Am I ready for I Ching?

[hnnf93]

Hi, I've been using I Ching for some months (so I am quite a newbie) and I Ching answers sometimes really distress me. For example, I would ask: "Are (insert name) and I meant to be in a serious relationship?" And the answer would be a clear no or "Am I going to achieve my dreams?" and the answer would be no again. It gives me a sense of hopelesness and I hesitate to do what I would have done if I hadn't know the answer or to plainly give up. I also ask myself if the I Ching is testing me in order to know how willing I am to achieve my dreams (or whatever I asked for) or if it is trying to carry me to my destiny (even if it is a destiny I do not like). Does this mean that I am not ready to use I ching, not wise enough and I should stop using it? Does anyone ever feel the same? ANy thoughts on that?Thank you in advance,H.

 

[Trojina]

Hi, I've been using I Ching for some months (so I am quite a newbie) and I Ching answers sometimes really distress me. For example, I would ask: "Are (insert name) and I meant to be in a serious relationship?" And the answer would be a clear no or "Am I going to achieve my dreams?" and the answer would be no again. It gives me a sense of hopelesness and I hesitate to do what I would have done if I hadn't know the answer or to plainly give up. I also ask myself if the I Ching is testing me in order to know how willing I am to achieve my dreams (or whatever I asked for) or if it is trying to carry me to my destiny (even if it is a destiny I do not like). Does this mean that I am not ready to use I ching, not wise enough and I should stop using it? Does anyone ever feel the same? ANy thoughts on that?Thank you in advance,H.

I wonder if the problem is that you are using some book where you read the commentary, what the author feels the Yi is saying, and totally believe that one take on it ? I say this because a clear 'no' to 'am I going to achieve my dreams' possibly isn't a 'clear no' at all.

As a practical suggestion I advise you take your questions with their answers and post them in shared readings to see what others make of them. For a start what you actually do has a lot to do with whether you achieve your dreams. Nowhere is it written in stone that you will not. Well who knows maybe the angels in heaven know, maybe God knows but right now you must simply live your life in accordance with the goals you want to achieve whilst being aware life may have detours and delays, unexpected opportunities and holdups. The I Ching is like a map book helping you to see where you are and what is just ahead. A map book, well a talking map book, a sat nav say wouldn't just advise you 'you will never reach your destination' it might say 'there's a mountain in the way perhaps you might like to go around it and try something different'.

Of course there are times it's clear a direction is of no use but in your case, from what you say, I think perhaps you are seeing your answers as very black/white and perhaps approaching the Oracle less as a guide and more as the mouthpiece of some god who decides what will and won't happen. But it isn't like that.


Your questions that you have quoted carry a very fatalistic attitude. You are simply asking if something will happen without taking account of the intervening steps that would need to happen before these things are possible. For example there is no use asking if you will ever have a relationship with someone if you have not yet approached them and made them aware you would like a relationship. Before deciding whether your dreams are likely to be realised or not you need to see if you can realistically take the steps to get there. Of course lots of things do happen all by themselves and no doubt we do have a destiny that may make some occurrences more likely, that's one side of life but the other side relies on what we do to make things happen or not.

You must never come away from any I Ching reading in distress or feeling hopeless. Answers will always be for your guidance, support and clarity however you perceive them.

Of course the I Ching is not 'testing' you. I find that quite an odd thought. As a newbie I doubt the I Ching will be pulling all sorts of tricks to trip you up (that comes later ) and of course as an oracle which always guides, supports and illuminates game playing isn't really part of that. I wonder if answers you perceive as 'no' are of the illuminating kind that show you what is happening, here and now ?

Anyway yes I think you could go on consulting the I Ching but perhaps use better resources for interpretation such as this website for example.

I really don't think you should come away from casting a reading with hopelessness so perhaps next time this happens share the reading with others in the Shared Readings section to see what they think.

 

[mulberry]

It's hard to improve on Trojina's advice, but I'd just reiterate that asking questions like "Are (insert name) and I meant to be in a serious relationship?" is likely going to keep you in a muddle and often make you feel quite bad.

A better question structure would be something like:

"Can you give me a picture of my relationship with [X]?"
"Do you have any advice about my situation with [X]?"
"What's the outcome if I approach [X]?"

These are going to yield easier-to-interpret castings.

Also, I don't think the I Ching is equipped to answer a question like: "Am I going to achieve my dreams?" That's far too broad and the I Ching is actually a very detailed and particular oracle most of the time; it doesn't answer yes or no so much as offer a dialogue in response to your questions. Hence it helps to be very specific in your questioning.

That question, recast, could be something like:

"How can I achieve [add in your specific dream]"
"If I do [a specific thing to help in this dream path], what can I expect the outcome to be?"
"Do you have any advice about successfully doing [something specific that you have in mind]"
"Can you give me a picture of my path if I do [such and such]"

Also, I definitely agree with Trojina that you might be using a dodgy "translation." Hilary's translation (she runs this site) is wonderful. But if nothing else, try getting back to the basics with Wilhelm, the classic translation. If you google "hexagram 17 wilhelm" or so on, you will find pages with the direct text. I also recommend LiSe, her translation is on her website is often very apt.

If it's an unchanging hexagram, I recommend looking for the "Your Experiences with Unchanging Hexagrams" threads here on Clarity (thanks, Trojina!), and also reading the Image in the hexagram.

 

[mulberry]

Also, just to add in, the I Ching can answer yes or no, but not, in my experience, until you have been using it regularly for many years. Example: I was introduced to the I Ching as a young child (my mother guided me through my first cast when I was 6), took it up seriously and independently at age 18 at which point I began using it nearly daily, and yet I only began to be able to cast and understand yes/no questions after a decade, when I was in my late 20s. And I still avoid them for the potential ambiguity.

 

[Trojina]

it doesn't answer yes or no so much as offer a dialogue in response to your questions.

Yes. It isn't that an answer can never amount to a yes or a no in interpretation, sometimes answers can, especially when you are more used to the way the way you and the oracle interact so to speak. But I think the concept of a dialogue is an important one.

hnnf93 (you will get an easier username won't you) I did get the sense just from your brief post that you saw the I Ching as something distant, judgmental, very separate from you, something that will simply pronounce what can and cannot happen but as Mulberry highlights it is a dialogue, there is a relationship that develops between you and the oracle, it's personal. You asked

Does this mean that I am not ready to use I ching, not wise enough and I should stop using it?

There is no entry qualifications needed to use the I Ching. Sincerity helps and it sounds like you have that. But you should never come away from a casting frightened or hopeless. If you often do then I might advise you, as I have other people, that you would be better off without consulting the I Ching since being frightened and hopeless because of what something in a book you don't understand says is just not helpful at all in your life.

So I do not think you need to be wiser to consult, after all the point of using the book is to gain wisdom but sometimes I think it can be better to leave it alone for a while if you find you become scared or upset by the answers. You have to remember the language and images used in Yi can be extreme...I mean we find people with their noses cut off and great defeats and so on. But you have to remember to scale the answer to the size of the question.

Again I'd urge you to go and share your answers with others to see what they think.