 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 42 "Each person is an exception to the rule" Jung |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber, I'm not really here. No, this is not an existential crisis, just one of the delights of excellent quality mailing software with an automatic 'send' function: by the time you receive this, I'll be a nice long way away from my computer, probably out pruning my raspberry plants or something. In other words, I Ching readings aren't available at present, but I thought you might still enjoy a newsletter.
This issue has accidentally got itself a theme: the I Ching and world religions. I've dug out an article of mine that started life as an email to a Christian about I Ching divination. Whether or not this feels relevant to you personally (and I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts if it does), hopefully it might be helpful if you find yourself discussing divination with Christian friends and family. The second article is from Eric Jautée - some fascinating insights on the relation between Buddhism and hexagrams 63 and 64. I think you'll enjoy it!
As well as the two guest articles, there is a reader poll at the online survey centre: what would be your 'desert island I Ching'? Please vote!
Warmest wishes,
Hilary ™Reader Poll: Desert Island I Ching? — Perhaps you only consult with one translation, or perhaps you have shelves full of them. But in any case, if you could only have a single translation, which would it be? Or perhaps you'd choose a commentary-cum-version rather than a translation?
I've chosen a list of ten I think are popular, but I know I've scarcely scratched the surface. If I've missed out your particular favourite, please write it in at the end, and I'll tally up the numbers.
I'll keep you updated on the results in the next couple of issues.
™Guest Article: Not Yet Across— (Editor's note:
I recently interpreted Hexagram 64 for Eric in the light of a question about his choices on the Buddhist path. Since this was not the first time I'd seen the I Ching describe Buddhist matters with its final hexagram pair, I asked Eric to tell me more about the connections. I thought you would find his response interesting, and he kindly gave his permission, so here it is.) Generally speaking, all your comments on this hexagram are readily understandable in the Buddhist realm. The reason is simple: Taoism greatly influenced Tch'an Buddhism, which became Zen, which is well known. So there are no fundamental problems of vocabulary or concepts.
For example, you say:
"If you think in terms of 'arrival' and completion, you lose the forward momentum that actually generates order and meaning in life, and (according to the commentary on the judgement), 'your dao is exhausted'. But you can also choose to regard the same position - wherever you are, in fact - as a beginning."
This is quite Taoist ....and remarkably right according to current Buddhism also. For the most severe Zen masters (and they are very strict!), a completion (which seems to correspond to the "satori" of Zen) must be considered as a beginning to be valuable. Never as an arrival.
You asked me about hexagrams 63 (After Completion) and 64 (Before Completion), from a Buddhist perspective. From a mundane point of view, the order of these hexagrams seems strange, and would look better if reversed. From a Buddhist point of view, the major schools would recommend 63 before 64. Meditation and other spiritual means are not distributed along a linear Path; the Path is circular. A completion that ends with "after completion" is not a good one. After completion, the best men have to reverse their journey and return to the beginning. This is not an obligation, but it is recommended, particularly in the dominant Mahayana Buddhism (numerous Tibetan and Zen Teachings, for instance).
Thus,
- these people will help those less advanced towards the Truth, and they will become honoured Boddhisattvas, those who renounce completion and prefer to help others.
- they will rediscover true completion: the completion "before", that is to say completion like that of a child in his mother's arms. In fact, we are always in this state of "early" completion: it is simply that some people see it, others do not. The degree of completion is more one psychological state among many, rather than just a stage in a linear evolution (according to the more detailed schools).
As the most famous Buddhist mantra says:
"Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi, Svaha"
(gone, gone, gone across the river, having attained the shore, Awakening, Amen"
...and the most popular Buddhist schools add: "then, cross the river again, help those desperate people who are still waiting to cross the river".
So seeing 'Already Across' before 'Not Yet Across' is not anomalous in Buddhist terms. The apparent regression from 63 to 64 is compassion, not regression, and compassion is the Heart of Buddhism. This compassionate process is included in the Great Round of rebirth, Samsara, as Buddhists and Hindus say.
How extraordinary the I Ching is. Its thought is so profound that it can be interpreted meaningfully by at least three great philosophies, each in its own way. Few books have this quality.
Eric Jautée
™The I Ching and Christianity ˜ One of the extraordinary characteristics of the I Ching, to my mind, is the huge variety of beliefs among the people who use it. This was discussed a while ago at the I Ching Community. People voiced their convictions that the I Ching was a channel for universal law, for the subconscious mind, for the collective unconscious and shared wisdom (?) of the human race (shared by some as-yet-undiscovered telepathic vibration!), for spirits, and (in my case) for God. You'll find Taoists, Buddhists, people with very general New Age-type views and even atheists using it - though personally I would be surprised if their atheism ran very deep. And yes, also the occasional Christian.
I've done I Ching readings for several Christians, and they were very much at peace with this. But I'm aware that there are many others for whom divination in any form is not acceptable. Perhaps it's because of 'not putting the Lord thy God to the test'? In essence, every time I ask the I Ching for an answer, I'm asking for a miracle. If I ask with sincerity, I'm always given one - though I try to stay awake to the fact that this isn't some automatic mechanism I'm dealing with, and I don't have any kind of 'right' to an answer. Not everyone is happy with the thought of asking in this way, though.
Another possible problem for anyone whose religion places them under the authority of an intermediary (such as a priest for Catholics) is that the I Ching is a 'direct line', bypassing all such things. This could give rise to tensions! For those Christians for whom the Bible is the sole repository of truth, containing all we need to know, the idea of asking questions more directly could also cause problems.
If you are not sure whether divination with the I Ching is right for you, then one way to explore and articulate your thoughts on this is to divine about it. If you feel comfortable asking the I Ching just one question, try asking "What can you offer me at this time in my life?" This is actually an excellent question for anyone to ask who is beginning with, or returning to, the I Ching. But if this seems incongruous, you might try to open the same channels with bibliomancy using the Bible. This used to be a Christian tradition: to consider a question or problem, close your eyes, open the Bible and put your finger on a passage at random. (Of course, the Bible was not written to be read in this way, so there may well be some interference on that 'direct line'.)
As you might expect, many people find a single moral philosophy running through the I Ching. Allowing for the individual variations here and among Christians, I think that by and large it's compatible with all the basics of the Christian moral code. Yet the I Ching's answers are unique to every individual situation, based on the idea that different times and people call for different kinds of behaviour. In my experience, it does tend to work against the idea of any very detailed, fixed codes of behaviour. There's no absolute rule within it about whether a wife can leave her husband for another man, for instance. Where a set moral code would see one basic situation and one rule to apply, the I Ching might give completely different answers in response to the unique individuals involved. (Having said that, I've encountered people who maintained a) that the entire I Ching was predicated on the rule that a marriage should never be ended and b) that the entire I Ching was predicated on the supremacy of love over institutions... )
My own understanding is that there is only one source of truth, and that is God. If the I Ching speaks the truth - which it most definitely does - then there is ultimately only one voice that can be speaking through it. It does have its own unique expressive style and character, like any other living thing through which God speaks: compassionate but also thoroughly realistic, wryly witty and on occasion downright rude. There are modern oracles 'sold' on the premise that they only ever speak gentle words of encouragement and affirmation; the I Ching, by contrast, seems to have endless ways of puncturing my various bubbles of self-deception. I think that perhaps the most important role of this multi-dimensionally prickly creature is to bring us steadily closer to what is really here.
I don't know what gems will have been posted at the I Ching Community by the time you receive this, so I suggest you have a look at the new messages list.
One page I know will definitely tear me away from the gardening: How it works (...maybe)
Yarrowstalk.org - now known as Yo! - has been updated! There is a 'micro edition' of the I Ching that you can consult online by entering your own reading - just a word or a very short phrase for each hexagram and line. Also three chapters from an unfinished I Ching book from 1971 - inevitably, reflecting the state of scholarship at the time - and articles and programs on the yarrow method.
Soccer predictions with the I Ching! Well, not quite the I Ching, but the predictions are here, and all correct last I heard.
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