There are related threads at the I Ching Community you might find interesting: Why you don’t create your own reality part 1 and part 2.

Some concluding thoughts on the Secret. i too use Stephen Karcher’s translation in conjunction with Heyboer and the ever so handy and insightful Brian Walker; i will go through my journals and see what the Yi said when i brought up this issue concerning the Secret and my friendship with a very special person. i know in Hex 7, it said to retain neutrality, disengage and retreat from this group; follow the Sage at every step reminding yourself the wisdom of this path. Basically, it is saying don’t argue about it. In fact, when that almost happened, i became very aware of the moment & that this was becoming a divisive element and i immediately asked that we not argue about it. No matter, it had hooked them and until proven otherwise ( and not by me) it has in fact divided us; i have pursued another way of relating to this person, but no longer engage in the subject matter.

This whole thing is instructive in that while many of us feel we should be in agreement with our friends and family about issues and values, in fact perhaps we must all go our own way to develop our uniqueness, retain our authenticity, and unfold our being.

I also have found that being in the right is not always the correct way to be in any given situation. It may not be our Dharma to be the one who corrects another. The ego wants to intercede badly, like a child in school who props their arm up and hand waving high knowing the answer and wanting the teacher to pick them to be recognized for what they know. The lesson is for you…you know it, learned it and that’s all that matters… and others will hopefully learn what they need to learn in their own way. If they find what they need through the Secret or other means, great.

I recently bought the DVD-film, Lost Horizon. A gem of a story. Robert Conway stumbles upon Shangri-La. Through dubious circumstances, he finds a hidden valley in the Himalayas, a place of peace, beauty and tranquility… life is in balance in this place called Shangri-La. Conway comes to find out some of reasons why it is so. His conversation with one of the half-lamas, Chang, goes like this:

“If i were to put it into a very few words, my dear sir, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds — even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself. We have found that the principle makes for a considerable degree of happiness. We rule with moderate strictness, and in return we are satisfied with moderate obedience. And i think i can claim that our people are moderately sober, moderately chaste, and moderately honest.”

Even so, our world these days is not one of peace, beauty, tranquility, or moderation. These we must develop in the what Heyboer calls, the inner essential being. And in sharing and helping others to do the same, the world may begin its recovery from imbalance. Philosophies that encourage having over being are destructive. The planet is paying a heavy price for human desires, for our insatiable need to attract stuff, for governments lust for power. ( Read Erich Fromm’s, To Have or To Be).

The Secret plays right into the mindset of governments/corporations/media who have socially engineered people to be consumers/producers. Educating people to be workers/tax payers. We are all competing for everything… food, parking spaces, jobs, housing, healthcare, even a little personal space itself.

What may be of interest is Hilton wrote Lost Horizon prior to WWII. A cautionary tale? Perhaps. The Lama in the story warns of global conflagration. But, he says, afterward, we will be here to help heal the world.

Conway leaves Shangri-La on the insistence of one of his companions who convinces him the whole notion of the place is a fraud. They leave, tragedy occurs, and Conway spends a few years making his way back. Does he?

The narrator of the story ends by saying this: Gentlemen, I give you a toast. Here’s my hope that Robert Conway will find his Shangri-La. Here’s my hope that we all find our Shangri-La.

At what price, is something we all need to consider.

Que sera, sera…what will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see. I love that song. I recently wrote of being in the flow…however, that does not mean there won’t be rocks and rapids and twists and turns. That’s life. That’s how we learn to navigate in the now. i do choose to follow… i follow the good and the true and the beautiful. Similar words to that effect can be found throughout the Yi.

The Secret did challenge me to size up and be ready to defend my virtues.
( see heyboer translation on hexagram 7, the Army). Hex 7 has been at work in my life since July 2007. The Army can be a group of people, a group of ideas, etc. It was a clear warning i was getting in with people who want to tell others how to be successful and tinker with your way of thinking or values, or virtues. Here in the U.S. there is tremendous pressure to be financially successful. The problem is the price we pay for seeking that success and/or getting it. It is imbalance. It is soul-sapping. It is not a healthy way of being. Yet, i continue to say, to each his own. Everyone is on their own path. If you know people who are stumbling along or making what you think are big mistakes…leave them alone. They are learning.

I continue to practice my own Sadhana in my own way. It is my offering so as to open the way for me to travel on. I do practice non-forcing and non-violence.

My life is not about having more of what i already have…using up more of dwindling resources. I do not aspire to status, or celebrity, or ‘ the millionaire mind’ thing ( another personal growth phenom here in the U.S.). I am a creative person. I am a giving person. For those who are not blessed with all the things needed for self-realization/actualization ( maslow), it is up to those of us who are blessed to help and support and give. That is coming from my North Node Aquarian side, but it is no secret.

Everyday i get ‘connected’. Stuff comes my way that opens my higher self more and more. Do i attract it? I don’t know and it does not matter to me. I cannot micromanage the Universe. Yesterday i had an encounter with a peregrine falcon… i urge you to read about its significance as related to Rumi and the Tao. Rumi’s poem, the King’s Falcon is a wonderful tale that teaches us about our soul and taking care of it.

Lao-Tsu said:
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.

The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try and change it, you will ruin it.
If you try and hold it, you will lose it.
( just flow with it)