I took a walk last night past the park behind the school, and down by the river. It was 9:30pm, the sky was dark granite save for the bright light of the moon through wispy, fast-moving clouds. The light wind sweeps the streets in gentle curls, like the released lock of hair from a curling wand unwinds and bounces slowly before it settles into shape.
It was the first time I’d been out for a night-time walk in many months. The air was chilly and crisp. The scent of distant fireplaces wafted through the air and the chatter of dry leaves could be heard occasionally as the wind would bring some news of coming change, providing a new subject for the trees to chat about. As I walked past the creek the cool, humid air wafted from the river-bank bringing with it a decay of leaves and twigs.
I was anxious walking down this wooded alley – a cotton tail would zoom out of the bushes, sending a scurry of activity ahead of me, awakening my senses. Walking through the mausoleum of trees, with millions of small unburried bodies rotting in the night while the ghosts and groundsmen of this graveyard, the sentinels of the night kept watch over my journey. The scents of various trees gave away their personalities through scent as the night blindfolded me, and made me present to their formlessness. The essential smells of death surrounded me - A nutty oily burnt crackle, a mossy moist wet cigarette tobacco, a lemon-bright and crispy peat, a smoky mushroom-like rotten log. Richness, subtlety, spiciness, and essentiality.
As I crunched through the leaves I heard the sound of coyotes’ wailing in the distance, crying out towards the moon. The Halloween lights of the houses brought a warm orange glow, scattering the darkness. My throat, lips and mouth were getting dry, and my nose cold and battered by the crispness of autumn air. I put the hood over my head, becoming a shade with the rest of the night.
The spent structures of life lay all around in refuse heaps under the trees. As the essence is withdrawn, only the fiber and minerals remain to be moved by the waters to come into the depths to become possibility again in the spring.
Since the Metal element, and the balance between dryness and moisture determine what essences we absorb from the food, the air, out experiences, and facilitate the shedding of the inessentials through drying out the mass of content, and extracting the finest minerals – spiritual and mental constipation cause an excess of dryness, or a lack of dryness in the case of diarrhea, where we grasp for value everywhere we go, or cannot extract any value in our lives at all.
If people shed even the essential and only leave the structures of their lives in place, their lives would be as dry, mournful and barren as the autumn winds. Such people, lacking inspiration would become brittle, breakable, or hardened against life like the dry leaves and branches that lose the essences that give them life. Like dry bones, lacking essential miners to give them strength, these people would be as breakable, boring, and lifeless as an autumn branch. With complete dryness, their logic would lack space for emotion, whimsy, mystery and the imperceptible, and would instead define the world by ways of unemotional, cold, incisive logic born from analytical clarity. When the air is dry, we can see forever and can make out the small cracks and crevices of all life we behold. When we’ve dried out all the inspiration, emotion, and spirit from life, we can see all the structures that make life possible. To see the world so dryly our logic is impeccable, yet spirit and love are not logical. Through too much dryness we fail to see the things that make life worth living. Once a person has lost all inspiration for life, what would be left but to mourn existence itself.
The fall in some places brings mists and fog that cover the earth – obscuring the world in fantasy, the unknown. The fogs offer space for the imagination. The Metal element would thus live either in a space of wonder and awe at the meaning of the meanderings of life’s obscurations, or would live in an infinite state of anxious searching, longing to reach through the mist and grasp something solid, something firm, substantial – a point of reference for their lives. The dryness in the air can bring clarity to one’s life where one is bogged down by impurity that mists and confuses the mind. It is due to dryness that we can see the heavens and the earth clearly and without obstruction – but when dryness is all there is, the glaring reality of life ceases to inspire, and instead causes us to mourn the lack of mystery that gave us reason to quest in our lives for the essential in the first place.
The dichotomies of mysterious and ordinary, inspired and dry, beautiful and ugly bring into focus the duality of life, and within it, the oneness of the process of taking life in, and letting it go. No other element intercesses between the gates of life and death like the Metal element and no other season provides such poignancy.
I’m reminded of the Metal point of the Kidney (Water) meridian - “Returning Current” – the lightning bold of inspiration, the return of the waters of life from the gate of death, through and out of the gate of life as the Sheng cycle completes and life returns to the void of possibility. The point itself occurs to me as the high priest, perhaps the demiurge that presides over the process of reincarnation itself. Metal returns us to the father – the void. Inspiration and spirit are beckoned to come through the gate of death to arrive and flow into the sea of possibility itself as a thunderous surge announces “Spirit has returned to incarnate as you!”
Friday, October 29, 2010
10/20/2010 – A Lesson in Superficiality
In Autumn, the trees adorn themselves with the most splendid coats of bronze, gold, silver, copper, and gradients of opulent color. One tree outside my condo window adorns itself with deep royal red on the inside, and bright sunny gold on the inside. The gradient unfolds smoothly through gold and oranges from the molten core of color to the cool, bright and royal purple exterior. With each passing day I see the gradient shift and change as the gold brilliance radiates from the inside of the tree out to its outstretched branches. The aspen trees that surround it rattle their perfectly round leaves like a rain of coins glistening and sparkling in the sun.
The wind shakes and agitates them and they soar throat the air – look at me, look at me – before sinking slowly, or plummeting to the ground to lay dead, motionless, and ultimately lifeless – their last sputtering flight a summation of the result of temporary stardom. You’re dead, boring, and you will be forgotten when the next wave of bright stars glistens through the sky.
While the tree visibly displays its splendor to the world, the lesson of what is essential and of true value is hidden in plain view. The splendor the tree displays on the outside, in the firmity of its year is only superficial and is destined to fall away, die, and turn into nothingness. The true treasure, the sap is widthdrawn from the leaves and traverses down through the vast network of branches into the trunk, finally sinking into the deepest part of the root system, where it is treasured and hidden away.
The irony is that the superficial splendor occurs when the deepest splendor is withdrawn and preserved. While the deepest vitality is hidden away, the brightness of royal color flashes like fool gold in a pan, and disappears in a matter of weeks. The tree lets go of its splendid coat because it knows that the true splendor is hidden in the depths. In this way, the tree inspires us by its display, but the display itself is a celebration of the wonder of the year that has gone by, and the readiness to plunge willingly into death. The tree knows how to live, and how to die. It need not be showy throughout its year of accumulating virtue, and just like the old sage at the end of his life inspires all by his celebration of the simple joy of life, he goes willingly to his grave, content in the knowledge that what is really essential is stored in the depths of his spirit.
In a society where beauty and splendor is prized above all else, superficiality and the quest to maintain external beauty belies the emptiness and void inside that indicates the ultimate worthlessness of external displays of splendor. Self-worth and self-esteem is the realization of the preciousness and appreciation of the essential that is within the heart, soul, and mind of the wise. To the wise, the external display of richness is of no importance, and many a sage will dress and keep themselves in such an external state that they look more like a shabby beaten down, gnarly old tree than a brilliantly clad rose or lily - for the sage knows that the rose and lily know that their beauty is oh so temporary. The effort to look brilliant one’s whole life, to look good, to avoid looking bad, to make people like you, adore you, respect you, admire you and appreciate you is ultimately exhausting of the essence of life itself. Admiration is fleeting. When you’ve run out of your showiness and display, people move on to give attention to the next brightest glowing star. When young and filled with external brilliance, the girl will be cast as the daughter, the protagonist – and all watch her in wonder. As she ages, she’s cast as the mother, and eventually the grandmother or the hag, and most lose interest in her – they all look to the next bright star.
The tree knows that it can look ordinary through the whole year, because its cultivating its essence, and it can look ugly and lifeless while it reflects on the wisdom of life in the winter. It knows that there are two appropriate times to expose its splendor to the world at large – in spring, where it demonstrates its creativity, providing a new vision for what is possible, and in autumn when it shares with the world what it has learnt, the wisdom it has gathered, and the essence of life that it has captured from being alive.
When we encounter a Metal client, do we see richness and depth of spirit behind an ordinary exterior, or do we see lavishness and external manifestation of beauty? Do we see a client who loves life deeply and calls themselves and others to be their best, or do we see someone who finds no value in themselves or the friends and family in their life? Do we see someone knowledgeable, filled with valuable experience who attempts to instruct others in what the best way to life is while shunning those who don’t listen or agree with their self-righteous point of view, or do we see someone who quietly exudes wisdom, doesn’t require others to accept, value, or adore them, but teaches through example? Do we see someone who’s spiritually cut off and empty from themselves and their loved ones and gathers money, riches, and awards for recognition, or do we see someone who’s humble, inspired, connected to themselves, and who calls us to the essential? Do we feel down, and heavy in their presence, or are they a breath of fresh air?
Will we savor the essences of life and pass it on to future generations where our contribution will live on in the lives of others, or will we glisten in temporary splendor, and ultimately die, get buried beneath the ground, where our tomb stone will grow moss and over the ages the last engraved words to define who was laid down are long gone, erased by time, and forgotten?
The wind shakes and agitates them and they soar throat the air – look at me, look at me – before sinking slowly, or plummeting to the ground to lay dead, motionless, and ultimately lifeless – their last sputtering flight a summation of the result of temporary stardom. You’re dead, boring, and you will be forgotten when the next wave of bright stars glistens through the sky.
While the tree visibly displays its splendor to the world, the lesson of what is essential and of true value is hidden in plain view. The splendor the tree displays on the outside, in the firmity of its year is only superficial and is destined to fall away, die, and turn into nothingness. The true treasure, the sap is widthdrawn from the leaves and traverses down through the vast network of branches into the trunk, finally sinking into the deepest part of the root system, where it is treasured and hidden away.
The irony is that the superficial splendor occurs when the deepest splendor is withdrawn and preserved. While the deepest vitality is hidden away, the brightness of royal color flashes like fool gold in a pan, and disappears in a matter of weeks. The tree lets go of its splendid coat because it knows that the true splendor is hidden in the depths. In this way, the tree inspires us by its display, but the display itself is a celebration of the wonder of the year that has gone by, and the readiness to plunge willingly into death. The tree knows how to live, and how to die. It need not be showy throughout its year of accumulating virtue, and just like the old sage at the end of his life inspires all by his celebration of the simple joy of life, he goes willingly to his grave, content in the knowledge that what is really essential is stored in the depths of his spirit.
In a society where beauty and splendor is prized above all else, superficiality and the quest to maintain external beauty belies the emptiness and void inside that indicates the ultimate worthlessness of external displays of splendor. Self-worth and self-esteem is the realization of the preciousness and appreciation of the essential that is within the heart, soul, and mind of the wise. To the wise, the external display of richness is of no importance, and many a sage will dress and keep themselves in such an external state that they look more like a shabby beaten down, gnarly old tree than a brilliantly clad rose or lily - for the sage knows that the rose and lily know that their beauty is oh so temporary. The effort to look brilliant one’s whole life, to look good, to avoid looking bad, to make people like you, adore you, respect you, admire you and appreciate you is ultimately exhausting of the essence of life itself. Admiration is fleeting. When you’ve run out of your showiness and display, people move on to give attention to the next brightest glowing star. When young and filled with external brilliance, the girl will be cast as the daughter, the protagonist – and all watch her in wonder. As she ages, she’s cast as the mother, and eventually the grandmother or the hag, and most lose interest in her – they all look to the next bright star.
The tree knows that it can look ordinary through the whole year, because its cultivating its essence, and it can look ugly and lifeless while it reflects on the wisdom of life in the winter. It knows that there are two appropriate times to expose its splendor to the world at large – in spring, where it demonstrates its creativity, providing a new vision for what is possible, and in autumn when it shares with the world what it has learnt, the wisdom it has gathered, and the essence of life that it has captured from being alive.
When we encounter a Metal client, do we see richness and depth of spirit behind an ordinary exterior, or do we see lavishness and external manifestation of beauty? Do we see a client who loves life deeply and calls themselves and others to be their best, or do we see someone who finds no value in themselves or the friends and family in their life? Do we see someone knowledgeable, filled with valuable experience who attempts to instruct others in what the best way to life is while shunning those who don’t listen or agree with their self-righteous point of view, or do we see someone who quietly exudes wisdom, doesn’t require others to accept, value, or adore them, but teaches through example? Do we see someone who’s spiritually cut off and empty from themselves and their loved ones and gathers money, riches, and awards for recognition, or do we see someone who’s humble, inspired, connected to themselves, and who calls us to the essential? Do we feel down, and heavy in their presence, or are they a breath of fresh air?
Will we savor the essences of life and pass it on to future generations where our contribution will live on in the lives of others, or will we glisten in temporary splendor, and ultimately die, get buried beneath the ground, where our tomb stone will grow moss and over the ages the last engraved words to define who was laid down are long gone, erased by time, and forgotten?
10/13/2010 – Bakersfield & Pismo Beach
I visited my friends Aaron, Tanja and Jose in Bakersfield. I hadn’t seen Tanja or Jose since I left Bakersfield some 10 years ago. Bakersfield hadn’t changed much climactically since the last time I had been there save for the increase in smog, decrease in visibility, and smell of rotten and burnt meat in the air. The increased methane in the valley due to cattle ranching has also affected the area tremendously. The smell is reminiscent of that of Greeley, CO where the smell of the slaughter houses permeates the area. I drove into the dust bowl of San Joaquin valley in the early afternoon.
Despite the cool foggy winter season, this fertile land gets hardly any water and maintains its dusty barren terrain for most of the year, save for the irrigation systems that give this dusty, polluted valley the infamy of being the bread basket of California.
Bakersfield’s energy is reminiscent of a Kidney point, IV 2, Blazing Valley. This valley does not lack heat – the usual indication of this point, however. Quiet the opposite, the valley is burning through the resources it has. Bakersfield is at once opulent in the richness of the oil reserves which feed the few, but is deficient in wealth of resources which make people work extremely hard to scrape a living. Most people that live here wish to escape in some way or another but cannot overcome the inertia of depression, poverty and hopelessness. Instead they squander their precious resources on drugs and alcohol. Many dream of leaving for greener pastures, and the few who have left look back on their time in Bakersfield with relief that they found it within themselves to overcome inertia once and for all.
As the methamphetamine capitol of California (if not of the US), the drug-production and distribution culture is rich and bustling. Frequent murders and shootings occur across the city. The city is populated by haggard, tweaked out faces who exhaust all of their innate Jing and energy in that which makes the trap of Bakersfield barely palatable. Burning their Kidney essence, the Water element can no longer restrain their Fire. Most engage in hyper-sexuality where their physical valley blazes with uncontrolled sexual and hedonistic urges. A sub-culture develops which lacks self-control, willpower, and money to escape its self-gratifying desires. The result is “lets party our lives away as hard as we can, because we’ll never escape our bondage”. It is for this virtue that Blazing Valley is known to calm sexual, emotional and hedonistic desire by cooling the blazing fires and restoring wisdom, innate willpower and resources back to the parched individual.
Likewise the point’s most familiar use is the warm up a cold, frigid and frozen person who’s emotional anxiety and fear of survival prevents them from enjoying all that life has to offer. This point, coupled with IV 3, Greater Mountain Stream, or IV 7 Returning Current could send down the floods to quell the burning and exhausting fires and cool the valley, once again restoring balance.
Aaron and I took a road trip to Pismo Beach, a town about 3 hours southwest of Bakersfield. I love road trips for the reason that you can see the effects of elevation and water completely transform the landscape and what is possible. Water: pure potentiality manifested through Wood as the child element. Metal: inspiration and heavenly guidance, which directs the highest purpose of growth around the central pivot, the Earth.
The flat lands of the valley housed the cotton fields and almond groves – all land perfectly organized, parceled off and planted in linear rows for expedient harvest. As the hills rose out of the smog, the deadness and barrenness of the landscape truly showed its lifeless belly. The clay and dust lay about – pure potential, unanimated, and unactivated by Water and Wood. The winds blew up eddies and sand devils that danced in the lowlands, evoked by spirits which traverse the mournful and desolate flatlands with the sound of weeping as they passed – crying for the lifeless.
The closer we wound to the ocean, the greener the hills became. Plant-life acclimatized to low water becomes resilient, hard, gnarly, and stubby. Soon the hills change from gray-beige to lush dark green. We have been diving in a cloudless sky and we escaped the smog-covered valley. Approaching the next valley where Pismo beach can be found, we encountered a strange weather phenomenon. The heated ocean air lifted a fog of the water which covered the entire valley and beach front in a thick mist. For a normally sunny California beach, I felt like I could have been in a cloudy, wet and cold New Jersey in winter. The air was frigid, fishy, mixed with seaweed and the metallic smell of seagull droppings. I had exchanged my shorts and t-shirt for a sweater and pants.
Despite the cool foggy winter season, this fertile land gets hardly any water and maintains its dusty barren terrain for most of the year, save for the irrigation systems that give this dusty, polluted valley the infamy of being the bread basket of California.
Bakersfield’s energy is reminiscent of a Kidney point, IV 2, Blazing Valley. This valley does not lack heat – the usual indication of this point, however. Quiet the opposite, the valley is burning through the resources it has. Bakersfield is at once opulent in the richness of the oil reserves which feed the few, but is deficient in wealth of resources which make people work extremely hard to scrape a living. Most people that live here wish to escape in some way or another but cannot overcome the inertia of depression, poverty and hopelessness. Instead they squander their precious resources on drugs and alcohol. Many dream of leaving for greener pastures, and the few who have left look back on their time in Bakersfield with relief that they found it within themselves to overcome inertia once and for all.
As the methamphetamine capitol of California (if not of the US), the drug-production and distribution culture is rich and bustling. Frequent murders and shootings occur across the city. The city is populated by haggard, tweaked out faces who exhaust all of their innate Jing and energy in that which makes the trap of Bakersfield barely palatable. Burning their Kidney essence, the Water element can no longer restrain their Fire. Most engage in hyper-sexuality where their physical valley blazes with uncontrolled sexual and hedonistic urges. A sub-culture develops which lacks self-control, willpower, and money to escape its self-gratifying desires. The result is “lets party our lives away as hard as we can, because we’ll never escape our bondage”. It is for this virtue that Blazing Valley is known to calm sexual, emotional and hedonistic desire by cooling the blazing fires and restoring wisdom, innate willpower and resources back to the parched individual.
Likewise the point’s most familiar use is the warm up a cold, frigid and frozen person who’s emotional anxiety and fear of survival prevents them from enjoying all that life has to offer. This point, coupled with IV 3, Greater Mountain Stream, or IV 7 Returning Current could send down the floods to quell the burning and exhausting fires and cool the valley, once again restoring balance.
Aaron and I took a road trip to Pismo Beach, a town about 3 hours southwest of Bakersfield. I love road trips for the reason that you can see the effects of elevation and water completely transform the landscape and what is possible. Water: pure potentiality manifested through Wood as the child element. Metal: inspiration and heavenly guidance, which directs the highest purpose of growth around the central pivot, the Earth.
The flat lands of the valley housed the cotton fields and almond groves – all land perfectly organized, parceled off and planted in linear rows for expedient harvest. As the hills rose out of the smog, the deadness and barrenness of the landscape truly showed its lifeless belly. The clay and dust lay about – pure potential, unanimated, and unactivated by Water and Wood. The winds blew up eddies and sand devils that danced in the lowlands, evoked by spirits which traverse the mournful and desolate flatlands with the sound of weeping as they passed – crying for the lifeless.
The closer we wound to the ocean, the greener the hills became. Plant-life acclimatized to low water becomes resilient, hard, gnarly, and stubby. Soon the hills change from gray-beige to lush dark green. We have been diving in a cloudless sky and we escaped the smog-covered valley. Approaching the next valley where Pismo beach can be found, we encountered a strange weather phenomenon. The heated ocean air lifted a fog of the water which covered the entire valley and beach front in a thick mist. For a normally sunny California beach, I felt like I could have been in a cloudy, wet and cold New Jersey in winter. The air was frigid, fishy, mixed with seaweed and the metallic smell of seagull droppings. I had exchanged my shorts and t-shirt for a sweater and pants.
9/30/2010 – The Ripeness of Late Summer…
It is 3:49pm on a cool late summer afternoon in Gregory canyon. It’s been several weeks since I’ve been here last. The rhythms have grown quiet. The colors are in full force exhibiting reds, oranges, greens and browns. Grasshoppers make small distant sounds. It’s no longer loud, but soft and quiet. It’s cool and humid. Here in the coolness of the valley, the water collects into little ponds. It hasn’t rained for a while, but you can smell the putridity mixed with the smell of wet dog fur, mixed with sweetness of the decaying fruit and grasses – offering a bouquet of rotten fragrant putridity. Some of the leaves hang low on the trees, weighing down. The sap withdraws and the leaves begin to wilt, becoming yellow as vitality declines. Now things start to return back to the earth through ripening, rotting, and integrating back into the depths.
Gregory Canyon now looks more ragged, downtrodden, wilted, yet ablaze in color. Things start to hang limp, looking a little shoddy. Fruit are decaying in dark brown masses. All the apples have fallen. The bears have been in here and have left their scat. Only the sound of occasional dropping leaves and quiet munching of something somewhere deep in the ravine can be heard.
Even as the plants die and their big pointy stalks hang laden with food, they give up their life, they give their all to nourish others. Such is with all mothers. The Earth will nourish all, saving the self for last, even if it has to give up its life to do it, it will do it without question. The Earth gives equally to all and does not pick favorites. All the animals can feed at her breast. Even though her children may bicker and flight over food, she will make sure that all are nourished equally.
This reminds me of the Stomach point, XI 9, People Welcome. The Earth constitution takes care of everybody, giving them what they ask for. But because she wishes to avoid conflict at all costs in asserting herself and asking for what she needs in return, she feels compelled to give and give. Over time she becomes resentful of any request that’s asked of her. This starts to manifest as quiet servitude because of lack of communication. This resentment of people in her life, and a lack of harvest derived form a lack of asserting one’s boundaries soon turns into ingratiation. Through people pleasing, manipulation, hoarding, stinginess and secretiveness she retreats from the world. Because she’s not asserting her needs, she begins to hoard onto everything the gets. Soon she’s “had it up to here” and no longer welcomes them into her life, but withdraws into her inner world. People Welcome can open up the Windows to the Heaven and welcome people back in her life through proper communication and assertion of her needs. In so doing, she finds she’s surrounded by an abundance of people who are willing to help.
Gregory Canyon now looks more ragged, downtrodden, wilted, yet ablaze in color. Things start to hang limp, looking a little shoddy. Fruit are decaying in dark brown masses. All the apples have fallen. The bears have been in here and have left their scat. Only the sound of occasional dropping leaves and quiet munching of something somewhere deep in the ravine can be heard.
Even as the plants die and their big pointy stalks hang laden with food, they give up their life, they give their all to nourish others. Such is with all mothers. The Earth will nourish all, saving the self for last, even if it has to give up its life to do it, it will do it without question. The Earth gives equally to all and does not pick favorites. All the animals can feed at her breast. Even though her children may bicker and flight over food, she will make sure that all are nourished equally.
This reminds me of the Stomach point, XI 9, People Welcome. The Earth constitution takes care of everybody, giving them what they ask for. But because she wishes to avoid conflict at all costs in asserting herself and asking for what she needs in return, she feels compelled to give and give. Over time she becomes resentful of any request that’s asked of her. This starts to manifest as quiet servitude because of lack of communication. This resentment of people in her life, and a lack of harvest derived form a lack of asserting one’s boundaries soon turns into ingratiation. Through people pleasing, manipulation, hoarding, stinginess and secretiveness she retreats from the world. Because she’s not asserting her needs, she begins to hoard onto everything the gets. Soon she’s “had it up to here” and no longer welcomes them into her life, but withdraws into her inner world. People Welcome can open up the Windows to the Heaven and welcome people back in her life through proper communication and assertion of her needs. In so doing, she finds she’s surrounded by an abundance of people who are willing to help.
9/10/2010 – Whispers of the Earth…
I’m at a lake near my home looking out at the mountains. The time is 6:50 and the sun is starting to set. It will soon crest behind the top of the mountain. There is a lukewarm breeze blowing, and the rays of the sun are warm. The leaves chatter in the tree next to me and the grass hoppers spin out their rhythms – slowly turning thoughts over and over and over. I feel the mildness of the weather – how comfortable it is, as I lay down on the bench. After the heat of the summer – this is pure comfort. It is this comfort that is reminiscent of the Earth element’s all embracing care for all. It provides just whatever you need. I love late summer.
As I dictate this into my phone I notice my voice has grown slower, calmer, contented with a singing quality to it – “there, there small child, I will give you what you need, as it is my nature to give myself to you”.
As I dictate this into my phone I notice my voice has grown slower, calmer, contented with a singing quality to it – “there, there small child, I will give you what you need, as it is my nature to give myself to you”.
9/6/2010 – The Colors of Fire…
A wild fire rages in the foothills above boulder. Spreading from it is a fast plume of smoke. This huge plume of smoke, the color of which is the gray dark ash that is not gray, not blue, but a greenish, brownish, brackish color. This is the color that one sees on Fire constitution’s faces – the color of smoke.
The fire rages out of control. As I drive closer to examine the cloud, the colors now undulate and change to warm browns. There’s this lifelessness, this kind of dark containment of all elements – of all the colors, reds, greens, and blues within the plumes of smoke that originate from it. It’s as if the whole kingdom is burning as the fire consumes all the elements, burning the wood and the minerals therein, lifting them high into the air. This graying mass of undulating colors is what can appear as this deadened corpse-like look of the people who have this element as their constitutional factor - as this fire rages through their anatomy burning up their insides through excessive overheating.
The fire cloud is mushrooming is shades of bluish purple and clear red and rusty orange as the earth element is consumed within in. Driving underneath the great cloud of fire, shadows of red, gold and yellow cover the whole land as the sun is partially obscured. The sun is red through the cloud directly above and the smell is that of brunt grass and tree limb, of bonfire and leaves. It’s sharp and forward in the nose, scratchy in the throat, high, elevated, wiffy.
The fire rages out of control. As I drive closer to examine the cloud, the colors now undulate and change to warm browns. There’s this lifelessness, this kind of dark containment of all elements – of all the colors, reds, greens, and blues within the plumes of smoke that originate from it. It’s as if the whole kingdom is burning as the fire consumes all the elements, burning the wood and the minerals therein, lifting them high into the air. This graying mass of undulating colors is what can appear as this deadened corpse-like look of the people who have this element as their constitutional factor - as this fire rages through their anatomy burning up their insides through excessive overheating.
The fire cloud is mushrooming is shades of bluish purple and clear red and rusty orange as the earth element is consumed within in. Driving underneath the great cloud of fire, shadows of red, gold and yellow cover the whole land as the sun is partially obscured. The sun is red through the cloud directly above and the smell is that of brunt grass and tree limb, of bonfire and leaves. It’s sharp and forward in the nose, scratchy in the throat, high, elevated, wiffy.
9/3/2010 – Earth and Metal
Its 3pm on the Gregory Canyon trail on a sunny afternoon – the apple trees cover the canyon floor and shed their ripening fruit. The insects burrow inside, leaving small holes in the round yellow and red apple bellies. It's a cloudless, gorgeous sky. When I walk along this trail I see so much abundance of fruit, berries and flowers. The bees are circling around, butterflies settle on the flowers and nature is abuzz eating the bounty. The smells are lightly fragrant. The seedpods wither, becoming musty yellow. The Earth is sympathetic to all forms of life. Everything walks, tramples and trashes all over it. It accepts it all, takes it all in, in stride.
Because all of life manifests upon it, it is abundant and constantly overflowing. But because it is slow moving, it churns very slowly to integrate the abundance that is occurring around it. Fire is also needed to purify the earth of all the stuff that happens on its surface. All the unneeded unnecessary growth must be cleared so that all the ideas of Wood don’t overwhelm Earth’s ability to provide results. Too much growth in all directions in life would sap the Earth of all its nutrients and ability to integrate the experience.
Through the power of Wood we have a million ideas a day, and an abundance of growth in all directions feeds the fires of purification. Through purification, the essence of the plans and ideas are given over to the Earth to integrate into itself. Through Fire’s purification the ideas of Wood are turned into fertile soil.
We simply cannot integrate everything that's possible to integrate in life. There are too many ideas, too many possible avenues and plans, and we can become exhausted trying to integrate everything faster than our capacity to chew over it, break it down, and integrate it into our lives.
I’m reminded of the Stomach point XI 23, Great Oneness which can help the Stomach to break down all of life’s experiences into a meaningful and integrated whole. Among other things, this point would be useful for someone who’s life appears or occurs as an accumulation of unrelated, fragmented, and disjointed experiences. This point can help integrate these experiences into the self so that the individual can learn from them and move on in their life.
I just saw the minerals sparking in the ground. The Earth contains the Metal, the Earth contains the Earth, the Earth contains the plants of life, the Earth contains the Water, the Earth contains the purifications of Fire – therefore Earth contains them all and when Earth contains all, it has everything it already needs – because it’s all part of itself. In it’s motherly embrace, all can grow.
I’m reminded of the Spleen point, XII 21, Great Enveloping. This point empowers us to feel surrounded by the unconditional nourishment and love of the mother in our lives as though we’re in the womb. When we feel cut off from sources of nourishment in life, Great Enveloping wraps our whole being in the gentle care of the Earthly mother’s warm blanket.
The temperature here is cool, the hot summer sun has waned and the temperatures are receding and cooling down to a comfortable medium level. The smells are still primarily scorched of the pine and of the yellowed grass heated by the sun. So within its scorchiness there is a sweetness to the grasses, flowers, and definitely a sweetness to the fruit that right now is still not fully ripe. This stability of Late Summer ambience is reminiscent of the stability of a lot of Earth constitutional characteristics – running neither hot nor cold, just occurring at a stable, steady, rhythmic pace, changing slowly and methodically.
I came across a wonderful bee airport. As they’re buzzing, taking off, and coming in for a landing, and taking off again – they all congregate around their nest, bringing nourishment in during the season. As they do so, a hum, a buzz emanates from the hive. The droning hum provides a rhythm, a song for their busy work – signing why their work.
Like the bees, the Earth constitution can become preoccupied with the harvest year round, never ceasing, never resting. Obsessed with acquisition of more experiences, knowledge, information, education and self care, the Earth constitution can open up, like a hungry pit, ready to ingest more, become more, and integrate everything they possibly can. With an insatiable appetite, yearning for that which will nourish them the most, they are never satisfied with what they have attained. Likewise, they can be unsatisfied with the amount of attention, help, care, support and nourishment they have received from others, their relationships or their occupational and educational pursuits. Obsessed with getting, learning, making, harvesting – things are never enough.
I’m reminded of the Stomach point, XI 45, Hard Bargain. This point can be excellent for the individual who feels that their needs are never met. This person may be constantly whining, complaining and demanding sympathy for their self-imposed burdens. Running a million miles an hour and obsessively harvesting, this point can calm the Earth’s need to constantly harvest by instilling the virtues of Metal in the Earth’s constitution. XI 45 can provide the self-recognition of what food brings the highest level of nourishment, and the balanced required to wisely taking in and letting go of what no longer serves. By this the Earth is better able to make clear choices about which sources of nourishment are the best, and discard that which doesn’t nourish it anymore. This point can help a person let go of that for which they no longer have appetite for, but which they continues to chew over out of habit and worry that something tastier will never come along. This can manifest as being stuck in lifeless and unsatisfying routine, job, or profession which the Earth is bound to repeat endlessly but form which it no longer receives any nourishment.
By getting the Earth constitution unstuck from their poor sources of nourishment and obsessive harvesting, XI 45 can restore the Sheng cycle for the stuck Earth Element. Through clarity over what truly nourishes, and what doesn’t, the Earth can let go (Metal), take confidence in their available resources and skills (Water), create ideas, make plans, get into action and execute decisions to pursue what will be most nourishing (Wood), and get back into communication with the community of support (Fire), to once again harvest the most satisfying and nourishing fruit of their labor (Earth).
XI 45 can also mitigate the excess presence of Metal in the Earth constitution where an individual has become cold, rigid and inert, manifesting as a lack of sympathy towards the self and towards others, resulting in ruthlessness in their pursuit of fulfillment. Such a point selection may be coupled with XI 20, Receiving Fullness, to provide satiation to one’s needs, so that one can experience abundance in life without wallowing in feelings of neediness and over production.
…
Now atop the mountain, I’m looking at a big rock and seeing all the lines of structure that compose it. It’s very linear, straight forward, very direct, clear in its demarcation of mineral content. Here’s what’s precious and refined, and here’s what’s not. Metal builds such lofty edifices to its purity. The rocks climb ever higher, creating treacherous terrain, treacherous pinnacles and peaks of the highest discernment, ever reaching towards the perfection of heaven.
We human build ivory towers, belief systems and ways of thinking, and declarations of our ideals. Through our elevation of what is precious, we create that which is hard to get to, and out of reach like the heights of the mountain. The higher we climb in our thinking, the further we can fall. As you stand at the precipices of these lofty places you feel a fear. You feel yourself freezing as danger lurks.
The mountain is the perfect metaphor for our spiritual lives. I climbed one of these edifices of perfection, and though the climb was treacherous, and firm footing hard to find, I made it to the top. And on who’s made it to the top definitely has a loftier perspective and call see all that is below in all directions. The question is what we do once we’ve reached new perspectives? Do we throw stones, judge and condemn all that’s below, or do we commune with the unity of all that we behold?
On this rock I had a 360 panorama for miles around, I surveyed all of Boulder county and the mountains behind me. With this amount of knowledge these places offer, no wonder these lofty places have so much attachment for us as human beings. We quest for these spiritual experiences even though they are dangerous and we can fall very far, the further up we climb. We listen to inspiring preachers from on high. We believe. We listen for the word of the Lord from on high. We believe. We climb mountains of self-knowledge, and deep penetrating insight through meditation, prayer and contemplation. We join religions, cults and groups, have drug-induced spiritual experiences, ecstatic dancing, speaking in tongues, snake charming, etc - all of these pursuits to give us insight. My, what lofty mountains of world-perception and potential self-righteousness we climb, being blissfully unaware that we may fall from our perches at any moment.
The Earth says – it’s safe to stay low to the ground. Don't stir the pot. But Metal stays - reach for the skies so that you can fall in wondrous delight, and can plummet into the depths once you have touched Heaven itself.
Because all of life manifests upon it, it is abundant and constantly overflowing. But because it is slow moving, it churns very slowly to integrate the abundance that is occurring around it. Fire is also needed to purify the earth of all the stuff that happens on its surface. All the unneeded unnecessary growth must be cleared so that all the ideas of Wood don’t overwhelm Earth’s ability to provide results. Too much growth in all directions in life would sap the Earth of all its nutrients and ability to integrate the experience.
Through the power of Wood we have a million ideas a day, and an abundance of growth in all directions feeds the fires of purification. Through purification, the essence of the plans and ideas are given over to the Earth to integrate into itself. Through Fire’s purification the ideas of Wood are turned into fertile soil.
We simply cannot integrate everything that's possible to integrate in life. There are too many ideas, too many possible avenues and plans, and we can become exhausted trying to integrate everything faster than our capacity to chew over it, break it down, and integrate it into our lives.
I’m reminded of the Stomach point XI 23, Great Oneness which can help the Stomach to break down all of life’s experiences into a meaningful and integrated whole. Among other things, this point would be useful for someone who’s life appears or occurs as an accumulation of unrelated, fragmented, and disjointed experiences. This point can help integrate these experiences into the self so that the individual can learn from them and move on in their life.
I just saw the minerals sparking in the ground. The Earth contains the Metal, the Earth contains the Earth, the Earth contains the plants of life, the Earth contains the Water, the Earth contains the purifications of Fire – therefore Earth contains them all and when Earth contains all, it has everything it already needs – because it’s all part of itself. In it’s motherly embrace, all can grow.
I’m reminded of the Spleen point, XII 21, Great Enveloping. This point empowers us to feel surrounded by the unconditional nourishment and love of the mother in our lives as though we’re in the womb. When we feel cut off from sources of nourishment in life, Great Enveloping wraps our whole being in the gentle care of the Earthly mother’s warm blanket.
The temperature here is cool, the hot summer sun has waned and the temperatures are receding and cooling down to a comfortable medium level. The smells are still primarily scorched of the pine and of the yellowed grass heated by the sun. So within its scorchiness there is a sweetness to the grasses, flowers, and definitely a sweetness to the fruit that right now is still not fully ripe. This stability of Late Summer ambience is reminiscent of the stability of a lot of Earth constitutional characteristics – running neither hot nor cold, just occurring at a stable, steady, rhythmic pace, changing slowly and methodically.
I came across a wonderful bee airport. As they’re buzzing, taking off, and coming in for a landing, and taking off again – they all congregate around their nest, bringing nourishment in during the season. As they do so, a hum, a buzz emanates from the hive. The droning hum provides a rhythm, a song for their busy work – signing why their work.
Like the bees, the Earth constitution can become preoccupied with the harvest year round, never ceasing, never resting. Obsessed with acquisition of more experiences, knowledge, information, education and self care, the Earth constitution can open up, like a hungry pit, ready to ingest more, become more, and integrate everything they possibly can. With an insatiable appetite, yearning for that which will nourish them the most, they are never satisfied with what they have attained. Likewise, they can be unsatisfied with the amount of attention, help, care, support and nourishment they have received from others, their relationships or their occupational and educational pursuits. Obsessed with getting, learning, making, harvesting – things are never enough.
I’m reminded of the Stomach point, XI 45, Hard Bargain. This point can be excellent for the individual who feels that their needs are never met. This person may be constantly whining, complaining and demanding sympathy for their self-imposed burdens. Running a million miles an hour and obsessively harvesting, this point can calm the Earth’s need to constantly harvest by instilling the virtues of Metal in the Earth’s constitution. XI 45 can provide the self-recognition of what food brings the highest level of nourishment, and the balanced required to wisely taking in and letting go of what no longer serves. By this the Earth is better able to make clear choices about which sources of nourishment are the best, and discard that which doesn’t nourish it anymore. This point can help a person let go of that for which they no longer have appetite for, but which they continues to chew over out of habit and worry that something tastier will never come along. This can manifest as being stuck in lifeless and unsatisfying routine, job, or profession which the Earth is bound to repeat endlessly but form which it no longer receives any nourishment.
By getting the Earth constitution unstuck from their poor sources of nourishment and obsessive harvesting, XI 45 can restore the Sheng cycle for the stuck Earth Element. Through clarity over what truly nourishes, and what doesn’t, the Earth can let go (Metal), take confidence in their available resources and skills (Water), create ideas, make plans, get into action and execute decisions to pursue what will be most nourishing (Wood), and get back into communication with the community of support (Fire), to once again harvest the most satisfying and nourishing fruit of their labor (Earth).
XI 45 can also mitigate the excess presence of Metal in the Earth constitution where an individual has become cold, rigid and inert, manifesting as a lack of sympathy towards the self and towards others, resulting in ruthlessness in their pursuit of fulfillment. Such a point selection may be coupled with XI 20, Receiving Fullness, to provide satiation to one’s needs, so that one can experience abundance in life without wallowing in feelings of neediness and over production.
…
Now atop the mountain, I’m looking at a big rock and seeing all the lines of structure that compose it. It’s very linear, straight forward, very direct, clear in its demarcation of mineral content. Here’s what’s precious and refined, and here’s what’s not. Metal builds such lofty edifices to its purity. The rocks climb ever higher, creating treacherous terrain, treacherous pinnacles and peaks of the highest discernment, ever reaching towards the perfection of heaven.
We human build ivory towers, belief systems and ways of thinking, and declarations of our ideals. Through our elevation of what is precious, we create that which is hard to get to, and out of reach like the heights of the mountain. The higher we climb in our thinking, the further we can fall. As you stand at the precipices of these lofty places you feel a fear. You feel yourself freezing as danger lurks.
The mountain is the perfect metaphor for our spiritual lives. I climbed one of these edifices of perfection, and though the climb was treacherous, and firm footing hard to find, I made it to the top. And on who’s made it to the top definitely has a loftier perspective and call see all that is below in all directions. The question is what we do once we’ve reached new perspectives? Do we throw stones, judge and condemn all that’s below, or do we commune with the unity of all that we behold?
On this rock I had a 360 panorama for miles around, I surveyed all of Boulder county and the mountains behind me. With this amount of knowledge these places offer, no wonder these lofty places have so much attachment for us as human beings. We quest for these spiritual experiences even though they are dangerous and we can fall very far, the further up we climb. We listen to inspiring preachers from on high. We believe. We listen for the word of the Lord from on high. We believe. We climb mountains of self-knowledge, and deep penetrating insight through meditation, prayer and contemplation. We join religions, cults and groups, have drug-induced spiritual experiences, ecstatic dancing, speaking in tongues, snake charming, etc - all of these pursuits to give us insight. My, what lofty mountains of world-perception and potential self-righteousness we climb, being blissfully unaware that we may fall from our perches at any moment.
The Earth says – it’s safe to stay low to the ground. Don't stir the pot. But Metal stays - reach for the skies so that you can fall in wondrous delight, and can plummet into the depths once you have touched Heaven itself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
