Letter to Hilary

[candid]

Hi Hilary,

Now that some dust has settled here awhile allowing me to better focus coherently, I?d like to again address where we were going in an earlier thread.

I guess its just my nature to swim against the tides of fixed thinking and convention. I?ve followed the debate for 20 years on which Bible translation/version is the ?correct one.? Near the end of my belief in that particular ?faith system? I read and re-read the King James cover to cover again and again for myself with no authority to interpret it for me. Then after gaining a clearer perspective with the help of two rabbis, I was able to reorganize the scripture structures in a way that finally made sense to me.

Over time I?ve done much the same with Yi. I?ve noticed the same type of static structures dictating set meanings, and I?ve noticed the same formalism in adherence to traditions. I?ve also over time began to create and assign my own meanings to the Yi structures based on my own practical experience. Granted, I am not an authority on Yi?s history and tradition the way some here are, and while I do respect their background knowledge, I prefer to go the way that has been successful for me according to my own hands-on experience and aptitude.

I?ve stated earlier that the trigrams are enough to provide a coherent interpretations, but that doesn?t mean it is a fixed assignment either. Its more fluid than that. This is where and why Chris? approach has been interesting to me personally. Not that I follow his complicated formulas, but I do allow the mental room for my intuition to travel along with the impressions spontaneously sparked by the lines visually and symbolically. I?ve not eliminated the set interpretations of Wilhelm, as they are still a springboard to evoke meaning for me, but I no longer see each gua as set in stone.

I realize this approach draws contempt from those who hold to the infallibility of early translations and traditions. I can?t help that. I?ve drawn contempt from priests and pastors all of my earlier Christian life, as I have with about every formal teaching I?ve been exposed to, but I don?t see any of that as my problem. Call it arrogance or whatever, it just isn?t and has never been my way. I?m not suggesting my way is better than anyone else?s; its just my way. I?ve never been very smart academically, and so I?ve developed, or had to develop, through whatever means my life would allow, even if it flies in the face of convention.

I?ve realized that I could never write a book about it or even thoroughly explain it because it is too fluid and intuitive to set into a cognitive and definitive format. So I content myself with the ability to interpret for myself and others as best as my own mind allows. I completely realize it?s fallibility. Yet more often than not the people I read for seem to get from it what they need at the time.

Yi is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.

That?s all I have to say about that.

C

[hilary]

And you've introduced me to some wonderful flavours on the bottom layers of the box http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif More to the point, I know that what you do works for the people you do it for.

No book? Rats.

(I'd write more - I could go on and on - but there is the small matter of 4 waiting customers and the 'beginning of the month' newsletter. Ha. Ha.)

[cheiron]

Hi Candid

I am butting in so ignore if not appropriate.

The History of the received Bible is interesting in that it was heavily doctored by the early Roman Church shortly after Jesus death... then surprisingly the Jewish Library of his followers burned down about then... oops!

Little changes.

But I understand that there has been a recent discovery of a second copy of those texts.... http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

Ever wondered why the early Jews, called Christians were banned from Jerusalem, why the Early church rejected their diplomatic mission to Rome and adopted Greek Bishops instead?

Why pogroms followed shortly after?

See the book - 'The Darker Side of God' It was written in protest by a leading (American)Catholic Academic... very factual.

As for the King James version that was doctored so as not to offend the King James / Church tensions in the UK... the Bible has many layers too.

I am not a Christian... But I look forward to the day when those political layers are stripped away from the Bible and perhaps the original teachings are recovered... Maybe too we can recover the Kabal which the early non Jewish / Roman Church rejected along with all of the spiritual practices in favour of the edited teachings which were straightforward enough to continue the Roman rule which did not want its citizenship to explore for themselves.

Maybe it is time for that Romanisation of those teachings to fall and for the orriginal teachings of love and humility to be re-established?

I di hope so - for with that might come the healing of the Jewish Christian split.

Oh, well.

You have demonstrated, to me, an acute facility in wresting profound sense from the yijing and making that available to us in a straightforward and clear form.

I do not care what method you use...but hope you share it... so it is I will learn.

I am also pleased that you make your own path... I gotta bulldozer I am happy to share with you ;}

In peace

--Kevin

[willow]

Ira Progoff, a depth psychologist who invented the Journal Workshop method, said that his work began with the question, "What if all the spiritual texts in the world were destroyed? What would we do?" Eventually, he realized that what we'd do is write new ones - go "down the well" and discover the mystical truths all over again.

And of course, as Disney has shown, there's more than one way to burn a book.