A letter from a friend....

I received this email from a friend and thought I would pass it on, since it's got me thinking. Any thoughts on an alternative tagline?

"Your Ice and Fire project is so exciting! ... but something's been bothering me about the Awaiting bit of the "Awaiting Transformation" tagline, and I just want to share these thoughts with you, in a somewhat "thinking aloud" fashion.

The great fundamental mystery is that everything is constantly in a state of transformation - as Tradition knows: eg. Taoism (I Ching - the Book of Changes), Heraclitis, alchemy and now quantum physics.

"Everything flows and nothing stays.
Everything flows and nothing abides.
Everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
Everything flows; nothing remains.
All is flux, nothing is stationary.
All is flux, nothing stays still.
Nothing endures but change."

From Lives of the Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

I often wonder whether the "Waiting" we think we're doing is an aspect of Christian teaching (and other religions? cultures?) - waiting for redemption, resurrection etc - when in fact transformation is happening all the time. What we are actually waiting for is for the Personality to stop being resistant to and afraid of change - to become conscious of and to participate in that mystery. "Waiting" can be a way of putting off engaging with Life as fully as we can.

The first principle of Taoism (and Buddhism?) is to let go of that attachment to permanence and to presumed certainty in order to learn to observe, accept, and flow with the cycles of change that are fundamental to Life - the dance of yin and yang, the fluidity of the Tao - or of Mercury in the alchemical tradition.

What we're "Waiting" for is not so much transformation, as for our own Personality to get out of the way! Only then can transformation flow without obstruction.

Changes in consciousness of course have their own rhythms, too, and contemplative practices aim to speed that up in the course of a lifetime. In these traditions there is also the really important aspect of Intention - which to me has a sense of action and purpose coming from within, compared with the passivity of Awaiting for something to happen, perhaps by outside agency. But at the same time, it's important not to be attached to the idea of how or when change may happen....

Intention is so powerful. Many traditions believe that we create our lives through the power of thought: our lives are mirrors of our basic beliefs, conscious or not. If we intend to "wait", then "waiting" is what will continue to happen! But if we want transformation (for ourselves, for the planet), then "Why wait?"

If the tagline doesn't get in the way, what "Ice and Fire" offers in vessel-loads is the chance to be present with a process of Transformation, to pay attention to it, to live it consciously, to con-templ-ate it, to be with it in its sacredness - happening now and all the way through, not something to wait for.

And as we know from Quantum Physics/Prayer/Meditation, the intentional being with it will also affect the process itself.

Wow! What a gift you're offering and how powerful it could be!"