Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:19:02 -0400
Sent To: AdvancedReikiTopics@yahoogroups.com
Symbols: Part One: TAI CHI & JAH POV By Reverend R Clark <clark@acceleration.net>
Symbols: Parts: One, Two, Three, and Four.
The Bishop: “Do ya know why sex is so popular?”
- Masculine and Feminine attributes to energy, Yang and Yin forces are intriguing to me.
The Starlet: “No, why?”
The Bishop: “'Cause it's 'centrally located'.”
“The word "sym-bol" itself means two things put together.”
- It seems, All individuals have Female & Male characteristics depending upon where they fall on the "androgyny scale" so what I describe concerning Feminine and Masculine symbolism may or may not apply directly to individual people and situations between them and others.
- Joseph Campbell, "The Power of Myth"; ISBN# 0-385-41886-8 (P. 270)
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
- The "Tai Chi" symbol or what many call by its elements, "Yin-Yang" was/is a struggle for my Western mind due to its subtle nature. It refers poetically, I'm told to the Northern and Southern faces of a mountain, the sunny side and the shadow side. Note that each side is part of the Same Mountain. While it is tempting to apply the parts of symbol to other complementary pairings Tai Chi is perhaps better viewed as representing the whole enchilada containing them. The familiar 2D symbol is like a snap shot of what may be seen as a rotating wheel in 3D or above (spiraling through time).
- The glyph (symbol) for the Empress in Tarot is the unbroken circle. The glyph for the Emperor is the arrow (that which divides the circle). Feminine Energy travels in a circular path, going round and round, insular and stagnant, passive, receptive, Unconditional Love & nurturing, all thought and no action. Contrast this with Masculine Energy characteristics of the linear path, going from point "A" to point "B", active, emissive, Conditional Love & pruning, all action and no thought. When these two energies come together linear meets circular splitting the circle and combining with it to form a spiral.
- When two come together as complementary spirits it can be viewed that in the spiral created, there would be an ascending spiral and a descending spiral. The up leg bringing out the best and the down leg, well, the down direction suffice it to say is finding adventure in the shadow side of things.
- Good work if you can get it <grin>. Because when we are most uncomfortable it is the easiest time to connect with the root cause of that discomfort. This is how "weeds" are pulled in both my literal and figurative gardens, I wait for them to come up and pull them up roots and all (mantra - “ Very Pretty, Not Here.”).
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- However, I find that at some level or point of view or stance or just plain distance all this makes sense. From that place we may choose the "enriched, informed and happy" position as easily as any other channel.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
- His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (1935 - )
“What you see, depends on where you stand.”
- Ra Bonewitz in "The Cosmic Crystal Spiral"
- By way of visual demonstration please check the next clear table you come to after getting up from the computer. If you will, as you approach the table if clear or after you get there and begin to clear at least a good sized portion near the edge until you are certain you have a near perfectly flat surface to look at. Flat? You sure? Reposition your point of view so that you may sight across the longest part of the clear portion. Still Flat? Unless your table is far more precise than mine you will see that it is far from perfectly flat. This "snail's eye view" is where we find ourselves in life because it is so interesting, it is up front... in your face, as attention getting as a roller coaster.. hills and valleys.. ups and downs. Whereas at a more distant view these average out and are not apparent. JAH (God's) POV (point of view).
“Just as the eyes are for seeing and the ears for hearing, Peace is for perceiving blessings...”
- Nilton Bonder "The Kabbalah of Envy"
- An example of hearing this averaging might be found Music where in the scales or more accurately their temperament I think they call it, some of the notes are deliberately "out of tune" when they are in what is accepted as In tune. A big part of the concept of tuning came about due to the practical concerns of producing a particular range of notes limited to a mere fraction of the near infinite available frequencies in the audible range of which I seem to remember only 1000 are typically used by humans in music. Tuning is similar to other consensuses like our marking the passage of time, date &tc. these also being arbitrary conventions that folks agree on. So it seems we can focus on and perceive the elements that are "out of tune" or we have the choice to rise above them until the symphony is heard to be singing and swinging sweetly.
“There are different ways of listening to music.
There is a technical state when a person who is developing technique and has learnt to appreciate better music, feels disturbed by a lower grade of music.
But there is a spiritual way, which has nothing to do with technique.
It is simply to tune oneself to the music.”
- Hazrat Inayat Khan (Sufi master)
“*Love it the way it is.* The way you see the world depends entirely on your own vibration level. When your vibration changes, the whole world will look different. It's like those days when everyone seems to be smiling at you because you feel happy. The way to raise your vibration level is to feel more love. Start by loving your negative feelings, your own boredom, dullness and despair. It's hard to believe, but changing the *content* of your mind does nothing to change your vibration level. For the purpose of raising your awareness, it is useless to change your ideas, your faith, your behavior, your place of residence, or your companions. It is not arbitrary or an accident that you are where you are, so you might as well get your attitude straight before you make a change. Otherwise you might find yourself chasing all over creation looking for the right place, and not even the Sea of Infinite Bliss will feel right to you. You take yourself with you wherever you go. As they say in Zen: If you can't find it where you are standing, where do you expect to wander in search of it?”
- Thaddeus Golas in "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"
“If everything is connected to everything else, then everyone is ultimately responsible for everything.
We can blame nothing on anyone else.
The more we comprehend our mutual interdependence, the more we fathom the implications of our most trivial acts.
We find ourselves within a luminous organism of sacred responsibility.”
- Laurence Kushner in Invisible Lines of Connection
“Serving peace is not easy. Often it is harder to seek dialogue with someone close at hand a spouse, relative, co-worker, employer, or neighbor than with a distant enemy seen only on television screens.”
- Jim Forest (The Ladder of the Beatitudes)
“All things pertaining to spiritual progress in life depend upon peace.”
- Hazrat Inayat Khan (quoted in The Heart of Sufism edited by H. J. Witteveen)
Symbols: Continued on Page Two.
Related (offsite) How we confuse symbols and things
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