36.3>24 What purpose has Japan in my life?

[minto]

What purpose has Japan in my life?, I asked.
I wonder... did I choose getting involved with the culture at a soul level? I thought that the attachment I had was over but now for various reasons I've started wondering if the relationship I have with Japan and its people will keep on as long as I live.

I have always liked Japan and it was a main part of my life until a few years ago. I always thought it
would be a main part of my life, until I stopped thinking so. I've never lost interest in it, and have always kept contact with friends and the culture. But recently, I have started becoming again more in contact with the culture due to a series of coincidences. I have always been intrigued by my attachment to Japan and as my life seems to bring it back to me again and again, thorugh people, events or anything else even when I don't search it. I love Japan and feel it to be my second home, and at the same time, I sometimes feel bad when I'm there because sometimes I feel like a black sheep because there're some aspects of Japanese culture which are tough to me to get used to.

36.3>24
36 speaks about keep trying dispite difficulties, I guess.
"here a man of dark nature is in a position of authority and brings harm to the wise and able man."
I don't know if Japan is the man of dark nature.

Line 3
"It seems as if chance were at work. While the strong, loyal man is striving
eagerly and in good faith to create order, he meets the ringleader of the
disorder, as if by accident, and seizes him. Thus victory is achieved. But in
abolishing abuses one must not be too hasty. This would turn out badly
because the abuses have been in existence so long."

I don't know what it's talking about: is the loyal man the part of me who loves Japan and the ringleader that part which doesn't adapt?

24 speaks about returning to one's path.

The guess I make is that Japan is my second home as I feel it and that the feelings of inadaptation I have been feeling are getting to its end? I cannot guess another meaning - I'm not very good at reading the iching. Also, this interpretation I make doesn't feel an answer to Japan's purpose in my life.

 

[ginnie]

I sometimes feel bad when I'm there because sometimes I feel like a black sheep because there're some aspects of Japanese culture which are tough to me to get used to.

I don't know what it's talking about: is the loyal man the part of me who loves Japan and the ringleader that part which doesn't adapt?

The loyal man is you and the ringleader are those Japanese people who make you feel like a black sheep. You think you are not well adapted to certain cultural features, but Yi thinks the Japanese culture does not appreciate you adequately. In other words, the fact that you feel like a black sheep means that you should honor your feelings and take off your rose-colored glasses when it comes to this culture; it's not perfect. No country has a perfect culture!

 

[minto]

Thank you ginnie

I'm curious about the answer the iching gave me, since it doesn't answer my question much, but my feelings about Japan. Any idea about why it turned out that way and how to get the answer to the question I asked?
Thank you!

 

[ginnie]

There is no telling how Yi will answer our questions, and very often we feel the slant of the answer is not the same as the question we asked. This is a common experience in dealing with the I Ching. The I Ching is telling us, I guess, what we most need to hear.

You received an interesting line, 36.3. Another meaning it has is "don't be a fanatic." In other words, don't let yourself get so carried away with love for the Japanese culture that you become blind to the ways that the culture is not perfect. It's wonderful to have a love affair with a country, but surely you see that there are many lessons in that for you.

 

[minto]

That makes sense. The thing is that I overcame that phase since many years ago, anyway. So I don't know why it'd tell me about it.

 

[ginnie]

That's a good question. Maybe the lessons in loving Japan will be ongoing . . . and there are more still to come.

 

[minto]

I think so!