 Clarity's I Ching Newsletter: Issue 56 "Every situation, no matter how unpleasant or undesired, opens the door to insight and self-knowledge through change." George Hulskramer, 'The I Ching in Plain English' |
™Letter from the Editor— Dear Subscriber,
There was a lovely, warm response to my audio introduction last time, thank you! I would have provided another one this issue, but I'm just getting over a cold and my voice isn't really up to it. But it will be back!
About plans for I Ching webinars: I think there is just enough interest for us to experiment with a couple of low-priced or even free meetings, and see whether we enjoy ourselves enough to set up some full-length sessions. First, though, I really must sort out my computer's disconcerting habit of freezing the whole system at random intervals, which would not be helpful mid-webinar. I'm not sure how long this (and a couple of other technical things) will take, but watch this space...
Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this issue! There is a subscriber's reading about his job prospects; a letter from Stephen Karcher about hexagrams 17 and 18, and a book review of the recently-published I Ching in Plain English. If you have any comments or questions about any of this - or any suggestions for future issues - please drop me an email!
warm wishes,
Hilary
Hi Hilary
I read your description of 17. I really think you should take the Pair into account here and see the dynamic between 17 and 18 as very important in a description of either. To me, there is a direct flow and a challenge in 17 to confront the "corruption" seen in 18. I would say that 17 “pushes us ” toward 18, that 18 is “pulling” the energy flow across the Pair Matrix toward realization through a confrontation with the inner corruption which will emerge sooner or later. The “let go” part refers to your current fixations. You “let go” in order to liberate the energy, make it available.
This Pair is intensely connected, through both rotation and conversion. I read this sort of Pair (11:12, 17:18, 53:54 and 63:64) as "sites of intense shamanic and ritual activity" that connect human and spirit levels, bringing the energy into our world.
In the case of 17 and 18, the connections are so strong that I feel you must see the flow of energy between them and the challenge it represents in order to talk about the Pair or either of the hexagrams in it. So I would find it problematic to see them as simply moving in opposite directions, doing completely opposite things. The "flow of spirit" in 17, into which we "insert ourselves", following with ease, leads us directly to the challenge of confronting corruption and "managing" it, using the new spirit to confront the parental imagos that are our introjection of the corrupted culture around us.
Note too that in Chris Lofting's "stimulus/response" system based on trigram swapping, the stimulus or push for 17 is 54. That means the context of the Following (as response) is: "being led by forces beyond your control into a radically new situation that can renew the time." Context or push for 18 is 53, the gradual steps that carry out the change. This is an inversion where you first reach out to something then integrate it to pass to realization. So you have a picture of a radical push behind 17 that carries you into a set of steps or rituals or whatever that can "manage" the corruption within. Thus you connect personal issues to cultural renewal.
best wishes,
Stephen
™Book Review: I Ching in Plain English, George Hulskramer— 
This is a small, lightweight book, under 140 pages long. The text and commentary for each hexagram is extremely brief and simple: just two small, well-spaced facing pages. For each hexagram you see the figure, a name and subtitle, and an introduction based on the trigrams and lines. Then there is a short list of 'keywords', judgement and image (sometimes translated, sometimes just interpreted), further commentary, and the comments on the changing lines on the right-hand page.
The introduction is also modest, but covers all the basics: yin and yang, trigrams and hexagrams, and an outline of the I Ching's way of working. There is some very good insight here:
'In the I Ching's notes on life, there is no approval or disapproval in any absolute sense. An attitude that is praised one moment is disapproved of in another. ...The only absolute 'wrong' is inflexibility, stagnation or rigidity. Every situation, no matter how unpleasant or undesired, opens the door to insight and self-knowledge through change; every time we miss that chance, we sin against ourselves and against life.'
Hulskramer insists that all questions put to the I Ching must be serious, and 'a question can only be considered serious when the way you conduct your life and how you behave in society with regard to others play a role.' This is a bit too stern and strait-laced for me personally - the oracle is a 'book of ancient wisdom' for him, rather than a friend. Still, his general comments on good questions to ask (advice and insight being more useful things to ask for than prediction), and how often (only when there is a change in circumstances) are solid and sensible, in a prosaic way. There follows a straightforward explanation of the three coin method, unfortunately marred by a misprint that draws solid lines for the values of both 7 and 8. There are no corresponding errors in the text, but this would still be confusing for the beginners the work is aimed at.
The first question I always ask of a 'simplified' version is how close it brings the reader to the words and spirit of the original. After all, it is the original imagery that can connect with the reader's psyche and radically change her/his way of seeing; generic interpretations do not have the same power.
At the end of his introduction, Hulskramer is quite clear he has sometimes translated Judgement and Image literally, at others not, and that he has given only commentary, no translation, for the moving lines. (There's nothing else from the other Wings.) Consequently, anyone consulting the I Ching using this book alone could never quite be sure whether they were hearing the oracle, or only Hulskramer or one of his sources. (A problem with almost any single translation, of course, but more acute with this disconcerting mixture of translation and commentary.)
This book is presented as a condensation and balancing of the different I Ching traditions that have become available in the West since Wilhelm. The 'sources' section at the back lists Wilhelm, Ritsema and Karcher, Fiedeler (a German translator), Shaughnessy's translation of the Mawangdui manuscript, Thomas Cleary's Taoist I Ching and Hua Ching Ni's mammoth Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth. But despite being heavily indebted to these sources (and lifting from them almost verbatim on occasion), Hulskramer's book has a distinctive, coherent character of its own, and presents some ideas I hadn't come across before.
The book's distinctive character comes from its vigorous determination to live up to its title. The translation into (plain) English is very good, and cram full of English idiom. The result is always immediately comprehensible, often more vivid than the usual abstract explanation. Some of the choices are brilliant: 44, line 5, for instance, where the original imagery describes wrapping delicate melons in willow branches:
'Keep your plans under wraps for a while longer. If you give them the time to ripen in peace, no one can throw a spanner in the works and you will soon be able to realise them effortlessly.'
But in places you can't help feeling that too many cooks have over-egged the pudding:
'Dare to stand alone when others fall by the wayside. If you realise that both sides of the river meet at some point, you can walk the middle of the road.' (11,2)
The moving line comments are probably the weakest part of the book. Naturally, they have the same problem as any commentary that sets out to replace the original text: they will often not apply to the situation they're cast for, and they are quite opaque to the real line behind the commentary. But these seem to me to impoverish (and sometimes simply change) the meanings of the moving lines more than comparable books, such as the Sorrell's I Ching Made Easy (which actually refers to much of the original imagery), or Sarah Dening's Everyday I Ching. There is the occasional fresh, useful idea, like this take on 49,5 (changing as a tiger):
'Stop speculating and philosophising on the correct course of action; just do the most obvious thing.'
But even if
'Be wary of relationships in which the woman dominates the man. No one benefits from such relationships.'
were a possible interpretation of 44,1, it clearly isn't going to help in the great majority of cases where you're given this line.
The strengths of the I Ching in plain English lie mainly in the commentary on each hexagram. The translation has its moments, too, such as giving the title of Hexagram 38 as 'The Unbridgeable' and its Judgement as 'Contrast. Try your luck in minor matters.' (But why on earth is Hexagram 56, the Sojourner, named 'Running and Standing Still'?) There are some gems of good sense and insight in the commentaries, like this for hexagram 1:
'If your life lacks true inspiration, an all-encompassing purpose or great ideals, then everything you do will be bound with loose sand and you will move only piles of sand instead of mountains.'
And how about this for a commentary on 48, which Hulskramer subtitles 'descending into yourself'?
'It is time to open yourself up to what is going on subconsciously inside you. There is something that wishes to tell you something - the solution to a problem, important insight - and is waiting for a breakthrough. If you wish to promote that breakthrough or flow-through between the consciousness and your deeper nature, you will have to detach yourself from the grasp of reason and from one-sided orientation towards the outward world and cleanse your inner channels. Non-intellectual activities, such as simple physical work, being creative, relaxing, listening to your dreams, intuition or inner voice, are the resources you have available to you...'
But then, where does he get the idea that Hexagram 23 is a time to 'defend and attempt to hold on'? Or that 50, the Vessel, heralds painful ordeals? What with the occasional bizarre idea, and the 'underpowered' commentary on the moving lines, I wouldn't recommend this book as a first I Ching for a beginner. (For that, Stephen Karcher's 'How to Use the I Ching' would still be my first choice: it also fits each hexagram onto a two-page spread, but it manages to give you a word for word translation as well as thought-provoking commentary in the space!)
However, if you already have a real translation of the I Ching and would like some alternative perspectives that you can put to use at once, this book could be what you are looking for. It is easy to relate to, as this oracle is meant to be: its great stock of punchy idioms can save paragraphs of explanation, and are probably more likely to sink in. They might also come in very useful if you are finding it difficult to convey ideas from a reading to other people. There's nothing revolutionary about I Ching in Plain English, but it does present considerable food for thought in a small, manageable - and highly affordable - space.
Currently only available in the UK, eg from Amazon.
For reviews of some of the other books mentioned here, see the I Ching bookstore at Clarity.
™Subscriber's Reading: Job Prospects ˜ "I have been going to college for a year and a half. I am a 41 year old man and, before going to college, was a truck and taxi driver here in Los Angeles California. I discovered I have a sleep disorder that keeps me from behind the wheel and that's why I'm going to college so late in life. Anyway, in May I will have a certificate as a communications technician in the electronics field and I would like to know if I am going to finally get a decent job anytime soon. That's it, my question is "Are my prospects good or bad for the near future in the job department."
thanks,
Conrad"
Hi Conrad,
I asked on your behalf,
What are Conrad's job prospects?
Yi answered with Hexagram 51, Shock, changing to Hexagram 16, Motivation. This presages continuing change, but also strong motivation on your part that keeps you travelling through it safely.
Primary hexagram: 51, Shock
'Shock' represents thunder, which the ancient Chinese understood to erupt from the earth in Spring, awakening new life as it came. But it is also connected with unseasonal thunder, and with earthquakes, representing profoundly shocking, potentially disastrous change. This does not feel in the least safe:
'Shock, creating success.
Shock comes, fear and terror.
Laughing words, shrieking and yelling.
Shock spreads fear for a hundred miles.
Someone does not lose the sacred ladle and libation.'
This picture of mass panic and hysteria recalls the profound shock of discovering you had to change jobs: it's a sense of having the ground taken from under your feet, and things you expected to stay solid falling round your ears. When you leave the relatively stable world of college, you can expect to step back into the same kind of atmosphere.
But it's important to hold in your mind that such shocks happen for a positive purpose. This hexagram comes after 49 and 50, the Revolution and the Vessel that founds the new government and way of living, 'putting away the old' and 'grasping renewal'. One way of living has been overthrown, and you have been working on founding a new one - and congratulations, by the way, on your new qualifications! What you need now is a sense of continuity, a connection with something of yourself that stays constant through all this upheaval.
The 'someone' who does not spill a drop from the sacred ladle is your model here. He is a young priest who has inherited the responsibility for everything that is sacred: the temples, the earth, the grain, all those things that are unmoved by political or social change. The successive waves of change roar about him, but he is miraculously untouched. He's developing the power of the following hexagram - to Keep Still inwardly, not to react.
This is the challenge for you: to hold firmly to what is most important - and that is not the way you earn your living. The Shock helps to 'create success', to reopen the way to your creative spirit, because it shatters the dried-out edifices of 'what you do', renewing your connection with the essence of who you are.
(Ordinary social perceptions tend to keep building up the edifice:
'What does he do?'
'Oh, he's a driver' or 'He's a technician'
- and the conversation ends there, as if this had conveyed any real information about who someone is.)
So I would be surprised if you had the opportunity to settle into a comfortable job for life, though I'm sure you will always be able to 'create success' for yourself. I think you can confidently expect more change to come.
'Repeated thunder. Shock.
The noble one in fear and trembling sets things in order and is watchful.'
In other words, you are not wrong to be anxious and on the alert. You could use the energy this gives you to change the way you think about employment, maybe focussing more on continuously developing the skills and connections that will keep you constantly in demand.
Relating hexagram: 16, Motivation
This second hexagram represents the underlying willpower and enthusiasm that sent you back to college to learn something new, where others might just have been stunned helpless by the shock. I hope you'll forgive me if I save space in everyone's inbox by giving you a link to some notes on Hexagram 16 from a previous issue!
This motivation of yours, that will keep you going through any number of changes, needs strong foundations in self-knowledge. According to the sequence of hexagrams, Motivation arises when someone has both Great Possession (of talent, friendship and opportunity as much as material wealth) and also Integrity or Humility. Because you know the abundance of opportunities in the world, and also know your own capabilities, you can make the forces of change your own to use - not just something that 'happens to you'.
'Motivation.
Harvest in setting up feudal lords to mobilise the armies.'
I think this is advice to complete your preparations now so that you'll be ready to 'mobilise the armies' to find work as soon as you have that certificate in your hand. The ancient kings of China needed a network of feudal lords for communication, control, and their ability to raise an army. This represents the networking, research, information and forward planning you need to expand your scope and ensure success. You don't want your motivation to run ahead of your preparations - that would be like raising a mob, not an army.
Change
Finally, the moving line text that connects Shock with Motivation:
51, line 1:
'Shake comes, fear and terror.
Afterwards, laughing words, shrieking and yelling.
Good fortune'
This is very much like the text for Shock as a whole, except for the addition of 'afterwards' and 'good fortune'. So while the line re-emphasises that you can expect repeated change, not settling stolidly into a job for life, it also shows that the initial panic at change is followed by laughter. It reminds me a little of a roller-coaster ride: shrieks of fear, but also laughter, as you know that this will end well, and the upheaval isn't going to hurt you.
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