“Seeking the Profound in the Ordinary”

Dan Millman, in his book, “The Peaceful Warrior,” states that there are no ordinary moments.  Each fragment of time and space is sufficient to itself and the expansion of the entire universe occurs as one dewdrop falls from a leaf.  Pretty weighty stuff and a concept that’s much easier to understand while sitting in a meditation garden with lutes playing in the background.  How many of us have the opportunity to retreat to a place of such ultimate contemplation, though, and for how long?  Sure, we can meditate for ten or twenty minutes a couple of times a day if we’re disciplined and lucky enough to grab the time, and that’s a great thing, but we must still exist in the ordinary world for more than twenty-three hours each day. No lutes, no garden. Each day we preform mundane tasks that on the surface appear to have little to do with enlightenment, but when viewed from another perspective, hold wonder.

What is the nature of the profound and why do so many of us

The culmination of the OSHO's Zen Tarot©
Major Arcana, #22, beyond illusion
deck by Deva Padma

seek it?  When you are immersed in a profound thought or occurrence your connection to spirit is so direct, so pure that you see past yourself and your particular reality.  You glimpse the core of spiritual oneness that links all existence.  Those glimpses are a promise that there is more than just us in the universe and that we are all interconnected. Kahili Gibran, in “The Prophet,” says that children “are life’s longing for itself.”  If that’s true, then as spiritual beings having a human experience, isn’t our quest for the miraculous and the profound simply our longing for our spiritual home?

Assuming we sleep seven hours a day, we have sixteen hours filled with school, work, commuting, chores, errands and common tasks.  With this tight of a schedule it only makes sense to seek the profound in the ordinary if you wish to live a conscious-filled life.  Think about the rhythm of mundane tasks; raking leaves, washing floors, folding laundry. Your body steps into a flow. Contemplate the way your muscles work together to move – how many unseen cells join harmoniously to accomplish a single movement.  You fold a towel in half, measuring the edges so they match up just so.  You fold it in half again and place it on a stack to be stored in the linen closet.  In this simple chore you learn continuance, how pieces of life stack together in natural order and that once something has served its purpose in life, it’s time to let go and move on.

There’s a world of enlightenment in the ordinary.  Today try seeking the profound in your everyday routine – be it work, or errands.  Be the moment and see what you discover.

LADY ORACLE    

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Major Arcana's # 12, The Hanged Man

You are suspended, waiting for the breath of the universe to

#12, The Hanged Man from
"Shadscapes"© by
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

resume.  Your world has inverted and you now have the unique opportunity to observe it from a completely different perspective.  Congratulations, you have become The Hanged Man.  He is not in distress.  His hands, usually tucked behind him, may or may not be bound.  His foot is slipped into a loop of rope or ribbon, much as an aerialist would position his foot to dangle above the crowd for sheer spectacle.  His face remains calm while he reflects on his circumstances and internalizes the information he gathers through his position of reversal.  

The Hanged Man is considered one of the most complex cards in the tarot deck.  It was originally labeled, “The Traitor” in medieval times, because hanging by one foot, or even being depicted that way was the shaming treatment reserved for traitors and infidels.  Some depictions show him with money falling from his pockets.  Again, we see the symbolism of letting go of the concerns and trappings of our ‘normal’ state to gain insight. Where #9 The Hermit withdraws into himself to seek his inner truth, #12 digs deeper and requires more of a commitment, or sacrifice from himself to gain wisdom about his relationship with the world around him. The Hanged Man tests what he knows about the world to see if the inverse holds true.  

What’s important to consider about #12 is that The Hanged Man is not stuck. His suspension is a matter of choice.  His position does require a certain amount of sacrifice on his part, but the true meaning of the word sacrifice is to make sacred, not to suffer. When the proper motivation appears he will right himself and resume his journey.  What he learns from his time observing the inverse of life will come with him.  He has completed an absolutely necessary stop on the soul’s journey towards life’s richest rewards.  After all, #12 is the inverse of #21, The World.

LADY ORACLE