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Steve Marshall: "Another note on the Yijing"

jilt

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hmm, the yi has been a great help with giving psycho-therapy, I think Marshall is having a case of tunnelvision
 
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sooo

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I tend to give experts a wide leeway, creatively, or when it comes to their personal expression of experience with something. I don't especially like Steve's persona, but I can't deny, it's those parts which remind me of me. Steve goes through the same changes as I do, and writes his blog as the moment chooses. I don't view his blog as characteristic of an author so much as a means to blow off steam.

He's recently begun giving readings for donations. Maybe that experience opens his eyes to certain things, and he writes it down, just because. It's like reading his inner conversation, and that gets pretty candid.

I think I understand what he meant in what he wrote. For me, it was his state of mind when he wrote it. If I read it that way, there's no inner resistance to receive it. I don't believe he believes it's anything great, but it's worth doing... psychologically. :)
 

heylise

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What I like about what Steve wrote, is giving 'practical' questions their rightful place. Many see them as profane, as if the Yi is too lofty to ask about something like that. Others only ask about superficial things, which makes the aversion against simple questions even bigger.

Of course one can go to the Yi with reverence and deep questions and so on. But asking something practical is in no way less. There is a lot in and about the Yi which is really simple. Just look at the names of the hexagrams. A well, a cauldron, not yet across, waiting. I can search for deep meanings in them. But usually I find more real meaning when I look in a simple practical way.

Starting uncomplicated often makes the deep part crawl in all by itself when needed. Starting deep and complicated doesn't become complete in a similar way.
 

sergio

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Hi Lise;
I just finished reading your post and found this paper presenting another view on images and its meanings, yet another twist in interpreting the names.
On the subject of divination I take Steve's comment as going back to using the Yi Ching as a way of determining courses of action rather than asking what will happen next year. I agree with you in the sense of achieving the middle way where you are not too banal in the questioning or too profound, on using all the time to using it only in the most excruciating of circumstances. Building a relationship with the Yi ching is like building a friendship: the more you talk to him/her the more you get to know each other and the more one learns more from each other, from the small, trivial everyday things when the time comes for a big question one is ready to understand what the friend's advise would be.
Anyway, her is the paper:
http://zhouyi.sdu.edu.cn/english0/newsxitong/selectedPapers/2010122362100.asp
Sergio
 

heylise

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Great article. Just halfway reading but I love it.

"In classical Chinese philosophy and poetry, we repeatedly encounter simple but telling images that convey the psychological essence of things to the heart-mind"
that is exactly what I meant. Characters (and hexagram names!) have this same quality: simple images which speak to the heart-mind. Letting them do that in their simple way makes them much more clear than trying to find deep meanings. The meanings come forth when the simple image is absorbed. Thinking disturbs this process.
 
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