24.1.14

That Rainbow Connection Thing.


I love being 40.

Everyday I'm able to sing to myself "We have done just we set out to do!" I recognize my privilege in that every day that passes I am able to keep doing just that: face-down forward into goal setting and achieving, and my-god-it's-not-easy, but odds aside, here's my latest:


18.1.14

What The Heck is the I-Ching. (Part I)

Have you ever had that moment when you realize you have become so deeply passionate about something and then think: "Maybe no one knows what I'm talking about anymore..." Luckily, the I-Ching is a well traveled thing, - many people have at least heard of it - and in having moved toward working with others from the past few years I am avoiding this pitfall. 

However(!) Just in case(!) I'm going to write a few posts to introduce my guests to just what-the-heck I'm doing. 


I host for I-Ching readings, and each one proves to be a very meaningful experience for my guests. And(!) it always proves to be a step-along-the-path for myself. I-Ching is truly one of the great Wonders...

Sitting with others contemplating I-Ching is truly my favourite thing to do. It is perhaps one of the oldest methods for decision making, inner contemplation, peace, and experiencing oneself by a seamless extension of nature. The I-Ching is the study of Yin & Yang, the two most universal energies to all things, all people, and all time.

The process revolves around crafting or uncovering a question unique to you. We all have multiple themes and relationships running through our lives, and underneath our actions and busyness resides a question: perhaps scratching under the surface with a bit of unrest, pushing you forward, holding back its clear understanding... Sitting with I-Ching is a time to uncover this question, and to use meditation to reveal the process by which you may proceed with greater certainty and understanding.

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It never ceases to surprise me how deeply calming (and relevant!) I-Ching is for the questioner. I-Ching simply reveals 'what-is,' pointing a way to greater sensations of Acceptance and even Gratitude. And here's an interesting thing... I never want to know what your question is. ...

I'm not a psychologist or a counsellor or anything like that. I am quite simply 'well-traveled.' (Like, getting-old.) I speak only toward the actions of Yin & Yang at the time of our reading, which allows you your much deserved Privacy. And it allows me to speak with ease about the thing I've studied so dearly. 

The method is easy to follow, step-by-step, and progressive. I take you through this at your unique pace - like untangling a ball of Christmas-lights(!..) When you first 'take them out of the box,' it's kinda like "Why, again, do we do Christmas?.." But, strand by strand, the thing gets lain out in a highly manageable sequence, you set up the tree, and by the time the sun goes down there is a thing of beauty to gaze upon. ... Such is Your Question. The first reading acquaints a person with the breadth of I-Ching, and subsequent readings deepen your own process of discovery.

Even though I keep rather busy, my time is flexible. I do not charge for the I-Ching session (just yet!) however, I do have my own published book on the subject ($25 www.thebookofgardens.com) and am donating 20% of proceeds to Johnson's Landing to aide in transition and recovery from the largest landslide to hit the region in 12,000 years. 

I'd be very happy to step through the book with you after we sit together over tea, your question, and a guided meditation. I would also be happy to work with you on-line as well if there is too great a distance to travel to me for tea.

Enjoy the day - talk to you soon.

Phil

11.1.14

This Way: Peace and Your Direction.

In my most favourite book, the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu speaks with a unique precision about Virtue. He is precise while being esoteric; hence the book's timeless allure, and its sense of mystery. This is also why Lao Tzu remains what I call a 'true teacher,' in that he gives you a definite invitation toward something he has learned - without spelling it out for you. In the Taoist tradition, he is called an "immortal" by this, his effective teaching, and the universal depth he offers.

Reading the Tao Te Ching you indeed gain a sense of Lao Tzu being a kind and gentle companion. His words - without an ounce of force - truly inhabit you. His wonder, his inner peace, his clarity, his humour.... these things are passed onto you through this idea he wraps up into the word Virtue. It becomes a jam packed word - radiant - and countless people like myself move through their lives with a sense of certainty and gratitude for him having (eventually) shared his knowing.

Taoism is understood through the observing of Yin & Yang. And the I-Ching is the Tao symbol described in complete detail. If you think of this symbol as a mask, and pull off the mask, behind it are sixty-four symbols, called Hexagrams, which depict the very fine balancing of Yin & Yang: Yang the solid line and Yin the 'broken' - like two dashes.

In my Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, I have gone through the lessons of meditation from each line of the I-Ching, condensing my study into sixty-four six-line poems: "The Gardens." At the end of these poems is a long poem, "The Shorelines of Johnson's Landing" which reflects back the totality of this study, and what a more mindful life feels like and what it may look like, encouraging a grace and acceptance of our ecological and spiritual limits. The book also contains sections on how to use the I-Ching toward your own life decisions, whilst holding in the backdrop the meta-goal of a complete  sense of self-acceptance and awareness of Tao. I include a brief non-denominational meditation instruction, and two longer essays on where all of this can be readily applied today: an essay on growth-only economics, and where we need head as a species, toward an appreciation of our one world, our Earth. I call this Eco-Theology, the Practical Value of Wonder. 

Best to You - Phil

www.thebookofgardens.com