Diary of a Daoist #1 - penetrating wind
Listen here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/well-books/episodes/DoaD-1---penetrating-wind-e2m4uka
This is the first entry into the Diary of a Daoist.
We'll make this easy and let the I Ching decide for us what I should talk about.
Three lines already, let's get the fourth, the fifth and the sixth and we have hexagram 57. About the ‘penetrating wind’, this is what hexagram 57 The penetrating wind reads;
Wind follows upon wind wandering the earth, penetrating gently but persistently the superior person expands his influence by reaffirming his decisions and carrying out his promise. Small persistent, focused effort brings success. Seek advice from someone you respect.
Situation Analysis
Gentle persuasion is the key. In this instance. Though the words are soft, the speaker must be firm, calm and confident. Gentle words are worthless if spoken with trepidation. Wordless influence by example is also effective in this situation. All persuasion should be almost unfelt but consistent and persistent. Ask for feedback from someone you know, to be an effective persuader.
Wow okay, well we'll get into what I think that means for me.
There are three changing lines and the middle changing line prevails in this.
Line Five - determination has settled into a steady course toward good fortune. There was no way to start, but it will lead to a glorious ending. Consider any crossroad three days before pressing on. Check your bearings for three days following to ensure you haven't strayed from your course. Wow okay aha.
The transformed hexagram has given the number seven which is ‘recruiting allies’. And it says;
Deep water beneath the earth's surface, untapped resources are available. The superior person nourishes and instructs the people, building a loyal disciplined following. Good fortune. No mistake if you follow a course led by experience, you must gain support from others. Find a way to make others want to see your objectives met as badly as you want. How can they profit from the attainment of this goal? Could you command confidence you are just the person who can bring this plan into fruition?
Wow, Okay, well, the first hexagram ‘penetrating wind’ kind of speaks directly to what I'm trying to do right now with this new idea to hone in on and be consistent with exploring flow. As I'm looking at the time, it's 12:48, that lovely 48th Number is coming up a lot. It's all kind of linking back to this idea of The Well. It's just fascinated me.
I slipped away from it for a while but as I've been slowly coming back to just sitting with myself, and having the courage to give myself time to be silent. Listen to the chaos in my mind, unpack it, and allow it to sit there by itself. And let it reveal itself over time.
This all links together. Yeah, where it says small, persistent focused effort, brings success. Today was a day to realize I have all these things I love doing and I don't have to feel like I have to just do one. But I do in some way need to bring this beautifully sporadic creative expression into one collective purpose. And that for me is exploring flow in some way or another and it has many different names like; the unseen thread, the well, the creative process, all these different things. For me, it's just exploring this confusing journey that we're all a part of.
Whoever's listening at the other end of this, I know will be feeling the same thing because it would have never made it to your ears without the energy being felt.
Gentle persuasion is the key in this instance. I think that's just speaking to my mind's idea that I have to teach people these things I'm learning. There is a protective element of me thinking that putting myself out there for who I am and just showing that isn't enough?
I've got this constant urge to prove to others there's a reason for me to be listened to, “I deserve to be heard!”. So I've collected this beautiful body of knowledge and this ability to absorb much information but it doesn't need to just be regurgitated online or put out there in that way. Because there’s enough of that. No one needs more of that, I don't need more of that so why do you?
Though these words may be soft, the speaker must be firm, calm and confident. Gentle words are worthless if spoken with trepidation. Not gonna lie I have no idea what trepidation means but I get it, I getcha.
Wordless influence by example is also effective. For me, that's just speaking to that part of me that, that full part of me that can express itself through movement. Yeah, those mornings for me in a park, just allowing myself the freedom to move and not have this “city linear mindset” of bashing myself against bars and pushing stuff up and down and bluhhhh. Allowing myself to follow the movement and give myself 360 degrees in every direction of movement and being able to just climb a tree and then allow the energy to transfer into yoga, into some tai chi or some capoeira or some acrobatics whatever it is, just allowing that flow of energy to keep moving in whatever form it needs to become. It's a beautiful way for me to start my day and it allows me to get that multi-faceted expression from that ball of creative energy inside of me that cannot be expressed in one way. It's a beautiful paradox that by allowing myself to have that space to express myself in all those different ways I’m expressing it in one. One whole complete way. It’s beautiful.
The Hexagram changing lines I think it's just talking about my day today. A little bit manic, a little bit all over the place, high energy getting excited about new ideas and new projects and that leads to me getting in my head a little bit too much.
Even this bit here; consider any crossroad three days before pressing on, check your bearings for three days following to ensure you haven't strayed from your course. So for me, I think that just means holding back a little bit on these sudden new ideas I've got and not acting on them so swiftly but still putting them to work and experimenting with the idea and seeing where it flows.
Working out if it's just another one of my little endless trails that I never see through. Or if this is me not straying from my course and is actually ‘The Unseen Thread’.
The transformed hexagram ‘recruiting allies’ number seven, first bit is talking about the Well, talking about this thing I'm planning to do of wanting to bring people together who are like-minded. That's a beautiful little buzzword that everyone likes to throw around but it is what it is. It’s what we all need, it’s what I need, this sense of community amongst the solo ones.
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing… what's going on right now, the magnetics of just being yourself is kind of a crazy secret, not even a secret but I was never told that
“hey! if you can work towards completely being yourself, being that version of you that you are when you're alone or when you're with close friends… if you can be that version of yourself, that moon version of you (your soul)… that energy can spill out into the outer edges of your being and beyond and then into your interactions with random people in public.”
The magnetics of that pulls things into your life that you never knew you needed. I spent so much of my life, and I probably will continue to, constantly trying to will these things into my life from my head of what I thought I needed. I abandoned that desperate need to be liked and gave it a shot at completely being myself, which did not happen overnight. But through picking back up these things I did as a kid, like climbing trees barefoot no care in the world in the middle of a park, getting lost in my little rabbit holes of learning in my books, just drawing all day every day, painting… constant movement and expression through movement, laughing and not being afraid to look like a fucking idiot… the more that I've allowed this version of me, which is the true version, the more I did that… I don't know, does the universe reward you for that, it feels like it.
The more things that I let go of and allow to fall off myself that I thought I needed to be… the more I chip away at this rock-solid armour I built growing up in London having to draw this facade and become this actor, the more I’ve taken off those different masks, this beautiful beautiful being has emerged and I'm grateful every day I get to… be. It is just… yeah.
Who would have thought?
Let's look at the trigram symbols. SUN / wind on top of each other… it's beautiful.
I can feel the the flow of this dropping. So we're not going to try and force nothing. We're going to let that be and … yeah it was a beautiful start.
Peace n Love.