 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 44 "For the spiritual traveller, the I Ching has got to be the ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide" Michael Graeme |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber, Since I last wrote, I've been starting to discover what is possible when I find the way to 'fix' my good resolutions in reality. Not that I've done anything spectacular by any 'objective' standards - but in my own small world, it's real progress. For example, I really am writing that ebook I keep talking about. I've been consulting the oracle a lot on some of the key questions of the book: how to enter into a reading and understand it, what to do when you're baffled, how you can change yourself through working with Yi, the right moment to divine, the wrong moment to divine, how to find the true question to ask, how to ensure that we hear the real message in the midst of our own desires for a particular answer... In effect, I've happily nominated myself as Yi's secretary-cum-publicity agent, and I'm letting the source that does know the answers write the book.
The ebook will only be as good as the questions it starts from - so if you can help to improve it, please do. If you can think of any questions that really need asking, there is still just time to send them to me for inclusion: I'll be finishing this phase of composition within another week. (Or so my schedule tells me!)
warm wishes,
Hilary
P.S. Please don't miss the links section in this issue - especially the Mastermind booklet. You'll see what I mean.
"Hi,
I feel like I should duck under a table when I ask this question, especially as it is my first question to this community. Here goes!
Is there anyone for whom the I Ching is their primary dharma gate? Okay, this needs some unpacking. By dharma I don't necessarily mean Buddha-dharma. I mean access to metaphysical truth. And by asking if the I Ching is primary, I'm asking -- and here's where I run for cover -- if it functions in any sense as 'religion'?
There's a lot more I could ask, but I'll let the smoke clear before I proceed further.
Thanks for your patience.
With palms together
Kyobo"
"Hello Hilary
As a Christian I take with interest the article in your last newsletter on the Urim and Thummim. There are thoughts out there in different places about its existence today, and I even found an article from a guy who thinks he has the Urim and Thummim in his possession.
About two years back, I took time to see if I could track down any similarity with the I Ching in terms of pattern or technique. In terms of technique, according to the Rabbis who emailed me back, and this accords with biblical description, the Urim and Thummim had a relationship to the Breastplate (or Breastpiece) the High Priest wore. Exactly what it was no one knows, as there is no real evidence other than speculative ideas that build assumption upon assumption.
The key I've found is that this Urim and Thummim, whose translation approximates light and darkness, appears to be similar to the principle of Yang and Yin. The Breastplate had 12 stones placed upon it in 4 rows of 3. It was this 4 X 3 which caught my interest, as it is the same principle incorporated in the I Ching in determining a trigram.
According to the Rabbis I communicated with, the enquiry was placed into the pocket behind the breastplate of the high priest, and the stones were observed as to which shone or appeared dull.
The stones were engraved with the names of the 12 sons of Jacob and were in a particular order. All of the patterns and order for determining this are carefully recorded in the early chapters of the Book of Numbers. Sufficient to say, that the order would have read right to left, just like reading Chinese characters, and it would have progressed down the rows to the bottom in that order. That being so, then each row could represent a trigram, the first two rows would then give 64 possibilities, and with the second set of 64, you would have the 4096 possibilities that the I Ching gives.
The next issue is, how did the High Priest then discern the message such a pattern gave, as they don't appear to have had such a book as the I Ching. There are however hidden patterns in certain Hebrew passages that appear in a matrix form, and there seems to be a direct link between the Kabal "Tree of life" diagram and an ancient pattern in which the I Ching was also known.
This being so, and from the bits and pieces I have accumulated, it appears that there is a direct relationship into the oldest structured part of the Old Testament, and this oracle could possibly work as if one were using the I Ching, only linked directly into the scriptures.
A simple Yes or No could be obtained by the Urim and Thummim, but this seems strange when they also freely used the casting of lots which could also determine that outcome. Following through on the idea of Light and Darkness, the pattern of the 12 stones, and the idea that the same exact sequencing can be established within that 3X4 pattern, I suspect that much more could be communicated through the Urim and Thummim than is presently known.
My conclusion is that Urim and Thummim refered not to an object, but to the nature or dynamic of the answer received when an enquiry was sought of Yahweh. Admittedly, my thoughts are from my own research and surmisal, but I feel there's sufficient indication in principle, that my ideas have weight on this issue.
I trust this adds to the discussion initiated by Chris Gait
John T."
™Desert Island I Ching Poll Results— Here are the 'final' results for the desert island I Ching. (Not really final - the poll stays open for a while - but I probably won't mention it again in the newsletter.)
So here we go. The links are usually to reviews at Clarity, sometimes to the work itself, or to information at Amazon.com.
In first place - no surprise here! - is Wilhelm/Baynes, with 34% of the votes. Next comes that famous expert, 'Other', with 21%, followed by -
Stephen Karcher 12%
Alfred Huang 11%
Sarah Dening 7%
Hua Ching Ni 2%
R.L. Wing 1%
In all the 'other' translators people voted for, there were no two the same! Here's the list:
Buddhist I Ching, Thomas Cleary
"A Chinese version with a good dictionary"
Aleister Crowley
Tiger and Dragon I Ching , Rowena Pattee Kryder
The Portable Dragon, R. G. H. Siu
The Tao of I-Ching , Jou Tsung-Hwa
Wu Jyh Cherng (Portugese)
Cyrille Javary (French)
™DIY Corner: English meaning of 'I Ching'— "I've been wondering - what's the meaning of 'I Ching' in English?"
Ramsay
Response:
Hi Ramsay,
'I' means 'change'; 'Ching' means 'Classic' - it's the title given to particularly important books. (You probably know the Tao Te Ching, 'Way Power Classic'.) So 'I Ching' is 'Change Book' - usually called 'Book of Change' or 'Classic of Changes'. I read a good article recently (at ichingcounseling.com) suggesting that 'change' was too ordinary a word for what was meant here, and we should call it the 'Book of Transformation'.
'I' also came to mean 'versatile, light, easy': changing with the agility of a lizard. The old Chinese character probably originally showed the sun coming out from behind clouds - a change of weather that may have been the image for a revolutionary change of government.
'Ching' means literally the warp threads on a loom, the ones that stay still while you weave the fabric around them. Hence it came to mean the books that formed the basic fabric of knowledge and thought - something many people find the I Ching does after a few years.
By the way, there is another way of spelling these words in English that you will probably come across: 'Yi' for 'I' and 'Jing' for 'Ching', so the Book of Changes is the Yijing.
™Subscriber's Reading: Journey Advice ˜ "...My question - the journey am taking shortly: would it bring me answers and light the tunnel (beneficial), or is postponing it a better choice? I am thinking of going to South East Asia to learn I Ching."
Al Walee
Please advise Al on these travel plans
The I Ching answered with Hexagram 63, Already Across, with no changing lines.
The name of this hexagram means literally 'already across the river'. In the first instance, I think it's a reflection of your state of mind. Crossing rivers, throughout the I Ching, represents commitment and taking a risk in order to move to the next stage in a journey. Receiving this hexagram unchanging says in the first place 'You've already decided on this' - which is no more than you said yourself. The choice isn't between going or not going, it's between going straight away, or postponing it.
So you've already made this quite remarkable commitment, and promised yourself a learning journey. This is a good position to be in: you have things in place, your mind is clear - basically, you are on the right track. Some interpreters say this means that you've done the hard part, and the rest is just details; personally, I think that the details can sometimes be the hard part!
A hexagram with no changing lines is one of the I Ching's ways of emphasising a message. There is no second hexagram - and so there is no separation between you and the journey this hexagram describes. It's encouraging you to step into the imagery and live it, rather than just 'passing through' it, viewing it from a particular perspective.
The Judgement says:
'Already across, creating small success.
Harvest in constancy.
Beginnings, good fortune.
Endings, chaos.'
And this describes the challenge of being Already Across. You achieve success now through being 'small' - that is, though responding and adapting to current realities rather than focusing exclusively on your vision of what they should be like. Then you can make progress step by small step - and reap a harvest (good, tangible results) from persistence and loyalty to your self.
'Beginnings, good fortune': your original conception is a good one. 'Endings, chaos': the problem lies in the execution! So you definitely need to think hard about the practicalities. It doesn't have to end in chaos: in fact, the chaos can be a result of thinking in terms of endings. By this I mean that if you imagine that you've 'arrived', you start to lose your momentum: the commentary on the Judgement says 'your Way [tao] is exhausted'.
So if you have any expectations that this journey would mean 'arriving' and getting all your questions answered, lower them! Just because the idea is right doesn't mean that the right teacher will appear or the details will work themselves out. (Sometimes it does - just not this time.)
The pair of this hexagram, and its opposite is #64, 'Not Yet Across'. And - here is the magic - these two are also one anothers' nuclear hexagrams , so that each one is born from the heart of the other. When you have everything in place, at heart everything is still to be achieved; with everything still to be achieved, at heart it is all already in place, ready to start afresh. If you find this as fascinating as I do, please have another look at Eric's article on these two hexagrams and their connection with Buddhism.
In terms of the story of the I Ching, this hexagram describes the fears of the Zhou people after they had conquered the corrupt Shang that they might go the same way as the old dynasty: starting nobly, but ending in disarray, losing their original connection to the spirits. The question is: since you are across and ready, now what? How can you keep the 'beginner's mind'?
'Stream dwells above fire. Already across.
In this way, noble one reflects on distress and is prepared to defend against it.'
Here is some thoroughly practical advice for your journey: plan the details with care, and think in advance about all that can go wrong! That includes especially emotional as well as practical problems: open your heart to these issues in advance, and you will be prepared to deal with them if need be.
This hexagram has its roots in 62, Small Overstepping. The Sequence reads: 'those beyond ordinary things are sure to cross the river.' But reading #62, it becomes clear that you don't get 'beyond' ordinary things by ignoring them, but on the contrary by paying them an extraordinary amount of attention. Doing more than 'common sense' says is necessary in all the small things is what enables you to transcend them. In the end, like a master athlete, minutely detailed training and practice allows you to maintain your poise and see what's coming well before it hits you.
With water above fire (in the trigrams of hexagram 63), you can think of this as inner clarity about your purpose shining through the shifting dangers of the outer world. Or you can simply think of it as a pot on the boil - you need to watch it, to anticipate trouble, to keep it cooking, so that the transformations that you already have underway stay in balance.
We have something of a 'links special' this time...
The author of this ebooklet on the Mastermind idea and how it works is giving all his profits from its sales to a children's charity - not an ordinary thing to do. That's one reason why I'm telling you about it; the other is the close relationship between its ideas and a certain pair of hexagrams.
For instance, here are two quotations from the ebooklet (quoting in turn from Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich):
"Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel and personal co-operation of a group of men who are willing to lend him wholehearted aid in a spirit of perfect harmony. This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune."
and
"The human mind is a form of energy, part of it being spiritual in nature. When the minds of two people are coordinated in a spirit of harmony, the spiritual units of each mind form an affinity."
And here is a quotation from the Great Treatise on Hexagram 13:
"For two people to share mind and heart,
Such sharpness severs metal. And the words of those sharing mind and heart, Such fragrance is like orchids." Blog on world events, inspired by the I Ching. I think the source of the inspiration shows.
Qi Men Dun Jia divination - a project 'in the works', with more content to come. Jack, its author, kindly sent us a couple more links on the subject:
A submission form to apply for Qi Men Dun Jia divination from Singapore (charges from $38)
Qi Men Dun Jia information from Japan (see also their 'Yi Jing' link at the top of the page for a whole variety of schools)
Jack says:
"Qi Men Dun Jia [means] Magic Portals and Protective Armor. This system is based on the Yi Jing and the Chinese lunar calendar. I'm reading books published in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to get the most information. ...My plan is to translate Chinese materials and go beyond the current English information on the web so that Qi Men will be more widely available."
This site isn't officially 'open for visitors' yet, but the owner says you are welcome to download his complete I Ching for CEOs and investors (see the 'books' link). Note that it is 1.8MB, so if you're on a dial-up connection the download may take a while.
And finally, a 'token' I Ching Community link. Not that there is less to read there (!!), but that I know you know that you can find what interests you from the new messages list.
The women according to the I Ching - a truly original topic to ask about, and a classically witty and profound response from Yi.
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