Artist: Adam Scott Miller
Title: Wisdom’s Dare
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FEATURE ARTICLE:
Day Dreamer
Daydreaming is an important activity that opens up an infinite world of possibilities to you. How often do you make time for day dreaming? How often do you relax and allow yourself time to drift off with your imagination?
One of my teachers, Cathy Dean, used to say, “Imagination is the forerunner to creation.” This is so true – in order for something to come into existence someone must have imagined it first. Imagination requires an open mind, freedom, and creativity. Visionaries are strongly connected to their imagination.
Imagination is such a wonderful and powerful tool we have, are you aware of how you are utilising it? Perhaps you do have imaginings … but are they coming from fear, generating unhappy feelings or do they come from love, generating happy and uplifting feelings? My advice is to pay attention to those daydreams and visions that make you feel good.
Do you think visions only come to witches stirring cauldrons, or gypsies looking into crystal balls? No, they come to all of us, in quiet moments, sitting in nature, watching the sunset, listening to a piece of music…
And then after the vision, you must take action! You must take the steps necessary to make it happen! A vision without action is just a dream and will always be just a dream. These visions will challenge you: they will push you beyond your fears and limited beliefs; they will urge you to grow, and that is why you must start taking the steps. The visions you see are part of your journey and your evolution.
I am a dreamer. I am a visionary. Sometimes my head is in the clouds but I take what I see when I’m there and I ground it on the Earth. I take the steps necessary to make it happen.
The most recent example was when I received the new Moon Gong. As I played it I saw myself all painted in gold and was inspired to bring movements of Tai Chi, Karate and Taiko together when playing it. An opportunity to play the Gong arose and I started to practise these moves and gather costume pieces. As the day approached I started to feel scared … scared that I wasn’t good enough. My mind presented to me an easy way out … ‘you don’t have to play the Gong that way, in that costume, you could just sit behind it quietly’. But I knew those thoughts came from fear and I would not let them win.
I believe I saw myself playing it that way because that was how I was meant to play it; why else would I have envisioned it? So I continued as envisioned and faced my fear, anxieties and limiting beliefs and kicked their butts! The intent of this vision was to share an audible and visual healing delight with others, but the healing delight was also for me. I’ve fallen in love once again with my courage – a Rainbow Warrior fighting personal demons and slaying limiting beliefs, with love, light and sound.
As Marianne Williamson said, “It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us,” and in this case it was the gold light.
So now the question is, what is it that you’ve been daydreaming about, and what have you done about it?
Renee Cashman. Email: soundangel@beeuniversal.org
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Siddha Story
Life That is Borrowed, Wealth That is Stolen
King Shun asked his minister, “Can I possess the way of heaven and earth, and make it go according to my wishes?”
His minister replied, “Even your body is not your own; how can you think about bending the way of heaven and earth to your will?”
“If my body does not belong to me, then to whom does it belong?”
“Your body does not belong to you; its form was lent to you by heaven and earth. Your life does not belong to you; it came into existence with the interaction of the energies of heaven and earth. Your mind and your spirit are not yours to control; they follow the natural way of heaven and earth. Your children and your grandchildren are not yours to possess; they are like flakes of your skin, for procreation was granted to you by heaven and earth.
“A person who understands this truth is one who is not bound by the ideas of what a mind is and what a body is. Forgetting his body, he can travel anywhere in the world without knowing where he goes. Forgetting his mind, he can succeed in everything he does because he does not think about how it is done. He follows the way of heaven, going when he needs to go, staying without knowing what made him stay, and eating without knowing how he is fed.
“Life is but the coming together of the energies of heaven and earth, and the source of these energies has no beginning, and no end. How can one ever possess the way of heaven and earth?”
In the kingdom of Ch’i lived a rich man by the name of Kuo. In the land of Sung there was a very poor man by the name of Hsiang. Seeing the wealth of Kuo, Hsiang decided to pay the wealthy man a visit to see if he could learn how to get rich.
Kuo said, “Actually, there is not much to how I got rich. I simply stole. In the first year, I made enough to be self-sufficient. In the second year, I started getting rich. By the third year I had saved up an enormous wealth. Since then, I have been able to help others who are in need.”
When the poor man heard this he was delighted. He latched on to the idea of stealing and did not bother to ask Kuo to explain the details of how he stole. Hsiang started trying his skills at stealing. He climbed over walls and broke into houses. He helped himself to anything he could lay his hands on and soon he had accumulated a good bit of wealth.
However, one time he was caught. He was punished severely and all his stolen goods were confiscated. Poor again, and angry with Kuo for giving him bad advice, he went to accuse the rich man for tricking him.
Upon seeing Hsiang, Kuo greeted him sincerely and asked how he was faring. Hsiang angrily told the rich man how he had followed his example of stealing and how it had ended in disaster.
Kuo sighed and said, “You never asked me what I stole to make myself rich. You heard the word ‘steal’, formed your own ideas, and went about doing it your way. Of course you ended up in trouble. Let me tell you what I stole to get wealthy.
“I have heard that the four seasons have bountiful gifts. So I stole some gifts of the spring rain and the summer warmth for my crops. I also know the rivers and lakes have a lot of wealth, so I stole some fish for my fishpond and some waterfowl for my duck farm. I know the earth has much to give, so I stole some earth to build shelters for my livestock and myself. I know the woods have plenty of riches, so now and then I stole some wild game for food. Water, soil, animals and crops all belong to heaven and earth. I do not possess any of them. Neither does anyone else. That’s why I said I stole them to make myself rich. When I steal from heaven and earth, there is no retribution, because I know that no one owns these things. You, on the other hand, are foolish enough to steal other people’s property. You took gold, jewels, silk and grain that belonged to people. That is why the laws of humanity punished you.”
Hsiang felt that Kuo was tricking him again. As he left the rich man’s home, he met the sage Tung-kuo. Hsiang asked for an explanation of Kuo’s speech. The learned man said, “Kuo did not steal in the common sense of the word. He understood that the gifts of heaven and earth are there for him to use, although he knows he cannot call them his own. He used the word ‘stealing’ to mean ‘taking without the need to ask’. You, on the other hand, do not know this truth, and your ignorance caused you a lot of grief.”
The Universal Storyteller