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Being, doing, having – and questions for the I Ching

It’s something of a truism that the cosmos works in this sequence: be – do – have. Who you are leads to what you do which leads (by a more or less direct path! 😉 ) to what you get. Also well-known is that universal human tendency to get this very precisely backwards:
‘If I had lots of money I could do what I want and then I would be happy.’
(If you haven’t come across this before, try googling “be do have”, for about 4,450 pages making the same point.)

So where in this sequence do we usually break in with questions for the I Ching? Unfortunately, there’s a huge great cultural misconception that divination can only approach the ‘have’ end of the sequence. I suppose it’s the popular cliché of the fortune-teller in her tent, with headscarf, greasy card pack, etc: she tells you what you’ll get. (Then you go away and wait until you have it before doing anything different.)

The sad thing is that this misconception still cramps and distorts people’s approach to the oracle. Intelligent, responsible individuals open their minds to explore new possibilities – like looking for a new relationship, for instance, or a new career. Yet when they come to ask their question, the heavy folds of that fortune-teller’s tent close in on them.

‘Is there a loving relationship on my life path?’
‘Do you see me getting a new job?’
‘What’s going to happen?’

Boring, exasperating answer: ‘It depends on what you do.’

It’s that simple – though also, of course, it isn’t.

‘Will I end up in Birmingham next week?’
‘Well, do you have any plans to go there at all?’

But then the car might break down, there might be a freak storm, something might come up… And this is where there is an important place for prediction, for ‘have’ questions:

‘If I do my best to get to Birmingham next week, what can I expect?’
‘What if I set out to change job?’
‘Suppose I go looking for a partner – what kind of experience will I find?’

But if you look at these questions, you’ll see that the ‘doing’ has been restored to its right place before the ‘having’. Because this is still a long way from the popular image of divination, the diviner may need to ask bluntly, ‘Do you want to ask about what will happen if you carry on doing all the same things you are now, or do you want to ask about making changes?’

This is solid, practical, bread-and-butter divination: it works, and it’s a sight more useful than ‘What’s going to happen?’ Yet (as no doubt you’ve noticed), the first part of the sequence is missing.

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