Here’s Donna Woodka’s lovely blog, Changing Places, quoting Deng Ming Tao as he speaks out against divination.
Specifically, he’s opposed to the use of divination in big, life-changing decisions – because, according to him –
- divination amounts to looking for reassurance from forces “out there” – which doesn’t work
- depending on it means giving up control over your own life.
- it’s avoidance of responsibility: if a course of action doesn’t work out, you can say it wasn’t your fault.
Well, anything that did all these things would indeed be something to avoid. But as far as I can see, all this has startlingly little to do with divination.
First, there are plenty of people divining who would insist that they are not talking to anything ‘out there’ at all, but only with their own, unspoken inner knowledge. So while for some of us, it comes naturally to think of divination as talking with something outside ourselves, this isn’t a necessary part of the process at all. The important thing, I think, is that we are communicating with something bigger than the ‘small mind’ we usually think with. Divination is a way of embracing bigger reasons, a bigger understanding, than my everyday awareness encompasses. And it is by no means always ‘reassuring’.
The issue of dependence and giving up control is a stickier one. In practice, the Yijing doesn’t support such things: it has a whole repertory of ways to refer people back to their own priorities and powers of decision. But it can’t be denied that it is easy to attempt to use divination in this way. Any question with the word ‘should’ in it is a slippery slope; it can be used as a way to avoid thinking about consequences, and what one chooses to bring about. Whose ‘should’ are we talking about? How do you recognise something that ‘should’ be done? Someone who knows the answer to that one (or has a working idea of it, at least) is more likely to ask, ‘What if…?’ or ‘How best to…?’ questions.
Then there is the thoroughly ingenious suggestion that divination could be used to avoid responsibility: ‘the oracle made me do it!’ I’ve encountered all kinds of approaches to divination, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone try this one. The oracle’s a book; it can’t jump off the table and hit you. (Even if it does a good impression of this at times…)
Deng finishes off by trying to make divination and imagination out to be alternatives somehow. This is frankly bizarre. What (on earth) would divination without imagination look like? Do we divine about a course of action instead of projecting ourselves into it imaginatively? Of course not. We divine to make that projection more complete, more vivid, less limited by the preconceptions of our ‘small mind’.
Divination is real exercise for the imaginative muscle. Donna’s brought together an inspiring collection of quotations on imagination – for instance,
“Imagination is not something apart and hermetic, not a way of leaving reality behind; it is a way of engaging reality.â€
Irving Howe
Doesn’t that apply to divination just as well?
Mmm, exactly. I think people who use divination as a tool to get in touch with their deeper self, with the Tao, are using it correctly. I take what Deng Ming Dao says as meaning not to use divination to limit your course of action, but to inform it. It isn’t a matter the magic eight ball saying yes or no; it’s a matter of using tools of imagination to inform your choice. The symbols of the I Ching or the Tarot or whatever can be interpreted through our imagination to allow us to delve deeper into our selves and make a more informed choice in our lives.
Having a sense of when to advance, retreat, or stand still is often provided through the use of the I Ching. It allows me the ability to slow time and act accordingly. Like the graceful movement of Tai Chi or Pa Kua, the I Ching teaches the wisdom of how to move, when to move through life’s myraid ups and downs.
“As Deng Ming Dao writes in Everyday Tao, “Those who follow Dao are their own instrument of divination … to depend on tortoise shells or oracles is still to have distance between us and Dao … Nothing rivals a direct link to Dao” ”
The above more critical note from Deng and Daoist text quotes were posted in a Daoist website to support someone’s views against Zhouyi divination.
My question to the poster and Deng was, “Ha, how would you know?”
My comments on their superficial and theoretical knowledge of Daoist practices have been published in my blog for anyone interested.
Allan’s post is here. (Nice rant, Allan 😉 )
I have to admit that if the Oracle gives me some clear advice and I do NOT take it, I feel uncomfortable. So where does that lead me as far as my own responsibility is concerned?
Recently, I was in a situation where I felt I was being manipulated. I consulted the I Ching and the answer it gave me was very much from the point of view of the manipulator (as I saw it). If I had followed the advice, I would have done exactly as the manipulator wished. Needless to say, after a lot of angst, I didn’t comply. The manipulator then punished me severely for not doing as she wished, and this made me wonder if I should have done what she wanted (which is what the I Ching had said). But I do know that I would have resented this course of action had I gone ahead, and it certainly would not have been in my best interests as far as my family were concerned.
I think if I had been more ‘vulnerable’ I would have gone ahead and done what she asked, especially after the I Ching had apparently supported her position. However, I am still glad that I didn’t. I know other people who have done what she wanted – and regretted it.
There could be many people who consult the Oracle and feel obliged to do what it says. That it could be avoiding responsibility doesn’t surprise me. It feels like a great responsibility NOT to do what it says. Sometimes I wonder if the Oracle takes different points of view, too.
I was attending a luncheon and I asked 4 or 5 questions
about how I should attend -should I go here first-
should I avoid this part- should I go the meeting last
instead – and
I got these different answers –
it made me aware of the risk –
once I asked should I avoid a certain part of the meeting
and it seemed to say yes – i think # 17 – and then
the others had “angry ghosts, past memories, etc.” as
a part of the answer –
so I went to all of the meetings and did it knowing the
risk and I prepared for the possible dispute or
difficulties- I had a plan – which worked perfectly.
You have to realize that there is a gap between
our lives and the chinese and to try to fill it in and
make sense of the answers.
It worked very well for me.
Nelson