Kim-Anh Lim book:anyone else use this book?

[denv12]

I bought a copy of the I Ching book:
"Practical guide to I Ching".By Kim-Anh Lim.
(ISBN:90-74597-40-8).

Does anyone else use this book? Would you like to compare notes?

Chris.

[fyreflye]

I own it, have read around in it, found it to be essentially a fortune teller's manual though good one for what it is, and put it back on the shelf. There's more to the Yi than this.

[denv12]

What book(s) are you using now that fulfil your needs?

[fyreflye]

What book(s) are you using now that fulfil your needs?

Wilhelm/Baynes as the primary text though mostly for the Ten Wings; Jack Balkin, The Laws of Change as the most lucid exposition of the text I've seen so far; Richard John Lynn, I Ching: The Classic of Changes for a translation incorporating the classic commentary of Wang Bi; and three of Steven Karcher's translations for their imaginative approaches to dealing with the text. The online versions by LiSe and Bradford are also well worth studying. But the point IMO is not so much to consult this or that text for guidance every time a problem comes up but to immerse oneself in the total worldview of the Yi so that when problems arise you can know without needing a consult what attitude to assume in approaching the situation at hand. The Yi started as an Oracle but in the hands of the neo-Confucians morphed into a training manual for the ruling class designed to teach their young heirs, Wilhelm/Baynes' "Superior Man" (junzi), how to live in harmony with they caled the Mandate of Heaven or the Dao. It takes years of study and training to reach that point. Which is why fortune telling manuals are of little value to anyone with more serious goals.

[denv12]

I think you should express your point of view by posting a topic on this board.

[lindsay]

Before this thread dies, I'd like to endorse Kim-Anh Lim a little bit, since I have used her book for several years now and found it very useful for practical consultations. I also agree with much of what Denv writes, but not with the dismissive attitude about divination (by the way, divination is not "fortune-telling"). I don't think a person has to be an aspiring Confucian or Taoist to find aid and comfort in the Yi. The truth is, I think, we are creating a new, Western tradition of using the Yi - mostly independent of the Chinese past - without being aware of it. This fledgling creation, a rebirth of ancient ideas about divination in our own times, deserves attention and respect.

[lindsay]

Sorry, I wrote "Denv" but I meant "Fyreflye". Fyreflye doesn't seem to care much for the Yi as an oracle, yet has a lot of interest in it for other purposes. It would be interesting to hear more.

Lindsay

[bradford]

I'll speak up in support of the Kim-Ahn Lim book.
I found it had lots of good insights.

[fyreflye]

I also agree with much of what Denv [fyreflye] writes, but not with the dismissive attitude about divination (by the way, divination is not "fortune-telling").

Since divination is not fortune telling, and what I criticized in the book was its emphasis on fortune telling, what makes you think I have a dismissive attitude toward divination?

[lindsay]

Hi Fyreflye -

I thought you were implying divination = fortune-telling. That is how I understood what you wrote, although you did not say so explicitly. But who cares what I did or did not understand? Cetainly it is not really the case that Kim-Anh Lim is devoted to fortune-telling, is it? I would have called her a diviner in the same sense Hilary is a diviner. She is concerned with clarifying human choices. I would also have thought the best way to integrate the Yi into our lives would be to apply it to everyday concerns. How else can you experience the Yi in action? In the context of real change? As an oracle? Surely the Yi is more than a philosophy textbook?

Lindsay