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Hex 18.3,5,6 -self-improvement question

el_2

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Dear e-friends

I hope you can help me with this.

I asked the Yi a question about personal improvement and specifically what the first thing I have to focus and work on is. The question was not related to any particular person but I guess what I had in mind were relationships with other people in general this month. I got 18.3,5,6 relating hexagram 29. I must say I expected something simpler.

So I asked a second question asking about what pattern in my behaviour eludes me that needs change and how I can go about changing it. I got 20.2,4 relating hexagram 6. Again, this had nothing to do with a specific person -it was a self-improvement question.

I'm not sure if at the time I posed the second question I meant it as a follow-up. But the second question was certainly prompted by the first answer given.

I think hex 18 is very positive in the sense that it urges me to act and bring about change and if I do this, the outcome will be favourable. It seems it suggests that I seriously consider the situation before I act. I can relate to what the judgement and the image seem to be saying. But the moving lines, I find puzzling.

Hex 20 also urges me to think things through first but I'm not sure I get all the meaning I'm supposed to get from this hexagram either.

So I will ask follow up questions but I need to understand the answers as fully as possible first and then go about acting on the hexagrams and asking more questions for guidance. Any help with the interpretations would be appreciated.

el_2
 

dobro p

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I asked the Yi a question about personal improvement and specifically what the first thing I have to focus and work on is. The question was not related to any particular person but I guess what I had in mind were relationships with other people in general this month. I got 18.3,5,6 relating hexagram 29. I must say I expected something simpler.

You couldn't have got anything simpler in answer to your question because Hex 18 *is* about self-improvement - it's about becoming aware of, shining the light of awareness on, long-standing issues that have been hiding in the dark parts of your mind and festering and creating negative effects. These issues are almost always un-dealt with stuff from one's upbringing, the way one was raised and conditioned and shaped by parents and society. Okay, so you asked what you have to focus and work on first. The Yi responded with the hexagram of focussing and working on issues (the most appropriate hexagram you could possibly have drawn), and there were three active lines in that draw. Now, if you look at those lines, you'll notice that two of them talk about dealing with and working on the issues that were shaped in you by the influence of your father. It's suggesting that you look at the problematic parts of your personality that you either copied from your father, or which arose in you as a reaction to the way he treated you. So, for example, if you're an angry person (I'm not suggesting you are; this is just an example by way of illustration), you might be that way because your dad was an angry person, and you modelled yourself on that behavior - lotsa kids learn their behaviors by copying their parents; or you might be an angry person because you're carrying a ton of unconscious resentment in you because of the way you were treated by your dad when you were a kid. So, what parts of your personality *are* the issues? Well, they're the parts that crop up day after day and cause you and the people around you unhappiness of some sort. Some of the most common are anger, irrational fear, arrogance, self-hate, tension and anxiety, self-pity. Keep your eyes open, cuz they're right in front of your nose a dozen times a day if you have the eyes to see them.

But what's interesting to me is that the Yi also gave you 18.6, which is the line that speaks of going beyond all that psychological stuff, and involving yourself in the higher concerns of the world of the spirit.

So, it seems to me that what the Yi's saying to you is that if you want to work on yourself, to combine a self-analysis and self-overhaul with involvement in some sort of spiritual practice.
 

steve

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I'm speechless ..that is what i would say
as JIm Morrisson would say Phantasmogorical

I saw that but could never explain it like that
aah Gandolf the the grey

Steve
 

el_2

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Thank you Dobro

I said I expected something much simpler because it was a question about the month of May but I guess I might have some deeper issues in mind.

I'm constantly on the edge and argue with people a lot but I'm not sure if that's what the hexagram is pointing to or if it is something else. I'll try to narrow it down by thinking of the right question to ask -I think.

el_2
 

ben_s

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I'll try to narrow it down by thinking of the right question to ask

While you're thinking, why not try out a question like: "What is the lifelong issue Dobro talked about, that I get to start working on this month?'

But you already have that with your second reading.
20 is contemplation, a view, the lighthouse, the lookout tower.
20.2 says in some way, your view is as narrow as looking through a keyhole. It says sometimes you judge how you feel about how you imagine things affect you emotionally. It says it's time to open the door and get the big picture, to see things from another person's point of view.
20.4 is "Contemplation of the light of the kingdom." This is the biggest possible point of view. How does a situation effect everybody who is touched by the issue?

6 says conflict happens, and the solution is to meet someone halfway.
How can you meet someone halfway if you're looking through the keyhole? How could you even know what "halfway" means unless you climb the lighthouse to see the whole kingdom?

Dobro said to consider these questions in terms of your father. Did he have a narrow view? Did you narrow your view to try to make him happy? Or did he show you how to have a wider view, and you need to live up to that example? How does the metaphor of the keyhole and the lighthouse relate to him, or to your relationship with him? These are the kinds of things the oracle says you should consider in your heart now. This is the most productive way for you to think things through.

I expected something much simpler
Many things are simpler than deep self-improvement. But few things are more important or more powerful to change your life.
 

el_2

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It's just that I now think that drawing a hexagram for the whole month in general and getting this answer (or these answers) is not very helpful because I don't know what aspect of my life I should be looking into. And I'm going to ask follow-up questions but I'm not sure what question or questions to ask.

Hexagram 18 advises to find the root cause, to get to the root of things. It's pretty deep and hard to get to the root of things. Then hex 20, I think it advises me to think long and hard about issues first and that's why I'm a bit wary of rushing to just pose another question without thinking about what the right question is. I'm not very experienced at using the oracle and only recently have I started to read the Yi almost every day. Still, I don't want to abuse the oracle, that is I don't want to disregard the answes I get.

Your interpretations have been helpful. If anyone could suggest what question to ask next so that I get a meaningful answer, it would be welcome.

I expected something simpler but, according to the wording of my question, the answer was spot-on.

el_2
 

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