Our own quality and the quality of society 'goes up' every time we choose to emphasize humanity, the central virtue of Confucianism, the quality of human beings, over all other concerns. This quality of human beings this 'Humanity' in Confucianism, Humanity is the enlivening, life-giving spirit of the individual and through extension, society. Moreover, humanity is the root of all other virtues including true faithfulness, loyalty to one's true self and empathy with the deep humanity of others. It is the essential oneness through which can more deeply understand the depth of all things, including other people as with empathy.
"According to (Confucius') thinking, humanity (jen) is the key virtue or central idea, equivalent to oneness," (Yi Wu, Chinese Philosophical Terms, p. 4)
and "Confucius said, 'Ts'an, my way is to perform all actions in (oneness)' Ts'an Tzu said 'Yes.'
After Confucius went out, the disciples asked him, 'What did he say?'
Ts'an Tzu answered, 'The way of our master is only loyalty (chung) and empathy (shu)'(Wu, Analects IV, 15)."
Confucius made a continuous effort to, perform all actions in oneness, to deepen his understanding and practice of humanity. Confucius performed all actions according to one principle because he knew this to be the most important work of any human being. He understood it as his destiny to manifest humanity in his own unique time and position. When we make an effort to increase our understanding and practice of humanity we perform this most important possible work possible, in the most important way possible; we fill our own life position with the quality of humanity.
Deepening and heightening this sense of our own humanity we can better deepen and heighten our understanding of others, our ability to empathize.
For both our relationship with ourselves and with others this results in an ability to simplify, prioritize, and harmonize.
Confucius made one simple decision, one continuous cultivation that took all his effort; to understand humnaity and thus to be truly humane. Better understanding and acting through humanity, for Confucius, meant understanding and acting through the most important and enlivening principle that we share with both Heaven and Earth. This humanity, our own life giving ability, is indeed the source of all other life-giving, 'spiritualizing' virtues including true empathy. With a shallow understanding and practice of humanity, we will only be able to empathize (or project) with shallow and superficial aspects of ourselves and others. When when continuously make an effort to 'go up' in our understanding we manifest our own humanity and empathize with the deepest and most beneficial aspect of others; their own humanity.
Through this oneness of action and effort we take heart that no matter the outside circumstance, we are doing our best, our part to heighten, enhance and increase the spiritual life, the quality of society through loyalty to our truest selves and empathy with others.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Dealing with Change: The Superior Person of Confucianism in the I Ching (Book Of Changes)
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is a guide to understanding the principle of change. Confucius transformed the I Ching into a philosophical and ethical guidebook, showing superior people cultivating virtue within change.
Confucius’ commentary on the I Ching, the Great Commentary, the Ta Chuan, gives the superior person instructions on how to understand “i” (易) the principle of change. This understanding enhances, enriches, and opens their lives up to become greater, truer, more harmonious, deeper, more meaningful, and more beneficial to society. This opening up is an opening up of the superior person’s truer spiritual life. This true life comes from seeing their immediate position, their immediate circumstance, in all its depth.
Heaven is a key term in the Ta Chuan. Heaven means “sky,” but it also means “metaphysical,” “transcendent,” “beyond,” “above,” and most importantly “the seed of life,” “the life-giving principle” (Yi Wu 1986, 10, 11/ Wu 1992, 97-102). The term Heaven can encompass the summation of all things beyond our comprehension. That is because Heaven initiates the movement, the continued unfolding, the interplay of all things. This origination is the life-giving power of Heaven. It originates, initiates, and remains at the root of all things. Superior people work to understand the movement of Heaven because it is the key to truly understanding all things.
The movement of Heaven shapes the events of life, both in the sense of the sky moving, from clear, to cloudy and rainy, and in the sense of Chinese astrology, but most importantly as the metaphysical root of all things. Rain and sun give life to plants on earth in their position just as following the Way of Heaven gives spiritual life and destiny to human beings in their’s. The Ta Chuan gives the superior person instructions on observing, understanding, and following the principle of Heaven and understanding its pattern of unfolding on Earth.
Superior people practice virtue and unite Heaven and humanity in oneness. Anyone can be a superior person any time they practice virtue. Superior people achieve oneness with Heaven, achieve their true humanity when they wait, in their position, for egotistical obscurations, impositions of self that can cover true understanding, to clear. As they clear, Ch’ien, the light of ‘Heaven’, can shine into their understanding—it opens, nourishes, and gives spiritual life, understanding, and oneness to their humanity. When the superior people embody this oneness in their position, they bring oneness with Heaven to K’un, the Earth (the phenomenal), illuminating existence at a higher level. The I Ching gives the superior person instructions on how to cultivate from their position, ‘spiritualizing’, giving this higher meaning to their ordinary life, to daily affairs and relationships.
Confucius knew when to use and emphasize softness (yin energy) in the I Ching, and when to use more direct methods (yang energy). When we look at his influence on the Ta Chuan, we can see that Confucius understood the importance of maintaining harmony between hardness and softness. The I Ching, through the philosophy of Confucius, instructs superior people on how to maintain harmony and enlarge the Way in their lives.
The superior person unites Heaven and humanity into oneness through understanding. Understanding Heaven in the physical world, the superior person is like a metaphysical scientist. When superior people deeply contemplate the pattern of the Earth, they see the very subtle beginning of change. Superior people allow preconceptions to dissipate and thus return to clear mind that naturally connects with the Heavenly principle in oneness with their humanity, with others, and with the spiritual life of all things. This clear mind responds to and unites with the Heavenly principle in all things. This resonant response is called perfect communication, or connecting with Heaven. Superior people thus work to open the Way for Heaven to emerge into peoples’ consciousness of daily life.
The wisdom that grows from maintaining a connection to the metaphysical, enlivening understanding of the world, inspires superior people and motivates them to harmonize the world, thus opening the Way for the benefit of Heaven to enter and expand. With wisdom they become able to understand ‘the proper way’ to proceed. Practicing the proper way means knowing how and when to act. Practicing the proper way is practicing to maximize their potential, from within their position by enlarging the Way. This ‘proper way,’ means bringing the wisdom of the metaphysical into the world, opening the Way for its beneficial qualities to emerge into prominence in peoples’ understanding and practice. That is how superior people harmoniously benefit the world, by practicing the proper way from their unique position. By practicing the proper way, superior people are truly of harmonious benefit and help unite Heaven and Earth into oneness.
These key ideas from the Ta Chuan are meant to show us and help us practice the two sides of oneness, the two sides of the Way in the phenomenal, the yin side and the yang side. The moving, Heavenly, the metaphysical, the subtle, the sincere, the easy, the transformative the bright, the spiritual, the vast aspect of change, heave—these give life to all things. The resting, Earthly, phenomenal, accomplished, humble, simple, changing, dark, physical, specific aspect of change, Earth; these give shape and substance to all things. To gain wisdom and insight into the workings of change, we can study the Book of Changes and observe its principle at work all around us. Observing these changes around us means remaining aware of, attentive to, open to, flexible with the movement of change through the phenomenal world. Observation is the key to experiencing these two principles and their dynamic interaction. The better we learn how these two principles complement and harmonize each other through observation, the better able to use, practice and cultivate them we will become. When we see their timely response around us, we can imitate and emulate them.
In some situations we should use soft, indirect methods. In others we should be firm and direct. Superior people use these methods, these principles according to the time and according to their position.
Superior people work to emulate Heaven, in its giving of life to the various positions. They observe the Way of Heaven, its virtue of giving life, and they bring it to their position. Through observation they catch deeper and more subtle beginnings. As they learn the principle of change they become better able to respond appropriately thus restoring and continuing the originally good, harmonious principle. They work to remove obstructions and become adept at opening the Way for this harmony to continue far into the future. Superior people observe, and then return to themselves, return to the original, to the source and connect with Heaven.
Superior people continuously return, reevaluate, and reexamine, themselves. They constantly rejuvenate their connection to the Way to avoid deviation and continue their work. Through practicing their own proper way superior people harmoniously benefit all things. They observe the phenomenal to understand and enlarge the Way for the metaphysical. In one example, we can understand the pattern of the Earth in the seasons. Everything comes out of winter into new life, working producing, moving at a greater and greater rate expanding into the peak of summer before returning again, slowing down and resting in the stillness of winter. We too need this rest, this stillness. We need to allow the old to fall away, to return to simplicity and contemplate the source of life before going out and gradually expanding again. Superior people are able to empty their thoughts. They decrease thought and decrease action, returning to the space ‘beyond thought’ and ‘beyond action’, allowing the original source to arise into prominence in their consciousness.
Just as superior people see the spiritual in the world, we should see Heaven in our destiny, the principle of change unfolding to spiritualize our lives. Our Heaven’s destiny is what is set before us in our true life. Just as superior people know and practice the easy and simple we too can avoid, the complications that arise from striving to flee from our responsibilities, from our position. This is the way to avoid exhausting our energy and living in fantasy. Avoiding this, returning to reality, we can instead observe the principle working in our daily life, the work of the spiritual in our position, destiny in our responsibilities. We can meet what is around us and respond well, respond in harmony. We can contemplate the metaphysical in and around us and act in the phenomenal. Repeating this over and over again we gradually go up. When Heaven dictates the time, we can move up in our position accordingly. Avoiding deviation, avoiding exhaustion takes a cautious mind. With caution we can avoid going to extremes. When we return to this true life we return our consciousness to our immediate surrounding and our immediate self. In this way our lives, our immediate surroundings and our immediate selves, through investigation, become spiritualized.
This constant Way in and through life, is true life. It is the easiest and the simplest. It is continuing the source, the life-giving principle. Each thing manifests this source in the phenomenal. All things grow through change enlarging the Way into new directions and new times bringing true life into being.
The philosophy of Confucius as outlined in these commentaries on the principle of change, emphasizes following our position and manifesting the Way of Heaven. In this way we maximize our potential for transformative work by using our energy to enliven and spiritualize our unique opportunities, our unique responsibilities, our unique time and space. When we accept our position and cultivate it we follow the principles of change and the principle of our true life. Through observing our position, we deepen our understanding. Through studying the principle of change we are always moving up in our knowledge. Through moving up in our understanding and knowledge our position becomes more and more enriched.
When we have perfect communication with the metaphysical we can observe the outside change with detachment. The comings and goings of outside change are just ripples on the surface of a spiritual ocean. When we can achieve this sort of objectivity we can see the world as it is without being swayed by desire for pleasure or aversion to pain. From this perspective we can feel free and confident to do what we must do, without attaching to the results. Our Heaven’s destiny, our frame, is the field of our action. When we take what we cannot or should not change as fate and act on what can or should transform as our destiny, we need not be perturbed by the comings and goings of change. When we can clear away attachments and live without deviating from our goal, our daily work, we return to our true life. We can continuously let go of all the aspects of life that we should not use and remain loyal to our destiny. We can let things go their own way so they will naturally move with the changes, moving towards what they are drawn towards without our obstructing them, moving towards what they have attracted into their lives. Superior people do this by allowing unwholesome influences to pass and moving closer to the good. This way they keep to the constancy of their true path.
Everyday people are coming and going, crossing paths. People are on the move. Different paths, different influences, different desires cross and re-cross each other. Superior people simply return their minds to the root of the principle of change, the same source that is the origin of all paths. Superior people follow the simple and easy, concentrating on their own path as the Way to bring about transformation. When we understand the principle of change and our position in it, then we will understand the value of practicing virtue, as superior people to deal with change.
Confucius’ commentary on the I Ching, the Great Commentary, the Ta Chuan, gives the superior person instructions on how to understand “i” (易) the principle of change. This understanding enhances, enriches, and opens their lives up to become greater, truer, more harmonious, deeper, more meaningful, and more beneficial to society. This opening up is an opening up of the superior person’s truer spiritual life. This true life comes from seeing their immediate position, their immediate circumstance, in all its depth.
Heaven is a key term in the Ta Chuan. Heaven means “sky,” but it also means “metaphysical,” “transcendent,” “beyond,” “above,” and most importantly “the seed of life,” “the life-giving principle” (Yi Wu 1986, 10, 11/ Wu 1992, 97-102). The term Heaven can encompass the summation of all things beyond our comprehension. That is because Heaven initiates the movement, the continued unfolding, the interplay of all things. This origination is the life-giving power of Heaven. It originates, initiates, and remains at the root of all things. Superior people work to understand the movement of Heaven because it is the key to truly understanding all things.
The movement of Heaven shapes the events of life, both in the sense of the sky moving, from clear, to cloudy and rainy, and in the sense of Chinese astrology, but most importantly as the metaphysical root of all things. Rain and sun give life to plants on earth in their position just as following the Way of Heaven gives spiritual life and destiny to human beings in their’s. The Ta Chuan gives the superior person instructions on observing, understanding, and following the principle of Heaven and understanding its pattern of unfolding on Earth.
Superior people practice virtue and unite Heaven and humanity in oneness. Anyone can be a superior person any time they practice virtue. Superior people achieve oneness with Heaven, achieve their true humanity when they wait, in their position, for egotistical obscurations, impositions of self that can cover true understanding, to clear. As they clear, Ch’ien, the light of ‘Heaven’, can shine into their understanding—it opens, nourishes, and gives spiritual life, understanding, and oneness to their humanity. When the superior people embody this oneness in their position, they bring oneness with Heaven to K’un, the Earth (the phenomenal), illuminating existence at a higher level. The I Ching gives the superior person instructions on how to cultivate from their position, ‘spiritualizing’, giving this higher meaning to their ordinary life, to daily affairs and relationships.
Confucius knew when to use and emphasize softness (yin energy) in the I Ching, and when to use more direct methods (yang energy). When we look at his influence on the Ta Chuan, we can see that Confucius understood the importance of maintaining harmony between hardness and softness. The I Ching, through the philosophy of Confucius, instructs superior people on how to maintain harmony and enlarge the Way in their lives.
The superior person unites Heaven and humanity into oneness through understanding. Understanding Heaven in the physical world, the superior person is like a metaphysical scientist. When superior people deeply contemplate the pattern of the Earth, they see the very subtle beginning of change. Superior people allow preconceptions to dissipate and thus return to clear mind that naturally connects with the Heavenly principle in oneness with their humanity, with others, and with the spiritual life of all things. This clear mind responds to and unites with the Heavenly principle in all things. This resonant response is called perfect communication, or connecting with Heaven. Superior people thus work to open the Way for Heaven to emerge into peoples’ consciousness of daily life.
The wisdom that grows from maintaining a connection to the metaphysical, enlivening understanding of the world, inspires superior people and motivates them to harmonize the world, thus opening the Way for the benefit of Heaven to enter and expand. With wisdom they become able to understand ‘the proper way’ to proceed. Practicing the proper way means knowing how and when to act. Practicing the proper way is practicing to maximize their potential, from within their position by enlarging the Way. This ‘proper way,’ means bringing the wisdom of the metaphysical into the world, opening the Way for its beneficial qualities to emerge into prominence in peoples’ understanding and practice. That is how superior people harmoniously benefit the world, by practicing the proper way from their unique position. By practicing the proper way, superior people are truly of harmonious benefit and help unite Heaven and Earth into oneness.
These key ideas from the Ta Chuan are meant to show us and help us practice the two sides of oneness, the two sides of the Way in the phenomenal, the yin side and the yang side. The moving, Heavenly, the metaphysical, the subtle, the sincere, the easy, the transformative the bright, the spiritual, the vast aspect of change, heave—these give life to all things. The resting, Earthly, phenomenal, accomplished, humble, simple, changing, dark, physical, specific aspect of change, Earth; these give shape and substance to all things. To gain wisdom and insight into the workings of change, we can study the Book of Changes and observe its principle at work all around us. Observing these changes around us means remaining aware of, attentive to, open to, flexible with the movement of change through the phenomenal world. Observation is the key to experiencing these two principles and their dynamic interaction. The better we learn how these two principles complement and harmonize each other through observation, the better able to use, practice and cultivate them we will become. When we see their timely response around us, we can imitate and emulate them.
In some situations we should use soft, indirect methods. In others we should be firm and direct. Superior people use these methods, these principles according to the time and according to their position.
Superior people work to emulate Heaven, in its giving of life to the various positions. They observe the Way of Heaven, its virtue of giving life, and they bring it to their position. Through observation they catch deeper and more subtle beginnings. As they learn the principle of change they become better able to respond appropriately thus restoring and continuing the originally good, harmonious principle. They work to remove obstructions and become adept at opening the Way for this harmony to continue far into the future. Superior people observe, and then return to themselves, return to the original, to the source and connect with Heaven.
Superior people continuously return, reevaluate, and reexamine, themselves. They constantly rejuvenate their connection to the Way to avoid deviation and continue their work. Through practicing their own proper way superior people harmoniously benefit all things. They observe the phenomenal to understand and enlarge the Way for the metaphysical. In one example, we can understand the pattern of the Earth in the seasons. Everything comes out of winter into new life, working producing, moving at a greater and greater rate expanding into the peak of summer before returning again, slowing down and resting in the stillness of winter. We too need this rest, this stillness. We need to allow the old to fall away, to return to simplicity and contemplate the source of life before going out and gradually expanding again. Superior people are able to empty their thoughts. They decrease thought and decrease action, returning to the space ‘beyond thought’ and ‘beyond action’, allowing the original source to arise into prominence in their consciousness.
Just as superior people see the spiritual in the world, we should see Heaven in our destiny, the principle of change unfolding to spiritualize our lives. Our Heaven’s destiny is what is set before us in our true life. Just as superior people know and practice the easy and simple we too can avoid, the complications that arise from striving to flee from our responsibilities, from our position. This is the way to avoid exhausting our energy and living in fantasy. Avoiding this, returning to reality, we can instead observe the principle working in our daily life, the work of the spiritual in our position, destiny in our responsibilities. We can meet what is around us and respond well, respond in harmony. We can contemplate the metaphysical in and around us and act in the phenomenal. Repeating this over and over again we gradually go up. When Heaven dictates the time, we can move up in our position accordingly. Avoiding deviation, avoiding exhaustion takes a cautious mind. With caution we can avoid going to extremes. When we return to this true life we return our consciousness to our immediate surrounding and our immediate self. In this way our lives, our immediate surroundings and our immediate selves, through investigation, become spiritualized.
This constant Way in and through life, is true life. It is the easiest and the simplest. It is continuing the source, the life-giving principle. Each thing manifests this source in the phenomenal. All things grow through change enlarging the Way into new directions and new times bringing true life into being.
The philosophy of Confucius as outlined in these commentaries on the principle of change, emphasizes following our position and manifesting the Way of Heaven. In this way we maximize our potential for transformative work by using our energy to enliven and spiritualize our unique opportunities, our unique responsibilities, our unique time and space. When we accept our position and cultivate it we follow the principles of change and the principle of our true life. Through observing our position, we deepen our understanding. Through studying the principle of change we are always moving up in our knowledge. Through moving up in our understanding and knowledge our position becomes more and more enriched.
When we have perfect communication with the metaphysical we can observe the outside change with detachment. The comings and goings of outside change are just ripples on the surface of a spiritual ocean. When we can achieve this sort of objectivity we can see the world as it is without being swayed by desire for pleasure or aversion to pain. From this perspective we can feel free and confident to do what we must do, without attaching to the results. Our Heaven’s destiny, our frame, is the field of our action. When we take what we cannot or should not change as fate and act on what can or should transform as our destiny, we need not be perturbed by the comings and goings of change. When we can clear away attachments and live without deviating from our goal, our daily work, we return to our true life. We can continuously let go of all the aspects of life that we should not use and remain loyal to our destiny. We can let things go their own way so they will naturally move with the changes, moving towards what they are drawn towards without our obstructing them, moving towards what they have attracted into their lives. Superior people do this by allowing unwholesome influences to pass and moving closer to the good. This way they keep to the constancy of their true path.
Everyday people are coming and going, crossing paths. People are on the move. Different paths, different influences, different desires cross and re-cross each other. Superior people simply return their minds to the root of the principle of change, the same source that is the origin of all paths. Superior people follow the simple and easy, concentrating on their own path as the Way to bring about transformation. When we understand the principle of change and our position in it, then we will understand the value of practicing virtue, as superior people to deal with change.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Healing the Healer Within (part two of two)
...A healer must harness this power in order to be truly effective. A dedicated healer must give themselves time and space for contemplation of their own affairs and of their healing practice, i.e. their patients. When a healer refrains from pursuing exhausting unnecessary activities they can use their leisure time to rest, sit, rejuvenate, and contemplate the state of their various patients. It is in these moments of concerned contemplation that the proper way may present itself. Even if no answers are found at this time, the practice of sitting and waiting is fruitful so that we can live wholesome, healthy lives building energy, accumulating insight, until solutions do present themselves. When we practice this wholesome waiting we can enjoy our lives soaking up our leisure time most efficiently.
Perhaps we will use this healthy sitting, this true leisure, this healthy waiting as chance to unburden ourselves, allowing our minds to settle, listening to the world around us and the connecting with the rejuvenating silence beneath the every day sounds. Perhaps we will allow our eyes to scan freely around our surroundings, without desire. Taking this time, settling our minds and purifying our desires, gives us a foundation for beneficial action. From this equanimity we can avoid acting in ways that are harmful. We can become a settling force in the world, a force of peace and healing, avoiding the subtle, unconscious, harm we might cause when we act without mindfulness. When we have this equanimity, when we are mindful of how our actions will take root in the world, we can truly heal. Cultivating this equanimity through our practice of wholesome waiting, we can become effective healers. When we learn to sit and wait with ourselves, allowing impermanent thoughts and desires to pass without grasping at them, then we can learn to sit with those we wish to benefit without projecting our own preconceptions upon them. Furthermore, we can be with them in an effective way avoiding becoming preoccupied, or entangled with others in detrimental ways. We can sit and wait using each interaction as a potential nexus of transformation.
Sometimes we can foresee our interactions and anticipate what will be expected of us. We can prepare to enter these endeavors with a certain amount of energy. However, sometimes we are surprised how much energy our routine endeavors cost us. Sometimes unforeseen factors demand more from us. Other times we are called upon to undertake endeavors that are entirely unexpected. If we have utilized our rest time well we will be more than able to act correctly, with clarity and energy. None of us can foresee all that the future will demand of us. Therefore we must utilize our rest time as efficiently as possible. Life will provide us with the time to cultivate energy we need. If we find ourselves acting well, seeing clearly, healing, we will know that we have taken advantage of our time. We can avoid becoming disgruntled, whiney, or bitter because we will have the energy and equanimity to endure hardship. When we can avoid wasting our time or expending our energy in unwholesome endeavors, we can avoid danger in life. We can meet the challenges we must meet, and avoid unnecessary trouble.
We all know that when we are rested we perform well. Yet few of us avoid the exhausting pursuit of desire. If we can simple avoid this by resting well (sitting, exercising, meditating, emptying our minds, cultivating, nourishing virtue) we will build a foundation for right understanding and right action. We must make this ongoing practice of returning to ourselves a top priority. Cultivation in this way can lead to true empathy. This is necessary for becoming a true healer.
A true healer has deepened this practice to such an extent that it is second nature, each breath is an effortless return to oneself. A true healer constantly reinvents themselves in each moment to maintain loyalty to their true self and thus empathy with others. The practical cycles of rest and action, both great and small, are mastered by the true healer so that they can continually heal themselves and others. The greater the healer, the deeper the practice. Great healers must renew themselves in such a way, emptying their minds, returning to their true nature, maintaining their simple lives, in order to tap into the vast energy live gives them for fulfilling their duties. It is when we can begin to see our duties and daily activities as heaven sees them in our lives, that we can glimpse the value of our lives. When we glimpse this we will begin to reverence our actions and diligently attend to ourselves during periods of rest.
Perhaps we will use this healthy sitting, this true leisure, this healthy waiting as chance to unburden ourselves, allowing our minds to settle, listening to the world around us and the connecting with the rejuvenating silence beneath the every day sounds. Perhaps we will allow our eyes to scan freely around our surroundings, without desire. Taking this time, settling our minds and purifying our desires, gives us a foundation for beneficial action. From this equanimity we can avoid acting in ways that are harmful. We can become a settling force in the world, a force of peace and healing, avoiding the subtle, unconscious, harm we might cause when we act without mindfulness. When we have this equanimity, when we are mindful of how our actions will take root in the world, we can truly heal. Cultivating this equanimity through our practice of wholesome waiting, we can become effective healers. When we learn to sit and wait with ourselves, allowing impermanent thoughts and desires to pass without grasping at them, then we can learn to sit with those we wish to benefit without projecting our own preconceptions upon them. Furthermore, we can be with them in an effective way avoiding becoming preoccupied, or entangled with others in detrimental ways. We can sit and wait using each interaction as a potential nexus of transformation.
Sometimes we can foresee our interactions and anticipate what will be expected of us. We can prepare to enter these endeavors with a certain amount of energy. However, sometimes we are surprised how much energy our routine endeavors cost us. Sometimes unforeseen factors demand more from us. Other times we are called upon to undertake endeavors that are entirely unexpected. If we have utilized our rest time well we will be more than able to act correctly, with clarity and energy. None of us can foresee all that the future will demand of us. Therefore we must utilize our rest time as efficiently as possible. Life will provide us with the time to cultivate energy we need. If we find ourselves acting well, seeing clearly, healing, we will know that we have taken advantage of our time. We can avoid becoming disgruntled, whiney, or bitter because we will have the energy and equanimity to endure hardship. When we can avoid wasting our time or expending our energy in unwholesome endeavors, we can avoid danger in life. We can meet the challenges we must meet, and avoid unnecessary trouble.
We all know that when we are rested we perform well. Yet few of us avoid the exhausting pursuit of desire. If we can simple avoid this by resting well (sitting, exercising, meditating, emptying our minds, cultivating, nourishing virtue) we will build a foundation for right understanding and right action. We must make this ongoing practice of returning to ourselves a top priority. Cultivation in this way can lead to true empathy. This is necessary for becoming a true healer.
A true healer has deepened this practice to such an extent that it is second nature, each breath is an effortless return to oneself. A true healer constantly reinvents themselves in each moment to maintain loyalty to their true self and thus empathy with others. The practical cycles of rest and action, both great and small, are mastered by the true healer so that they can continually heal themselves and others. The greater the healer, the deeper the practice. Great healers must renew themselves in such a way, emptying their minds, returning to their true nature, maintaining their simple lives, in order to tap into the vast energy live gives them for fulfilling their duties. It is when we can begin to see our duties and daily activities as heaven sees them in our lives, that we can glimpse the value of our lives. When we glimpse this we will begin to reverence our actions and diligently attend to ourselves during periods of rest.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Healing the Healer Within (part one of two)
The world works in cycles of activity and rest. Just as the sun rises and sets, the year waxes and wanes from Spring to Autumn, we wake in the morning and rest in the evening. As in the outer world, Spring and Autumn, day and night, there are great and small cycles, so too are there great and small cycles in our lives. These cycles of activity and rest are critical for all of us, especially for those who wish to accomplish some great work, like healing. To be an effective healer we too must be mindful of these cycles in our own lives. Healers have great responsibility and must take on great endeavors, going outward, exploring, growing and benefiting others. But healers must always remember to return to themselves, nourish themselves, empty their minds and rest. With this balance healers can accomplish great things.
With proper nourishment and cultivation in periods of rest we can be responsive in tense situation as opposed to reactionary. If we have cultivated a proper detachment from the fleeting emotions that arise in our minds then we will respond from a space of effective freedom just beneath our surface reactions. From here we will have true insight into the nature of things. This is how we can provide some lasting benefit. With this right action, right response, we can truly heal.
This right action is rooted in proper rest, or proper cultivation. Instead of filling our time with various stimuli, we can take proper rest…sit with ourselves, live simply. This is why meditation is often called sitting. This sitting is the simplest and most important practical meditation we can do. To simply sit, nothing more, nothing less, is very important. Knowing when to sit and when to return to action is very important. Knowing where to sit and where to act is also very important. When we sit properly we can return to ourselves. And our mind can begin to settle like silt settles in a river after being disturbed. As the silt of our mind settles we can become more clear-minded. We can begin to see ways in which we should act properly and prepare for renewed work, renewed action with a settled mind. We can begin to see what is important and what our current life situation is asking from us. We can begin to enjoy and draw energy or inspiration from things around us… like looking at a clear landscape from a window, watching our pet cat or remembering the things we love about life, these things that we have sought in the past and how they have become manifest before us in the present. We can remember how we work best and how to organize our affairs in order to work that way again. In short, through proper rest, many unimportant thoughts and reactive habits can settle away leaving us with a clear view of our destiny in our current life situation.
From this proper rest we will be energized to remain in the proper way as we take action. Our clear vision from rest will remain with us as we face distractions and challenges in action. We will be less burdened by distracting, superficial, thoughts and emotions as they will have settled during rest. This will free up much energy that would have otherwise been expended chasing our tails around and around in our minds. This energy will emanate from us, into our work. We can put energy into working others, help them see how to disperse their own distractions, how to find their own clarity for self healing. We can see what it is we are supposed to do, with a clear mind. We can learn how it is we are supposed to act properly in each given situation.
There are many levels and forms of rest, for example the sun rests at dusk, the year rest in winter, and people rest in nightly sleep. In our daily lives when we begin to take on the habit of using rest wisely, we learn to restrain ourselves from expending our energy improperly. In this way we can learn to find moments of rest, great and small in heretofore unrecognized opportunities. We can find rest in various situations. For example when we refrain from talking when we have nothing to say, when we refrain from walking where we have no reason to go. This is the beginning of simplicity. This is what it means to truly have ‘priorities’. By practicing such restraint we will have energy for the things that truly matter, for the words that heal, or for the walking that takes us to our proper place. We will have time and energy for good food, because we will see that nutrition is a priority. We will restrain ourselves from arguing because we will not wish expend on our energy on such a fruitless endeavor.
As we keep practicing this restraint we find spaces of peace, opportunities for rest and cultivation even amidst chaos. Waiting until the proper time and place for action, we build up our energy until finally we find the time and place to speak or act appropriately, responding to our situation with deeper insight. When we avoid reactivity, avoid getting caught up in untimely and inappropriate entanglements, we create space for ourselves. This space is a free space from which we experience patience and equanimity. When we wait…cautiously, for our time to act we avoid putting ourselves in exhausting situations. When we act in this way we find more than enough energy for the actions for which we are destined. When we give our lives to only what we should do, avoiding deviations, we find that we have energy and strength for right action, for insightful response. This is healthy living. This is healing for the healers, so that they will be better able to truly heal others.
This same practice is important in monitoring our thoughts. When we learn to avoid continually cycling through inessential topics, we learn to maintain the capacity for thinking about the most important issues in our lives. For example, when we avoid continually busying ourselves thinking about celebrity divorces, or strategies for our favorite football team we can avoid expending our healing energy into unnecessary realms. If we use this thought energy to think about our bills, our meals, our loved ones and our relationships we can send our healing energy, our contemplative power into untying the knots of these issues...part two to follow
With proper nourishment and cultivation in periods of rest we can be responsive in tense situation as opposed to reactionary. If we have cultivated a proper detachment from the fleeting emotions that arise in our minds then we will respond from a space of effective freedom just beneath our surface reactions. From here we will have true insight into the nature of things. This is how we can provide some lasting benefit. With this right action, right response, we can truly heal.
This right action is rooted in proper rest, or proper cultivation. Instead of filling our time with various stimuli, we can take proper rest…sit with ourselves, live simply. This is why meditation is often called sitting. This sitting is the simplest and most important practical meditation we can do. To simply sit, nothing more, nothing less, is very important. Knowing when to sit and when to return to action is very important. Knowing where to sit and where to act is also very important. When we sit properly we can return to ourselves. And our mind can begin to settle like silt settles in a river after being disturbed. As the silt of our mind settles we can become more clear-minded. We can begin to see ways in which we should act properly and prepare for renewed work, renewed action with a settled mind. We can begin to see what is important and what our current life situation is asking from us. We can begin to enjoy and draw energy or inspiration from things around us… like looking at a clear landscape from a window, watching our pet cat or remembering the things we love about life, these things that we have sought in the past and how they have become manifest before us in the present. We can remember how we work best and how to organize our affairs in order to work that way again. In short, through proper rest, many unimportant thoughts and reactive habits can settle away leaving us with a clear view of our destiny in our current life situation.
From this proper rest we will be energized to remain in the proper way as we take action. Our clear vision from rest will remain with us as we face distractions and challenges in action. We will be less burdened by distracting, superficial, thoughts and emotions as they will have settled during rest. This will free up much energy that would have otherwise been expended chasing our tails around and around in our minds. This energy will emanate from us, into our work. We can put energy into working others, help them see how to disperse their own distractions, how to find their own clarity for self healing. We can see what it is we are supposed to do, with a clear mind. We can learn how it is we are supposed to act properly in each given situation.
There are many levels and forms of rest, for example the sun rests at dusk, the year rest in winter, and people rest in nightly sleep. In our daily lives when we begin to take on the habit of using rest wisely, we learn to restrain ourselves from expending our energy improperly. In this way we can learn to find moments of rest, great and small in heretofore unrecognized opportunities. We can find rest in various situations. For example when we refrain from talking when we have nothing to say, when we refrain from walking where we have no reason to go. This is the beginning of simplicity. This is what it means to truly have ‘priorities’. By practicing such restraint we will have energy for the things that truly matter, for the words that heal, or for the walking that takes us to our proper place. We will have time and energy for good food, because we will see that nutrition is a priority. We will restrain ourselves from arguing because we will not wish expend on our energy on such a fruitless endeavor.
As we keep practicing this restraint we find spaces of peace, opportunities for rest and cultivation even amidst chaos. Waiting until the proper time and place for action, we build up our energy until finally we find the time and place to speak or act appropriately, responding to our situation with deeper insight. When we avoid reactivity, avoid getting caught up in untimely and inappropriate entanglements, we create space for ourselves. This space is a free space from which we experience patience and equanimity. When we wait…cautiously, for our time to act we avoid putting ourselves in exhausting situations. When we act in this way we find more than enough energy for the actions for which we are destined. When we give our lives to only what we should do, avoiding deviations, we find that we have energy and strength for right action, for insightful response. This is healthy living. This is healing for the healers, so that they will be better able to truly heal others.
This same practice is important in monitoring our thoughts. When we learn to avoid continually cycling through inessential topics, we learn to maintain the capacity for thinking about the most important issues in our lives. For example, when we avoid continually busying ourselves thinking about celebrity divorces, or strategies for our favorite football team we can avoid expending our healing energy into unnecessary realms. If we use this thought energy to think about our bills, our meals, our loved ones and our relationships we can send our healing energy, our contemplative power into untying the knots of these issues...part two to follow
Saturday, September 4, 2010
'Transformational Education'
I was recently asked about the growing field of ‘transformational education’. This post relates that topic with 'Education' from the I Ching and Transformation from Chuang Tzu.
In “Original Confucianism: An Introduction to the Superior Person” I discuss Confucius and his disciples commentary on the Classic Book of Change, the I Ching. Their commentary hits on each of the 64 situation of changes described in the I Ching, including the fourth hexagram, the situation of ‘Education’, Meng:
"H-4, Meng, Education
山下出泉，蒙﹔君子以果行育德。
A spring pools up at the foot of the mountain:
Thus the superior people foster action
and nourish virtue.
A spring that pools up at the foot of a mountain has collected silt and become cloudy, obscured, after leaving its originally fresh, clear source. Confucius shows that in order to clear the spring again, superior people reestablish a connection to ‘the source’ bringing clarity to their action and thus nourishing virtue. The superior person fosters virtue with clarity, making a decision promptly, sincerely, from their originally good thought, from the source to deal with this situation. Fed from the originally clear source, the stream accumulates, energy, becomes clear again and can proceed to its intended destination, just as a person who has become muddled can wait, contemplate Heaven, accumulating its energy and clarity before proceeding on their proper way.
Superior people work to nourish action from this original clarity in themselves and from this purer mindset can contemplate others with a purer perspective. Doing this, superior people can practice the way of the educator. The educator sees the highest purest principle in their students and seeks to open the Way for them to understand it in themselves. Superior people recognize that knowledge should give a higher meaning to life and action. They realize that knowledge should nourish virtue, not just give students a means by which to scheme for profit."
This understanding of education is foundational to truly beneficial social and emotional learning, learning that balances and complements the acquisition of technical skill. Learning the way of humanity is also the foundation for lifelong faithfulness to one’s self and empathy with others. Education based on humanity is truly transformative.
Transformation is a key idea in the Chuang Tzu. Yi Wu describes it in his “Chinese Philosophical Terms” thus as having three meanings; transformation of time, such as birth and death, transformation in the cycles of nature, and:
“The way of transformation through effort:
The effort is that of cultivation or discipline of the mind. As one strives to achieve the highest state of spirit or true self, one’s nature will be sublimated to enter the essence of the Way. One transcends the changes of the physical body and transforms oneself with nature. ‘Forget both sides (relative ideas) and transform into the Way.’ (Chuang Tzu, Ch.6)
…This discipline or ‘cultivation’ is what Chuang Tzu called Sitting-Forgetting, which we would consider a form of meditation. It is the ‘forgetting’ of the world of temporal activity that is the gateway to ‘hua’ (transformation)” (Yi Wu, Chinese Philosophical Terms, p.23)
Understanding ourselves at the highest level, beyond time and ego, we understand our true selves. This true self is the essence of humanity. When we understand the essence of humanity, our relationship to knowledge is transformed. Our perspective on learning and of others is heightened. This is truly transformational education.
This sort of transformation education is essential for establishing vibrant ethics and spirituality today.
In “Original Confucianism: An Introduction to the Superior Person” I discuss Confucius and his disciples commentary on the Classic Book of Change, the I Ching. Their commentary hits on each of the 64 situation of changes described in the I Ching, including the fourth hexagram, the situation of ‘Education’, Meng:
"H-4, Meng, Education
山下出泉，蒙﹔君子以果行育德。
A spring pools up at the foot of the mountain:
Thus the superior people foster action
and nourish virtue.
A spring that pools up at the foot of a mountain has collected silt and become cloudy, obscured, after leaving its originally fresh, clear source. Confucius shows that in order to clear the spring again, superior people reestablish a connection to ‘the source’ bringing clarity to their action and thus nourishing virtue. The superior person fosters virtue with clarity, making a decision promptly, sincerely, from their originally good thought, from the source to deal with this situation. Fed from the originally clear source, the stream accumulates, energy, becomes clear again and can proceed to its intended destination, just as a person who has become muddled can wait, contemplate Heaven, accumulating its energy and clarity before proceeding on their proper way.
Superior people work to nourish action from this original clarity in themselves and from this purer mindset can contemplate others with a purer perspective. Doing this, superior people can practice the way of the educator. The educator sees the highest purest principle in their students and seeks to open the Way for them to understand it in themselves. Superior people recognize that knowledge should give a higher meaning to life and action. They realize that knowledge should nourish virtue, not just give students a means by which to scheme for profit."
This understanding of education is foundational to truly beneficial social and emotional learning, learning that balances and complements the acquisition of technical skill. Learning the way of humanity is also the foundation for lifelong faithfulness to one’s self and empathy with others. Education based on humanity is truly transformative.
Transformation is a key idea in the Chuang Tzu. Yi Wu describes it in his “Chinese Philosophical Terms” thus as having three meanings; transformation of time, such as birth and death, transformation in the cycles of nature, and:
“The way of transformation through effort:
The effort is that of cultivation or discipline of the mind. As one strives to achieve the highest state of spirit or true self, one’s nature will be sublimated to enter the essence of the Way. One transcends the changes of the physical body and transforms oneself with nature. ‘Forget both sides (relative ideas) and transform into the Way.’ (Chuang Tzu, Ch.6)
…This discipline or ‘cultivation’ is what Chuang Tzu called Sitting-Forgetting, which we would consider a form of meditation. It is the ‘forgetting’ of the world of temporal activity that is the gateway to ‘hua’ (transformation)” (Yi Wu, Chinese Philosophical Terms, p.23)
Understanding ourselves at the highest level, beyond time and ego, we understand our true selves. This true self is the essence of humanity. When we understand the essence of humanity, our relationship to knowledge is transformed. Our perspective on learning and of others is heightened. This is truly transformational education.
This sort of transformation education is essential for establishing vibrant ethics and spirituality today.
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