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Yi on the Secret

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past few months, you’ve probably heard of the Secret, and maybe gathered that it’s a creatively-marketed way of presenting the ‘Law of Attraction’. The basic idea is that whereas ‘common sense’ says that stuff happens to us, and that makes us feel certain ways and believe certain things, in fact the chain of cause and effect runs in exactly the opposite direction. What we think, feel, believe and pay attention to attracts our experience. There are variations on this idea, some more extreme than other. Some put it down just to a selection effect: if you’re paying attention to opportunities to make money, you’re more likely to do so than someone who thinks about debt all the time. At the opposite extreme, there are those who say that you create everything you experience, up to and including gravity.

So with all this debate in mind, I asked Yi to draw me a picture of how it all really works: are we creating reality, attracting it, reacting to it?

“How does inner life relate to outer experience?”

And Yi answered with Hexagram 3, Sprouting, changing to Hexagram 17, Following

In this hexagram-landscape, I think the Sprouting is our inner life, its desires and powers, and Following is how it relates to the world.

Hexagram 3 shows a growing centre putting out roots. Inner life expands into the world of experience like a germinating seed, or like a small military encampment starting to explore new territory, or like a new king setting up his feudal lords. All these are images for a tiny, known centre that reaches out and grows into the great unknown. It’s the absolute beginning of self-awareness that begin in the cradle: here I am; there are other things and other people around me; I connect with them in ever-widening circles, and sometimes they resist me.

‘Sprouting.
Creating success from the source, harvest in constancy.
Don’t use this to have a direction to go,
Harvest in establishing feudal lords.’

Creating success from the source… Yuan heng li zhen… The whole creative process is at work here. And we’re advised not to get in its way by having a ‘direction to go’. I think this has something to say about leaping from ‘I create my own reality,’ straight to ‘I intend to manifest a red Ferrari by the end of August.’ There’s a school of thought that would advise me that if I wanted a Ferrari (which I don’t), I’d actually need to get more detailed than that: specify the year, the model number, the colour of the leather seats… . And as a way to get stuff, maybe this would be ideal – but Yi isn’t recommending it as a way to grow. To set a single direction is to limit the possibilities; to fix your attention on what you want to ‘attract’ is blinkered; to reduce the power of Sprouting to visualising a new car would be a waste.

Instead, there’s harvest in establishing feudal lords. For the new king, this is a way to get more information and connections, to expand his realm of influence. It means becoming more aware, but it’s not solely a fact-finding mission; it also creates the kingdom itself. We’re not just here to explore; we’re here to create:

‘Clouds, thunder, Sprouting.
Noble one weaves with the warp.’

Here in the ferment of creation, we can still know the warp threads.

Then comes the changing line:

‘Driving a full team of horses,
Seeking marital alliance.
Going on, good fortune.
Nothing that does not bring harvest.’

The more I read this answer, the more I love it. How does inner life relate to outer experience? As a devoted suitor, who marries into his experience with everything he has. There’s no skirting shyly round the commitment here, no postponing it until life matches up to your notion of the ideal partner. The horses gleam with health, the harness shines, the suitor sets out at full gallop; ‘nothing does not bring harvest.’

Marriage is an image of profound commitment, of finding one’s place, of coming home. And also of growing that idea of ‘home’, an alliance that expands experience. As an image of inner life going to meet the world, it reminds me of those myths where the divine seeks a bride in the material world, like Zeus visiting Danae.

I think (looking round the pathway of lines, 17.4, 18.3 and 4.3) that it’s important to be the suitor who goes out wholeheartedly to make the alliance, whatever it might bring. It’s not about knowing you’ll get what you want; not to know, not to retain control, isn’t such a disaster as we might imagine. (And there is an element of fear in ‘Law of Attraction’ thinking – the need to believe that everyone attracts everything, and hence everything is ultimately under human control, and nothing ever ‘just happens’.) Real experience has more to offer than the golden effigy cast from our own limitations.

And then the Relating Hexagram, Following, shows how our inner life and awareness relates to the world ‘out there’. I think Stephen Karcher, writing on Hexagram 17 in Total I Ching, puts it uncannily well:

“Through Following, your accumulated power and virtue (de) connects with the flow of events in such a way that the spirit moves into the world through you. …Through Following… you are in direct touch with the flow of the Way. You insert yourself into the universal flow of events, the river of time, and are thus able to conform effectively and spontaneously to the unfolding of the moment.”

The ancient Chinese character for Following suggests making offering at the crossroads or the grave mound – at a place where spirit enters the landscape and you can connect with its flow. By making offering, you express willingness to Follow, to move with the river instead of pushing it.

‘Following.
Creating success from the source, harvest in constancy.
No mistake.’

Again, yuan heng li zhen. Somewhere between inner life and outer experience, creation happens. And there is no mistake – though we do tend to feel that unless we’re directing how things play out, there has to be something wrong. This hexagram often shows up when events aren’t moving at the pace we’ve chosen for them, and we’ve decided this amounts to an ‘obstacle’. (And there are any number of products and discussions out there now centring on people’s experience that intention-manifestation ‘isn’t working!’)

The noble one has more respect for the flow:

‘At the centre of the lake is thunder. Following.
In the same way, the noble one at nightfall
Goes inside for renewal and rest.’

You can’t ‘manifest’ noon at nightfall, nor yet a body that doesn’t need sleep, or a psyche that doesn’t need its creative potential renewing in the dream-lake.

So this ‘flow’ we connect with… are we creating it? Attracting it? Or just finding our place within it, like a fish in the river?

It seems clear to me that Yi isn’t just talking about a ‘subjective reality’, where our personal motivation goes thundering out over the responsive earth. That was one hexagram ago; now the motivational drive (the thunder) is internalised and has become something bigger than we are. Hexagram 17 sometimes heralds an experience of synchronicity, of being ‘led’ and offered the right openings at the right moment. It seems our awareness and desire are involved in something bigger than either.

You might think of this as aligning our will to what is. You might think of it as harnessing what is to our will, as the authors of the Dazhuan did:
“They harnessed oxen and rode horses so they could conduct heavy loads to distant places. Thus they benefited all under heaven. The idea for this probably was taken from Sui.”
So when you ride in the ox-cart, are you allowing yourself to be drawn into following, or are you actively using the power available to move great things? Does it matter? Your desire and the flow of events are going the same way; wanting to know which is the ‘cause’ and which the ‘effect’ seems a very human hang-up.

7 responses to Yi on the Secret

  1. Flowing, not attracting…. indeed. A great service you have done writing this piece!
    i take issue with the ‘having’ versus ‘being’ aspect of the Secret phenomena. i have written my own ‘essay’ in my personal journal as i had a few people around me hook into this Secret delusion. While i did not counter them directly, i had to write something to address my own feelings about this misguided narcisstic trend. And.. it has caused a serious rift in one of my friendships. So be it. I have accepted it and released it. It will either ‘right’ itself or dissipate.

    Que sera, sera…what will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see. I love that song. I recently wrote of being in the flow…however, that does not mean there won’t be rocks and rapids and twists and turns. That’s life. That’s how we learn to navigate in the now. i do choose to follow… i follow the good and the true and the beautiful. Similar words to that effect can be found throughout the Yi.

    The Secret did challenge me to size up and be ready to defend my virtues.
    ( see heyboer translation on hexagram 7, the Army). Hex 7 has been at work in my life since July 2007. The Army can be a group of people, a group of ideas, etc. It was a clear warning i was getting in with people who want to tell others how to be successful and tinker with your way of thinking or values, or virtues. Here in the U.S. there is tremendous pressure to be financially successful. The problem is the price we pay for seeking that success and/or getting it. It is imbalance. It is soul-sapping. It is not a healthy way of being. Yet, i continue to say, to each his own. Everyone is on their own path. If you know people who are stumbling along or making what you think are big mistakes…leave them alone. They are learning.

    I continue to practice my own Sadhana in my own way. It is my offering so as to open the way for me to travel on. I do practice non-forcing and non-violence.

    My life is not about having more of what i already have…using up more of dwindling resources. I do not aspire to status, or celebrity, or ‘ the millionaire mind’ thing ( another personal growth phenom here in the U.S.). I am a creative person. I am a giving person. For those who are not blessed with all the things needed for self-realization/actualization ( maslow), it is up to those of us who are blessed to help and support and give. That is coming from my North Node Aquarian side, but it is no secret.

    Everyday i get ‘connected’. Stuff comes my way that opens my higher self more and more. Do i attract it? I don’t know and it does not matter to me. I cannot micromanage the Universe. Yesterday i had an encounter with a peregrine falcon… i urge you to read about its significance as related to Rumi and the Tao. Rumi’s poem, the King’s Falcon is a wonderful tale that teaches us about our soul and taking care of it.

    Lao-Tsu said:
    Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
    I do not believe it can be done.

    The universe is sacred.
    You cannot improve it.
    If you try and change it, you will ruin it.
    If you try and hold it, you will lose it.
    ( just flow with it)

  2. Error… Hexagram 7 active since july 2006…

    Some concluding thoughts on the Secret. i too use Stephen Karcher’s translation in conjunction with Heyboer and the ever so handy and insightful Brian Walker; i will go through my journals and see what the Yi said when i brought up this issue concerning the Secret and my friendship with a very special person. i know in Hex 7, it said to retain neutrality, disengage and retreat from this group; follow the Sage at every step reminding yourself the wisdom of this path. Basically, it is saying don’t argue about it. In fact, when that almost happened, i became very aware of the moment & that this was becoming a divisive element and i immediately asked that we not argue about it. No matter, it had hooked them and until proven otherwise ( and not by me) it has in fact divided us; i have pursued another way of relating to this person, but no longer engage in the subject matter.

    This whole thing is instructive in that while many of us feel we should be in agreement with our friends and family about issues and values, in fact perhaps we must all go our own way to develop our uniqueness, retain our authenticity, and unfold our being.

    I also have found that being in the right is not always the correct way to be in any given situation. It may not be our Dharma to be the one who corrects another. The ego wants to intercede badly, like a child in school who props their arm up and hand waving high knowing the answer and wanting the teacher to pick them to be recognized for what they know. The lesson is for you…you know it, learned it and that’s all that matters… and others will hopefully learn what they need to learn in their own way. If they find what they need through the Secret or other means, great.

    I recently bought the DVD-film, Lost Horizon. A gem of a story. Robert Conway stumbles upon Shangri-La. Through dubious circumstances, he finds a hidden valley in the Himalayas, a place of peace, beauty and tranquility… life is in balance in this place called Shangri-La. Conway comes to find out some of reasons why it is so. His conversation with one of the half-lamas, Chang, goes like this:

    “If i were to put it into a very few words, my dear sir, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds — even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself. We have found that the principle makes for a considerable degree of happiness. We rule with moderate strictness, and in return we are satisfied with moderate obedience. And i think i can claim that our people are moderately sober, moderately chaste, and moderately honest.”

    Even so, our world these days is not one of peace, beauty, tranquility, or moderation. These we must develop in the what Heyboer calls, the inner essential being. And in sharing and helping others to do the same, the world may begin its recovery from imbalance. Philosophies that encourage having over being are destructive. The planet is paying a heavy price for human desires, for our insatiable need to attract stuff, for governments lust for power. ( Read Erich Fromm’s, To Have or To Be).

    The Secret plays right into the mindset of governments/corporations/media who have socially engineered people to be consumers/producers. Educating people to be workers/tax payers. We are all competing for everything… food, parking spaces, jobs, housing, healthcare, even a little personal space itself.

    What may be of interest is Hilton wrote Lost Horizon prior to WWII. A cautionary tale? Perhaps. The Lama in the story warns of global conflagration. But, he says, afterward, we will be here to help heal the world.

    Conway leaves Shangri-La on the insistence of one of his companions who convinces him the whole notion of the place is a fraud. They leave, tragedy occurs, and Conway spends a few years making his way back. Does he?

    The narrator of the story ends by saying this: Gentlemen, I give you a toast. Here’s my hope that Robert Conway will find his Shangri-La. Here’s my hope that we all find our Shangri-La.

    At what price, is something we all need to consider.

  3. I agree with the comments above. I’ve had few conversations about the ‘Secret’. For me, to put it in very few words, everything should be focus on… the goal of human life. It seems we have at least a couple of goals: to become conduits of higher frequencies (light) into this plane of existence (earth) and at the same time grow beyond our ego and reconnect (once we have completely integrated the experience of ‘separetness’) with our ‘Higher Self’.
    To go beyond our ego you have to first experience ego’s limitations and ‘gifts’. Many have not finished their lessons yet (here the reason why many may follow their best interest in following the ‘Secret’)
    Here, I believe, lies the reason of to not go in the ‘I want to fix people’ mode but to know in our heart what is right (flow) but let people discover it by themselves whenever they are ready.
    We become miracle workers when we see the light beyond the appearance of dark (people’s behaviour vs true Self; we judge the action, not the person etc…). What we perceive of ‘the others’ we reinforce in them. Let’s try to always look at the light in each other and let each other go our own way, knowing that everything is perfect the way it is…

  4. I do not believe in THE SECRET and the law of attraction.I think as the movie has put it, it is too simple and too many people have been disappointed as it is not working. I think giving false hope is very wrong. Though I DO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES. and that is a fact that has been proven to me all my life!!

  5. … and it’s also wrong to put people in a situation where, when things don’t work out for them, their first thought is, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ I can see the ‘attraction’ (heh) of The Secret, but I also see a lack of compassion in it.

    There are related threads at the I Ching Community you might find interesting: Why you don’t create your own reality part 1 and part 2.

  6. I hear that the concept behind The Secret was almost stolen, if I understand the story correctly, from the work of Jerry and Esther Hicks, who continue to travel and teach: http://www.Abraham-Hicks.com.

    So far I have found this to be a most cruel philosophy in many ways. Also, there are shades of Kabbalistic mysticism in this teaching with which I personally feel uncomfortable, maybe because I know nothing about it.

    And yet . . . there definitely is something to The Law of Attraction. We all know that we have attracted outcomes by wanting them, so there is little to argue about there.

    About wishing and wanting: At first we wish only for ourselves: a better job, a better spouse. Perhaps if we continue to work on our selfish desires, we may at some point see the error of our ways and the level of wishing may at that point jump to a higher level. I may begin to wish for a more all-encompassing outcome, like peace of mind for myself and all good things for everybody I know, including my so-called enemies. I do see the potential there for that kind of development.

    I read that 1 billion people in the world live on less that $1 a day. It is said that 2 billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day. In a world like this, who are these people who are asking us to manifest one million dollars? There is such a skew or a twist in these teachings that it would be a waste of time to try to straighten out that mess.

    Is it not true also of people using the I Ching, however, that most people start off using the Yi to figure out what is wrong with their love life or to figure out how to get the best job? Is there not a wish hidden inside every question asked of the Yi?

    I have listened to Esther Hicks on CD and she is said to be channeling a group of unseen entities called “Abraham” concerned about us here on this planet at this time. Maybe there is something to be gleaned from all these esoteric things we are hearing these days. There could be some good stuff in there. For example, Abraham says that if we’re feeling very down and discouraged, to always try to reach for the higher thought and the higher feeling. Don’t allow yourself to get bogged down in despair.

    In other words, some of this stuff can be useful. I have decided to pick the best and leave the rest.

  7. I think the book that got it all started was Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. (Love that name!)

    Yes, I agree it can be useful. Nothing wrong with envisioning and believing in more love and fulfilment in your own life, as far as I can see. But definitely something wrong with the idea that we must all avert our gaze from suffering, for fear of attracting it into our own lives.

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