Chapter 10.1: Unifying Our Fractured Souls

 

Carrying our embodied soul and embracing unity, 

can we not depart from it?

Concentrating our Qi and becoming more supple, 

can we be like a newborn babe?

Polishing the dust from our mysterious mirror, 

can we become free of blemish?

As with many cultures, in ancient China people believed that death brought about the separation of the body and the soul (or the fracturing of the body from multiple pieces of the soul).  This passage is reminding us that this is a danger in life as well as in death.  Have you ever felt torn?  Pulled in multiple or opposite directions?  Have you ever felt like your head (or your body) was telling you to do one thing but your heart (or your soul) was telling you to do something else?  We all feel conflicted at times.  We live in a world that constantly presents us with competing priorities and compelling distractions.  It’s easy to get sidetracked.  To spend time doing what isn’t most important to us.  Sometimes we all have to do that – but do it for too long and we can begin to lose sight of what is most important in our lives. 

This idea is at the heart of Stephen R.Covey’s (1932-2012) writings on the 4-Quadrant Time Matrix (Not-Important & Not Urgent, Not-Important but Urgent, Important but not Urgent, Important & Urgent).  Far too often we find that the bulk of our time is spent on things that are either not important and not urgent or not important but urgent at the expense of things that are important.  In his words, “How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.” This reminds us to clear the clutter from our lives to make room for what really matters.  Once we know what it is that we want to create in our lives, the challenge becomes keeping all of our physical, mental, and emotional focus and energy unified in its pursuit.  Once we plot our course in life and we begin to make our Way, we need to get our bearings often. Keeping our priorities aligned with what we really want to create is an ongoing process, full of regular reflection and constant course corrections. 

Similarly, as we grow, we tend to become less flexible in our lives.  We are creatures of habit.  We get entrenched in our routines and our viewpoints.  However, as we choose to concentrate and expand our Qi, or vital essence, and increase our suppleness, we can rediscover the passion and potency that infants and young children have – that passion for life, that pure presence and experience still unmediated by the burdens of adolescence and adulthood.  When they have needs, they cry out powerfully for assistance and their bodies are incredibly supple and flexible.  In the same way, can we adopt that focused energy to get what we need and want in life?  Can we also return to a more flexible way of life?

The mysterious mirror is a metaphor for one’s soul.  In ancient China, mirrors were not made of glass but of bronze and needed to be polished regularly to provide an accurate reflection.  In the same way, as we move through life, we must also continually work to improve, polishing and buffing out the imperfections of our souls, washing and wiping away the dust and detritus of the world and society so that we can see ourselves clearly – for who we truly are – free from limiting labels and the roller coaster of relative relations and the constant corkscrews of comparison.  The question is: in doing so, can we get to a place of pure and total authenticity and genuineness – a place of complete acceptance and clarity of who we really are – without any external fears or expectations of fitting in or being accepted by this or that group?  Can we free ourselves entirely from the social stereotypes and stigmas that blind us and distort our view of ourselves as unique and powerful individuals with a personal purpose and a meaningful mission in this universe?  ~ DCB