Blog post: Feel free to ignore anything the I Ching says

[hilary]

I hope I win some kind of prize for provocative titles? Good… but there is a point to this.
I always have my ears open to pick up insights and ideas from outside ‘Yijingland’ that will make for better Yijing divination. (I have* something coming up called Into the Flow of Change that’s a resource kit of those insights, ideas and methods – I’ll keep you posted…) Hence I listened quite carefully to a recording of Tim Kelley talking about relationship to ‘trusted source’. What he’s talking about here is not quite divination, but close enough to be interesting.
(By the way – the original recording about ‘trusted source’ can be accessed from here – it’s one of the early calls from the year 1 archives.)
Here’s the idea:
“The key thing that causes people trouble in connecting with a trusted source is the belief that they have to do what it says.”
He explains – if I approach you and say, ‘I have some advice you could maybe use – would you like to hear it?’ you’re quite likely to respond, ‘Yes, why not?’
But if I say, ‘I have an order you must follow as soon as you hear it – would you like to hear it?’ you would probably politely decline.
And hence the fastest way to ‘upgrade’ your connection is “to be willing to ignore anything it says.”
Well… for ‘trusted source’ read ‘oracle’ – and then, whether or not this is the key thing, don’t you think he has a point?
It’s not unusual to avoid consulting the Yi out of fear of hearing an unwelcome answer. Sometimes we know we’re doing this, other times not so much: we may ‘forget’ the oracle for a while, or consult very industriously about something entirely unrelated, and wonder why the answers seem oddly disconnected. But even when we do ask what needs asking, this fear of being compelled into something we don’t want can sabotage the ability to listen.
It’s a good start, I think, to try to become aware of what you don’t want to hear – even to note down before you cast what the oracle is just not allowed to say. But for a more global freedom to ask your true question and pay real, untrammelled attention to the answer, you could give yourself permission to ignore anything Yi says.
Thoughts?

 

[sooo]

Thoughts?

Yes. I think the timing of posts is funny.

I know how temping it is to ask should I do this or go there, but we can whirl ourselves into a ball of confusion if we have the idea that we should or shouldn't do something, and more or less ask the Yi for our marching orders.

 

[sooo]

Besides, if we've passed the point of foolery, we'd be trying to interpret chaotic and meaningless answers, and not even know it.

 

[yxeli]

Thanks for this Hilary,

I think its vitally important to keep the concept of change as being, like someone here described, 'the wisest and most benevolent old grand aunt you ever had', and that free will entirely remains intact. There's a very fine line, which I think I have crossed on many occasions, of entrusting my fate to yi, of letting yi decide for me. I often wonder if this is because I feel powerless to define my own stance to a situation, or so estranged from my own 'inner truth', hex 61 if you will, that I rely totally on Yi's input. and although I definitely believe that the Yi really does have my best interest at heart, I try very much now to define how im feeling about a situation before I cast.

The way I've been doing it is, I word a question to the yi, and then beside the question i try to define my stance to the subject in one sentence. This i've found really keeps my own angle to the situation very succint, and it also has proven to really inform Yi's response, or how I comprehend Yi's response. Since I've been doing this, I feel that Yi is more often then not showing me what i have been internally desirous of, of what movie my ego has been playing to my rapt attention, and of yi gently showcasing my petty indulgences. And more often then not, these responses are something that I already internally knew to be true, but I was asking Yi to confirm them for me. SO in a strange, roundabout way, instead of feeling like I have lost my hex 61 and so need yi to advise me,the yi mirrors my own hex 61 back at me, which puts all my little queries firmly back in my hands, and so my free will remains completely intact.

 

[rosada]

Just now reading this and feeling it connects with the reading I got when I asked, "Is the I Ching ever wrong?" I received 17.1.4.5 - 2. Following changing to Receptive. Briefly the lines said to me:

17.1 Everything changes. It's okay to seek guidance from a variety of sources.
17.4 Don't follow another's advice just because it comes from some so called authority.
17.5 Use the I Ching as an aid for strengthening your own inner knowingness/authority.

2. You may not have enough experience - enough breadth of character - to fully understand the I Ching's advice.

 

[svenrus]

Feel free to follow the advice or not.
- Depends on two things:
The trust one have in I Ching and the situation one finds oneself in when receiving the advice.
The trust in I Ching is to me a strange thing; Often I hardly understand it's advice and to have faith in something hardly understandable ?
But, two, when finding myself in serious trouble the advices - in some mystic way - seems clearer to me and also feels stupid to avoid.
So, avoid following the advice from I Ching in cases of strong need for it's advice would seem meaningless finding oneself in that particular situation.
In some way I Ching ain't an authority in the sense of a strong master blindly to follow. It's somehow more like a secret companion whose advice only I understand - like as it only speeks to me and nobody else.
This written with a feeling that maybe I misunderstood the opening of this thread......

 

[chingching]

I've been thinking about a couple of things lately

1, yijing seems to get wiser the wiser I get ...
2, When going to trusted sources of all sorts I've been having to conciously stop myself from jabbering on about all I know with a covert agenda to show the wiser person just how wise and advanced I am, learning more deeply that if you are going to ask someone trusted for advice, listen

And in reading your post you perfectly articulated the other side of that coin. And i do agree that when approaching oracles with the option to ignore it does lead to more open mindedness and willingness to consider a course of action different to the one you have in mind. If youre consulting in any kind of heightened emotional state your ability to grasp the reading is narrowed.

I used to love choose your own adventure books and in them there was always more than one path that lead all the way to the end, you could get there several ways. And going a different way to what a yi reading suggests just renders the next reading in line with the new course of action you have set off.