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Any "young helpers" out there?

Wyndham

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Hi. It's me again. The guy who shows up once or twice a year, makes some sort of contribution, and then disappears again, receding into the fog or the ether or the mud or whatever that sticky stuff is I find myself in so often.

Of all things, it was Hilary`s emails about the new software and attendant (minor) glitches that reminded me that there is such a thing as the I Ching and that you can ask it questions and receive answers, yes, answers, even if you don`t know what they mean or what to do with them. And, of course, we all know that yes and no questions are totally uncool. For example: Does Dahlia love me as much as I love her? Answer: Well, maybe, maybe not. (Anyway, did I tell you the one about the guy who lost his nose while chewing on a piece of gristly meat?...)

So, here I am again, made no wiser by the passage of time, still full of silly yes or no questions, a noseless old man with a toothache.

That's why, this time, I wanted to ask Yi a question that he could sink his teeth into. Something modest and real, and yet something that would bundle together a number of issues informing my life at the moment.

I am a 68-year old US citizen who spent his first 30 years in Texas. I studied Spanish and German and travelled extensively and on numerous occasions throughout the US and Mexico. At age 30 I moved to Germany, where I remained for a total of 34 years, until July 2016, at which point I moved to France, where I have been for the last 3 years now.

I live with my German wife on the edge of a tiny village in the Burgundy hills. English here is neither an item nor an option, and, as I arrived here three years ago with no more than a handful of French, I have taken on somewhat the role of the village idiot. This latter point is beginning to change because, after a long sick spell, I am beginning to find the health and the energy required to learn a new language. On the most part, the people here are friendly but very reserved and quite fixed in their ties with family and friends.

So, with my improving health and better French I posed a question to Yi:

"How can I become more creatively involved in the life of my little community?"

Answer 56.2.3. > 64

I was amused to find Hilary's words in her commentary mirroring those in my question: "Since you are only passing through, your creative involvement is limited."

That's helpful. Even if I stay here for another 15 years, I will still -- because of my nativity, age and retired status -- be "only passing through".

I could go on and on, but I won't, I'll spare you. I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with the parameters of my question. Being an emigré at 30 is different from being an emigré at 68. In some ways it is much easier now: I don't have to prove myself as I did at 30. On the other hand, the energy, fight and ambition of a 30-year old can sometimes move mountains.

So the question remains: "However limited, how can I become more creatively involved in the life of my little community?"

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
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radiofreewill

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Hi Wyndham,

"However limited, how can I become more creatively involved in the life of my little community?"
56.2.3 to 64 ~ Show them that we are all travelers "just passing through" this earthly existence together.

These transient bodies of ours (56) are but temporary abodes for a sublime Spirit made manifest. We can 'rest' in them, for a time (line 2)...

...but, fundamentally, the 'house' of the body has been on fire since the day you were born, and with each passing day it becomes more urgent to find a way to escape its limitations (line 3)?

Everyone has this same problem, including ~ and perhaps especially ~ those who feel secure in their dwellings, families and friends?

The truth of the Yi is: The journey never ends ~ even for householders in a tiny village on the edge of the Burgundy hills ~ until we leave our villages and Return to our True Home in the pure Spirit on the far shore of attachment to form?

Your realization of this truth for yourself initiates a proto-language inner beacon of resonance...

...which wordlessly calls others out onto the road of Life with you...

...so that we might share this journey together.

You can make a huge difference!

Safe Travels!

3GraspingandDwelling.jpg
 

Chione

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Hi Wyndham,
no, I have no interpretation to offer to your reading. I just wanted to mention that I find it interesting that the IChing is kind of repeating the question. I have observed this also with my own questions and castings. I'm quite new to this and maybe my impression is false but sometimes I think that is all it really does: throw the question back at the person asking. In other words, it is just a tool that helps to reflect upon one's feelings and intuitions, to become aware of them, to put them into words. But it can't answer questions where we ourselves have no answer - not even deep inside.
What do you think?

Chione
 

Liselle

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My take is that you're exactly right about this:

Even if I stay here for another 15 years, I will still -- because of my nativity, age and retired status -- be "only passing through"


Also, I think line 2 is what to do, and line 3 is what not to do. (Quotes are from Hilary's translation.)

Line 2
'Traveller comes to a resting place,
Cherishes his own,
Gains a young helper.
Constancy.'

Thoughts about that...this can be a nice place for you to be retired. Cherish your own home and family, keep to yourself? Maybe others will accept you and help you as long as your relationships with them stay "young"? Not sure what that might mean exactly - maybe more casual and ad hoc rather than rooted and well-established, things like that?

Line 3
'Traveller burns down his resting place.
Loses his young helper.
Constancy: danger.'

If you try for more, you'll somehow ruin your nice retirement refuge, and lose the young helpers. Maybe people wouldn't cooperate with you? I'd imagine that when you're in a place where you don't know anyone and barely speak the language, if you somehow annoy people, they could make things quite difficult for you if they wanted.

64 is about preparation, things not being settled, and using "fox sense." Stay alert for tiny clues as to how things are going, and what works and what doesn't work. Adjust accordingly. Don't relax about things, be wary. Feelings of confidence might actually be over-confidence?
 

Wyndham

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Hi Wyndham,

"However limited, how can I become more creatively involved in the life of my little community?"
56.2.3 to 64 ~ Show them that we are all travelers "just passing through" this earthly existence together.

These transient bodies of ours (56) are but temporary abodes for a sublime Spirit made manifest. We can 'rest' in them, for a time (line 2)...

...but, fundamentally, the 'house' of the body has been on fire since the day you were born, and with each passing day it becomes more urgent to find a way to escape its limitations (line 3)?

Everyone has this same problem, including ~ and perhaps especially ~ those who feel secure in their dwellings, families and friends?

The truth of the Yi is: The journey never ends ~ even for householders in a tiny village on the edge of the Burgundy hills ~ until we leave our villages and Return to our True Home in the pure Spirit on the far shore of attachment to form?

Your realization of this truth for yourself initiates a proto-language inner beacon of resonance...

...which wordlessly calls others out onto the road of Life with you...

...so that we might share this journey together.

You can make a huge difference!

Safe Travels!

View attachment 2148
Thank you so much, radio, for this beautifully expressed reality check. I consider myself a relatively spiritual person, and yet how easy it is for me to let "the main thing" go so quickly out of focus! You are right, of course, to mention the unmistakable symbolism of the mountain (the body and the gravitational forces that make it so homey, sluggish and moribund) and the fire (the subtle and explosive energies that propel, exhaust and eventually destroy the traveling body and the homebody alike). Your reading of the lines has also helped me return to the essential nature of the problem fueling my question. You and, on a more practical level, Liselle have helped me to see myself in the figure on the left in the drawing you attached to your post. “What about me”, indeed?

The ego wants its piece of the pie, even if it’s Helpers’ Pie.

For what it’s worth, I know now thanks to Yi and you and Liselle what it is that precipitated my question to Yi in the first place. Being native Texan, I was shaken by the recent events in El Paso more than I usually am by the generic down-home mass murder I have sadly become somewhat used to. I speak their language, both their languages, I said to myself, arms flailing. Why am I sitting here, so far from my center of power, learning a language that I will never teach or otherwise apply to any common good?

That would have been the more accurate question to Yi, the question best representing my state of mind. But I don’t think the answer would necessarily have been different. I am here in the Burgundy hills – as True a Home as any. And besides, where else can I share a congenial and yet speechless beer in such a bloody-minded bistro with someone like my swashbuckling friend who looks like a Brutus lifted from a Popeye cartoon?
 

moss elk

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"How can I become more creatively involved in the life of my little community?"
Answer 56.2.3. > 64

Hi Wyndham,

I will suggest another way to look at this reading.
Look at it literally, and Assimilate your self somehow.

If as a wanderer (56), your goal is to find a permanent home,
And feeling as an outsider, it means you haven't completed the mission yet (64).

Have the two lines already occured for you in some way?
Did/do you briefly have a young ally in any way? (Line 2)
Did something go wrong with your interaction with them? (Line 3)
(That may have contributed to the 'closed off' feeling you get from the locals?)

The reason I ask is because when I last received 56.2,
It was literal:
I traveled 500 miles to go to a funeral, with little funds at the time,
But the family group there provided for my needs,
And I actually acquired a young helper (the mayors daughter, who just appeared, like a fairy granting blessings),
Who used her connections to help get funds to pay for my indigent uncles funeral costs.

I think it is good practice in general to first look for the literal things in the lines,
before thinking that it is a mysterious metaphor.
 
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