The breeze carries the seeds of change in it today, I can feel it – naturally change is occurring constantly, as all parts of this universe are in motion from the smallest subatomic particle to the greatest galaxy, but the myriad cycles of yin-yang (contraction-expansion) operating with an infinite variation of scale, collectively governing all this motion reach certain points in the process where it’s possible to perceive a sea change, a profound shift of the underlying currents and swells informing human affairs.
All change is good
Change in itself is not necessarily good and not necessarily bad, it’s just change – out of good comes bad and out of bad comes good in any case, we all know that, but for shorthand’s sake, if we’re to assume an optimistic attitude to existence, we might as well précis the process and declare all change to be good.
The opposite of change: stasis (eventually to the point of stagnation), is definitely not good, if progress of any kind - development of situations – is to be attained, and as our lives, our adventures along the Great Thoroughfare, depend for their dynamics on change, stasis in extremis doesn’t work.
However, if all there was, was change existence would soon cease to facilitate sustained form of any kind and we wouldn’t be here to discuss it. Conversely, if all there was, was stasis we’d have all turned into solid matter and would be as capable of operating freely as rocks.
There has to be a balance: change has to be anchored in stasis, as much as stasis depends on change to prevent it congealing.
Balance
So when all about you is in a great state of flux, as our world is now, the balance must be struck within: the stasis has to be manifested internally by developing a stable core.
Meaning the more you feel the external flux and the more you feel it impact on your life, the more the need for the antidote: to develop stability at the core, rather than lose yourself chasing stability externally, in vain.
And by developing a stable internal core, magically, the external realm spontaneously conforms by settling into a new configuration of relative stability in any case.
This illustrates the mechanics of wu wei, the ancient Taoist system of effortlessly manifesting shifts of circumstance externally by adjusting the internal relationship between mind and body, whereby transformation is wrought by changing the direction your energy is flowing, creating a different intention and allowing external reality to conform to that rather than trying to push or pull it by force.
Anatomy of the immortal spirit-body
So rather than fixate on the news, the gossip and what other people appear to be up to, rather than run around like a headless chicken trying to keep up, the Taoist way is to gather your attention and place it instead in your three inner ‘psychic chambers’. These comprise the anatomy of your ‘immortal spirit body’ and consist of a chamber in a different dimension to, yet co-spatial with the region behind your belly button, a chamber in a different dimension to, yet co-spatial with the region behind the center of your breastbone, and a chamber in a different dimension to, yet co-spatial with the region of the midbrain.
These chambers then connect as one and provide your inter-realm access point to the spirit-body dimension: the lowermost chamber governs your ability to survive and endure, the middle chamber governs your ability to care and to love, and the upper chamber governs your capacity for consciousness and to bear witness. Together these three comprise the hub of you as wheel.
Still point
By referencing your identity and experience of being you to the still point within the hub rather than the moving circumference, it helps prevent dizziness.
It also encourages a lessening of the tendency to grasp variously at the anxiety or excitement triggered by the play of external events. And the less you grasp at these two imposters, the more consistent becomes your peace of mind.
After this satsang I’m about to do, I’m straight off to the farthest reaches of West Wales to sequester my person in the seclusion of a stone barn high up the slopes of Angel Mountain gazing out over the Irish Sea to write the second half of my book, and wanted to leave you with this brief exposition of the yin-yang dynamic before I set off.
I hope you find it edifying.
Meanwhile it’ll be fascinating to see how the changes have shaped up by the time I get off the mountain a little less than a week from now.
With love, Supercharged
The more you feel the external flux and the more you feel it impact on your life, the more the need for the antidote: to develop stability at the core, rather than lose yourself chasing stability externally, in vain.
