A general introduction and warm greeting

[fa gong]

Hello to all

My name is Fa Gong (or Finn, to be less prosaic), and I am very pleased to have found this site, and this community. I hope to be able to contribute as much as I will undoubtedly learn.

I am a Chan (Zen) Buddhist priest, and true to my tradition, I am very interested in learning more about how Chinese Daoism and Confucianism have influenced Buddhism. Where better to continue my study than through the Yijing?

In a previous incarnation, (meaning - many years ago!), I used to work as a Tarot reader and so am familiar with the mantic arts in general, but the Yi is always such a wonderfully sublime, and very personal, teacher and guide so I do look forward to approaching it in a more systematic and comprehensive manner than I have in the past. I hope I don't take too long to catch up to the level of knowledge and expertise that members on this forum clearly have, and won't irritate anyone too much with my ignorance

I live in Melbourne, Australia, and work professionally as a counsellor and mediator/dispute resolution practitioner.

Until we talk further,

Amitofo!

Rev. Fa Gong Shakya, OHY

 

[heylise]

Welcome to this very diverse family, Fa Gong! Nice to meet you.

Things move here in high speed from downright silly up to great heights and down and up and so on, often with lots of upheaval. So I think we can learn a lot from you as well. A counsellor and mediator/dispute resolution practitioner, right here in Clarity

Looking forward to the exchange with a Chan Buddhist priest.

LiSe

 

[hilary]

It's really strange that Fa Gong has become a 'guest' again. I hope this was of his own volition and not by some exasperating database error. I'd better send an email to check...

 

[Sparhawk]

Maybe he knows a black hole when he sees one...

Beware, nobody escapes Clarity!!

 

[fa gong]

Black holes, ups and downs, exasperating database errors ... life just keeps following wherever I go ;-)

 

[mudpie]

Maybe he knows a black hole when he sees one...

Beware, nobody escapes Clarity!!

shhhh, dont scare him off

 

[hilary]

OK, so you're a 'guest', but can still post, even if it rudely insists your posts are n/a. Never seen it do this before. Deeply, deeply bizarre.

Anyway, I'm glad that LiSe's promise of a busman's holiday here didn't send you running for the hills

 

[hilary]

This is officially the weirdest thing I've ever seen it do. Amember, that runs the login, believes in you. Vbulletin, that runs the forum, has its own 'user search'. When I search for you there, it should either take me to a page with your details, or tell me it doesn't know who you are. Instead of doing either, it solemnly takes me to a completely empty details page. This person is a member of 'Friends', but has no email, password or name.

Maybe this is the system's response to Zen?

Update: fixed

 

[meng]

fa gong is as though he is not

I'm still working on that.

 

[fa gong]

fa gong is as though he is not

I'm still working on that.

Except, of course, for when I am. Not.

:bows:

 

[jilt]

There is nothingness, there is oneness. But when there is one and nothing, there also is to be two. One and two makes 3. A good counter easily makes 10000.
Can't remember if it was Chuang Tzu, Wittgenstein, Goedel, Fung Yu Lan or Chang Chung-Yuan. Please, have some compassion, don't break my arm, don't puch my nose to bring enlightment in my life.

Looking forward to your posts. Love to meet you. :bows:

I realize I never properly introduced myself on this forum. Thank you Fa Gong for reminding me of my rudeness. I will do that on a proper place.

 

[fa gong]

You are more than welcome, but I'm sure you haven't been rude.

And if this wasn't the proper place for an introduction, then I should apologise!

Amitofo!

Fa Gong

 

[jilt]

Dear Fa Gong,

it's an honour exploring divination with you.
First, as so many have done before, define the terms. Divinations means -globally- finding out the ways of the gods. Or, more mundaine, the act of predicting or foretelling events or discovering secrets by real or alleged supernatural means (app the concise english dictionary).
Accepting this definition also means you accept a dichotomy, a divide of the world in something divine and something mundaine. This dichotomy can resonate with the very near opposition sacred and profane, but just think of unclean spirits, and you have something not resonating with sacred/devine.
By the way, sacred means something like "set apart". No more and no less. It is a conceptual action, sometimes also covered in deeds, like in ritual or making altars. Sometimes the divide in your minds/hearts can be so harsh, that you can speak of a neurosis. As you see, the making of words, concepts, language has everything to do with hex 38 (some say also 27, which is not untrue).
Perhaps it is also wise to say something about religion. Religion comes from the the latin root "religere". That means to connect, to tie together. Religions connects concepts, things we identify with. When it divides it is not religion.

I have been living with the yi now for some 30 years. It was curiosity that made me open it, then came an amazement. Perhaps (then) what inspired me most was my ambition. Somewhere I had read the the Chinese mandarins were some kind of super sociologists and psychologists. I also wanted to be something like that.
I come from the lower strata in society. Exploring all those wonderful thoughts, religions, analysis, synthesis, was done with people and books coming mostly from other strata in society. They were like gods to me in the beginning (then I would never have said that of course). Some say social travel is more difficult then physical travel.
Gradually some amazement changed in understanding. I coined the yi a lot, so to say. By studying, comparing, observing, looking in me, trying to predict, something grew. You could say that divination was walking the way of knowledge, also in a social-psychological sense.

Going a step further:
Hope is the projection of desire in time, fear is the projection of averse in time (time can be past and future). When hope and averse fall away -and the machinery that tries to bring about the hoped for and tries to avoid the feared for - there is no self-willing anymore, no false centring. You could say one is freely incarnated in space and time.
You could say the no no nothingness is about here. But nothing is no nothing. It is only beyond and before conceptualisation and our identification with conceps. The Dao from Lao Tze or chan. It does exist, is all pervading and very real. There would be nothing without it/te.

So later, after learning the language of the (social) gods, It became much more interesting not to divine, but to understand, or comprehend, or to explain.

It is difficult to say something to a chanmaster, because before you know there is no knowing although you know. You always run into a conceptual trap.
What I want to say is that divination lives because we have concepts. Pointing all the time beyond or before concept is pointless, you are always right.
I think it was a chan master that said about enlightenment: before enlightenment trees, mountains and water were trees mountains and water, and after enlightenment trees, mountains and water are trees mountains and water.
Enlightenment is part of a process, not a steady state. So is divination, it even can lead to enlighentment, as can enlightenment lead to divination.
:bows: