Reminded of something you wrote all those years ago from the Preface of your first book written in February 1994 and published in China ten years later in 2004.

Appearing as the ancient crane above the clouds.

The book’s title was “An American journey through the I Ching and Beyond.” It appears here on my website as, “The I Ching / Voices of the Dragon”.  

XVIII.       Dancing with Chi 

Everything that ever was everything now and that ever will be is within you now to find. All that there ever was to know or that there will be to know is within you to find.  

The ancient dragon of antiquity depicted as the sage in the clouds with the wisdom of the ages firmly in tow.

You have been everywhere there has been to see, have seen all that there is to see and, in the future, will see all that there ever will be to see.

You are not a know-it-all. But you know all that there is to know. Simply come to know yourself and remember what you have forgotten. Simply to find again, again and again. 2/6/1994  

Just who are we when found transcribing the world in and as our own voice? Not just someone driven by events or ego. But… someone who has awakened, transcending this life accessing the deepest levels of inherent well-being, here and now. Aspiring to awaken as though we are in affect looking down from above the clouds consisting of transforming our mind so that toxic states rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion no longer occur. While a full range of healthy emotions and other cognitive capabilities remain active, in balance, and even enhanced.  

To be multi-dimensional in our mind and thoughts. Not so much answering the question “who are we, as who we aspire to be”. As we become free to travel with old friends again.   

Life as a series of mind moments, each one a new creation. Every moment we inherit something from our past as though knowing our true essence, or face before we are born. Transforming it in our present experience, and thereby seeding the consequences of our future. (Meant to be re-read again and again…) 

At each moment, the toxins we encounter may be either compounded or abandoned. A moment without greed, hatred, or delusion is an awakened moment.

We are to live as we look down from above the clouds to the distant horizon to what we have seen and done before and will be in the future. 

Manjusri the bodhisattva is depicted as a male bodhisattva wielding a flaming sword in his right hand, representing the realization of transcendent wisdom which cuts down ignorance and duality. The scripture supported by the padma (lotus) held in his left hand is a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra, representing his attainment of ultimate realization from the blossoming of wisdom. 

A person may not be considered awakened unless the toxins are thoroughly eliminated, but even an unawakened person can have an awakened moment. As the Buddha says, 

If one shows kindness with a clear mind— 
Even once! — for living creatures 
By that one becomes wholesome. 
(Itivuttaka 1.27) 

We are meant to become that person as well. What has been over the centuries called taking the “bodhisattva vow”.