Day 22,059 - Ching Reflections: Water over Lake[xx....]>>>Mountain over Lake

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Day 22,059  - 2011 1225
Belov-ED Days - 4970
Sunday
James Oliver Smith, Jr.
http://josjr.com/
http://ichingreflections.com/

I Ching images

Fu Hsi Sequence
Hexagram 14: Restraint, Limitation, Restricting, Moderation
01 ---  ---X Water (Fog, Rain, Mist, Haze, Floods)
02 --------X Ears
04 ---  ---  The Abyss, Danger, Confusion

08 ---  ---  Lake (River, Stream, Sea, Ocean, Pond, Marsh, Swamp, Well)
16 --------  Mouth
32 --------  The Joyful, Expression, Language

changing towards

Hexagram 15: Decline, Loss, Reduction, Decreasing
01 --------  Mountain (Cliff, Tower, Building)
02 ---  ---  Hand
04 ---  ---  The Keeping Still, Shelter, Barrier, Antiquity

08 ---  ---  Lake (River, Stream, Sea, Ocean, Pond, Marsh, Swamp, Well)
16 --------  Mouth
32 --------  The Joyful, The Expression, The Language

Day 22,059 - Images from the I Ching: Water [The Abyss] over Lake [The Joyful] (Hexagram 14 - Restraint, Limitation, Restricting, Moderation) changing towards [xx....] Mountain [The Keeping Still] over Lake [The Joyful] (Hexagram 15 - Decline, Loss, Reduction, Decreasing) -- Water over Lake places the external Abyss over the internal joy. This is a context where our inner happiness, expression and language can be muffled, limited or drowned by the overwhelming presence of uncontrolled Water in the form of floods, rain, mists, fog and other confusing, dark mystical phenomena. For me, the imposed seriousness, the expectation for some kind of joy and the drive for fulfillment of some desire are all pressures that can destroy the genuine joy and happiness that may well be lying within that inner Lake.

I think it is important to focus on the joy that lies within and ignore the complexity of demands swirling around us. There is very little that I resent more than to be _told_ to do something that I would have otherwise done on my own. It is almost as if many want to claim the "joy" that they try to command out of us. The entire end-of-year madness is full of this kind of confusing powerplay from relatives, churches and the culture at large. This might be the best time for some personal time. Or if there are activities it may be important to _not_ feel like we need to be the life of the party. We all have joy needing to be express. Don't let the fog and confusion of Water destroy it.

I have often contemplated why Water in the cosmology of the I Ching is associated with the Ears, and then when I think about how we tend to complicate our lives when we try to take action (Thunder) or say something (Lake) in a dangerous or confusing context I realize that perhaps in times such as this it is better to sit back, be reflective and _listen_ (Ears). When confused and uncertain, observe and listen ... don't act!.

The two changing lines in this image of Water over Lake doesn't remove or even reduce the stress evident within these images, it actually sustains and perhaps even amplifies the stress, for the following image of Mountain over Lake highlights the potential for reduction, loss of energy and a decline of opportunity, or at least the potential for decreasing accomplishments. The great Mountain is being worn away by the depths of the Lake at its base. Even the Mountain needs to be aware of its own impermanence. However, as always, no one element in the Universe is everlasting, yet all elements in the Universe will be continually present forever, if in different form. The Mountain becomes topsoil from which life grows within the Earth and new Mountains will rise.

With aging, I am continually reminded of my own decline. In this time of economic stress, the abrupt ending of my career, the loss of my eyesight, and the loss of many relationships over the years I feel I have become intimately familiar with the Mountain dissolving, slipping, cascading into the depths of the Lake. The inevitability of it is palpable. I am continually, increasingly, drammatically aware that each and every word I write could be my last. This, of course, puts a great deal of pressure on each decision on which word to write, which person to visit, which step to make, which course to take. At times I yearn for that youthful indifference to the presence of time. In my youth I actually embraced time, wanting it to flow past at a feverish pace to get beyond wherever I was at the time. But now my Mountain doesn't seem so vast and longlasting.

So, does that mean that we should stop writing words, taking steps, making new friends, visiting old friends and thinking new thoughts that could lead to new projects? Whithin the Universe, there is no shortage of phenomena that last for only a pico second. There are species of animals that live for only a few hours. It occurs to me, that the real value of life is that we actually live it, for ourselves and all that is around us, regardless of how short or significant that life is.

An Italian journalist and writer Tiziano Terzani ( http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiziano_Terzani ), who died of cancer in 2004 and who I have come to appreciate with each passing second of my own life, continued to write with a flourish right up to the moment of his death. For many years he embraced many elements of eastern philosophy. In an interview, his son Folco Terzani was asked (about his father Tiziano) what was his father's greatest teaching. Folco said "That your life is yours, and it is up to you to live it. The rest is a side dish: you are alone." («La tua vita è tua, e sta a te farla. Il resto è contorno: tu sei solo.»)

I guess I have come to understand that until that last grain of soil within my Mountain dissolves in the waters of the Lake, I will continue to write, I will continue to fill the Caffettiera with coffee grounds and bring a hot cup to the Contessa and I continue to tap my way around street signs on the sidewalk ... il matto ...

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