The Chinese I Ching, known as the book of changes in English, encapsulates the processes of life using a binary code composed of six lines, either male or female. A “male” or yang line is continuous, like the number 1. A “female” or yin line has a void in the middle, like the “0”. There are 64 combinations of these yin and yang lines, each combination called a hexagram. The first two combinations render all yin lines or all yang lines.

There is some evidence that the original I Ching began with a hexagram composed of all female lines (yin) instead of all male lines (yang). For the sake of the GEM, we have adopted the yin version. This has the advantage of starting with ONE.

 

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AIM

I AM

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Transformation is only three letters away. To reach that state of being we desire, to become what we really want to become, we all recognize that something has to change. We all want change when it concerns other people. We all resist change when we are the ones having to do do it. You can’t ask a software program to make changes in its own code. If you are going through life thinking the same thoughts every day, feeling the same emotions, and doing the same things, then you are for all practical purposes like a software program. You cannot change yourself unless you escape the program that you have unwittingly made. You are the program and the programmer.

To observe and recognize yourself as the master of your thoughts and emotions is to say "I AM". It requires no formal education, no training, no special access to esoteric knowledge. It is as simple as a switch, but only you can flip that switch. All of existence is waiting patiently on you. The music is playing. When will you enter the dance?
 

I AM. You already are, in the seed.

AIM to become. Let yourself grow.

Each facet of the GEM is presented according the same three-part structure to facilitate reading and above all, to help you make those small changes that will ultimately transform you.

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A

The first letter in becoming is the A of aware. Aware of what? Like an onion, awareness unfolds in layers. Getting down to the core, we come to the awareness that we are connected to each other and to all. This means that our actions affecting others in time affect us the same. You cannot trash the world without trashing yourself. Out of this awareness grows another: that we are the creators of our own lives, not the victims of destiny or chance. Finally, we come to the awareness that we are ever One with that from which we came, and that our feeling of separation is a deliberate construct of our temporal reality. This is the mystical awareness “I am that, I am”.

Each facet of the GEM seeks to trigger awareness in some aspect of your life. The consistent use of trigrams is also a deliberate exercise in bending their meanings to mold different thoughts.

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I

Second letter: I for aligned (or Intent if you prefer). What what we want to express here is something that encompasses more than just will, even though free will is required to change anything; more also than choice, even though a choice must be made; more important than what you do is the motivation behind what you do, and your state of mind when doing it.

Why change anything? Not because you want to have something, but because you were meant to become who you are and only when you are on that path will your life make sense and satisfy you deeply.

The greater idea is the need to bring your mind and your heart into alignment. You cannot declare them into alignment. Nor is it like straightening the furniture so that everything is properly positioned. This is rather about creating the state of mind that matches your desired future. It is about tuning into the frequency of this future. If this future is one of abundance, you cannot bring it into being while you are feeling great lack. The good news is that although you cannot declare yourself into alignment, you can start to change your thoughts. Since thoughts produce emotions, you can come to feel those emotions by thought alone. Today, you can already create by thought alone the emotions that match a desired future state. The most powerful formula is to feel gratitude for a desired future as if it were already here.

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M

Third letter : M for Movement towards manifestation. From your state of alignment you must move in the direction you have determined. It may only be a first step, the closest step in, but it is a still a directed movement. You can move quickly or slowly. There is no proper speed for growth. There are bees and there are trees. The radical and fundamental distinction is between movement in the right direction versus stagnation or going nowhere.

Another important aspect of movement is that it involves the body as an instrument of consciousness. You cannot do anything without your body; it is along with the rather than against the body that your mind will change. Rather than waiting to feel happy in order to smile, try on a timid smile and allow that simple bodily expression to affect your feelings.

It will.

Rather waiting to feel calm before you breath calmly, take slow and deep breaths and let those affect the way you feel.

They will. 

Every facet of GEM is therefore "embodied".  These "body rituals" are not the purpose in and of themselves. The purpose is the change of mind and of heart that the doing facilitates. Doing is in service to being. 

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