When Pretenders Rise Suffering Rises

So it starts once more. It is the nature of the mind to have thoughts. Do not fight. Do not try to stop. It is the nature of the ocean to have waves. Go deep into the ocean. Breathe in, breathe out. Go deep within, prior to thoughts, prior to waves, into the infinite silence right here, right now, the seventh sky within. Help will be given at every stage of the journey. Have a little patience. Go deep within, right here, right now. Breathe from silent breath, speak from silent voice, act from silent force. So it starts again, once more, right here, right now. To finess the principle.

This season is for the light, yet darkness will always be there, not as the first but as the second, not as twelve but as twenty-one, the hidden partner and essential ingredient of growth.

Where
P = number of pretenders
A = authenticity level
S = suffering

Plain meaning: suffering goes up as pretenders increase and goes down as authenticity increases.

S versus P when A is fixed at 1: suffering rises linearly as pretenders increase.

S versus A when P is fixed at 5: suffering falls as authenticity increases.

The system often rewards the mask and punishes the real. Do not spend your life trying to overthrow the system. Put your effort where change begins. Raise authenticity within yourself and the field around you resets. When pretending rises, suffering rises. When authenticity rises, suffering falls.

So return within. Breathe. Settle before thought. Choose the seventh sky within. Speak from the silent voice. Act from the silent force. Keep small, honest acts. Be patient. Help will meet you at every step.

This season is for the light. Darkness stands beside it as the second. It trains the roots and serves growth.

As one heart clears, the field changes. Inner order becomes outer order. No banners are needed. Only the courage to be real, right here, right now.

True abundance is relationship. Nothing stands alone. Everything leans on everything.

You breathe out carbon dioxide. Leaves take it in. Leaves breathe out oxygen. You take it in. Giving and receiving pass through every breath. The gift is shared before any word is spoken.

The sun pours light without a bill. Roots drink in the dark and lift green into the day. Soil, rain, fungi, seeds, insects, birds, and human hands weave one table. What you eat is the earth becoming you, and you becoming earth again.

Look up. The sky is vast and full of stars. Their light began its journey long before your first breath, and yet it arrives now, touching your eyes. Abundance moves across distances you cannot measure.

Laughter with loved ones is also abundance. A hand held. A meal shared. A silence that is safe. Authentic connection feeds the heart the way sunlight feeds the leaf. The more real we are, the more life can pass through us.

All things rise and fall. Day and night. Inhale and exhale. Tide and season. There is also pralaya, the great dissolving, the wide pause where forms rest and return. Endings are not against life. They are how life restores itself and begins again.

To live in true abundance, align with this flow. Breathe in what is given. Breathe out what is needed. Give without keeping score. Receive without shame. Speak truthfully. Act kindly. Let the seventh sky within open, and meet the world from there.

Abundance is not a possession. It is the living exchange of all things. It is here, in this breath, in this moment, in this field of relations, right here, right now.

Rule a country with plain honesty.
Use strategy when you must fight.
Take the world by not forcing it.

How do I know this. I look and see.
The more bans and taboos, the poorer the people.
The sharper the weapons, the shakier the land.
The more clever the tricks, the more strange devices arise.
The more laws and commands, the more thieves and robbers.

So the wise one says.
I do not push, and people change on their own.
I love quiet, and people set themselves straight.
I do not interfere, and the people find prosperity by themselves.
I desire nothing, and people return to simplicity.

Tao Te Ching — Chapter 57

Patience

O child of Adam,
There is your intention and there is My intention.
What happens is My intention.
If you give yourself to My intention,
I will give you also what you intend.
If you go against My intention,
I will weary you with what you intend.
In the end, what happens is My intention.

— Islamic aphorism

Thyself.
Not surviving. Becoming.
Become who you are.
The mother swims on, patient sea.
O child of Adam, there is your will and the Greater Will.
What will be is the Greater Will.
If you yield to that Will, your will is cared for.
If you resist that Will, you tire in your will.
So breathe. Let the wave return.
Give what you can. Receive what is given.
Be true. The field around you clears.
In stillness you hear a quiet Yes.
Walk with soft steps and honest hands.
Let love be your path and your prayer.
Become who you are, right here, right now.