A recent graduate of a CIYO course has made it her intention to find her center of Being in 2015, and abide here in amidst of her intense life circumstances. She asked me what she could do to find tangible stillness on our Sunday Silence days. Peri and I would welcome your words about what works for you to open this experience. If you feel to send us your reflections (bcecil@mind.net), we would love to include them in this monthly pulse. Your words, your discoveries, your practices and your inspirations would be a gift.
In the Book of Changes, the I Ching, there is a very specific hexagram describing the momentary energy of the winter Solstice. Here in the northern hemisphere we are heading into this day. The meaning of the word Solstice is the moment when the ‘sun stands still’ ~ it is the point of deepest darkness before the Sun begins it cyclical journey back to the Light. I found myself drawn to contemplate the hexagrams before & after the Solstice this year and it comes as no surprise how exquisitely the I Ching teaches about the nature of life: Splitting Apart – Return – Innocence. The following are some quotes from David La Chapelle’s version of the I Ching. Splitting apart. The time when “the ground beneath us heaves with the emergence of unseen matters, and our outer structures can no longer remain the same…the old collapses so that the new can be born. The earliest whispers of birth can often feel like death….A willingness to allow collapse is born of faith in the universal process….the old falls away so the new can be born.” Return. “This is the time of the winter solstice….timing is all-important. If we catch the wave of the new year, then we can return with the light and old habits and faults fall away like the spent leaves of autumn. If we miss that moment, if we fail to rest as the light begins anew, then we run the risk of working against the very force that seeks to aid us. Light journeys underground in order to redeem the darkness. The Thunder of our souls is a sound which must be heeded if we are to transform the leaden cloaks of doubt and unease…in the quietude of a devoted heart new seeds of light are carried…free from old conditioning comes the gift of Innocence and new beginnings.” May those of us in the northern hemisphere embrace the deep silence, stillness, and womb of darkness that naturally wraps its arms around us this time of year. For those of you in the southern hemisphere may you welcome with open arms the new life that is becoming visible out of the seeds of your own quietude last winter. In both cases, may this day of Silence carry the quiet, clear awareness of the wisdom and intelligence in which our lives are held and nurtured day and night, season upon season, year after year. With blessings and love for the Solstice and the New Year, Peri & Barbara