Number sixty-four below is the final entry of the I Ching signifying both completion with the other shore of the river in site but not there just yet. There is a new endeavor waiting with a path we are to follow. In the beginning when I first started writing back in January 1994 about the I Ching and Taoism, it was as though I was being introduced to “spirit guides” who were to appear over the coming months and years as metaphors, or dragons. Cloud Dancing was the initial name given to me by the dragons, my mentors.
Dragons in Chinese history played an important role as sages, even deities, whose role was to assist us in finding our highest endeavor and destiny. They are to be found as though dancing on the wind on clouds in the sky… Quite the opposite from western history and culture, where the dragon represented something bad or evil. This was to be no small matter. It’s like we have been looking for you and it’s time to come with us, where finding and living in virtue will show the way forward. It was not simply getting my attention, but here is the path you are to follow to get back on track with your ultimate destiny.
That your role was not to exist merely as one of many, but to assist in the coming together of many becoming one with nature as the ultimate guide.
That what I was doing as simply a city planner in Massachusetts at the time was not moving me in the direction of my highest endeavor and that it was time to get on with it. I had been writing for three months now, and it was time to meet, i.e., get re-acquainted, with old friends. The sages who had been guiding truisms to myths and legends, thought and philosophy, and to what leads up to our own highest endeavor and destiny. Always to be found showing the way forward.
I was in a tumultuous time leaving what I thought was a forever job, near where my grandparents settled after coming to America that served to tell and remind me that it is not where you are – it is who you are that is important. A lesson to be repeated several times over the coming years. Just when I thought it was time to settle in and grow my garden and flowers, that it would be time to move on again. Always to be repeated and may be coming again soon to a place closer to home.
The I Ching here represented an important change in my situation, to gather my energy to make a decisive move, create a new plan (crossing the river), and overcoming an obstacle. Needing a new job more in keeping with my journey ahead and bring a new situation to maturity that would ultimately lead to moving to Florida and going to China. A reminder I wrote the entry below on March 29, 1994, when I completed the I Ching after only three months.
The first line from Entry number one…
From the clouds dragons appear to those who have prepared. To the I Ching,
heaven is to be found residing with dwellings of dragons who roam the sky resting in the clouds.
Number 64 of the I Ching
Cloud Dancing Gets a Clean Slate
And so it goes, the cycle is now complete. Only to spring forth again and again. For the journey comes to an end only to start up again. The dragons have you lined up in their sights with expectations and curiosity as to where you will go next.
Remember the simple liturgy from where you came and simply stay within yourself and know that all will come. Live the Tao and come to know the true way of virtue.
What appears humorous and unusual to others bears no need for interpretation. You can only speak for yourself and in following what you have now written the road ahead becomes second nature. Many hazards still lie ahead. The river just crossed with ease meanders back and forth throughout your travels and must be crossed many times over again. Truly the river of no return.
Stay afloat buoyed by hope and aspirations or find yourself sinking like an anvil. The choice simply yours to make. The Tao as your life preserver.
A clean slate appears with your name on it. What’s gone as done is forever over and finished. Look only to the future and abandon all past claims and indiscretions and begin again refreshed by the knowledge that was gained by the experience.
Celebrate quietly and be simply at peace with yourself and the holy spirit that resides within you and know the eternal journey has only just begun. Dragons appear with empty slates to hand out to those who appear ready to proceed.
An original composition and interpretation of the Chinese Classic the I Ching (64 UNFULFILLED / Fire over Water). 3/29/94
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