For whom do the bells toll, but for thee when we are willing to change with our virtue intact as we find and enter the right door to pass through.
I often talk about people and places in ancient China. I think and write about it because it’s what I know as if it is my home. Part of seeing beyond the present to where our path leads is knowing from where we have come with our history and memories in tow. When I am in the garden planning to tend to the nature of a certain plant I’ve grown, I look to their underlying tendencies. If it’s in the vegetable garden, it’s planting certain plants that complement each other. What grows next to each other that helps its neighbor along the way. It’s planting marigolds whose aroma wards off or keeps away pests, bugs that eat and will destroy our plants. It’s understanding the role between the peony bush and the ants who help to nurture the flower to its full potential. There are hundreds of examples in nature where one thing is co-dependent on another for its survival. It is this institutional memory that change encourages that is universal and that all life depends on. If we are foolish enough to think all things only exist for our own benefit above all else, we become extinct. That’s not opinion that is fact. it’s what the ancients learned and why change cannot be overcome. When something swings to far one way, it’s destiny can only swing back until the middle is found.
We are meant to do the same. We are not above the intent of universal vibrations of all life, we are but as the shaman and looking to the stars for guidance have told us we are but one of ten thousand things. We preserve ourselves and what we think we know by learning about what we don’t. It’s what the I Ching has taught for thousands of years. How did they learn, but by the power of observation beyond self-interest. It’s looking to the stars and seeing the same constellations reappearing once every year. By this they knew the earth was not standing still or stationary, that we were always moving and with this change just as with the seasons must occur. That the sky does not revolve around the earth but that the opposite is true and that we are meant to be a part of something bigger than us.
That the seeds of our own survival were learning the ability to change for the betterment of everything and everyone. That the basic instincts of all things are the same. Language and skin color might be different, but everyone is the same and wants the same thing. What we sometimes refuse to acknowledge is that nature will change to meet the demand through wisdom gained. No different than the wildlife that visit our yard and the plants we grow in our garden. They want to reproduce and create something better than what existed in the past and that now appears in the present. If things and we stay the same, we are destined to die. Nature and universal vibrations that are responsible require all thing to change so must we.
If we think that we came from nowhere when we were born and that when we die, we only return to nothing, we are abdicating the role and purpose of our own eternal spirit. Our central purpose is to see to and nurture ourselves and what we find and assist in universal growth. Nature decides what will stay as everything progresses and what doesn’t. This eternal spirit is found in all things in nature and tell us that we have work to do.
Voices of the Dragon Part 2 Number 9
Taking to the Foothills
Finding and continually maintaining one’s energy and renewal is essential in following the right path along the journey.
As a beacon of light always answering the ultimate question asked along the way. Is the path taken the correct one and is the shortest and easiest route necessarily the proper one?
Standing on the mountain ridge studying the overwhelming panorama to be followed, two discernible paths are seen. One through traveling below where the terrain looks easy and knowledge of the way is easily defined. The other route through low foothills showing no clear signs of passage with zigzags the order of the day.
Following the path through the valley is not necessarily the best way to proceed.
Renewal comes with the challenge found along the wayside. What will be learned in pursuing the easy way? The purpose of the journey is to continually question one’s motives and direction. Being willing and able to make mistakes, laugh at yourself and learn from your own foibles and forgetfulness. Take to the high road through the foothills. Leaving the low road through the valley for those ill-prepared to find the peace and harmony to be found in enduring a little hardship along the way.
The purpose of the journey is choices to be made and knowing that you have made the right one. (The above dedicated to the memory of Pu Song Li from Zibo, a fellow writer who found his way). 4/14/94
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