Just as I thought!

No one is out there listening. Well, I will carry on a conversation with myself here for a while I guess. It doesn't hurt me to remind myself of eternal truths now and then. For the Great Treatise, the I Ching says something to the effect that, it does not proffer enough to read the words, one must take the text, internalize the lessons therein, and make the text his/her own. In other words, the dail.y lessons have to be lived, not just intellectualized. Do you think you have the great wisdom the master's have? Then perhaps you are not honest with yourself about who you really are?

Is the world what you think it is? An objective reality outside of yourself independent of you? The other night I dreamed I was a butterfly, but then again, perhaps I am a butterfly that dreamed he is a man. Or perhaps the whole world is an illusion created by our own minds. Indeed, it is. It is, it truly is. "I thawt I thaw a puthy cat. I did, I did thee a puthy cat." (The world according to tweety). There is wisdom in everything. Why do we not see it?

"In" Joy

I'll bet I know what most of you forgot today! That's right, I know, like I am psychic or something. Well forget that crap, but you did forget to "in" joy. That's right! You forgot to "bring in" joy. Don't tell me, I already know! You were having a fight with your spouse, the kids were screaming, the bank is threatening to repossess the house, and the IRS is putting a lean on it. But you know what? All that stuff happened because you forgot to "in" joy. No, the spouse and the kids are not going to back off, at least not yet, but as you learn to just enjoy life more, you find out much to your surprise that life is more enjoyable. It's a spiritual principle. See? There really is such a thing as a spiritual principle, and you thought I was nuts, didn't you? You still do? Well, okay, but give it a try.

Short discussion today as I get off work late on Fridays, and have to be back early Saturday morning.

Of course... of course indeed. Is it not surprising that both the Bible and the I Ching as well as the Tao Teh Ching, and I suspect all other religious books, (someday I will actually read one) start out by comparing opposites, usually starting with light versus darkness? The opposites therefore, are part of one comprehensive whole. Is there freedom or predestination? They are two sides of the same coin. And of course, in "The Empire Strikes Back," part of the "Star Wars" series, Luke asks Master Yoda if the dark side is stronger. Of course it is not, but it is more deceptive, making journeyers fall for the destructive power of the darkside. It cannot be stronger for it is only the yin side of the comprehensive whole, and as such is a mirror image of the other. A mirror image cannot be stronger or weaker, it is equal, but with left and right reversed. As such it is sometimes said, "to be a true champion, one must explore the darkness also," as did Luke in the cave, again in the movie, "The Empire Strikes Back."

Blog This!

Okay, so I figure out that if you hit a button that says "blog this!". like some sort of a challenge, and I actually accept the challenge, I get to write some worthless, meaningless drivel on here that no one will ever read, much less care about, but then that is the nature of life, and the nature of life is that a few may actually care, that is, if it is material that interests them, and has some value to them personally, and also, assuming they ever find out about this blog in the first place.

With that introduction, let me say that most of the information I have to give to the world is out there in some sort of book somewhere, if you care to read 20,000 pages a month, etc., but some of it isn't too. Although many of the ideas I came up with in my own little brain, I later on found those same ideas in a book somewhere. But the nature of such important books as the I Ching, is that even though you can just read the book, it is through daily ingestion of the meanings that a deeper level of meaning shines through. And why is that important? Well, it's not if you just want to believe in the status quo, and are convinced for some ridiculous reason that this life is all there is, (and here I can make some derrogatory comments about certain classes of people, but that gets us nowhere) and that when the death lady sings, its all over baby, or even that when you are out of college you have learned everything anyone could possibly need to learn. How many of us believe that? Well many, but if you are one of those people maybe this site isn't for you, unless, of course, you have an open mind and are willing to learn something a college professor cannot or will not teach you.

More on this later. I hear a hot latte calling.
Gene

I Ching for personal development

Hi everyone out there. My name is Gene. I am an admirer of the I Ching and have been studying it for probably, oh, about thirty five years, off and on. Of course, that doesn't mean classroom study, more, just, when I can, I ask of it advice.

This is primarily an I Ching study blog. Don't know if anyone out there will have any interest in it, or if anyone will even chance upon this site. But I am hoping they do and the numbers will grow, and wisdom will be dispensed. Although it is primarily an I Ching site, I encourage the discussion of related topics also, especially esoteric Christianity, not mainline.

I grew up in Boise, Idaho, at that time a small town, now as I understand, a pretty big city. I met people there that challenged my thinking processes and got me started on a different kind of spiritual path than that that parents and others taught. Here I hope we can have a journey delving into spiritual truth.

Okay, with all that being said, the next step is for me to figure out how to actually maintain a dialogue here and say what I want to say. This type of service seems very limited to me but for now I will make the best of it. So, let the journey begin.