The Seven Fingers of the Hand

This is a good one – enjoy the ride.

This is an act of faith, it’s an experiment – the whole thing I mean, not just me writing this to you – the Tao experimenting with its multiverse of which we’re each intrinsic parts, you.

The whole thing’s merely a trick of the light which appears to you in whatever form and shape you project onto it, predicated on the way you describe this ineffable experience of being alive on this planet in a human body (mustn’t ever be taken for granted, goodness knows we could have been born stoats or three-toed sloths, just unfathomable luck of the genetic draw it turned out like this for us). .

And if you fancy experimenting at the deeper/higher-than-usual metaphysical level where the mechanism of existence is awaiting our intervention and direction, here’s a possibly useful steer for one to try at home.

Based on the understanding that whatever you project onto destiny – for that’s what we’re dealing with here, isn’t it, the Tao that apparently hasn’t yet manifest in form.

I say apparently because in fact everything coming has already been manifest behind the veils of linear time and space and merely awaits our awareness of it to spring into action and form.

Rather than believe that or consider it intellectually for its possibilities, faults and benefits, suspend such mentation for now and simply assume it’s true so you can partake of the experiment without too much clutter from the past obscuring he view for you.

First address the ancestors who got you here by passing down their DNA through the generations till you happened to carry the baton for future generations, provided we still have some dry land left for them to do their generating upon.

See them spread behind you in a huge diamond motif about a mile and a half or two and a half kilometers, with them all stacked up chest to back behind you, as if you’re at the head of a large procession, which indeed you are, the DNA procession.

Two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on, stretching back in a large equilateral triangle with you at its apex, all the way till the numbers must necessarily shrink some generations ago simply because there weren’t that many people about back then, hence the diamond motif (with Adam and Eve or whoever they were at the very back).

Now be aware of all the alliances struck by each of them through the ages, and acknowledge these are your allies too by inheritance.

All of this even though you probably know very few if any of their identities. That doesn’t matter as this goes far beyond the personal.

Now be aware all these allies are standing with your ancestors, thus swelling the scale of the diamond behind you to an imponderable size.

This is your true support system in terms of your human incarnation.

This is what grants you safe passage.

This combined force is what provides for, guides and protects you along your way in your dance with destiny.

It’s called the guardian for that very reason.

Acknowledge and appreciate it with enough soul-force for all ancestors to feel it in their own time and era – trans-temporally - when still with a body and simultaneously now in the undifferentiated, non-bodied state, enough that they start hopping about and chattering with the chi, behind you. Likewise the allies.

And likewise this entity comprised of them all, your guardian, who occupies the same physical space as you but is far larger and fully trans-dimensional to boot.

Make friends.

Relax.

Contemplate destiny as if in front of you.

Destiny.

What’s your dynamic with destiny like?

Is destiny your enemy, to be out-guessed, outwitted and insured against?

Seriously consider how you approach the future, with what degree of dread and foreboding, and what degree of pure joyful anticipation?

Assume destiny is your friend and beloved, like no other, who is doing all this, materializing this whole universe-sized magic lantern show especially for you. Assume destiny is a keen scriptwriter and director, as well as supreme conjuror, and trust it to put a great show on, far beyond your wildest expectations.

Acknowledge it already is and always has been, even if you’ve gone numb on it at times.

Acknowledge also nothing comes that’s only good. Everything has its other side.

Everything is predicated on the dance of yin and yang. Nothing escapes it.

Hence that rather than treat destiny as the salve that will bring what you don’t have, know you already have it, perhaps just not in the form you like most yet is all.

Then acknowledge the way you’ve been experiencing your life till now has been limited by the limitation of imagination you yourself have exerted over it.

Start changing that by seeing the same force that fuels destiny, is in each and every person, situation, event, and whatever else comprises your life.

Give this next moment to giving your love to each and all of them, the people, the things, the situations, the events, all of it, radiating in all directions from your heart – pure appreciation for every aspect of destiny that’s already shown itself and for every aspect that hasn’t yet shown itself, including even the thought of your own death.

Here you stand – I omitted to mention that but it doesn’t matter it’s a mere technicality, but standing feet together comfortably erect is possibly the most efficient stance – at peace with the ancestors and all the allies, the guardian these comprise, and destiny as force and presence – standing in good relation to it all, seeing the Tao behind all of it.

So now what do you do?

Well rather than rush to grasp at it, do the opposite.

Rush backwards inside away from it instead.

This seems contrary to achieving the goal of a glorious destiny.

But in fact it creates a vacuum in front of you, which instantaneously draws unto itself the seed of everyone and everything required in your life for the storyline to flow with full elegance.

And keep rushing backwards.

Getting larger and larger as you go.

Getting faster and faster as you go.

Until all at once you’re as big and far back behind it all as the Tao itself.

Yes you have become one with past and future in the here and now.

And you have its ear.

So just in case you fear it might not have your intention fully clear, tell it exactly what you want to happen.

Start with all the things you don’t want.

Then for whatever’s left, tell the Tao in and with whom you now sit.

Start with the petty details – the relationships, the possessions, the opportunities you wish for and so on.

Then look at the feeling you expect realization of each thing will afford you.

Feel that feeling now. It’s your prerogative.

Nutshell it down till it’s as succinct as intending everything to now work out in your life with supreme elegance, seamlessness, and enjoyment, or even just elegantly, and embrace the reality that it already is so no reason t expect to it to stop.

But with your aesthetic direction, it’s more able to produce the show in a way that pleases your sensibilities.

Now imagine how you’ll be when everything you intend for has manifested, in terms of how you’ll treat yourself and others, and start being and behaving that way right now – no delay.

Support and reinforce this process now and subsequently, by repeating, “I am now and have always been backed into and one with the Tao, even when I’ve not known it, and always will be, and the Tao knows how to put on a show – and the more I let go and enjoy it rather than keep putting my foot on the brakes, the better the show gets – this is magic and it works and I don’t even know why – other than that Barefoot is an amazing brother to have on this crazy path with me and I’m willing to at least trust his magic if not ready yet to trust my own, though I know that’s just a game and I have all the magic I need to quantum shunt this show along the road in the way that works best for me.” In one breath, and repeat five times more, so six in total.

Finally, be observant in the hours, days and weeks that follow this wee chat we’ve had, and note how differently destiny performs for you by return.

Traditionally Taoists say 90 days for a new stage of action to have occurred .

This was a bit of proper Taoist magic for you, told as succinctly as it’s probably ever been, for which if we were living in a world that hadn’t come off its moorings would be receiving a medal for it, but as it is, is merely happy if you read it carefully again now, practice it now, and receive benefit from it now 0- reward enough for me, that is.

With love, Brother Barefoot of the seven seas, seven celestial spheres, seven brides for seven brothers, seven days of the week and the seven fingers of the hand