Spirituality

Notes On The Ecosystem

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I’ve referred to cultivating an “Ecosystem” of thought and relations as part of spiritual practices. The idea is that your practices embrace the “big picture” of your life, tying parts of it together. I figured I’d exposit my current methods here to see if they help folks out.

Part 1: Regular Readings

First, each day I read two passages out of a copy of the Tao Te Ching and may move on to other works. This regularly means I contemplate useful teachings regularly, in small amounts, constantly reinforcing my philosophy and keeping me thinking. Taking regular time to really ask “what does this mean and what did I learn” is quite helpful in keeping to “The Big Picture.”

Secondly, I read about one Hexagram from the I Ching, a sprawling body of divination, advice, and philosophy on the 64 different “Changes” of the world. I have several analyses of the I Ching and regularly cycle through them to be exposed to different ideas. Each day then I contemplate a “Change” in the world and what people have written about it. This grounds me in larger thought related to Taoist ideas and again keeps me thinking.

Plus, there are some amazing analyses of the I Ching. One, the Tao of Organization, is basically the I Ching of organizations and managements, and as a Project Manager, that gets me thinking.

None of these take a huge amount of time. There’s something about having a “pause to think about how it comes together” that’s not overlarge I find helpful.

My Advice: Read a little bit of an important philosophical/spiritual work a day as the break and contemplation is helpful but not overwhelming. Also read something that gives you that “Big Picture” sense – it may be mystical/philosophical like the I Ching, or perhaps a work on history or culture that has convenient “bite sized” chunks.

Part 2: “The Harmony”

A more recent thing I’ve taken to doing is reflecting each day on how the different aspects of my life connect. I write this down in my meditation notebook once a day, and I review different “levels” of my life. I reflect on how I’ve done, what I learned, and maybe what I can do better. Here’s the way I do it.

“Celestial Harmony” is my name for reviewing my life on the mystical and archetypical level. This has two parts.


First, I reflect on the gods. This means I reflect on the huge principles that matter to me, those living parts of the universe that mean something to mean and that I connect to. This may be thankfulness, acknowledgement of the roles in my life, and so on. This helps me understand how I connect to the larger forces in the world.

Secondly, I reflect on values that are important to me. To make this easier I adopted a system from the Chinese Five Element System, analyzing how I did in the “Five Virtues.” Thus I take a moment to ask how I did to embody Righteousness, Benevolence, Wisdom, Propriety, and Trustworthyness. This is not a system I know a lot about, but it worked with my regular readings, and I decided to “wing it” and see if it helped – and it did.

You could probably do this in religious or secular ways. The key thing is to recognize the “big elements” of your life and specific values and review them.

“Social Harmony” is the next thing I analyze. How did I do connecting with people, supporting friends and family, performing my social roles, did I learn anythin,g and so on? I look at things that are both chances to do better and what I have done well.

I found this most useful as I didn’t realize a lot about how social I was. There are times I felt both social and also wanted some “me” time and now I realize I didn’t realize how much socializing I was doing. Quite useful.

Psychology is the last part. I sit down and ask how my mental state is, any issues I dealt with, learned about, did well, or things I can do better. This is usually pretty practical, but also ties to all of the above reviews.

Plus if there’s any issues I want to work on, I can look at progress.

My Advice: Try these daily reviews. Don’t be hard on yourself, but I find it very useful. Thinking from the cosmic and timeless down to specific neuroses is illuminating.

So, Give it a Try

I hope these practices give you some good ideas. I recommend giving them at least 3 months of practice to see how they work out for you. It gives you time to get it right, find what works for you, and see what lessons pop up. For me, It really helps with the “ecosystem” of my life, connecting my spirituality, philosophy, and psychology together. I hope the advice helps do the same for you.

And give me a write to let me know what you’ve learned.

–Xenofact

The Joy of Cultivation

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In my various Taoist-infused spiritual meditation. There’s something I noted in both my own experience and in the writings of different teachers, sage, immortals, and weirdos – that there’s a real joy in self-cultivation.

Meditation. Ethical contemplation. Dietary improvement. Self-analysis. Reading and informing oneself. There’s a real pleasure in all of it that I saw in everything from Taoist mystics to Confucian intellectuals to mystics and magicians. I get this, and it’s a joy I think more people could appreciate.

My meditative work, both breath and energy work, help me explore myself, develop myself, understand myself. It’s like refining a metal, gradual work as something beautiful emerges. I sit down and tune my breath and rest mind, or circulate energy, there, in touch with myself – even when a distraction frustrates me at least I’m there, alive.

My meditative work is also about skill development. Tuning that breath and attention. Being aware of the flows of energies. Every day is a chance to improve that skill, every day I’m a little bit better (well, statistically) at what I do.

My meditative studies are fulfilling. To read documents thousands of years old, to analyze symbols and translations, informs me and connects me to others that laid the foundation for me now. Wrestling with symbolism may at times be frustrating (notoriously so in Taoist alchemy) but it is also connecting and energizing. I’m there, understanding, relating, and going “what the heck” just as people have for thousands of years.

I also work on my ethics, my place in society because you can’t escape that – being human. I may be a mystic of sorts, but it’s not in a monastery – indeed I’m of the mind that self-cultivation is best directly in human society if you can handle it. It may be more challenging, but it’s also fulfilling as I am in direct contact with people and can learn more quickly.

My ethical studies and interests also, again, connect me to others. I can discuss with other people so included to self-cultivation, but I also connect with past writers as I read their books. There is something about reading advice from a thousand years ago that is relevant to today that is illuminating and connecting. There’s also something about trying to be a better person and really figure out what to do in this world.

(And at times frustrating, as you’re realizing how many a human problem hasn’t changed. But it’s a frustration that connects me to another frustrated person of centuries ago!)

My mystical work, prayer, theurgy, also connects me to the bigger picture. To think of gods, of the great forces of the world (however abstract or embodied you prefer) is to think of the way the world works. It is to think about the powers that are and what your role in all of it is. It is to ask “where am I in all of this?”

Of course there is the Tao, and it’s hard to discuss the contemplation of that, of the Big Picture. But you get the idea.

And of course there’s questions of diet and ethical diet, of proper use or non-use of certain substances, and so on. That joy of cultivation, of becoming better, connects you to so many things. Even when those things are questioning if you should down a glass of rum (my preferred alcohol) or not.

There is a joy in this cultivation.

This is something I also think is important to modern times – if I may be so bold, needed. Making being actually better part of your life. Not what’s expected, necessarily. Not what’s trendy. But of getting real.

Maybe, as I write this, that’s a joy I should share more. But I suppose writing this is a good start.

–Xenofact

There’s Desire Then There’s Desire

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Desire is an issue that many a spiritual path attempt to address, and understandably so. We’ve all been led astray by our desires. We’ve all found a compulsion obsessing us, crowding out other parts of our lives. We’ve all had it hurt to the point where the joy of fulfillment didn’t seem worth it.

Yet at the same time, we’ve all encountered the problems of repression. The shame that comes with people judging us for being human. Attempts to control our behavior that becomes more painful and more disruptive than the desires themselves. There are points where people get concerned about desire and then address it in ways that make it worse.

And at the bottom, doesn’t some of desire seem, well, natural? Why are we fighting it? Why are we obsessing about it? It’s like we’ve found ways to make ourselves more miserable for being human.

In my meditations and mentations I’ve been considering desire lately, and wanted to share a few insights. I think when we talk desire, both in general and in our spiritual practice, we’re often talking very different things.

At the core of desire are our natural feelings. We get hungry, we get horny, we get afraid. They’re natural, and they’re nothing to be ashamed of because they’re part of being human.

They’re also transitory, they come and go, rise and fall, get fulfilled or get forgotten. Desires are like waves on the ocean.

However in time we gain obsessions. When a desire arises, it gets trapped in our obsessions, amplified, and pursued. A single flare that would ignite and go dark is kindled into a bonfire.

In time, we can end up giant, jangling, collections of obsessions. A momentary desire can pinball into all sorts of wants and actions and unwise choices. The most innocent need can become a disaster.

There’s desires then there’s desires. I think most spiritual practices are concerned about the obsessions that trap our simple desires and turn them into something dangerous. For that matter we can become obsessed with fighting desires and create other complexes in our heads and become extra miserable.

These complexes can also set off other desires and thus other complexes! You can start being annoyed at an annoying friend, which sets off your obsession with loneliness, which then sets off another obsession that maybe you’re too judgemental . . . you get the idea.

As of this writing I’ve found this “two-teir” approach helps me a lot. At the base of me are very human needs, emotions, and desires. These come and go, the manifestation of the energies of my being, part of being human.

On top of these entirely natural desires are all sorts of psychological complexes that get set off by these desires, amplify them, and past a certain point, make life complicated. These are where our spiritual disciplines, renunciations, analyses, and meditations usually apply.

Those churning normal energies of our bodies and lives are normal. It’s when things get obsessive and complex, spirals of thoughts and feelings, that we suffer.

I found this a helpful distinction, the “substrate” and the “complications.” The substrate, the basics are what they are – they can even help me get in touch with myself. It’s the complicated obsessions I want to address. It reduces the risk I start judging myself while also acknowledging I’ve got some psychological Rube Goldeberg Devices to deal with.

Hope these thoughts help you as well. And I mean that as a sincere desire.

–Xenofact