Heaven, as inner trigram, always seems to be asking, can this be realised? How, or how completely, or how directly? There’s an inner energy seeking expression or realisation through the outer trigram – perhaps it’s the potential in the situation asked about, or the true inner nature of the questioner,… Read more »Heaven inside (part 2)
Question: “What advice can be offered for more effectively providing meditative peace and healing through playing Shakuhachi flute music?” Answer: Great Vigour in Flow. changing to A Yeeky thing I mentioned during this reading: the idea of a dabagua, or ‘big trigram’ hexagram. If you take the trigram dui, lake…… Read more »Creating peace through music
Three lines Here’s another phrase that appears three times in the Yijing: 富以其鄰, fu yi qi lin, ‘rich in one’s neighbours’. In 9.5, you are rich in your neighbours – ‘There is truth and confidence as a bond.Rich in your neighbours.’ while in 11.4 and 15.5, you aren’t – ‘Fluttering,… Read more »Rich in your neighbours
Introducing the Image Sometimes we explain things to ourselves by comparing and contrasting – like the Zagua. Sometimes we tell stories, like the Xugua (Sequence of Hexagrams). And often, we paint mental pictures. The Yi is overflowing with pictures, of course – not least the ones created by its component… Read more »The genius of the Daxiang (part 1)
The second line of Hexagram 11 generates some of the most strangely varied translations. Here are two from the same book – John Minford’s I Ching, which contains two incarnations of the Yi, as ‘Book of Wisdom’ and ‘Bronze Age Oracle’: ‘Embrace the wilderness, ford the river. Do not forsake… Read more »Fording the river: Hexagram 11, line 2
The Yijing’s changing line texts are in conversation with the hexagrams created by each change. But they can also have quiet exchanges with their fan yao, the ‘reverse line’ that travels in the opposite direction. For instance, 11.2 changes to 36, and in reverse, 36.2 changes to 11: 11.2 and… Read more »Lines in conversation
In my last post, I mentioned all the meaning packed into a tiny space in Hexagram 56, line 6. The nest is burned, line 6 changes, and you can see the bird flying away, into Hexagram 62. Because the Yijing’s lines move, it creates this kind of magic all the… Read more »Hexagrams in conversation
