Hexagram 40 is Release: untying knots, removing artificial restraints and compulsions, and restoring complete, natural freedom of movement. Its moving lines talk about different kinds of captivity and release: simple ‘mistake’ at the first line, the release of a firm grip at the fourth, release from a looming, ominous presence… Read more »Release from the foxes
Not for the first time, someone’s written to ask me what it means that there’s ‘advantage in the southwest’ for her. So here’s a summary of one thing it means, at least – ‘The southwest’ in Yijing-language doesn’t usually mean literally the southwest. There can be the occasional exception, of… Read more »Advantage in the Southwest
It’s a pervasive character, this I Ching – its way of thinking gets everywhere. Nowadays I find that given a book and a pencil, I’ll be jotting hexagrams in the margins to remind myself of the main ideas. Here’s one that brings out the pencil – the Fourth Insight from… Read more »The Fourth Insight and Hexagram 6
The Judgement of Hexagram 15 says that, ‘Integrity creates success, The noble one completes things.’ What’s the significance of ‘completing things’ (literally, ‘having completion’), as against just ‘succeeding’? Wilhelm translates this as ‘carries things through’ and describes it as completing one’s work; he mentions how much simpler and more effective… Read more »The noble one completes it?
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… Read more »Deng Ming Tao on divination
Questioning the question – Harmen’s Dagboek Harmen challenges the conventional wisdom that it’s necessary to create a focussed, specific question. He is concerned that you can limit your perception as you limit the scope of your question, and hence miss what is truly important. Instead, he suggests ‘addressing a situation’… Read more »Questioning the question
Unusual techniques for applying I Ching hexagrams describes a kinaesthetic approach to understanding both trigrams and hexagrams: “You can hold any hexagram as a ‘shape’ in your body by holding or releasing tension in various parts of your torso” Interesting!
