes through repeated turnings analogous to the cycle of nature’s seasons: a high, an awakening, and an unraveling which culminates in crisis . . . which is where we are now.

Ray Dalio is founder of Bridgewater, a company that’s managed $235 billion in assets. He’s also author of books on principle, the latest being Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail.

In interviews with Neil and Ray, Tony begins by pointing out that, in each case, their success is explained by a highly developed ability to recognize patterns underlying apparent chaos.

“Power,” he declares, “comes to those that can recognize patterns.”

More than that, their recognition is followed by the ability to use their knowledge – to adapt, adjust and expand on what’s available.

“I don’t care if it’s in music, entertainment, or it’s in business — stocks or the financial world.” he says. “If you can recognize patterns, you can take things that look like chaos and turn them into something that you can predict and begin to perhaps anticipate. Because if there’s one power in life, in business, it’s the power to anticipate.

“Leaders anticipate. People that lose tend to react.”

Even further, masters take a third step. They’re innovators. They create positive change, if not in the world, certainly within themselves.

Now, what could a humble person like me have to offer these giants in their respective fields? Well, a new perspective. It’s a simple but powerful, inclusive model that places the aspects of their collective experience in larger context. I call it the Quantum Paradigm. It’s imaged as the archetypal Life Wheel. Upon it is superimposed the three variables of Einstein’s Unified Field Theory.

It looks like this:

It’s the model of self-awareness Tony advocates, only placed within increasingly more subtle, inward levels of the Life Wheel. It images the possibility of fluid diversity on the surface held together in Unity by an unchanging central hub.

This model was developed as a consequence of working over a lifetime with the venerable I Ching, the Chinese Book of Change. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of change – one I would encourage Tony and his guests to explore, and the nation of China to remember and embrace.

In Rethinking Survival, I described it:

. . . with the Wilhelm/Baynes edition, I had a version I could relate to. It literally became my teacher. It gave me a whole new concept of how the world really works. Not just this family or that institution or the other county. Not arbitrary and capricious, fluctuating fashions, but the constant anchor over time.

From it, I could deduce the fundamental energy dynamics of action and reaction which drive relationships, internally at a psychological level, and externally in terms of practical, day-to-day events and their long-term consequences.

I continued:

It was an extension of the logic my English teacher Miss Elson impressed on my high school brain. But more. It gave me a map of logical consequences, as inevitable as computer language. “If this, then that.”

For example, If you kick people, they kick back (if they can) or otherwise resist. If you are kind, you inspire love and trust in others. If you violate Natural Law, nature bites back (your mental health suffers; relationships deteriorate; your behavior becomes erratic and social/physical survival is imperiled). Asian cultures call this “the law of karma.” Its operation is also described in biblical terms: “As ye reap, so shall ye sow,” and “to everything there is a season.”

I also described the value I place upon this treasure:

From my point of view, this ancient, timeless science fills a critical blind-spot in Western thinking, lacking which, all efforts are partial and incomplete. Put another way, the glaring absence of this information explains why so much goes so terribly wrong, despite the best of intentions on the part of politicians, priests, coaches and leaders of every ilk.

Now, Tony insists, “Biography is not destiny; decision is the ultimate power.” And, for eight-thousand years and counting, the Book of Change has been used as the ultimate, premier decision-making tool. Though the process of its use, one learns to ask better questions and get better results.

He also speaks repeatedly about the primary importance of paradigms. “Your model of the world is what shapes you long term,” he says. “Your model of the world is the filter.” [Unfortunately, “Garbage in, garbage out.”]

Emotions are too often neglected as the drivers of action. He describes them as “the invisible forces that shape us.”

So this is my gift to Tony and his guests: an exquisitely simple model that expresses what they already know – have been practicing and separately teaching for years. It is a complete, and accurate QUANTUM paradigm. It places emotion in the middle e=energy level of the Life Wheel.

And more.

For example, Ray Dalio praises the benefits of a daily meditative practice. He says it helps him quiet the noisy mind, calm his emotions, and access the subconscious level of experience. What’s left unclear is, What is this subconscious level? Emotions only? There’s a critically important, qualitative difference between sub-rational and super-rational levels of consciousness. Nor is this merely a linguistic quibble.

Another benefit of working with the quantum Life Wheel is this. With all due respect, these experts are looking at cycles of human history that pertain to the outermost, manifest and material m=mass level of experience. But there is more. Historical events are the off-shoots, the projections of subtle energy dynamics.

The Book of Change, which is a form of astrology, explains the e=energy aspect. So do other forms of astrology that have appeared over time all over the world. Some are lunar-oriented. Some solar. Some literally star-based.

Whereas cycles of the seasons repeat on a yearly basis, the cycles of a human life range, on average, anywhere from fifty to eighty years. Civilizations endure up to 400 years. Each of these smaller cycles is embedded within increasingly larger ones, like wheels within wheels. Hence the symbology of nested Russian dolls.

Now, today’s rare and powerful triple conjunction (quad actually, if you include the asteroid Kali) is setting the stage for massive shifts which astrologers anticipate (the magic word) will transform the world as we know it into a changed, unrecognizable place. Most think, in the long-term, much for the better.

This isn’t the place to get overly technical. Suffice it say that in succession, over the next one to four or five years, each of the slow-moving outer planets that characterize an age will shift signs. One alone is major. Two is momentous. Three is absolutely mind-boggling.

To accommodate all these changes — most especially the changes in demographics triggered by mass migrations of people, changing the face of every nation — an inclusive paradigm is required. To assimilate a wide-range of immigrants representing every national origin and religious faith, we’ve got to release the old paradigm of separation, competition and conquest. The future needs to adopt a complimentary, equivalent paradigm which transcends old boundaries, honoring the essential humanity common to us all.

The Quantum Paradigm correctly slices the pie to recognize the difference between friends and enemies. In How Bad People Become Leaders, I show how fragmenting the Life Wheel produces narcissists, criminals and worse. This post explains the ongoing wars experienced throughout history as being driven from the deepest level explained biblically as a war between good and evil:

In Positive Quantum Paradigm context, the intentions and actions of any person (or group) that destroys its own and/or threatens to annihilate enemy groups, devoid of respect for the inherent sanctity of life, are defined as evil.

Now, there’s enough in my notes to double the length of this post. But I’m stopping here for now. I conclude with this:

I urge Tony, Roy and Neil to get behind the collective shift to the Quantum Paradigm. Intuitively, they’re well aware of the variables and operate within it. But it would be a service to humanity for them to get on board with the language and model of the Quantum Life Wheel, be an active force promoting its acceptance.

The paradigm shift will happen. Definitely. Inevitably. The only question is whether sooner or later, and how smoothly. Their engagement would make the transition quicker and less painful.

The Qualification That Matters

In Timing Is Everything, I made a request:

For those new to my work, just for now, please give me the benefit of the doubt. Let the ideas stand on their merit. I’ll post another blog soon giving you good reason to trust the validity of what I say.

Here, I keep that promise.

I start with a quote from Already Enough:

By now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Who is she to say all these things?” In fact, I earlier thought there are others doing related work who are far better qualified in terms of public recognition to offer the Unified Field Theory to the world. Dr. Joe Dispenza, Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton, for example.

Gregg Braden, in particular, seemed a likely candidate. He left a military complex career motivated by the same dread of nuclear war that drove Einstein. He asked out loud for the one thing which would persuade the world that life is far too precious to destroy in war. And I answered him that the Life Wheel with all its implications is that one thing he’d asked for. No response.

In another video, Braden described physicists having a problem in their search for the Unified Field Theory because they’re unwilling to include the “consciousness factor.” Again, I contacted him. The Quantum Paradim does just that, I said. It includes the consciousness factor and embodies that elusive Unified Field Theory. No response.

So it boils down to the story of The Little Red Hen. Remember Diane Muldrow’s classic children’s story? The little red hen calls for help in planting her seeds. After no one comes forward, she goes ahead and does the work herself. Just so, I decided. I have to plant these seed ideas myself.

On the one hand, does it really matter who the messenger is? It’s the message that counts. If the truth of what I say resonates and the results work for you, the message speaks for itself. It stands on its own merit.

On the other hand, if you really believe that the messenger matters, then truth be told, the best of what I know comes from personal experience.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t paid my dues. I’ve earned the traditional academic credentials to string behind my name. (B.A. from Oberlin College. M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.) I’ve published books. Early years are described in Who I Am To Say.

But in this light, they don’t much matter. In fact, most of what I learned in schools later had to be unlearned.

The qualification that genuinely matters here is that I have a good teacher. A really, really good teacher. And that we have your best interests at heart.

* * *

OA’S CALLING CARD

As a young adult, my Life Wheel centered around the goal of becoming a worthy musician. Every sector was organized around this single purpose.

Yet never once did I consider earning a living as a violin teacher. The ones I worked with were way too narrow. They trained wrist and fingers. They knew about fingering the notes written on sheet music, but the heart and soul of sound wasn’t their department.

I had to design my own course of learning.

I chose Oberlin College because it allowed me to balance a top-notch liberal arts program with a world-class music school. I didn’t major in music. Instead, I studied violin privately as an “amateur” (a music lover), but majored in world literature and intellectual history.

I wanted to understand the ideas that drove great composers and their patrons. I had to delve into scriptures to feel the devotion that inspired Bach and Mozart.

I needed to know about the physics of sound vibration. I haunted the workshop of a local violin maker to watch how he built and maintained his instruments.

To me, the physical body was a resonant instrument. Tuning it was essential to my calling. Breathing, exercise and personal self-maintenance were integral to my overall vision.

The musicians I performed with in ensembles and orchestras were my friends and family in spirit. We went to concerts together and socialized afterwards at the local pub.

* * *

All that changed when I committed to spiritual practice. Music had become an addiction. To grow further, I had to release it. Go cold turkey.

But by the time I met Old Avatar, I’d reached the end of my rope. I put out a call to the Universe. “Why am I here? If you want me to stay, let me know why!” I was ready. He appeared.

Being a worthy student quickly became the center around which I organized my life. OA had no use for a space cadet on board. I needed grounding. Temporary jobs got me out into the community, where I picked up a broad range of practical business skills to help build a new business.

As a hobby, I took the Book of Change with me wherever I went. I consulted it to think about how the organizations I moved through were run and how things could be done better.

Later, I took a permanent job working the overnight shift at the Wisconsin State Relay Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. In effect, it gave me over three years to read, think and pray during the long, quiet nights.

There was more than a little irony in serving the deaf community. The world at large, it seemed, was just as deaf to so much that’s going on.

And truth is way stranger than fiction. OA is, in fact, a Universal Avatar. This is just one of his universes. From my point of view, in meeting him, I’d won the lottery of life.

Lao Tze describes his influence. “The presence of true masters is only suspected.” His Universal Mind permeates the field. Those open to his magic respond and all is done.

For example, when he needed a better, faster computer, his design spontaneously appeared on the market. Popular movies mirrored his life story. Meditation teachers echoed his MPI standard: “Be AWARE of what you’re doing and why.”

* * *

OA’s way of showing affection was to gently tap the center of my forehead. This blessing always made me smile, received as a kindly reminder to focus. “Get smart.” “Remember who you are.”

When we spoke of commitment, he tapped my heart. His formula was Head + Heart = YES.

Which isn’t to say everything was always peachy-keen easy. Magical times were off-set by opposite and equal challenges. The Relay Center lost its contract. Staff was abruptly laid off. I retired to work with OA full time.

He was absent journeying through “Other Where” more often than he was fully here. It took a toll on his health. After a serious scare, he decided to move from Madison to a rural location. By that time, becaring him was my 24/7 calling.

* * *

The evening before Old Avatar returned home, he lovingly said good-night. Early the next morning, I sat up suddenly in bed, knowing I should retrieve a jewelry case long since entrusted to my safe-keeping.

Later, while roommates panicked after finding him cold, I quietly retreated to open the case. He’d foreseen and prepared for that moment. It was his parting blessing and inheritance.

Among other things, it held a solid gold ring, set with diamond and sapphire chips, engraved with his initials. As things got increasingly tough, I started wearing it on a chain close to my heart to get me through.

Now he speaks to me through all I read. The story of Anita Moorjani’s near death experience confirmed OA’s NDE. At age eleven, he choked on a fish bone and died. During eleven minutes of clinical death, he recovered billions of years of personal memories, as well as the vision of his future purpose.

From Dying To Be Me, Anita’s book, I took comfort in her deceased father’s assurance that his infinite presence is “here, there and everywhere.” Yes. Just so, OA’s presence continues to permeate the field.

Since his departure on June 1, 2019, every day fills, even without planning. I know to go here and there, find this and do that. But it is becoming increasingly clear that it’s time to organize my next Life Wheel.

In reading a Marisa Peer book, I took a hint from the story of Buckminster Fuller being at the end of his rope, just as I was right before meeting OA. Bucky had a mystical experience that pulled him back from the brink of suicide. A voice said to him:

You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.

Through Bucky’s story, OA was instructing me to structure my next Life Wheel around converting my experiences to serve the higher good.

He was winking at me from the far side again this afternoon, as I had a hunch to look into Buckminster Fuller’s life and connection with Einstein.

I had to laugh when I came across this quote, “We have to work under incredible faith in the Integrity of our Universe.”

And again, “There is quite clearly the manifest of an extraordinary Intellectual Integrity operating in Universe. . .”

Yup. That’s my Universal Avatar, saying “Hello.”

I followed Bucky’s search for Universe’s basic structures and natural patterns, intuitively close to the pattern of concentric circles in the e = mc² Life Wheel that repeats throughout nature and art:

. . . as we begin to get a little closer to nature, which unquestionably means getting considerably happier, we’re going to find ourselves getting considerably more efficient. And I just wanted you to be aware of that as I talk, and I talk about the biggest kinds of patterns.

Then I found this:

I am gradually exposing to you grand strategies of Nature’s way of solving problems showing you that she has principles that are operating in Universe.

Yes indeed. Bucky was intuiting (perhaps retrieving from the akashic library) the existence of the Laws of Nature encoded in the sadly misunderstood and underrated Book of Change which has served me so well as good friend and advisor.

So, yes, Dear Reader. Please be aware that OA is winking at you through the pages of this humble book.

It’s his calling card, his way of using me as an instrument of hope to bring the world back from the brink . . . one person at a time . . . starting with YOU.

My Dream – 020421

Late Saturday night, the final day of January, I woke up from a vivid dream that asked to be remembered. I picked up the mini-recorder at my bedside to capture the memory, still fresh.

The original dream triggered a flow of thoughts. I kept recording.

The following day, I transcribed the entire flow. There was enough for several posts, even a little book along the lines of What Is the Freedom You Want? or Be Careful What You Dream Of.

For today, I’ll just tell you about that late night dream and my conclusion. I get back to the steps leading from point A to Z later.

In the dream, I had an urgent message for multi-talented, multi-millionaire Patrick Byrne. His well-known mentors include Warren Buffet and Milton Friedman, proponent of school choice — close cousin to the alternative school I credentialed myself to create.

In contrast, we knew my hidden but vastly more attained teacher as, simply, “Old Avatar.”

In the dream, I was sent to warn Patrick of things OA taught me probably outside his teachers’ range of experience. I urged him to understand that good intentions, a steel-trap mind and even a martial arts black belt aren’t enough. Bad guys are broadcasting from the invisible e=energy level of the Life Wheel (called the bardo, dream field, or subconscious) – affecting the masses at an unconscious level. Accordingly, psychic shielding is essential to spiritual warfare.

Unfortunately, schools don’t teach from a paradigm that includes energy dynamics, much less their abuse. Bad guys exploit this blind spot. To prevail, good guys must become more aware and skillful in the full-spectrum of quantum potentials.

My conclusion: 21^st century institutional resets across the board all depend upon first restoring the complete, accurate Quantum Paradigm to common public knowledge. All else follows.

Today I’ll ask the Book of Change for feedback on this preliminary paradigm shift. Supporting details will follow in future posts.

PERMANENCE is the original, dynamic answer to today’s basic question, “What is the I Ching’s view of building future institutions consistent with the Quantum Paradigm?”

First I thought, I’ve seen this answer before. Recently. When I checked my notes, all the variables appear in the last two readings, repeating yet again from earlier 2020 posts. But their placements are different, making the immediate answer unique to this question.

In fact, at first the question was more detailed. “Institutions” was qualified to include governments, military, media, schools and healthcare, as well as legal and economic systems. The paradigm was qualified as one which balances reason and compassion with faith.

The starting point of the reading is:

Search for PERMANENCE in the timeless wisdom of all ages. Human events repeat themselves in well-ordered patterns over many generations. Although the actors change, the values they pass on through their examples endure. Nothing of permanent value is ever lost. Live worthy of your heritage. Avoid disrespect for traditions.

My first thought: at the start this shift, we need to recognize there’s no necessary conflict between the Quantum Paradigm and traditional teachings. It’s not an either/or choice. To the extent that Truth is eternal and unchanging, by definition its expressions old and new will confirm and reinforce each other. Only to the extent that they aren’t consistent are choices required.

Here’s an example. The Shema is a three-part Torah command intoned by Jews in synagogue: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

It’s echoed in the triad of the Lord’s Prayer taught by Christ. As I repeat every night, Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.

The same triad repeats as energy centers in Chinese and Sanskrit yogas. In turn, they’re compatible with the variables of Einstein’s formula and with the levels of the archetypal Life Wheel. (Later on, I’ll give you a simple picture to help visualize this unifying theme.)

* * *

Advice of the fourth line reads, “To find what you seek, look in the right place.” This is the converse of poetic I Ching wisdom, “Don’t hunt for deer in a forest where none dwell”

In my dream, I warned Patrick that tangible results on the material 3D surface of the Life Wheel cannot be not changed at the same level. Surface events flow from and are effectively improved upon only from deeper levels of 4D and 5D quantum reality.

As Einstein put it, problems cannot be solved on the same level at which they occur. To expect they could be is a form of insanity.

Put another way, corrupt political/economic practices on the surface, material plane of the Life Wheel are symptoms. The root cause and cure cannot be found except by going deeper. The paradigm which economists like Buffet and Friedman represent does not speak to 1) the e=energy, subconscious level where corruption festers; or 2) still deeper, the c=light, superconscious level from which creative innovations arise.

When advice is heeded and a complete, correct approach to creating institutional structures is accepted, the line changes to Promotion, which reads:

Promotion will come from steady, positive improvement over time. Rising to meet new challenges results in emotional maturity. Advancing on the job puts one in the position to serve those who are in need. Quiet, persistent self-discipline wins the confidence of others. Make the most of opportunities. Avoid hesitation.

Forward motion toward a positive shift will not succeed over night, but is well-worth our consistent, positive action towards this goal.

* * *

Advice of the fifth line reads, “Choose methods by purpose. Visionary projects require creativity and courage.” Quantum theory is not enough. We also need awareness methods and tools for invoking direct experience. Meditation and working with the I Ching are premier practices to this end.

When advice is heeded and balance achieved, the line changes to Inner Strength, which reads:

When difficult situations come to a head, rely on INNER STRENGTH to endure. If it becomes necessary to retreat, do so with courage and self-confidence. Make sure your inner and outer resources are secure. If you must begin a new life, you will have to depend on them. Avoid helplessness.

In geometry, a triangle is the most stable form. This strength is compounded by the intersection of opposite, complimentary strengths.

In the short term, however beneficial the outcome of simplification, it won’t happen quickly or easily. Resistance to the new by entrenched power holders will predictably be fierce and merciless. The courage and strength of solar system, “hara,” lower tan tien . . “true grit”. . . is required in full measure to see us through to the positive results of this blessed paradigm shift.

* * *

When the advice of the changing lines is heeded, Origin is their combined outcome. It reads:

All people thirst to know the roots their ORIGIN. At one level, learning about family and cultural traditions fills this need. At another level, this quest is satisfied by seeking for deeper knowledge. The vitality of all races flows from a single source which never runs dry. Avoid narrow-mindedness.

Right now, the majority are stuck on the narrow-minded surface of the Life Wheel. The prevailing false paradigm prevents humanity from accessing the deepest level for which we all thirst.

It’s like the patient’s picture in Jung’s Alchemical Studies. A bird stands before a closed door in the trunk of a large tree and weeps. The tree is the Tree of Life. The bird is the human spirit. Its soul weeps because it cannot enter.

The quest for fulfillment at deeper levels of the Life Wheel is stuff of the archetypal hero’s journey. Odysseus adventures to find his way home. The prodigal son returns to the father.

As we each repeat the pattern, one person at a time, the larger civilization as a whole will begin to reflect the sum of our individual achievements.

Rethinking Change

March 24^th marks the launch of my YouTube Channel, RETHINKING CHANGE.

Here, I’m sharing with you the link to the Premier video, as well as the script which appears below.

Hello and Welcome to Rethinking Change. I’m Pat West.

So. Let’s start right in with a riddle. Here’s a list of thought leaders in fields like:

Finance – Napoleon Hill. Robert Kiyasaki.
Science – Gregg Braden.
Healing – Joe Dispenza.
Energy Work – Donna Eden, Jeffrey Allen.
Hypnosis – Marisa Peer.
Martial arts — Bruce Lee
. . . . the list goes on

But here’s the question. What do they have in common? By the end of this video, you’ll have the answer to that question, as well as an appreciation for the value Rethinking Change has to offer you and those you care for.

As a special bonus, at the end, I’ll share with you what the Book of Change has to say about the COVID-19 pandemic. As you’ll come to find out, the I Ching is the foundation of energy medicine and Tai Chi. It’s the missing link we need NOW to survive and thrive in this intense time of extremes. I think you’ll find its message . . very interesting.

You’re probably wondering by now, who I am to be saying all of this. Well, there’s a long version, because I have plenty of stranger-than-fiction stories to share with you in good time. But here’s the short version.

I was trained as a musician. I played piano and various string instruments — guitar, a bit of sitar, but primarily violin. I shared this life-saver in common with my man, Einstein, who was also a violinist. It led me to yoga and to the magical, marvelous I Ching, the Book of Change, which maps the laws of nature, the repeating cycles of change which everyone everywhere share in common. For more than 8,000 years, it’s been used as a decision-making tool by leaders in every walk of life, all over the world. It’s used to bypass danger, optimize opportunities and to maintain balance in the midst of change.

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote an introduction to the Wilhelm/Baynes translation. He taught us to use it as a tool for making the unconscious conscious.

In 1975, I wrote my own version. It still works for me. My idea was, it shouldn’t be so tough . . and it should be made available to everyone. You can find it on Amazon. It’s called The Common Sense Book of Change.

I’ve been growing with the book for over 40 years now, taking it with me through every imaginable situation to understand the dynamics that drive human behavior. It’s become a good friend and mentor. More than once, it’s saved my life. If you want to know more, you can check out my website, rethinking survival.com. You’ll find several related posts. One is “The I Ching and Me.” Another is “How the Common Sense Book of Change (CSBOC) Came To Be.”

In the late 1970s, I earned a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. From writing books to fill the shelves that weren’t there when I needed them, I went on to earn the credential to build schools to fill what I call the fatal knowledge gap in what we’re taught in schools.

Basically, though, what you need to know about me is summed up in my latest book, You Are Already Enough: How Would Your Life CHANGE if you really Believed It? There, I give you my personal Why, How and What.

My WHY is to pay forward the extraordinary blessings I’ve received over a lifetime. I experience it as a calling. My HOW has been to write books, blog, give an occasional class, and now, to create content for this YouTube channel. My WHAT, the end result I’m aiming for, is to restore sanity to a badly fractured world, one person at a time.

Okay then. The Book of Change is one self-awareness tool. The second is a spin-off. And here things get even more interesting.

I came to it by applying yoga sutras to Einstein. Take the archetypal Life Wheel that repeats through all cultures and all times, well known to meditators. Then take the variables of Einstein’s formula – M = mass, E = energy, C = light – and plug them into the increasingly deeper levels of the Life Wheel. The result is the Unified Field Theory – including the elusive “consciousness factor.” Einstein had already received it, but for lack of yoga training, he missed it.

02a. Unfied Field Theory

Now. . . . just like the Ching’s repetitive cycle of hexagrams, this quantum pattern of creation also repeats throughout nature, on every scale of magnitude . . . smallest to largest, from atoms to solar systems. It repeats in every cell of our bodies. In Already Enough, I give pictures of this pattern repeating throughout nature and world art.

But what’s important to emphasize here is that this isn’t just an interesting, abstract idea. The formula e=m2 has powerful applications, for destruction – the atomic bomb – as well as creation. We can personalize the Life Wheel to make it real in our own lives. We can use it to assess how we’re doing, to identify what’s missing, decide what we intend to change, and then to plan how to get from here to there. It’s a powerful tool. It can bring us back from an incomplete, fractured lifestyle into full alignment with our true complete nature, the original design of creation.

Here’s just one picture of what wheel-work looks like:

happy face

And here’s my Why, How and What prioritized inside the Life Wheel structure.

My Why, How & What

So. The answer to the riddle I asked at the beginning . . is this. What all those thought leaders share in common is an intuitive fidelity to this basic structure, the quantum reality embodied in the Life Wheel. It explains . . for example. . the effectiveness of Napoleon’s Hill Think and Grow Rich formula. And so on. . . In You Are Already Enough!, I show that, just as Einstein’s formula plugs into the Life Wheel, so do the ideas that get the powerful results each of these thought leaders has achieved.

Before moving on to the COVID-19 section, I briefly want to tell you this. When I was brainstorming for future video content, the list got huge . . . because the Life Wheel truly meets the Occam’s Razor standard of greatest simplicity with maximum inclusiveness.

Once you start rethinking change, seeing how the dynamics expand and contract from the inside out, and how the levels of the Life Wheel link up . . the possibilities become infinite. It’s like, anywhere you focus the laser beam, it illumines the field.

Here’s a short list of potential subjects:

The MPI standard – motive, purpose, and intent. (Being aware of what you’re doing and why.)
Abundance. Magic. Manifestation. Wealth.
Change. Change agents. Affirmative action. Positive Action.
Unity. The United States.
Conflict. Common sense. The law of Karma. Ethics.
Creativity. Intuition. Self-awareness. Self-actualization.
Relationships. Empaths and narcissists.
Interdependence. Cooperation.
Communication. Community. Intentional community.
Education. Higher Education. Paradigm shifts. And opportunity.
Authority. Inner authority. Conscience.
Medicine. Healing. Mindfulness. Meditation.
Codes. The Emotion Code. The Healing Code.
Stress. The suicide epidemic and its prevention.

So, if you have any preferences among those topics or other related questions you’d like me to address, please comment below and I’ll do my best to respond. And please do take the time to like, share and subscribe, so we can get this urgently needed information out to a badly fractured world that – for lack of it – is in SUCH deep trouble.

Now, here’s the COVID-19 bonus I promised you.

There are many ways to approach the Book of Change. It starts with finding a quiet place and settling down the noisy mind. After deciding on a question, there’s a process for arriving at an answer. I’m saving the technical side for later. Today, I’m going straight to the answer I got on March 14^th to this written question: “What advice does the Book of Change have to offer the general public about the COVID-19 pandemic?”

The initial outcome was 14, SELF-POSSESSION. It looks like this:

14 Self-Possession

It seems to me that the general public expects leaders to demonstrate calmness, integrity, and fairness. We want them to give us a clear picture of what’s going on. Deep down, we really want leaders who inspire us.

However, the initial answer was dynamic. It had two changing lines that offer warnings or advice. These combined to result in a different outcome.

The advice from line four is “Do not compete with others. Use your skills to build.” It advises restraint and to avoid careless waste. So I would be concerned that precious time is being wasted, that this crisis is being used BY SOME as a political football, and that it’s possible resources being mobilized might to some extent be misdirected.

The advice from line five reads “When you prove yourself responsible, others will trust you.” The shadow side here is that unless leaders prove themselves trustworthy, people won’t trust them.

But even when there’s restraint and responsibility, the second outcome remains FRUSTRATION. This makes good sense. We have expectations that aren’t always being met. It’s related to the leadership issue, but just as importantly . . . we need to be aware that there’s a lot going on – hidden – behind the scenes. Things aren’t exactly what they seem.

Number 9 reads: External factors you may not even be aware of will cause FRUSTRATION. New projects will not work out now. This cannot be avoided. Arguing will not influence those who could help. Your choice is either to wait patiently or to leave the situation. “

So it seems to me that right now we’re in for a waiting game. Getting emotionally caught up in the upheavals that have been set in motion would be counter-productive. To the extent that worry is a waste of time, refocusing attention . . . rethinking the change going on all around us . . . is a better option.

So, the next question that arises is Where should we turn our attention? For one thing, I would look for the opportunities hidden within current dangers, because it’s a rule of Natural Law that in duality, there are two sides to every coin.

It’s quite possible we’ve been looking in the wrong places for IMPORTANT answers. And that the Book itself is welcoming the pandemic as an opportunity to reintroduce itself as an inspirational way to access the deeper energy and light levels of our Life Wheels for a better understanding what’s truly going on – within ourselves . . . as well as in the world around us.

NOW this opens WIDE the door to a whole new world. I will continue this thread in my next video, which I’m calling “Blessings in Disguise.”

So, here’s what you can expect from now on. In each Thursday video, I’ll balance discussion with a hands-on reading from different versions of the Book of Change. The plan is to illumine key issues in terms of the Life Wheel pattern, supported by readings to make the Book of Change increasingly more familiar.

Again. Please comment below. Like, share and subscribe. Hit the bell to be notified each time I publish a new video. And I’ll see you again next time. Until then, do take good care of yourselves.

The I Ching Works Like a Cosmic Clock

Among other things, the I Ching works like a cosmic clock, telling us the time.

In the Old Testament, King Solomon expressed the natural, rhythmic alternations of time in poetic form:

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time build up . . . a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

The Book of Change puts its users in touch with these pulsating, alternating rhythms of life. It connects us with inner knowing – call it intuition or conscience – that anticipates approaching changes, the better to prepare for what is to come.

It serves as a reminder that our lives change like the seasons of nature. Fall follows summer. Spring follows winter.

It lends perspective to the current times and what is likely to come next.

In I Ching context, faith is akin to trusting a highly refined sense of timing. It is an atunement with the same inner clock which guides migrating birds and informs heroic displays of virtue.

Some people experience this inner knowing as a sense of personal destiny or keen sensitivity to the zeitgeist direction of the times.

Faith guides our feet, not only towards good fortune, but away from danger. An example from the New Testament is Joseph, husband of Mary, protector of Jesus. He accepted Mary and her child on faith.

When a fearful King Herod was intent on killing new born males to thwart the prophecy of his downfall, Joseph “knew” it was time to escape from Jerusalem, thus saving the infant’s life. He also knew when danger had passed, and it was time to return the boy to his homeland.

Using the interactive Common Sense Book of Change (CSBOC) is a powerful way to get in touch with the native common sense we are all born with, but too often forget under the pressures of hectic daily life.

The text maps the natural patterns of change which trigger predictable passages from one stage to another in our lives.

Those who live close to nature are instinctively closer to their own natural rhythms, something city dwellers too often lose touch with. For those who long to remember who they truly are, but have forgotten, working the I Ching is especially rare and precious blessing.

Rethinking HOPE

hope

Paradoxically, the following Essay on Hope compliments the one on Death shared in The Phoenix Response. Tellingly, it reflects beliefs significantly different from those held by my grandparents, Ellie and Hubble West. It might explain, at least in part, their experience of old age.

Nor is the subject merely academic. As I currently face unanticipated health challenges, like many baby-boomers of my generation, I’m being challenged to face and rethink my personal survival expectations.

I’ll explain all this at length later. But for now, here are my earlier thoughts on Hope, for your thoughtful consideration.

Essay 63. HOPE

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you wisdom the spirit of and revelation in the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. . .

— St. Paul, Ephesians

Here the people could stand it no longer and complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best he could, holding out the good hope of the advantages they would have. He added that it was useless to complain, he had come [to go] to the Indies, and so had to continue it until he found them, with the help of Our Lord. — Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage

We live at a particularly perilous moment, one in which self-deception is a subject of increasing urgency. The planet itself faces a threat unknown in other times: its utter destruction. . . The splitting of the atom, said Einstein, has changed everything, save how we think. And thus, he observed, “we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” — Daniel Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths

We are seeing a health care system in pain, people in pain, and a world in pain. I believe that something can be done to make it better. — Patch Adams, Gesundheit!

THE FRONT

Webster’s defines hope as a feeling that what is wanted will happen. It’s a desire accompanied by expectation. It can mean that which one has a hope for. It can mean a reason for hope. A meaning listed as archaic is to trust or rely.

In I Ching context, hope transcends short-sighted wishing and emotional wanting. It is a trust that one has the wherewithal to respond appropriately to every change of fortune. It is not total self-sufficiency, but awareness that one’s efforts are met half way. When one does the best one can, the rest is supplied in the right way, at the right time.

Daniel Goleman emphasizes the direct relationship between honest self-awareness and survival. Like Einstein and like Strauss and Howe (authors of The Fourth Turning), Goleman is a messenger of awareness we’re often trained to block out.

His vision accords with The Book of Change philosophy in this: ignoring dangers, deceiving ourselves that all is well when it isn’t, doesn’t make problems go away. It only renders us powerless to recognize early warning signals in time to prepare and ameliorate the worst that might come.

In The Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe emphasize that declining resources will necessitate major changes in healthcare delivery. Anticipating that the cost of health-care will continue to rise and become increasingly unaffordable, they recommend that cost-effective, affordable alternatives along the lines of Adams’ work be put in place now.

Forward-looking health practitioners are therefore now turning to inexpensive, preventive self-maintenance practices like Tai Chi, Qigong and yoga.

There are hidden benefits to timely austerities. Though it is unfortunate that people see fit to return back to self-responsible methods only as a last resort, if the prospect of hard times returns people back to their more simple and beneficial roots, it is a (however well disguised) blessing.

In his epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote of hope in the context of faith and charity. His hope isn’t Webster’s hope of wanting and expecting. Like I Ching hope, it is trust that human events which make no sense in the short-term fit into the larger pattern of life, and that God’s will inevitably in the long-term prevails.

THE BACK

The opposite of hope is despair. Seeing one’s situation as hopeless is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So long as one places hope in externals, one feeds the illusion of powerlessness. Turning the focus of hope inwards makes all the difference.

Self-deception is a perversion of hope. Lacking a concept of cyclical change, linear thinkers hope to control time. They defy the aging process or pretend change can’t or hasn’t happened rather than adjusting and benefiting from new opportunities that arise to replace the ones which pass away.

I’m Writing To . . .

globe

Like magic, hints about the baby steps to take next have been coming from all directions.

Today, I’m writing in answer to a comment made on Two Out of Three Isn’t Enough:

Hi Patricia, I enjoy your writing style. That said, one must write with a target audience in mind; at least commercially. Otherwise you are just writing for yourself.

For a split second, I went on the defensive.

What??!! Just mental masturbation? Focus on making money?

This particular LinkedIn connection has followed my posts from the beginning. He should know me better by now.

To state once more what I’ve repeatedly said, I write because — like so many men and women – my lonely, early years were haunted by unspeakable specters of suicide and abuses of power. If what helped save me could, paid forward, make a difference in even one life, it would, for me, be enough.

“To save one life is to save the world entire.” This is the mantra that keeps me going late nights, after daily tasks are completed, even when my physical body urgently wants rest.

Though surely not intended, what “a target audience” conjures in my mind is the image of armed game hunters dressed in orange and camo garb, scouting for animals to snuff the life out of and eat for dinner.

Not that I haven’t given conventional writers’ wisdom – “know your audience” – some thought, thank you anyway. I have. A lot, in fact.

Here’s part of the problem. The Life Wheel is universal. It offers a scientific underpinning to support humanistic calls to live in peace. As written in Sages and Scientists Can Agree on This, it has the potential to restore awareness of the common humanity everyone everywhere shares in common.

On the opposite, shadow side, today’s lack of a universally accepted, complete and accurate paradigm answers the plaintive question, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Limiting, misleading paradigms are a root cause of widespread conflict and suffering in today’s dangerously volatile world.

Everyone is fascinated by both sides of change. On the one hand, we yearn for positive improvements. On the other, we dread the unknown. That’s because no one taught us the survival basics in school. We never learned how the dynamics of duality drive relationships in the world. We don’t know how to balance yin-yang opposites to maintain stability, first within, then without.

So we remain conflicted – on all levels. Ambivalent. Paralyzed. In fact, lack of survival basics has become our Achilles Heel – our fatal flaw.

Change is a word on the lips of CEOs, politicians, radicals, therapists, pastors everywhere. All use it. But very few have an in-depth understanding of what it’s about, much less have the methods and means to act as effective agents of positive change.

That’s one reason why I have a problem with niche thinking. The current trend of carving humanity into smaller and smaller, mutually exclusive either/or interest groups is a symptom of the fragmented, isolating thinking we desperately need to overcome. . . . which the Life Wheel has the potential to heal.

Fortunately, however, this coin has a flip side too. Being universal, the Life Wheel can be brought to life – animated and applied to illumine each and very tiny corner niche.

So, I’ve done my bestest to go with the flow of common wisdom.

For example, for a time I focused on MILLENNIALS. Being tech savvy, I thought, they are especially well qualified to resonate with the digital technology of the Book of Change — The I Ching. Further, they’re the ones most disillusioned of the “American dream.” Being less invested than their elders in prevailing, dysfunctional paradigms, I thought they would “get it.”

In When the Lights Go Out, Who Will Millennials Call? I wrote what still reads to me like a wake-up tour de force.

I continued with Good News and Bad News for Millenials.

Did any one get it? What more can I say? (Perhaps, I sometimes think, someone else might say it differently and better.)

Nevertheless, I tried again, suggesting what could have been billion dollar game and app ideas in An Inner Compass App for Millennials.

Response? Instant contact from a venture capitalist. He wanted to pick my brain; tried to coerce me into signing a non-competition agreement that would, in effect, block further blogging. So sorry. No can do. (Reminded me of Hannibal’s words, “When the lamb cries, the wolf comes. But not to help.”)

Next, in frustration over the foolishness of a self-proclaimed millennial leader who didn’t get it whatsoever, I wrote What the Generations Share in Common.

So, moving on to other audiences.

The I Ching has been the primary decision-making tool used by LEADERS in every walk of life – government, military, monastic, medical, mercantile . . you name it . . . for thousands of years.

So I applied the Life Wheel, as the next generation Book of Change, to address a host of leaderships issues. For example, in response to a direct question, I wrote How Bad People Become Leaders; and then Savvy Leaders Go with the Flow.

In True Leaders Trust Their Inner Compass to Over Come Confusion, I introduced the Life Wheel to Authentic Leaders who already accept the importance of following their North Star.

In The Positive Paradigm Handbook: Make Yourself Whole Using the Wheel of Change, I’ve shown how THERAPISTS and SELF-HEALERS can turn the Life Wheel into a diagnostic and a decision-making tool. I have a special fondness for Jungian analysts, and said so in Therapists as Positive Change Agents.

For those who chose to frame their truth in the language of PHILOSOPHY, I wrote Change the Rules of the Knowledge Game. Here I focused the Life Wheel on the field of epistemology – the (politically charged) study of who can know what, and how.

The list goes on.

But . . . I still ask myself, how does one “target” the diverse and widely scattered audience of readers who hide painful dark secrets under the facade of their ordinary lives as housewives, students, soldiers, athletes, priests, poets, politicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs and on and on. . . ?

How does one “target” the hidden army of loved ones so poorly equipped to win the war to rescue sons, daughters and spouses from quiet desperation?

How does one effectively extend compassionate hope to the multitude of isolated, face-saving power abusers in high office — addicts driven by psychological forces outside their conscious awareness, rendered taboo by current dysfunctional paradigms.

How do I tell all of them, that like me, with the I Ching as a confidential best friend, they would find out that they are never, ever truly alone. And that everyone can choose to change for the better.

With its wisdom and support (explain its magic as you will), I have brought myself back from every temptation – from hated, the impulse to revenge, from self-pity and despair.

With its help, I’ve gleaned the benefit of lessons to be learned from adversity.

It has inspired me, instead reacting against abuse and succumbing to the danger of becoming an abuser myself, to live and to serve as a healing beacon to others.

What follows is a personal example of desperation and life-saving help excerpted from Rethinking Survival:

The scriptures were inspiring. [the swami] cynically perverted them. A pundit disciple based in Minneapolis initiated gullible students in the rituals of guru worship. This aristocratic charmer held Western seekers in contempt and dummed the teachings down.

The powers of this smooth, flamboyant “holy man” were foreign to Western sensibilities. He flaunted a repertoire of magic tricks. He could change blood flow in his feet. He read minds and hypnotized students.

He reportedly bilked American students out of thousands of dollars for nonexistent hospitals in India.

By his own admission, disciples in India would have burned his ashram to the ground had they known he was habitually performing sexual tantra (rape) on unsuspecting American women. . . .

At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, three women he’d seduced got together and traded information. We realized none of us was a “special exception” to his vow of celibacy.

When we blew the whistle, he flipped out. Tantric teachings, he raged, were sacred teachings. Exposing them would damn us forever. We were terrified and backed down.

To the detriment of other relationships, I obeyed his command, “Keep still!!”

Covering his backside, the swami informed his psychologist henchmen that I was “mentally disturbed.” Protecting vested interests in their careers, they treated me as if I were crazy.

It took years to get over the pain, anger and confusion caused by their betrayals.

But I healed. I used yogic introspection to get over it mentally. To repair emotional damage, I turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine. For solace and hope, I looked to the New Testament.

But my best friend and advisor throughout was The Book of Change. I didn’t dare talk with people who knew the swami. They would have turned against me, not helped.

His powers were outside the experience of university-trained therapists. There were no qualified professionals to turn to.

Confiding in family was out of the question. If I went to them with one problem, I’d end up with two.

But with the I Ching, I could be completely honest. It has no agendas. Opening my heart to ask my questions was like talking with my True Self. Its answers rang true. Instead of tearing myself apart by warring against abuse of power, I used it to turn inward to the higher authority I could trust: my own conscience.

History Repeats Itself – Renaissance or Another Dark Ages?

A recent post described the unfortunate end of Abelard, the medieval philosopher best known for his tragic love of Heloise.

Out of synch with his times, this celebrated cleric taught that men gain knowledge – including faith – through reason. For this, he was convicted by his monastic superiors of heresy. Abelard’s books were banned and burned. He died shortly afterwards in prison.

St. Augustine’s exclusively faith-based Rules of the Knowledge Game were balanced with Abelard’s opposite approach only after St. Aquinas harmonized the two extremes. According to the new Rules, no matter where you start, each approach leads to and reinforces the other.

This broad-based approach to knowing as a two-way street set the foundation for the flowering of arts, sciences and commerce known as the 12^th Century Renaissance.

But, I suspect you’re wondering by now, is medieval history relevant NOW?

It’s highly relevant, particularly when taken in the context of patterned, repeating cycles of human behavior. Learning the basic lessons of history is an important way of leveraging the future.

Back to the 12^thCentury Renaissance. It was during this time of creative balance that universities evolved to replace monasteries as centers of learning.

I’ve thought about this a lot. The Origin and Future of Universities was the dissertation topic of my choice. In my proposal, I drew a bell-shaped curve that cycled above and below a median-line that represented historical times of creative balance between extremes. It looked like this:

bell curve sized

In the late 1970’s, when I wrote my proposal, universities were at a critical point of intersection. There was still a window of time left during which to mitigate a predictably dangerous direction of change, before a narrow window of opportunity closed.

Humanistic psychology and holistic health movements were leading the way towards another reintegration of faith and logic — a reconciliation of intuitive and rational ways of knowing. On the one hand, I held hopes that another creative renaissance was on the horizon. On the other, I foresaw the possibility that the curve would cross the median balance point and continue its downward slope, plunging the world into another dark ages of fanaticism and intolerance.

Departmental politics prevented me from writing the dissertation of my choice. (That story and its implications, however, are a different subject.) What’s pertinent here is the outcome. The window of opportunity has closed. Proof abounds. For example, during the Arab Spring, disillusioned Muslims who at first had welcomed violence as an opportunity for positive change were horrified at the repressive results. One Egyptian commented to a reporter that his country had entered a new dark age. News here and abroad continues to confirm that downward trend.

What remains are the mitigating possibilities open to I Ching users. The Chinese Book of Change keeps self-honest seekers in synch with the times, giving them survival insights and hints as to where to look for respite from the worst that might yet come. It keeps hope for the positive change we persist in holding dear to our hearts alive.

Here’s the key. Patterns codified in The Book of Change repeat on every scale of magnitude. That is to say, the same seasonal cycles repeat in an individual’s life. They also repeat in families, in the work place, in governments and even in the history of civilizations.

So even when the times are dangerously out of joint, individuals can still change for the better. So can intentional communities. So long as there’s this hope, it’s never to late. In the early dark ages, for example, monasteries were islands of hope, civility and sanity in a violent, barbaric world. Their equivalents might again serve the same purpose.

Further, personal, organizational and historical rhythms aren’t necessarily in synch. This explains why the same view is welcome at one place or time, but not in others. Abelard’s emphasis on reason, for example, would have been in synch in 17^th century universities even though they were fatally out of harmony with beliefs held in the monastic circles of his day.

This information holds good or bad news, depending on whether it’s recognized and how it’s used. On one hand, acting as if personally preferred realities are fact, regardless of whether or not they’re in synch with the times, is unrealistic. For example, New-Agers who ardently believe the near future promises a widespread renaissance of human upliftment are quite probably mistaken. Worse, they may be misleading followers who will find themselves unfit and unprepared to survive in an increasingly intolerant, dark ages environment.

But on the other, positive side, it’s still possible, even as a dark age of fanaticism is gaining ground, to maintain personal balance. Personal renaissance – literally re-birth – is possible at any split second in time. Even when social trends are devolving into extremes, individuals aren’t required to forsake the ideal of personal integration just to fit in. In fact, personal and community survival may well depend on the capacity to maintain stable balance even in the most unbalanced of times.

Of a certainty, heightened, intentional balance will be essential to personal survival, even and especially as dark times cloud collective reason and threaten to extinguish faith.

Who Is Qualified to Know What – and How?

Have you ever thought about how the organizations you were born into – family, communities, governments – society in its many interdependent forms and interrelated facets – came into being? Or are you concerned about where they might now be headed?

I certainly do. Often.

Nor are we alone. Over history, serious thinkers have pondered the subject. A LinkedIn connection recently asked for my thoughts on the possible relationship between awareness and responsibility. He framed his question in the context of social contract theory.

Though initially the subject might seem academic, it’s the basic stuff of human survival. The quality of our lives – even, ultimately, our existence – depends on the level and quality of awareness leaders bring to their organizations.

In turn, their success as leaders depends on the trust, integrity and loyalty of their followers. For in fact, rights and responsibilities on both sides – leaders AND followers — are a two-way street. And when the delicate balance of expectations and obligations is violated, social fabric unravels.

Yet the subject doesn’t get the serious attention it urgently deserves. The consequences of taking for granted what we have inherited, with too little awareness of dangers risked by squandering the fragile blessings we enjoy, need comprehensive rethinking NOW – before it’s too late.

I responded to the question with a LinkedIn article, “Natural Leadership or Authority – Where in the Wheel Do YOU Stand?” (See www.linkedin.com/pulse/natural-leadership-authority-where-wheel-do-you-stand-patricia-west.)

A comment on that post by Lloyd Amogan sparked this extension of the subject. With his permission, I’ll quote:

Yes, there is a relationship between social contract and awareness. The awareness has to involve both our physical levels and our Spiritual levels of Awareness/Consciousness, and not many are familiar with the Spiritual Levels, hence very few are qualified to teach.

I responded:

Your premise poses an interesting question, Lloyd. If the relationship “HAS to involve” full-spectrum awareness, yet many are NOT aware, how does lack of awareness impact of the status of the contract? Some theorize that the contract is “understood” or “implied.” Is this sufficient? What consequences follow from a lack of conscious, intentional involvement in the social contract?

An after thought, if Hobbes was unfamiliar, was he unqualified to write on the subject?

Hobbes, by the way, was famous for his view that, without the overseeing rule of a leviathan ruler, human life is necessarily “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Spiritual awareness, in his world view, was NOT a factor on either side of the leader-follower equation.

In contrast, trusted advisors to the rulers of long-lived Chinese dynasties depended on a high-level of awareness to maintain social-political stability. The Book of Change, the leadership manual upon which they depended, instills a comprehensive understanding of the human dynamics which drive social-political organizations.

The applications of the following Essay on Knowledge offer an approach to leadership awareness that might have a positive influence on the future directions of existing organizations:

Essay 20. KNOWLEDGE

“Lao Tzu believed that intuitive knowledge was the purest form of information. For that reason, he expressed his philosophy in the form of thought experiments — mental exercises designed to enhance and evolve the intuitive skills. In the Tao Te Ching, he compels us to use intuition as an equal partner with logic.” — R.L. Wing, The Tao of Power

“There is a stream of transcendental, information power flowing into the DNA. . . The I CHING, which, by this hypothesis, is coincident with the DNA system, is perhaps the textbook for this cosmic force, the static tension and dynamic flux flowing into the matrix of the DNA.” — Martin Schönberger, The I Ching & The Genetic Code

“Modern science tells us that the human organism is not just a physical structure made of molecules, but that, like everything else, we are also composed of energy fields. . . We, too, ebb and flow like the sea. We, too, are constantly changing. How do we, as human beings, deal with such information?” — Barbara Ann Brennan, Hands of Light

THE FRONT

Roots of knowledge mean both acknowledgment or confession, as well as to play, give, or move about. Webster’s first definition is the act, fact, or state of knowing, specifically direct acquaintance or familiarity with a fact or place.

It can mean awareness or understanding. It can mean acquaintance with the facts, range of information grasped by the mind, or enlightenment. It can mean the body of facts, principles accumulated by mankind. An archaic meaning includes carnal knowledge.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which defines the rules of knowledge at any given time/place, setting limits by its answers to these questions: What can be known, how, and by whom? Answers have political overtones, often assigning roles according to class, race, age or gender. They influence cultural decisions about the distribution of wealth, power, social status and access to legal protections.

Empirical science respects only information known through reason. Universities train students to dissect and analyze with quantitative and verbal skills. At its best, reason is a tool of constructive discernment, capable of articulating both tangible and intangible information.

With proper training, it can be used to harness the sub-rational, serve the super-rational and link the two, balancing their extremes. As such, reason is a harmonizing function.

Using reason to rule out, avoid or even demean awareness of sub- and super-rational experience is an abuse of the critical faculty.

One overlooked knowledge matrix is ingrained in our very DNA. Many striking resemblances between the structure of DNA and I Ching hexagrams suggest at least one fascinating explanation for how/why this information source resonates with inner knowing. For example, it can’t be accidental that both are both based upon a binary-quaternary code that generates a system of 64 possibilities.

The chakra system of energy transformers which traverse the spine is another knowledge matrix that affects how we process and transmit information. Each chakra filters perception. Each influences the way we interpret experience. Their existence explains how/why the inspired ideas of every religion or science change over time, being diluted and narrowed to fit the thinking of less evolved followers.

One proof of this process is the wide array of Western psychologies, each relevant to a specific chakra issue. Skinner’s is a first chakra psychology based on behavior. Freud focused on sex, a second chakra issue. Adler thought in terms of power, the third chakra. Fromm wrote about love, the fourth chakra focus. Jung was interested in literary symbols and self-actualization, which are fifth and sixth center interests.

Asian sciences, however, have recognized the interactive relationships amongst these concerns. They provide practical methods for integrating the chakras to pave an optimally functioning two-directional highway of continuous energy and information.

Chakra filters also explain why some users interpret the I Ching through the filters of the sub-rational, using it as an oracle of divination. Farmers rely on it to predict the weather and agricultural yield. Others reject such use, preferring to regard The Book of Change as a rational manual for personal improvement and professional advancement.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners refer to it as a psychological and/or medical diagnostic instrument. Still others view it as a super-rational code book, giving it spiritual interpretations. For example Taoist masters interpret it as a yogic manual detailing the alchemical process of inner transformation.

Because it encompass the whole of human experience, the I Ching actually accommodates all of these perspectives – and more.

THE BACK

Ignorance is the opposite of knowledge. It can be the innocence of an inexperienced child, or the result of being kept in the dark, deceived or misled. Some people know, but deny who they are and what they know. The social price of being different seems too high. Others fail to use love and creativity to bridge the gap between inner knowledge and outer experience, and succumb to madness.

Delusion is a perversion of knowledge. It’s a belief that things are as one wants or fears, not as they actually are; or thinking one knows everything there is to know, when one doesn’t. Untrained mediums are sometimes misguided either by their own fantasies or dark angels posing as benefactors.

Now Needed: An Army of Arjunas

Sometimes it seems the magic is gone forever from my life. All that remains is chores, living like an unwelcome fugitive, dodging the condescending cruelties of householders who bring in more money. Pretty grim.

But suddenly that changed. Today the magic is back, full force. Coming out of the blue, encouraging messages from strangers sparked me back into the writing mode.

It started this morning (Saturday, April 18. 2015) with an email notice. A recommendation had been voluntarily added to my [now cancelled] LinkedIn profile. “Insightful, ground breaking, immensely important.”

Shortly afterwards, a delightful, koan-like message (re: Humanity) appeared: “Very acknowledgeable am smiling please carry on.”

That me jolted out of my funk. After thanking these messengers of the Universe (no naming names, so as not to offend anyone), I continued, responding to overlooked messages I earlier hadn’t had the heart to answer. One simply said, “Hey Patricia, Thanks for the new post.”

Another wrote, “Patricia, Good morning, I trust you are doing well. Take good care.”

After that, I checked an abandoned blog site to see how old friends are faring there. I was delighted to find a post from an earlier commenter whom I thought I’d offended beyond repair. Resonance with my work showed he’s following through in his own way. He wrote:

We tend to miss that our immediate environment is part of a much bigger ecosystem whose dynamics and ramifications extend far beyond our limited grasp of space and time.

Though delighted, I kept my response short: Well said. Agreed. : )

But I still had questions about writing. If I should I continue, in what in direction? I’ve been stuck on the topic of intentional communities, which has stalled on the drawing board for months. The content continues to elude me. Outlines only generate more questions.

Further, one LinkedIn connection who’s now occupied elsewhere rejected the topic, assuming communism is what I have in mind. (No way!) Another connection with enormous potential to do great good has taken a different direction, choosing to engage in a family-run start-up.

I considered listing my doubts and inviting comments. But that didn’t click either.

So now, in thinking about the “interesting” timing of encouraging emails, I remembered that today – April 18^{th –}– is a new moon, traditionally associated with new beginnings. Before checking for a description of the day’s potential, I “knew” I should first consult my old, best friend, the Book of Change.

That’s when the magic kicked in big time.

Granted that the I Ching (especially useful as a vehicle for entering the fourth dimension of time-space where synchronicity comes into play) is outside the comfort zone of some professionals. Nevertheless, please stay with me. After all, it has also been the enduring, practical foundation of leadership training in Asian cultures for many thousands of years – with good reason.

Be that as it may, I queried for direction. The resulting hexagram COMMUNITY was directly to the point of my concern. The CSBOC reading for #13 is:

IC 13

A changing line in the second place reinforced the concluding warning against selfishness: Avoid special interest groups. Selfish and corrupt motives bring downfall.

The resultant change, were the warning heeded, is #1 – CREATIVE POWER, which further reinforces the text.

The changing line in the fourth place reads: If you have become isolated, understand why and correct yourself.

This warning line pin-points a major problem. If heeded, the resultant change would result in # 37 – FAMILY, the cornerstone of community. I take the concluding warning very personally: Avoid roles not suited to your nature.

This returns full circle to my immediate dilemma. As a writer, my topic – the uncertainty of human survival – puts me in the role of a Cassandra relative to the larger, defiantly oblivious society. Being the messenger of an unpopular warning, though it seems my calling, can be isolating, not to mention unrewarding. It results in lifestyle issues with no immediate solutions in sight.

Nevertheless, I persist in believing that as increasingly more people find themselves in desperate social and economic straits, readiness will increase and my time eventually will come. The funding needed to support the intentional communities I envision will eventually materialize.

The situation reminds me of the dilemma faced by the warrior-charioteer Arjuna in the Bhadavad Gita. Those who opposed him were corrupt relatives, which posed a great conflict. Was it morally right to take sides against family, even if they were in the wrong? Forced to make an apparently no-win choice was paralyzing. On the battlefield, overwhelmed, he put down his weapons and refused to fight.

But at this crisis and turning point, his chariot driver, Lord Krsna, revealed his true identity. With inspirational encouragement, he encouraged the warrior to take heart, stand firm and win the righteous battle against evil.

GITA sized

Similarly, the communities which timeless scriptures encourage, of which Einstein wrote, and of which I am thinking, are not based on biological or even cultural kindred, but rather on resonance of heart and mind. Communities connecting kindred souls, if you will. And in this, the exceedingly dangerous times in which we live hold magical seeds of opportunity. From Two Sides of a Coin:

Whereas most rulers suffer the unanticipated consequences of ignorance, pride and greed as shock, humiliation and undoing, sages intentionally harness the forces of nature to positive ends. Thus it is, that throughout history, at the right time, in the necessary circumstances, leaders of ordinary and humble beginnings have catapulted to extraordinary levels of accomplishment, effecting broad political and social change.

By voicing the collective yearnings of the suffering masses, perennial sage-leaders shed the light of eternal hope on times of greatest darkness. By inspired words and living example, they recreate ever-new the Gita’s vision of opportunities hidden within the outward experience of hardship.

For as sages know, “when social degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.” From Passage 78 of the Tao Te Ching:

78a snippet

Returning to this morning’s magical COMMUNITY reading: another next bend in the road occurred. Surprisingly, the changing lines combine to produce a most inauspicious outcome: # 9 – FRUSTRATION, which begins:

External factors you may not even be aware of will cause FRUSTRATION. New projects will not work out now. . . Your choice is either to wait patiently or to leave the situation.

It concludes by advising, Avoid major commitments.

So, turning to what I saved for last, I asked, What is the nature of the frustration in building intentional communities? The answer, when I checked the astrological description of today’s new moon was this. Timing. Major planets of communication and reform are currently going into hibernation, so to speak. Retrograde.

According to the calendar, the correct decision for me personally is to wait until the end September and into October. For the time being, continue to patiently endure unavoidable frustrations.

For others, for many other reasons, there will be other choices. What is consistent across the board is that building effective intentional communities will depend on an army of Arjunas, each of whom listens to the inner voice of conscience represented by Lord Krsna rather than to the dictates of their particular biological families or immediate social, political and religious prejudices.

Sometimes I wish I could win the largest lottery in history, as if that would end current frustrations. Yet I know bringing in money that way cannot solve the deeper problems. It would not influence hearts or minds, persuade the public of the wisdom needed to ensure human survival. For this, patience is required. So it is no accident that first three letters of PATIENCE are also the first letters of my name.

Today’s magic provided the immediate encouragement now needed to keep writing . . . balanced with acceptance of long-term timing. May my telling of it encourage fellow Arjunas-in-waiting, those who also will, when the time is right, God-willing, be ready to build on common ground.

Overcoming Limitations

In writing an invited article for the international journal Prabuddha Bhrata, I was so bold as to speculate about the prophecized End of Times. In retrospect, I’m having second, third and fourth thoughts.

Here’s what I wrote:

. . . wherein is consolation to be found during the present difficult times? For Hindu sages foresaw them. We are now enduring the decline described as the Kali Yuga. Christ similarly foretold the End of Times. It lies in this. Time does not exist for accomplished sages who dwell in the eternal center of the Life Wheel. To enlightened beings, it is but an illusion. They experience themselves as eternal, at one with the Creator. For them, life will go on whether or not the world as we now know it continues. If even for this reason alone, seeking inner enlightenment is an urgent priority.

How can one really know about such things? Such opinions are necessarily based on hearsay, albeit the testimony of sages is consistent on such matters.

To the point is a description of time as a fourth dimension in the marvelously articulate and entertaining book The Tao of Meditation:Way to Enlightenment by Tsung Hwa Jou. He writes:

Like the shadow, which cannot perceive something above or below its plane, we live in a three-dimensional world, able only to experience reality in segments of time.

According to Mr. Jou, Man’s epistemologies and methodologies are all right from a three-dimensional point of view, and since this is our only possible viewpoint, they constitute the best means to the truth about our reality. Every religion, philosophy, or science is right in three dimension. . . with this caveat: these partial approaches to truth are like different windows in a large building. Each affords us a different view of the outdoors. A unified perspective, however, is gained only by leaving the building.

He continues:

What is the shape of life from a four-dimensional point of view? . . . Suppose there are sentient beings who have a natural capacity to see the four-dimensional shape of things. They could tell us what the shape of our life is; that is, they could see all at once what to us is separated as past, present and future.

Likewise, he assures us that in the fourth dimension, birth and death are not separate, discrete experiences, but rather part of an ongoing, continuous whole. Our birth and death are just another transformation of one form to another.

In sum, he agrees with other accomplished meditators who regard time as we experience it as but an illusion. The perception of beginnings and endings is the result of human limitations – being capable of seeing in only three dimensions.

Why does this matter to us NOW? Look at it this way. Mr. Jou’s Motive, his WHY appears to be a kindhearted desire to share wisdom received from direct experience, for which he is infinitely grateful. His Purpose, the HOW is to detail in a book the methods and benefits of meditation along with the supporting science which explains its effectiveness. His Intended end result, the WHAT, is to give readers a time-tested way to improve the quality of daily life for both individuals and their social combinations:

If people began to think past the limitation of three-dimensions, there would be more respect between men in the business of living together for the common good. Three-dimensional tensions would dissolve, and a spirit of cooperation and mutual generosity would spring up in human affairs.

But he also admits that describing direct experience of the fourth dimension is like describing the taste of an apple to someone who has never eaten one. Similarly, he describes a mother frog who answers her babies’ questions about sunlight, trees and land by telling them they’ll have to wait until they mature, shed their tails and swim to the surface of the pond to experience what’s beyond for themselves:

We who philosophize about time, we who are limited to three dimensions are like a school of tadpoles wondering about another world. Until we too are able to “drop our tails” and step into that dimension, time must remain a subject of speculation to us, as a drinking glass is to a shadow. Until we can experience time as a dimensional context, it must remain a flat reflection to us as the upper world is to the water-bound tadpole.

The question/challenge for us as tadpole-like humans is HOW do we get from here (three-dimensional, conflict-driven either-or thinking) to there (fourth-dimensional awareness within and beneficial, harmonious relationships with others in the world).

Training the mind to expand awareness has been the systematic task of monastic Asian traditions throughout the ages. At the current “time,” the benefits of meditation – significantly improved awareness and effectiveness – may well be a matter of both individual and collective survival.

To that end, I’ve been looking through an assortment of books, each of which opens a different window on the subject of Spiritual Intelligence. In the PB article, I placed this term in the larger context of the two-directional, multi-layered Life Wheel:

In terms of clinical psychology, intelligence at the outermost level is described as IQ, at the middle level as EQ (emotional intelligence) and at the third as SQ (spiritual intelligence).^.The levels, which actually flow along continuum, neither separate nor totally distinct, are linked in an infinite loop. The one who succeeds in joining them, living here and yet there, in the world but not of it, enjoys the experience of enlightenment – Christ Consciousness.

Each of the books on SQ (or SI) has its own point of reference, for example quantum physics, Christianity, etc. Interestingly, there’s also a forthcoming book on SI by and for Muslims based on teachings from the Koran. While a detailed summary is beyond the parameters of the current discussion, suffice it to say that although each author defines spiritual intelligence differently, they share a common intent.

Unfortunately, another thing Spiritual Intelligence books share in common is than none have gotten much traction. A quick tour through Amazon books shows that very few have been reviewed or purchased. Spiritual intelligence as a concept isn’t sexy. It is as if the concept is outside the “hearing” range of the general public. Why this remains so and what might be done to change this is yet another subject worthy of investigation and ACTION.

I do know, as do the authors of SI books who repeatedly call for “change,” that the future depends on such a reawakening. In the context of End of Time concerns, I’m reminded of Hexagram 49 of the Book of Change:

Day and night replace each other in endless cycles of CHANGE.

The same natural law generates flux in human events.

The unprepared see change as a threat,

but the well-prepared face the unknown calmly.

They know that after degeneration reaches critical mass,

regeneration follows.

In other words, one way or the other, preparation on every scale of magnitude will definitely make a great difference in the outcomes of as yet unforeseen futures waiting to be born. Overcoming the limitations of our current either/or way of thinking is an important first step. For, to repeat, as Einstein warned us, “We shall require a substantially different manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

For starters, thinking about this admittedly limited linear Essay on limitations may be helpful.

Essay 10. LIMITATIONS

“The Chinese concept of change, which gives the I Ching its validity, has found its echo in chaos theory. The concepts presented by this theory give us vital information about how the I Ching functions. Understanding this may help us cross the bridge between determinist rationality and chance, and go further toward our comprehension of this age-old system, which could have a profound influence on the rest of our lives”. — Cyrille Javary, Understanding the I Ching

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds

Or bends with the remover to remove.

Oh no! It is an ever fixèd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

“The Bible encodes all the possibilities, and what we do determines the actual outcome. . .The only thing that can be predicted is the probability of different events. Yet quantum physics is a highly successful branch of science. It works. Perhaps because it recognizes uncertainty as a part of reality. In the same way, the Bible code works . . . because it recognizes uncertainty as part of reality.” — Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code

THE FRONT

A limit is a point, line or edge where something ends or must end, a boundary or border beyond which something ceases to be or to be possible. A limitation is something that limits, as some factor in make-up which restricts the scope of a person’s qualifications, activity, or accomplishment. In law, it’s a period of time, fixed by statute, during which legal action can be brought, as for settling a claim.

On the positive side, we limit ourselves consciously by choosing how to allocate our attention, time and effort. This is called discipline and commitment. On the negative side, we unconsciously diminish our potentials, tying them up in knots of insecurity and doubt. Attitude limitations are as debilitating as physical handicaps. Often they’re unconsciously acquired, internalized by cultural conditioning and negative suggestions. Identifying and correcting these attitudes, overcoming unnecessary limitations, is essential to personal growth and fulfillment.

Rules of empirical science limit the field of knowledge to tangible things. Yet when we exclude the data of extra-sensory experience, we impoverish our lives. Instinct is a survival mechanism built into animals and humans alike. Dogs and horses, however, are sometimes more savvy about people than we are; they’re not fooled by false appearances. Intuition, however, is a gift exclusive to humans. It flashes on inventive thinkers when they see new possibilities or dream of futures not yet born.

The I Ching supplies a method for revitalizing instinct and intuition gone numb through suppression or lack of attention. It helps us link the middle octave of reason with the lower and higher octaves of experience, expanding our range of hearing and awareness.

People raised exclusively on empirical science limit their concept of love and joy to tangibles — physical beauty and sex appeal. When youth fades, marriage partners who lack wisdom are tempted to break their vows. Using the I Ching, however, helps fine-tune awareness of what changes, as well as that which remains constant. Using the I Ching as the foundation of realistic relationships, we build the inner consistency necessary to sustain commitments and complete long-term goals.

But just as an individual’s time on Earth is limited, civilizations and even planets pass in due course. At each stage in history, wisdom appropriate to the times is revealed to those who seek. Drosnin speculates that Newton’s intuited but evasive Bible code was purposefully hidden until the time that computers were invented to unlock it. Similarly, Einstein’s Unified Theory eluded him because he lacked yogic I Ching wisdom. In turn, it may well be that the extraordinary value of this text has been hidden for centuries, waiting for public understanding of binary-digital computer code, energy chakras and DNA genome theory to revolutionize our approach to the Book of Change.

THE BACK

The opposite of limitations is the unlimited. We call this infinity or the unknowable unknown. We are told we have unlimited potentials, but on the material plane they are framed by choice and the structure of whatever language we speak. Only the unfathomable, unnameable essence referred to as the timeless Tao or God — the alpha-omega source of creation — is truly without limitation.

When humans defy natural limitations of time, space and form, they are said to be delusional. When they behave in reckless, unrestrained ways, in defiance of their mortality, acting as if they were invincible and above the law, this is arrogance and sheer ignorance. Knowing one’s place in the universe is wisdom; resisting it is futile.

Rethinking HOPE

New years are traditionally welcomed as a harbinger of fresh hope and the opportunity for new beginnings. In these perilous times, I have searched my heart for the most realistic approach to fulling the eternal hope for love, unity and survival which everyone everywhere shares in common – a way that acknowledges escalating world challenges while balancing them with their inherent potential for renewal.

Because it rings true as the vision of realistic hope, I have chosen to return to this simple essay, written in the year 2000, included in Conscience: Your Ultimate Personal Survival Guide.

May your New Year be filled with the blessings of your dearest heart’s desire.

ESSAY 63. HOPE

Here the people could stand it no longer and complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best he could, holding out the good hope of the advantages they would have. He added that it was useless to complain, he had come [to go] to the Indies, and so had to continue it until he found them, with the help of Our Lord. — Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage

We are seeing a health care system in pain, people in pain, and a world in pain. I believe that something can be done to make it better. — Patch Adams, Gesundheit!

THE FRONT

Webster’s defines hope as a feeling that what is wanted will happen. It is a desire accompanied by expectation. It can mean that which one has a hope for. It can mean a reason for hope. A meaning listed as archaic is to trust or rely.

In I Ching context, hope transcends short-sighted wishing and emotional wanting. It is a trust that one has the wherewithal to respond appropriately to every change of fortune. It’s not total self-sufficiency, but awareness that one’s efforts are met half way. When one does the best one can, the rest is supplied in the right way, at the right time.

Daniel Goleman emphasizes the direct relationship between honest self-awareness and survival. Like Einstein and like Strauss & Howe (authors of The Fourth Turning), Goleman is a messenger of awareness we’re often trained to block out. His vision is in synch with The Book of Change philosophy in this: ignoring dangers, deceiving ourselves that all is well when it isn’t, doesn’t make problems go away. It only renders us powerless to recognize early warning signals in time to prepare and ameliorate the worst that might come.

In The Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe emphasize that declining resources will necessitate major changes in healthcare delivery. Anticipating that the cost of health-care will continue to rise and become increasingly unaffordable, they recommend that cost-effective, affordable alternatives be in put in place now. Forward-looking health practitioners are therefore now turning to inexpensive, preventive self-maintenance practices like Tai Chi, Qigong and yoga.

THE BACK

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