FIFTY-SIX

旅

EXPLORING/EXPERIMENTING

CONCERNS: Exploring the world; venturing into the unfamiliar; trial and error; empiricism; understanding life as a series of courageous experiments.

1. If we expend too much energy on non-essential details or trivia, we may not then have the resources to advance successfully into the unfamiliar. When we are anxious about a journey or a venture, we fuss unnecessarily over arrangements and plans.
2. Coming into a new environment with natural modesty, sensitivity and respect, we generate cooperation and support.
3. Whenever we are insensitive, reactive, rigid or demanding in a new environment we generate a hostile response.
4. Though we have reached a new level of development we have not yet adjusted to it, so we feel ill at ease and self-protective, even though the progress we have made is real.
5. Skillful execution will be rewarded.
6. Smugly finding fault with others while lacking objectivity about our own incorrect behavior, we invite disaster.

COMMENT: It is useful to consider our lives as the exploration of a great palace to which we have been invited as the honored guests. We should proceed respectfully, allowing a process of positive, mutual communication and natural adjustment to take place. In such a way, the environment will inform us, and we will be stimulated to discover the deep meaning of our visit.