Divination: Ace of Pentacles and Doubt

Divination!  Let’s do some!  Got a question, a problem, an “issue”?  I do–who doesn’t really?!  Let’s be honest.  Even high spiritual teachers have them.  Lately, I’ve ripped off my mask but am thinking that it might be better to put it back on–people rather like the mask and let’s face it, nobody REALLY wants to know “what lies in the deep” or beheath it@!  Love that phrase, “lies in the deep”-but that’s the scorpio in me I suppose.  Anyway, it’s a line from Lord of the Rings–I really LOVE the music from that movie, especially the Return of the King CD.  But let me pull this all together here and get back to the diviniation question.

Got one in mind?  Like I said, I do.  You focus on yours and I’ll focus upon mine–let’s form this question carefully. Perhaps even write it down.  No paper and pen handy?  Open a document and write it down there.  Got it? 

Okay,  mine has to do with doubt–what’s yours have to do with?  Let’s see what the oracle tells us.  I will use the tarot today.  Now that I think about it, doubt is a common human issue. 

I’ve drawn the Ace of Pentacles.  I can’t help but be drawn to the blue mountains in the background–it seems everything reminds me of the moutains lately.  But let’s stick to the question, what does our issue about doubt have to do with the Ace of Pentacles?  Well, the answer here is that there is an opportunity, something material and earthly (like money) that comes as a result of the issue at hand that we’re asking about.

New Beginning, opportunity, door opens (represented by the archway in the picture on the card).  Something material or earthly will happen to help overcome the doubt that exists around the question. 

This is beginning to make sense to my own inner question– is it for you as well?  It is encouraging.   I’ve always loved this card with the hand of spirit holding the coin over the path!  That’s probably because there’s still a tendency within me to struggle with money or poverty issues.

The bottom line here is that there’s no reason for doubt–there are heavinly forces that help us in material ways to stay on the path!

Life’s Frustrations? Pretending I Planned It That Way! Karma and Co-Dependent Arising

… and whatever it is, i planned it that way! (Don’t forget  the funny factor)

I was thinking today about how once I fell of a clinician stool in a clinic full of patients and other physical therapists.  I was moving from point A to point B while rolling on the stool between my two patients and caught the wheel on a towel on the floor.  I laughed along with everyone and announced that I’d planned that!  No embarrassment—okay very, very minimal.

So could I feel that same way about my life today?  Could I look at some of the “revolting developments” like my mother used to call them – those frustrations of life and act like I planned those and laugh about it?  Hmmmmmmmm….. really, did I and could I?

I’ve been learning about co-dependent arising of energy and it’s complicated but we could say it has to do with that k word that everybody cringes about—karma.  There’s good karma too and lots of it and I’ve got a lot of that going and I think we all do, so why do we tend to be focused on the opposite?  Good questions to contemplate in meditation to get a personal view.  But Buddhism already has some of the well thought out and logical insight already there on the plate but fair warning—there “ain’t” no savior in Buddhism; it’s all you and if you can’t handle that one, best not go there. 

But one part of Buddhism has to do with just looking at what we think of as reality and not arguing with it and just seeing it as the illusion it is.  When we energize the illusion by getting all excited about it, we create all those “arising’s” as we drift farther away from …. What’s the best word to use here?  Tranquility Base!  Yeah, I know, it’s a 60’s reference to the Moon landing but I like it. 

Tranquility Base

To me that’s the core and base still mind that simply just IS and there is no thought there on tranquility base, simply tranquility.  The more we drift away from tranquility base and play in illusion and energize the thoughts that create the illusion, the less tranquility we have and the more cause and effect, ugh, that K word.  With positive karma in mind and realizing we can’t just sit in tranquility base 24-7 (we do have to engage in certain functions), the more we energize the most positive illusions, the better.

All of this is another way of saying what all the modernized teachers are saying which are the ancient teachings of Buddhism. 

Anyway, I’m going to pretend just for today that no matter what has happened recently and what is happening now that I planned it like that; I’m going to agree with it just like when I fell off the stool.  No resistance, no trying to make it any different—these frustrations, these “revolting developments”… I planned it that way and let me laugh at it all like I did when I fell off the stool.  No need to take it all so seriously—right? 

However these things arise, these developments, some have to do with me and others don’t—life is as life is.  I can’t take credit for everything and I can’t be blamed for it all either; I am only a part of it as I breathe in and breathe out… it’s an illusion and what affects me personally, I planned it that way and it’s funny.  Why?  Because it’s all an illusion and it’s only as serious as my mind makes it! 

I had quite a laugh earlier today reading an email from a Buddhist friend of mine who, like me, just made it through another x-tian holiday with x-tian family members and reading it had me laughing out loud!  It so helps to have others who get the illusion and find humor in it!  Hey, I planned it that way!