Affect of questions, 48

[seeker]

I was reading something earlier today about developing a dialogue with Yi and how asking too many questions or the same question over and over can create a mirror affect. Basically, Yi stops talking to you and just starts reflecting back to you your own desires. In other words, you would just get answers that were what you wanted to hear.

I have been getting fairly positive answers lately, but I do ask a lot of questions and do tend to check on the progress. I have gotten a line a couple of times for which one translation is "stop checking on your progress". Concerned that I might be experiencing that mirror affect, I asked what is the affect on our dialogue of all the questions I ask and got 48 unchanging. Yi is most certainly a well that I draw from, so that seems like a good answer, but I would like some other opinions. Thanks

 

[calumet]

It's hard to say how often and what you should ask. Look at the answers, and evaluate the ways in which they are helping or hindering you. If you are getting a lot of positive responses, perhaps the Yi is cheering you up, giving you pep talks. 48 IS the well--come back when you need more.

But let's face it--you're anxious, and with good reason. So naturally you're going to fiddle compulsively with anything that seems to offer a sense of control or otherwise promises to soothe your anxieties. This will seem sacrilegious to some, but it's my belief that in talking to the Yi, you are in fact talking to yourself. When the Yi seems to be leading you in circles, or holding up a mirror, it's because you have an internal echo chamber going. That is a common side effect of anxiety--the mind chasing itself in ever-diminishing circles.

What else are you doing for yourself besides consulting the Yi? Take walks. Take your daughter for a walk. Run, bike, swim. Meditate. Take a yoga class. Learn to dance, and learn how to say, "That was fun, thanks, bye!" Don't rely solely on the Yi to reduce your anxiety. It is a valuable tool; don't let it become a crutch. Easy to say--hard to do. I know a little about anxiety, and what happens when several of them pile on you at once. There are many dents in the wallboard where I've banged my head these past few months.

How was the visit with your parents?

 

[dobro p]

"Concerned that I might be experiencing that mirror affect, I asked what is the affect on our dialogue of all the questions I ask and got 48 unchanging."

Really, really interesting. I'm assuming that the 'dialogue' you're referring to is that between you and the Yi. On the one hand, it looks promising - the Yi is the well that you draw on, which means the dialogue between you is drawing on the depth. But just to make sure, keep in mind the lines at the end of Hex 48 that talk about the need to be sure you go deep enough, otherwise it isn't a functioning well. I remember somebody here recently counselling somebody else wisely on the issue of asking too many questions. Whoever it was suggested asking fewer questions and spending more time with the responses they were getting and going more deeply into them.

 

[calumet]

Anon, what Dobro said. Slow down.

My opinion: The answers, or rather the interpretations, come from within you; so they are always "real," in the sense that they reflect your inner reality. Your casts will be more helpful if you allow yourself time to consider them and to absorb what they have to say about that inner reality.

Again, my opinion: The Yi is a collection of metaphors, with commentary relevant to each. Your cast randomly points to a metaphor and, most of the time, to one or more lines of commentary on the metaphor. The metaphors and commentaries are the accumulated wisdom of many generations of philosophers and people who understood what makes the world go 'round; so they are not to be taken lightly. These people knew what they were talking about.

Once you have your hex, your job is to contemplate the metaphor and commentary, and to imagine how these might apply to your question. It's something like understanding a poem. (I'm sorry if this reminds you of falling asleep in English class during "The Charge of the Light Brigade.") But really, your ability to interpret a cast relies on your frame of mind, and, to a large degree, on your ability to draw imaginative parallels between, let's say, the ideas about innocence expressed in hex 25, and a fight you're having with a coworker.