Transforming Inertia into Authentic Courage

“Belief in truth begins with doubts of all truths in which one has previously believed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Metaphorically speaking, beasts of burden are incapable of creating new values. They are only capable of carrying old values. They will suffer their entire lives, broken and trod-upon, to carry those old values. There is perhaps no beast of burden more symbolically “weighed-down” than the pack mule.

Sadly, modern man has become a pack mule whose reverence for his burden has become a crippling thing. He carries the weight of ages – both religious and political – on his worry-heavy back and grief-stricken shoulders. He is the bearer of existential angst, reverent only to the historic heaviness of prescribed values.

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Yin Yang, a Symbol of Balance and Harmony

Yin-Yang is a deeply rooted concept in Taoist philosophy, representing the constant state of change or duality in the universe forming a whole. It describes how opposite forces are interconnected and mutually dependent in the natural world; and, harmony is only achieved when the two forces combined, are in balance.

Any phenomenon within nature can be understood in relation to another; one will always be yin or yang in comparison with the other. For example, the morning fog (yin) is dissipated by the heat of the sun (yang); the darkness of night (yin) is replaced by the light of day (yang). One simply cannot exist without the other, shadow can’t exist without light.

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The Basics of I Ching, the Chinese Divination Tool

I Ching is an ancient, sophisticated fortune-telling tool used by the Chinese to predict the pattern of events which will govern and shape our destiny. Terence McKenna studied the I Ching and developed his interpretations in the form of Timewave or Novelty theory.

But what exactly is the I Ching and how does one use it? This has been succinctly explained in this guest post by Erik Oakenshield, who specializes in Art Nouveau Tarot reading, or Western Zodiac horoscope and Druid practice.

The I Ching Basics: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

The I Ching is one of the world’s oldest divination texts, with some claims putting it over 3,000 years old The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an oracle even, that has helped millions by providing advice and guidance to life’s questions, both complex and basic. The beauty in consulting the I Ching is that it does not provide answers for you — but rather it helps you find the answers that already exist within you.

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A Layman’s Guide to Mindful Meditation

“Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.” ~ Rumi

Here’s the thing: we all know we should meditate, right? Even conventional doctors are informing us about the huge benefits of meditation. But how do we go about doing it exactly? And does it really matter how we do it?

When it comes down to it, meditation can be as simple, or as complex, as we want it to be. There’s a myriad of styles. Some are faux pas. Some are cliché. Some are even down-right silly. And I’ll go more into these various styles in later articles. But when we really get down to the crux of the matter, meditation is essentially about one thing that can be broken up into a myriad of things: Presence. Being present to the moment is the umbrella that all things mindful fall below. But what is it about this “moment” that is so important? Why is all this fuss about the “here and now”?

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