A Double Dose

This week I'll be using the Roots of Asia Tarot, created by Amnart Klanprachar with Thaworn Boonyawan and published by AGM Müller. I'll also be using the Mah Jongg Oracle, created by Derek Walters and published by Thunder Bay Press. Today's cards are the King of Wands and Bamboo:

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim. —Frank Herbert

The King of Wands has a double dose of fire, giving him a creative power that can be used to benefit all or for only personal profit. How do we know if we've succumbed to the fiery wiles of ego? If we are grasping and demanding what we think we deserve or guarding and resisting what we fear some imagined other will take away, there's a good chance we have become ensnared by a selfishness that sees no other desire except our own. Our perspective is being governed by the three poisons of greed, hatred and delusion rather than reality. Bamboo has many uses, including the Chinese brush for painting and the Chinese pen for writing. It suggests that putting things down on paper can help us challenge our emotions and thoughts instead of impulsively acting on them. We have a chance to consider them as we write them down, then again as we read them. As Noam Dinovitz explained, "Our brains simply do a better job when they can evaluate something that is tangible and concrete in from of them rather than a passive, intangible thought."

Great Awakening

From the Roots of Asia Tarot, Judgment; from the Mah Jongg Oracle, Bamboo:

All beings are Buddhas,

But obscured by incidental stains.

When those have been removed, there is Buddhahood.

 —Rangjun Dorje

          The creators of this deck call Judgment the Great Awakening, when the ego sheds its illusions and our true nature is revealed. Every sentient being contains this seed, but like clouds that hide the sun, our luminous mind is hidden by our habitual patterns of thought and action. Yet nothing we do can tarnish it; it is there waiting for us to open to its infinite clarity, compassion and wisdom. Recognizing our patterns is the beginning to finding our inner sun. Bamboo has been admired in China for its many uses, including for paint brushes and pens. Thus it is connected with writing, learning and scholarship. It points to the need for instruction in waking up, as we often are so good at hiding even from ourselves what hinders us. How often have you read a book and suddenly been gobsmacked by a statement, realizing, "Yes, that describes me"?

At its most practical, our Buddha-nature affords us the potential to grow, evolve, and embody our genuine goodness. When we understand, and eventually through meditation experience this as our essential nature, there is less room for getting sidetracked by our unexamined destructive emotions and thoughts, and more room for living compassionately from within an interconnected whole.

—Scott Tusa

Clogged or Free Flowing

From the Roots of Asia Tarot, the Five of Swords; from the Mah Jongg Oracle, Bamboo:

          The screeching, diving birds in this card resemble what is happening now in my area. Even though the night temperatures are freezing, the feathered ones have chosen mates and are beginning to build nests. As a result, they've become very territorial about the sites they've selected. I can be the same way about my opinions and beliefs, wanting to preserve them as if my survival depended on them. I'm convinced we all have our personal dogmas that we guard and defend, even sometimes at the expense of our relationship with others. The booklet uses the phrase "benefiting from others' depleted energy," which implies taking advantage of another person's weakness. That makes me feel so icky, I want to go take a shower.
          Bamboo stems have been used for paint brushes and writing pens, which is why the plant is associated with communication, learning and knowledge. But thinking that I've learned and know it all is precisely what can cause a Five of Swords confrontation. Yet a cross section of the bamboo stem is usually hollow, suggesting a free flowing of ideas. Now my self-absorbed ego would likely agree with Terry Pratchett: "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." However, that open mind will also allow me to see from new perspectives that can open up a wide, new range of possibilities.