Article 9. On Opposition. By Carol Anthony

   Throughout my work with the I Ching, my path has always been an inner one. Things appear in my mind spontaneously. When I ignore them, they keep returning until there is some breakthrough in my understanding.

   Recently, to improve my understanding of German, since I spend some time in Germany each year, I saw three paperbacks in Hanna’s German library by Herman Hesse. Checking to see how difficult his language might be, I found them very readable for my level of German. This led to my reading, in a short time, all three, but the one that left me with the most interesting image was the book Siddhartha.

   What appeared and reappeared in my mind was the image he gave of “the river.” In some ways, Hesse painted it mysteriously as a general picture of life, with everyone beginning near the beginning point of the river, and proceeding down it throughout their lives. This image spurred memories in me of several images that came to me in meditation in 1972, only a year after I began consulting the I Ching. In these meditations different places on the river represented times when I began to understand more about my true self. I understood that everyone was “somewhere” on this river, making his learning journey. Some people got frightened when they encountered rapids, and stopped their journeys for a while. Others picnicked on the side, and some did so for much of their lives. They are all somewhere on the river, making their way down, none of them stuck forever.

   I began to realize that this image returned to mind to make me aware of a principle written into the I Ching that I had somehow overlooked. It is the principle that neither evil nor opposition to it is a natural part of the Cosmos. What stops us from continuing on our learning journey down the river, is the onset of opposition.

   _____            _____

   _____            __  __

   __  __            _____

   _____            __  __

   __  __            _____

   _____            _____

   Hex. 37            Hex. 38

   The I Ching has two hexagrams that complement each other in their structures. They are Hexagram 37, The Family, and Hexagram 38, Separating/Opposition. Undoubtedly, in the most ancient version of Hexagram 37, the family represents the Cosmic Family, to which everything that exists, belongs. It includes the multitudinous Helpers that we can call on to help us in all moments of need. Over the millennia it has been incorrectly revised to fit the hierarchical, human-centered view that refers only to the human family. This is obviously reflected in the way the Chinese culture puts heavy emphasis on the importance of the family. Yet we can understand its true meaning as the Cosmic family by comparing it to the configuration of its complement, Hexagram 38, Separating/Opposition.  The two yin lines in Hexagram 37 show a hexagram firmly grounded in the Cosmic order. In Hexagram 38, the two yin lines have moved upward, and tend to lose their grounding in the earth. Their movement upward gives rise to the meaning of “separating,” and to “opposition.” The opposition refers to the human family blotting out the significance of the Cosmic family.

   The Cosmic family, in contrast to the human family, is all embracing to that which holds to it, and is non-hierarchical. When we are in harmony with this natural order, our lives flow smoothly and rewardingly. When we limit its meaning to the actual human family, and use it to describe a hierarchically structured order of society, we fall out of this greater harmony. That is to say, we separate from it and come into opposition with the Cosmic family, which includes all its helping forces. Through this separation, we lose the blessings and protections that come with being in harmony with the whole.

   Opposition, thus defined, is the great stumbling block to all relations. In the smallest of ways, when we recognize something as disharmonious or “not right,” we are meant to say an inner No to it, and turn it over to the Cosmos for correction. Hexagram 21, Biting Through, not only informs us that saying the Inner No is the most potent action we can take in response to ego actions in others, saying No is the meaning indicated in the words “firm and correct” that we meet throughout the I Ching. Because the inner no is meant to be said from a true feeling of caring for the true self in the person doing wrong, it bypasses the notice and interference of the ego in the wrongdoer, while simultaneously engaging Cosmic Helpers to correct the matter. Thus it fulfills what Lao Tzu described as “doing through non-doing.”

   In a similar way Hex. 26, Preponderance of the Great, instructs us to turn any anger at ego-transgressions that we feel over to the Cosmos, after having said the inner No to the transgressor. Only then can the helping forces of the Cosmos that truly correct the situation be activated. Fighting injustice only temporarily suppresses it.

   We little realize that we step out of this protective system when we allow ourselves to fall into an attitude of opposition toward people, either as individuals or as groups. This happens when we fix them as obstinate, bad, or hopeless, or when we regard them as “opposite to us,” or as holding “contrary beliefs.” The opposition this sets up in us swiftly becomes a hardened, prideful competition with them that “must win.” Our inner opposition creates the blockage to any harmony being able to occur because the energy of opposition begets opposition. Pride in us engages pride in the others. The ego thrives on opposition.

   The image of people on different parts the river, where each is learning a lesson that takes him forward just a bit, has helped me to realize that it is incorrect to fix people as “stuck.” There is always a possibility for growth. This is the meaning of the “yellow light of moderation” mentioned in Line 2 of Hexagram 30, Attaining Clarity. This “yellow light” is compared there with the harsh white light of judgment and condemnation. Evil is not something to be fought, but to be transformed with the help of the Cosmic Helpers, and if necessary, with the Helper of Fate. When we fully trust these Helpers, they do exactly what is needed to rescue the person, even if that sometimes may mean his death, and a return to a life in the body at another time.

   Instead of seeing a person in “opposition to us,” we see them as somewhere on the river moving slowly in their growth, no longer fixing them as hopeless. With this enlarged view, we no longer seek to put them down, or to conquer them, or to show ourselves as better, or more enlightened.

   Without the internal tension of opposition, we develop a flabby quality that neither the ego in ourselves nor in others can engage, or master, or overcome. Even if we are endangered temporarily by another’s seeing us in opposition to them, they find no vibration in us that gives them the urge to put us down.

   I first came to this realization when I was trying to explain to myself why the I Ching always refutes the idea that the Cosmos is divided into good and evil. That is to say, evil is not indigenous to the Cosmic order. Opposition, the I Ching has confirmed, is the beginning point of what we call evil. The moment we adopt a fixed view of someone or something as defective, evil, bad, inferior, unknowing, impossible, fundamentally different, irreconcilable, or opposed, the ego, and the evil it creates, becomes active. Lost immediately is our unity with the Cosmic family, with all its helping forces. It is no wonder then that the collective ego wants us to deny entirely that such helping forces exist.

   When we recognize that all of us are on that river of learning, we keep our connection with the Cosmos; then, opposition has no easy foothold. Help is then constantly with us, blessing, supporting and protecting us as we go.

 

Article 10. Distinguishing Our Inner Voices. By Carol Anthony

   Those who may doubt that we possess demonic elements in our consciousness simply have not paid attention to the contents of their own thoughts. They take them for granted, without realizing that most of them come from outside ourselves.

   Mostly what we think as adults comes down from centuries of tradition. Few people think outside that box. Advertisers and political pollsters study this intensely, and categorize the way we think according to our particular cultural background. That shows us clearly that most of our thoughts simply repeat and justify what we have been conditioned to think and believe as true. This is true not just for ethnic groups, it is true for religious groups, and the sciences, in general. All these fields forbid thinking that is beyond the limits they as a group set and approve of. 

   Despite the I Ching’s having been edited and corrected by the various dynasties to encourage the Chinese public to conform to their views, its core text still speaks quite plainly about the need to dissolve our connection with group thinking.”  Line 4 of Hexagram 57, Dissolution/Dissolving, is but one example; it states that this is necessary in order to get in touch with our inner truth.

   Group thinking is not something we have consciously adopted. Each of us has been conditioned to believe, throughout our childhood and adolescence, that the values and dictums of our culture are what we are to accept and follow. Having our own thoughts is even presented as something risky and dangerous. We experience the opposite as true when we begin to connect with the wisdom of our inner truth: we find ourselves at peace with others, whereas group thinking encourages competition for dominance, which ultimately is the source of conflict, and the stifling of true thought.

   We tend to think of our thoughts as spontaneously occurring, and as “ours.” We cannot imagine that they could be totally foreign to our true nature, or as imposed upon us by others, or that they may be something we need to free ourselves from. Once, when I became news editor of our college’s weekly newspaper, I began to realize how much the “news” about things dominates and shapes our thinking.  Much later, through working with the I Ching, I began to be more aware of what were truly my own thoughts, as opposed to those I had unthinkingly adopted from my culture.

   Recently, during a moment of self-observation, I noticed that thoughts belonging to the ego have a different sound from thoughts that are my own. They also seem to come from a different place inside me — from the back of the mind. There is also a noticeable difference in the quality of the sound. Pure thought, I noticed, is “up-front,” modest, and plain speaking. It lacks the pretentious quality of ego thought.

   Ego thought, in its “pleasantest forms” (as in indulging in self-congratulation, or even in grandiosity) has a blustery, pompous sound. In its unpleasant forms we can hearing whispering, as when the voice is tempting, or suggesting to do something that would not feel fitting; or it can be commanding, as in making complaints, or casting judgments; it can be demanding that we DO something; it can be whining and cause us to endlessly indulge in self-incrimination when we feel guilty about something; it can indulge in self-righteousness or vindictiveness when it wants to blame or punish someone. The voice addresses us as “you,” when it is in a blaming mode. This indicates clearly that the thought is coming from outside us, i.e., from the collective ego.

   Two meditations in my early years with the I Ching made me aware of the foreign nature of certain thoughts. In the first meditation, I was knocked off a stool on which I had been sitting. Looking around, I saw a man about four feet tall, dressed in lederhosen, shiny black shoes, and a Swiss hat with a feather in it. Since he looked pleased at his prank, I asked him why he had done it. He replied, “because you shouldn’t be resting on that stool.” I did not realize he was an imp until a short time later when I saw him in a second meditation. This meditation began with a rather nasty phrase being said. Looking for its source, I realized the voice had come from this same figure that was now only 6 inches tall. He had said the phrase while running across a doorway, intending to disappear into another room before I could notice that he was the source. I recognized that he was trying to put that thought into my head. However, I was now standing beside what I later recognized to be a “Cosmic Archer”; I realized that in glimpsing this imp, I had been looking down the length of an arrow, just as the arrow was being released by the archer, killing the imp.

   These two experiences made it clear to me that the tiny, barely heard voices coming from the back of my mind were coming from one or more demonic, ego elements. As time went by, I identified various of them as “imps, demons, and dragons.” Still later, as my co-author, Hanna Moog and I were writing I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, we identified still other types of demonic elements. 

   Very recently, I awakened in the middle of the night to the activity of a demonic element we came to call “a doubter.” One doubt after another was blitzing through my mind, attempting to make me doubt something I knew to be true. Once a doubt was inserted, it was followed by phrases that sought to “prove” the claims connected with the doubts. My mind was kept at work, finding reasons why the doubts might be true. Later, I also felt a certain pressure to spread these doubts and the fears they had created, to others. Clearly, my mind had been taken over.

   Interestingly, while thinking about this, certain characters in Shakespeare’s plays came to mind. I realized that they were given the role to express these back-of-the-mind types of thoughts; they flatter, slander, contrive, and are two-faced. They clearly are different from characters that have more balanced thoughts. In King Lear, for example, the “evil” daughters speak in flattering tones to their father until they get what they want, then they say their evil thoughts aloud and proudly. In Measure for Measure, the character Lucio is a particularly good example of an ego that indulges in gossipy, lascivious, and judgmental thoughts. In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is driven out of town by two women who cleverly expose his schemes. Other examples abound in Shakespeare’s writings. In modern times, I Claudius, by Robert Graves, looks into the back-of-the-mind thoughts of the Roman Emperors: Augustus and his wife Livia, Claudius himself, and Nero.

   The reader who is skeptical about demonic elements must certainly be aware that he, too, has experienced unsavory back-of-the-mind thoughts that he would be embarrassed to convey to others — thoughts that, on further examination with the help of the I Ching, he finds as not coming from his true nature. Such feelings of embarrassment indicate that we have in some way lost our dignity. Unfortunately, embarrassment is the beginning of efforts to hide the existence of such thoughts from our conscious awareness. This allows the ego to gain an even greater dominance over us.

   Recognizing the tones of voice the ego uses to insert itself into our thoughts is the first step in breaking the ego’s dominance, and to recognizing that the ego is not “us.”

 

Article 11. The Carpet of Our Cosmic Destiny. By Hanna Moog

   Fulfilling our Cosmic Destiny can be viewed in the metaphor of weaving a beautiful, unique carpet. The under-threads of the carpet (the “warp”) are provided by the Cosmic possessions we come with: our inner truth, our inner and outer senses of perception, our metaphorical senses, our Cosmic virtues, and our physical makeup. Our inner senses of perception consist of our inner senses of smell, taste, hearing, seeing and feeling. Among our metaphorical senses are our sense of loyalty to our inner truth, our sense of what is fitting, and our sense of dignity. (See Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure, and our book, The Psyche Revealed Through The I Ching for a more complete description of our Cosmic Possessions, our Cosmic Destiny, and the metaphor of the carpet.)

   The I Ching refers to the under-threads of the carpet as our “yellow lower garment” that “brings supreme good fortune.” (Hexagram 2, Nature, Line 5.) The carpet gets woven by our living our lives in harmony with the Cosmos. The more we make use of our talents and the opportunities that are brought to us by the Helpers, the more we add to the beauty of its design.

The Helper of the Earth

   Under healthy circumstances, we are greeted at birth by the Helper of the Earth. The Earth is not only the ground on which we are meant to fulfill our Cosmic Destiny, it also helps us make progress on this path. The Helper of the Earth also holds the warp for the carpet of our Cosmic Destiny. This carpet is not meant to fly, as some metaphors would say, it is meant to remain firmly grounded on the earth. How can this be explained?

   At birth, the Helper of the Earth uses our psyche to assemble our Cosmic possessions (mentioned above), which then form the carpet’s warp. Each of these possessions that make up the warp of the carpet is necessary to fulfill our Cosmic Destiny. This warp, which we then carry in our psyche, is visible on the physical plane in the lines of our hands and in certain features of our face. These lines, unique to each person, are the expression of our uniqueness as an individual human being. (Our healthy connection with the Helper of the Earth can be blocked by one or more birth chips that contain the memory of a trauma. For more information on this subject see p. 246 of The Psyche Revealed…)

Our Carpet Gets Filled in as We Free Ourselves from the Ego

   The ego, in all its manifestations, is the only thing that prevents us from expressing our uniqueness. When we look at the way the ego tends to have occupied every aspect of our being, we may think it is hopeless to free our true selves from its dominance. However, this is only what the ego wants us to believe, to prevent us from even starting with this undertaking. It may attempt to convince us that it is more powerful than we are, and that to be able to start fulfilling our Cosmic Destiny we first must become totally free of the ego. (“You have to be perfect…”)  The truth is otherwise: with every step we make in freeing ourselves from the ego, an aspect of our Cosmic Destiny gets freed, and another piece is added to the weaving of our carpet.

   The good news is that as we process negative experiences from our past, holes in our carpet become filled in. Each time we deprogram a spell, a knot in our carpet gets undone; each time we deprogram a poison arrow, a distortion in its pattern becomes removed. While every negative thing that has ever happened to us has resulted in damage to the carpet of our Cosmic Destiny, we learn how the damage can be undone.

   It is therefore very important to deprogram any ideas or beliefs that say, “My life has been nothing but a big mistake,” “You can’t undo what happened,” “There are things I have done that are unforgivable,” “I have wasted fifty years of my life,” or, “Now, it is too late to correct things.”

Article 12. Is there a beginning and an end? On the Cosmic Principle of Relativity. By Hanna Moog

   This lesson started with a glimpse I received in a dream. The only thing I remembered when I woke up was of seeing a somewhat nebulous, ribbon-like band in front of me, attached to nothing. I knew somehow that the band could expand in width at any time. The dream was accompanied by the sense of having been shown something important, such as a Cosmic Principle.

   As usual, when this happens, I followed up the glimpse I was given with a meditation. In it, I was made aware that I was being introduced to a New Cosmic Helper – new in the sense that we, Carol and I, had not been aware of its existence before now. In meditation, I quickly understood that the image of the nebulous, ribbon-like band that could expand in width at any time, represented something that connects the Cosmic Principles of Harmony with the Laws of Physics. The Sage strongly confirmed that I was on the right track, while making me aware that I also needed to better understand the quality of this connection by looking at some examples.

Example 1

   The first example was brought to my attention in a follow-up meditation: I was shown images from a meditation that Carol had about twenty-five years ago, and which she frequently shared to demonstrate an aspect of healing ourselves. In her meditation, Carol saw her body cells as a group of children that were injured by a horse bite. They seemed to be in all stages of injury: some were in a coma while others were barely injured. Realizing they were in a state of shock and fear, she began to comfort them as her true feelings guided her to do. After this meditation experience, Carol reported that she never felt any pain during the several weeks it took for her body cells to heal.

   Carol’s healing experience made me aware of the importance of our true feelings, while the Sage, in meditation, made me aware that a Helper previously unknown to us always accompanies the Helpers of Our True Feelings. I found the name of this new Helper to be the Helper of Relativity. Its function is to draw the next Helpers that are needed during each phase of a process. Thus in Carol’s case, it brought the Helpers that were needed to move her from the injury to healing. The first Helper it brought was the Helper of Caring. It then drew the Helper of Comforting, then the Helpers of Healing, and then the Helper of Completion. This last Helper completed the healing through transformations.

Example 2

   Another example is that of a person who invested a considerable amount of his savings in the purchase of a condominium. His idea was to rent it so as to preserve the capital and have an additional stream of income every month. However, every potential renter who looked at the condo after it had been extensively renovated, found a reason why it did not suit his purpose. With every week that passed, the owner wished more that he had not invested in this project. Finally, he consulted the I Ching to find out the cause of his misfortune. He learned that he had created a fate through doubting that his regular business, which really suited him, would provide enough in the future. His idea to rent, because it was based on that doubt, was not in accord with a particular Cosmic Principle of Harmony: the Principle that the Cosmos takes care of all our needs when we follow what truly suits us. He also found that his doubt was actually creating a slowdown in his business. This is also to say that we may indeed do such a thing if it brings us joy through allowing us to express our unique talents and gifts. In the end, he realized his mistake: that he did not need to take on the job of a landlord, which he realized did not suit him at all. This realization gave him a huge relief. The I Ching advised him to resell the condo at the earliest convenience. Although the condo has not been sold as of this writing, the person has regained his peace of mind and is filled with gratitude and joy about having been relieved from such a burden.

   Looking back over this person’s experience in the light of the Cosmic Principles of Harmony, the first thing the I Ching makes us aware of is that any action based on doubt or fear that our needs will be met, will sooner or later lead to a misfortune. We may ask, where is the place of the Helper of Relativity in this? Another name for this Helper is the “Helper of Attraction Between Complementary Aspects of the Cosmos.” The role of this Helper is to attract the help that is needed to fulfill every true need. Depending on the circumstances it can come in the form of a material or immaterial help. When we validate and rely on the Helpers of Our True Nature, this Helper draws to us the Cosmic Helpers that are their complements.

Why is it called the “Helper of Relativity?”

   This has to do with the fact that it connects the invisible side of the Cosmos with its visible side known as Nature, in the exact way that benefits each. While the invisible side is characterized by Principles of Harmony, its visible side (Nature) is subject to the Laws of Nature. The two “realms” as we may call them, differ in that the invisible side of the Cosmos is infinite in its duration, while Nature is subject to the parameters of time and space. However, the I Ching makes us aware that the two realms interpenetrate. All things in Nature are linked to the infinite through their DNA, which the I Ching calls our “inner truth.” Our inner truth contains the knowledge of the Cosmic Principles of Harmony, which transcend the limitations set by time and space.

 What does all this have to do with the title of this article, “Is there a beginning and an end?” 

   When we only take into account the Laws of Nature that are subject to time and space, we depend only on what we see with our outer sense of seeing, which defines things by their appearances. We know that the appearance of Nature in the fall going into winter is not a “death” in the absolute sense of that word, but a period in which transformations take place. An absolute end does not exist. Even when a tree dies, its existence in that form ends, but all of its components are transformed back into the living Nature.

   When we forget that we possess this inner knowledge that is embedded in every cell of our bodies, we take the limitations of time and space to be absolute. Then our lives in a body become an experience of what the I Ching calls “a bitter limitation” ended by death. Then we make death into the opposite of life, a thing to be feared and hated.

   The fact that the Helper of Relativity makes sure that all living forms in Nature (the world that is subject to time and space) are connected with that which is not limited by time and space (the infinite Cosmic Consciousness), gives time and space their relative quality. When we follow ideas that define things in absolute terms, we invariably create obstructions in our lives. These obstructions are meant to make us aware that we have excluded the Principle of Relativity from our way of thinking.

   As mentioned above, the Helper of Relativity accompanies the Helpers of Our True Feelings. When, for example, the Helper of Sadness makes us feel truly sad about the fact that we are not making progress in our lives, the Helper of Relativity (if not interfered with by the ego’s reasoning in the form of self-blame or putting blame on others) draws the Helper of Comforting, and next the Sage as the Helper that makes us aware of the Cosmic Helpers. Then, when we have sufficiently understood that the cause for our lack of progress was that we had not included the Cosmic Helpers in our approach, the Helper of Relativity draws the Helper of Joy. We feel joy about the realization that we have been moved out of the place of sadness into a place where we can see that making mistakes is always relative to learning (more) about the Cosmic Helpers.

   Every misfortune, when approached from our true feelings, thus becomes a positive learning experience that enables us to see and experience the Cosmos as a harmonious, self-correcting system.

Recently, when doing another meditation on the Helper of Relativity, I heard the words “surprise, surprise!” Yes, it is this Helper that brings us positive, and only positive surprises. The image of “something springing out of nothing” came to mind, which the Sage confirmed as being to the point.

This Helper gives relativity to the Laws of Physics in that it keeps them connected to the infinite – that which is beyond their limitations – the Cosmic Principles of Harmony.

Article 13. The extreme weather conditions in North America. By Carol and Hanna

Living near Boston, we have experienced extreme amounts of snow in the past weeks, and we know that the same is true for other parts of the Northeast and the upper Midwest of the country. Friends in California, on the other hand, have reported conditions of extreme drought. Although snow, cold, and snow storms have happened before, the persistence of this pattern over North America gives every reason to look into the deeper causes. 

  We decided to take the question to the Sage, and asked to be shown the inner truth of the situation. We learned that it needs to be seen as a fate people have created. From our experience in working with the I Ching we know that a fate has several purposes: (1) to make a person aware of a mistaken idea he has, as for example, about his relationship with the Cosmos; (2) to give the person an opportunity to correct his thinking, with Cosmic help; and (3) to restore the harmony of the Cosmos, which has been violated by the mistaken idea. In short, Fate as one of the Cosmic Principles of Harmony has the overall purpose of maintaining the harmony of the Cosmic Order, while at the same time offering us humans the opportunity to learn about its order. Fate acts like a boomerang in that it returns the damage caused by a mistaken idea to its originator. It is in this way that it makes us aware that all mistaken ideas create disorder.

  However, the fact that every fate also offers us the opportunity to correct the mistaken idea that has created it, deserves our particular attention, because it means that the fate can be ended when we have recognized its purpose and correct our thinking. Cosmic help is available to us when we are willing to do so. 

  The Sage confirmed to us that this opportunity is also given in the present situation. It was now time to find out which mistaken idea had caused this fate for North America. We need to add here that it has been our experience that even though people in other parts of the world may be sharing a particular mistaken idea, the fate may only occur in a limited area, as a warning, so to speak. This situation is described in Line 3 of Hexagram 51, Shock, in the words: “Shock comes and makes one distraught. If shock spurs to action, one remains free of misfortune.” The counsel to take “action” in the I Ching always refers to inner action. Most often, it points to the need to identify a mistaken idea and deprogram it with Cosmic help. “If shock spurs to action, one remains free of misfortune,” makes us aware that when we are in the position of an observer of a fate that affects someone else, we need to reflect on what the fate wants to tell us. Fates that have been interpreted as the consequences of “global warming” have already occurred in other parts of the world, but their warning nature has at best spurred dire predictions rather than reflections as to their basic cause.

  Clearly, we needed the Sage’s help to find that basic cause. Once we understood it, we were able to see that “the production of greenhouse gases” was only another symptom, or what can be called a “secondary cause.” The primary cause is what the Sage has shown us in previous lessons as “The Doubter.” This name refers to a demonic coping mechanism that becomes installed in our rational mind when we adopt the following two mistaken ideas about ourselves: “In and of ourselves we are not special enough,” and “Only the eyes can see the truth.” The Sage has made us aware that the invention of the word “special” violates the Cosmic Principle of Equal Worth of every thing that is part of the Cosmos. That Principle is complemented by another: the Cosmic Principle of the Uniqueness of every thing that is part of the Cosmos. What is unique cannot be compared to anything else. The word “special” separates us from our original unity with the Cosmos by setting a false standard. To be told as individuals that ‘we are not special enough’ makes us strive to become something special (which is an abstract word without meaning), while the second phrase gives our sense of outer seeing the sole authority to assert “the truth.”

  The Sage has shown us that “The Doubter” is also the origin of the human-centered view, in which humankind sees itself as special, and as the center of the universe around which everything revolves. This view is ultimately the cause for all the disorder humans have created in the world. (See Hexagram 11, Harmony, Peace, Prosperity.)

  Obviously, this article is not the place to explain in detail the way the Cosmos functions, and the belief systems humans have created through projecting their human-centered ideas onto their relationship with the Cosmos. 

  However, the Sage drew our attention to destructive habits of mind that are part of the human-centered view. One such habit needs particular mention in the context of today’s lesson: the habit of taking what we see with our eyes to be “true,” and then drawing conclusions from what is actually a half-truth. Those false conclusions are then projected into the future, where they can become self-fulfilling prophesies.

  This makes us realize that by ignoring the inner truth (here: the true cause) of the fate humans not only fail to end it, but actually accelerate the fate.

  The reader may ask, how under the conditions that scientists have observed regarding the “warming of the arctic” and the various other natural phenomena caused by it, it should be possible to halt the development of “global warming.” Is it a question of having faith? The Sage does not support faith, rather it wants us to learn something new about the way the Cosmos functions. It happens that the “new” has something to do with a Cosmic Principle first tapped into by Albert Einstein: the Cosmic Principle of Relativity.

  The Sage has shown us that the Laws of Nature must not be taken as absolute, because they are complemented by the Cosmic Principles of Harmony. The latter are not limited by the parameters of time-and-space, and therefore give the Laws of Nature their relative quality. This is the aspect that is not taken into account when predictions are being made by scientists. It is not within our capacity as humans to imagine how this fate will be ended, nor how long it will take. All we are meant to do is keep our minds innocent, i.e., free of predictions or expectations.

  The Sage summarized today’s lesson in the following two hexagrams: Hexagram 41, Decreasing, and Hexagram 42, Increasing. We were counseled to put a request to the “Helper of the Cosmic Principle of Relativity” to free the land and the atmosphere from the negative effects of the human-centered view. Its “decrease” will bring “increase” to the Earth and to us humans in general.

(For more about the Helper of the Cosmic Principle of Relativity see Article #12.)