Success in Your Heart

Before starting on this let it be said right away that there is a big difference in asking the I Ching a specific question for a specific situation during a specific time, and asking the I Ching for wisdom and guidance in your daily affairs. If we get hexagram twenty nine for example, The judgment says, "If you are sincere, you have success in your heart and whatever you do succeeds." In answer to a specific question, this would mean that in this particular instance you can be successful providing you follow the advice given in the decision.

But when we are asking for wisdom from the I Ching, we read this differently. The judgment is saying, "If you are sincere, you have success in your heart," ALWAYS. Now that seems kind of strange since we all know we are not successful at everything we want to do, but that is because we are still trying to control situations with our conscious minds. We are not allowing things to flow. Now, I am not saying that we should always be successful even when our goals interfere with someone else's. No, that is not the point. The point is that if we are sincerely following our heart. If we are sincerely following the good, the most positive, and following the prompting of our heart's strings, we are always successful in accomplishing that which we are put on earth to do. But it doesn't just happen. It happens only when we follow the guidance given to us. It happens only when we are sincere in the good.

Another principle in relating to permanent success. Success does not always appear as such. Therefore, line three of hexagram forty two tells us that "we are enriched through unfortunate events." The problem is we experience things as negative and positive from our limited perspective, and think that what has happened is disastrous. But as the old saying goes, God (the universal subconscious mind) works in mysterious ways. Often, when things seem the gloomiest, when we "sit under a bare tree in a gloomy valley," and it seems that all is lost, that is when the most significantly unexpected thing happens, and all is changed for the good. But we cannot force this good, and it will not happen unless we possess the right attitudes and moral values while we go through this process. Hexagram five line six tells us that having "fallen into a pit all seems lost." And it is lost if we do not maintain the correct perspective." We must "resolutely go out to meet our fate," and to be accepting of it. In the midst of all we keep an inner calm, and a trusting heart. We are "sincere in our hearts." And despite having "fallen into the pit," we find that "fate is favorable." The commentary on line six of hexagram five says, "We must yield to the inevitable." But in doing so in the right manner, in full acceptance; in calmness and inner trusting, something unexpected happens. "Three uninvited guests arrive." At first we do not know the meaning of this, but once again we remain calm, fully accepting our fate, our destiny, we "greet the new turn with respect." When we wait in the calm assurance that while we consciously have no clue what is happening, yet we allow the universe to do its work, we find that we ultimately "escape the danger, and all goes well." If you are sincere, you have success in your heart; not just in this particular instance, but as a natural part of life. For the heart is the center of our being, it is the reflection of the love of God for all beings, and as such, cannot be wrong. If we follow the principles enclosed for us within the pages of the I Ching, we find that we merely follow our heart and all goes well. For it is the nature and principle of the universe, which gives us our destiny and our way, and that way, when we are sincere in the good, and calm and peaceful, our minds are at rest, we find we are successful in achieving our goals.