What are the foundations?

I’m about to run a Yijing Foundations Class – we’re starting on September 21st. You can’t enrol for the class yet, but if you add your name to the notifications list…

…then you’ll be one of the first to know as soon as the ‘doors’ are open. (Since this is a small group, with just 12 places for new students, it could be over-subscribed.)

Of course, the name of the class rather begs the question: what are ‘foundations’ for Yijing readings?

They’re much the same as foundations for buildings: the inconspicuous part you build on, without which the whole structure is liable to collapse as soon as it’s asked to bear any weight. I’ve actually written about this before, and don’t have much to add, so I hope you don’t mind if I quote myself…

To start with, there are the foundations I can include on the syllabus:

• ways to relate to all the imagery (words and trigrams)
• understanding the structure of a reading (primary, relating, lines positions)
  and also
• knowing what you’re asking

I know these are ‘foundations’ because I’ve seen over the years how missing any one of them will create confusion and frustration, and stymie the whole process of building a good relationship with the oracle.

But then there are the other foundations, the ones that are harder to name, that underpin any lasting relationship with Yi. They’re laid through your own conversations with Yi, in the reading practice we do (and there is a lot of reading practice!), and maybe also through witnessing how the oracle works/talks with other students. These foundations aren’t knowledge, nor even skills, but habits of mind.

I think it all comes down to trusting the oracle. Only… what does that mean, in practice?

Respect

Trusting an oracle means respecting it as an oracle, not some kind of random, Rorschach blot test. That is, knowing that it has something specific to say to you, and being willing to pay attention to its whole message.

I believe you show respect to an oracle through the quality of attention you pay it. This needs to be full, true, non-selective attention, and that means reading what it says. Skipping over the oracle’s words in favour of the commentary (or forum replies or trigram associations or what you ‘know it means’) is not respect.

Confidence

The Chinese word fu 孚 – as in the name of Hexagram 61, Inner Truth – means truth, trust and confidence: all the ingredients of rapport and relationship. Sometimes, all that’s missing from a reading is confidence.

So often, I hear people say,

‘As soon as I read it, it made me think of…’
or
‘Oh, that’s exactly like…’
or
‘It feels as though it’s telling me…’

‘…but I’m not an expert, I’m not sure – I might have got it all wrong.’

No. No, you have not ‘got it wrong’. That ‘oh!‘ moment of recognition is the reading. It feels as though it’s speaking to you directly because it’s speaking to you directly, because that’s how oracles work.

You can’t get this wrong, and there is no ‘expert’, in print or online or in person, who can tell you otherwise, because this is the oracle speaking to you, not to them.

They might tell you, from their experience, that this hexagram or line normally means something else, or that 3,000 years ago it meant something else. That’s valuable information for you to remember for future readings – which has nothing to do with this moment of connection between you and Yi.

Sometimes the moment of recognition is like a lightning bolt, unmissable; sometimes it’s more of a tiny spark that needs nurturing and breathing space. (This is another good reason not to read too much of the translator’s commentary: it might smother your spark.)

In other words, trusting the oracle is also a matter of trusting yourself. A reading doesn’t exist between the covers of a book; it happens when you read.

Patience

What when there’s no lightning bolt, not even much of a spark – nothing doing?

For some people, this never happens, but most of us will feel ‘stuck’ on a reading from time to time. It’s very tempting in such moments to jump straight to browsing commentaries, or friendly forum people who can tell you, ‘this line means this‘. And these will help – sometimes, they’ll provide just what you need to unlock your own understanding.

The key, though, is learning to stop saying, ‘I don’t get it,’ and start saying, ‘I don’t get it yet ‘. Then you can go for a walk, or cook supper, or sleep on it, and let the meaning emerge. ‘Aha’ can also happen slowly. The little word ‘yet’ makes all the difference in the world – and it can be the only difference between my approach to a reading and someone who’s ‘stuck’.

Openness

This could be the trickiest aspect of respect: openness to the oracle’s response, whatever it says.

To awaken this kind of respect, I think it helps to conceive of Yi as a separate being, a ‘person’ in its own right. Even if you actually believe that the oracle is the voice of some layer or aspect of your own consciousness, you have to let it say things that you – your conscious self – would never have said.

And then you have to be willing to let yourself be guided, and change your plans. To start now, even though you’d feel more comfortable with an extra month’s research – or not to start now, but go back to the drawing board instead. To spend money on the risky proposition – or not to buy the super-shiny object available for a limited time only; to start the scary conversation – or not send the email you’ve been writing in your head for days.

Sometimes this will mean going against other people’s advice, or against ‘common sense’. It will often appear quite inexplicable to onlookers. Two provisos, though:

First, you have to be very sure that you’re responding to what the oracle is actually saying, not just what you wish it had said. (Though in fact, once you’ve experienced both a real ‘aha’ moment and wishful-thinking interpretation – and I think we’ve all done both – it’s not so hard to tell the difference…)

And second, the Yi was never intended to be the only guide to a decision: it doesn’t replace research, expert advice – or even common sense.

In practice, if you approach every reading with this degree of respect – knowing what difference it could make – it’s likely to mean you do fewer readings! If you know you intend to do (or not do) something, if you know that it’s the right choice for you, you won’t consult. Not because you’re worried about what Yi might say, but because you aren’t.

(From the outside looking in, some people imagine that trusting an oracle more must mean trusting yourself – your own judgement and intuition – less. I’ve found that in practice, in a good relationship with Yi, that’s not how it works: self-trust and oracle-trust turn out to nourish one another, or perhaps to be the same thing.)

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