How to introduce people to the I Ching? 20.1 - 42

[rosada]

How does anybody get connected with this book??! Have you ever tried to tell someone about it? It's ridiculous! :

"You can't find your car keys? Let me help you with that! Toss these coins… Oooh, you got fire over the lake. That means a person can get along with their sister a little bit but not a whole lot. So to answer your question about where are your lost car keys, well, your sister probably doesn't know either…"

I asked the I Ching about introducing the book and received 20.1 - 42 which says to me that some people won't be interested at all but that those of a more developed nature will.

I figured as much but I'm also curious to know individual stories. How did you become an I Ching devotee?

rosada

 

[sooo]

I've mentioned it to the owner friend of this property a few times, He's a skeptical and fairly knowledgeable Christian, and kind of chuckles at the idea of an oracle. A couple days ago he was looking for a small package he bought from the hardware store, a switch to a ceiling fan/light. The light switch had gone on it. I offered to get a clue where it is from the Yi, and he looked at me a bit skeptically. I just smiled back and went inside to see what Yi would answer. The relating was 30 - fire/light, the primary was 21 - a switch cuts through or breaks the energy circuit; the line was 3 - biting into something tough or decayed, some embarrassment, no blame. The Yi played back the situation but didn't seem to point to any specific spot. I went back outside and shared the reading. He's actually the one who made the connection to 21 as a switch or circuit breaker, so he was now getting it. I suggested it probably is in an obvious place where he had already looked, and that would be a little embarrassing, but that from Yi's indication, he would find it if he persisted. A few minutes later he was digging around in the cab of his truck, where he'd looked before, and lo... there it was. He's a very independent guy, but he's also smart. I've no doubt he gained more respect for the Yi.

A friend and neighbor of his was interested in the Yi and was open to having a reading, but when we came inside, he had no question to ask of it. I said, well, we can always do one anyway just to see, but if you don't know what to ask, you'll probably just get 4. So I had him click the virtual coins six times, and his answer was 4. lol.. I then said that I don't think the Yi is for him anyway, which was my impression. He wasn't a seeker, he was a heck of a story teller though, as I listened to him talk about his past achievements for an hour.

I think the Yi finds those for whom it's meant. You can lead a youth to water but you can't make him think.

 

[Tohpol]

I think the Yi finds those for whom it's meant. You can lead a youth to water but you can't make him think.

I agree. Most people roll their eyes because - like so many things - they have a pre-conceived idea as to what the Book of Changes is about. Very often though, once you explain the richness behind the book both in terms of academic research and the magical applications of this book as an oracle, many folks are intrigued, but not to the extent of really discovering its mysteries, which is fine too.

I'm still stunned at what a wonderful source of guidance this system really is. The more you build a relationship with it the more you get back.

As to introducing the I Ching to others, I think it has to be done on a case by case basis. You just know when it fits.

 

[ginnie]

Some time ago I was seeing the number 27 everywhere: on license plates, on television, on the digital clock, and so forth. Having learned previously how to ask questions of the I Ching, I asked "What is the meaning of all these 27s?" Lo and behold I got hexagram 27 -- and I was fascinated and hooked.

I haven't had much luck introducing others to the I Ching. One woman said it works for me but doesn't work for her, but I suspect she is just not all that interested . . . Sometimes I help my husband ask a question, though, and it is good that we share a belief in the I Ching.

 

[moss elk]

I had known of the i ching for about twenty years, an old roomate had a copy. He told me about it and at the time i wasnt interested in learning more or getting a reading then. I never gave it a second thought.

Twenty years later i found myself alone in a very difficult situation and in dire need of good counsel.
I ran across some website with a virtual coin toss, thought, "well i haven't been able to figure out this problem, time to try something different."

I asked what i was doing wrong. I received 8 - 3
I was stunned by the answer. I quickly got myself away from the person. Problem solved.
Ive been a student since then.

As far as telling other people about it, there are some people i would never mention it to.
They just wouldn't understand. I only brought it up to one person at a party. He is a very intelligent and open minded person, a teacher and linguist by profession. He was immediately fascinated.
We spoke for several hours about it and he wanted to try a reading. His answer was 37-4. He told me the question after "what should i focus on now in terms of my career?"
He was stunned by the answer. I asked him what he thought it meant in regards to his career.
He looked and me very serious and said, "No, this isnt about my career."
He then proceeded to tell me he was seperated from his wife and children and that his estranged wife was the jewel of the family. He said he knew what he needed to work on.

 

[bradford]

I like your take on that - those who have ears will hear, those that don't won't.
Because of that I wouldn't introduce it gently, as with a watered down beginner's book.
Show them all the insight you can. If it's relevant they will get it and add it to their interests.

 

[sooo]

How did you become an I Ching devotee?

My best friend and I were heavy seekers in the 60's. I think who is the source of nourishment matters a great deal in some cases. In my case, I respect this guy a great deal, so when he flew through the door after a weekend in Vermont with friends, and met one of their cousins who turned him on to Wilhelm, and was blown away but the few readings he received, my friend, who was a reader of philosophy at the time, couldn't wait to share it with me. I didn't judge it one way or another, I just listened with interest. He asked if I'd like a reading and of course I said yes. I was gobsmacked at how precise my answer was. I was hooked from the first reading, and obtained a copy of the WB the next day. This was around 1966-67. I think my first reading was 11 with lines.

20.1 has a couple of different interpretations or ways of viewing it. Boy-like contemplation can infer shallow and immature, or it can be interpreted as guileless and without presumption. I've seen it apply both ways at different times. Not every boy is the same, but every beginner is a boy or girl to the Yi. That 42 is related to line 1 indicates that a young noble will not remain a boy for long, while a boy who isn't ready will remain a boy in the matters of the Yi. That could change down the road, when the need is there along with greater receptivity, as Moss has expressed.

 

[Liselle]

I saw mention of I Ching in passing while looking up information on the Internet about either astrology or tarot (which are more famous, so I got started with them first). The I Ching was mentioned as another divination method, which I had never heard of, so I think I Googled it and found a free reading website (might have been here, but I don't remember), started reading about it, etc.

Before reading this thread, I would have said I'd never even try explaining it to someone else. They'd think I was cuckoo; if we tried a reading it would be one that we wouldn't understand; I'm not good at explaining things like this; it just seems fraught with peril in several ways.

However, clearly sometimes it works out really well, like in Sooo's and Moss Elk's stories. So maybe never say never.

 

[anemos]

I first learned about Yi in a article of Cosmopolitan or a magazine of such depth but didn't resonate to me. Going through something difficult and reading at the same time a book where a psychologist incorporated Yi reading to his approach while I couldn't see how he found meanings in those commentaries something click. I felt an urge to Google "I ching" and found this forum.

I like the 20.1 > 42 reading. there is that flow of 42 that starts when one can see under the surface. The increase from below sounds so apt for this question , like the Yi becomes "alive" when we can go deeper. This is how it was for me when the meaningless lines started to become meaningful.

I don't talk a lot for Yi in my RT and to some I have talk I have see suspicion and "that' look. The story I use what Yi is was a story "appeared" to me while in a writing class where I needed/wanted to write about my experience. This story was to "introduce" to the readers what Yi was - imo -using my poetic license After many years, I stick to that story.

magic box

There was a man thousands years ago that loved to hear stories. He traveled a lot around the world and met thousands of people. To every man, woman or child he met he did the same question. “Tell me a story from your life” People talked to him and he wrote their stories.

After some year doing the same thing he noticed that some stories where similar. Then he started to categorize them and created 64 different categories. From that day, every night was putting the stories he wrote during the day in the 64 different small bags he had made. During wintertime when traveling wasn't easy he opened each of the 64 bags and reread the stories. He noticed that in each bag, there where 6 differed kind of stories. He kept traveling, he kept asking but he was writing down less new stories. As the years were passing he was writing less and less. The stories he was hearing was already known to him. Till the time came where for almost two year he didn’t find a new story. Everything he heard was already written. It was the time to stop traveling.

The winter was almost there so he found a place to stay, make a wooden box and put his stories in the box. One night he saw a dream. He heard a knock at his door. He opened it and he saw a crowd of people entering into his house. We want the wooden box they told him. No its mine he replied. But the people start searching in the house to find the box. It belongs to us they keep telling him. He woke up . The dream was so vivid in his mind but he couldn't understand the message. The dream keep coming night after night until one day, pondering on the dream and holding the box , he thought. Maybe gods don’t wanted from me to collect the stories but to spread them and those people coming in my dream and looking for the box try to tell me that.

When the spring came, he took the box and a bag and start traveling again. This time he didn't ask people. People where asking him. “what do you keep in that box?” “stories” he replied. “can I read one ?” some people were asking. Of course the man was saying and opening the box. They were picking a story and start reading. From their face expressions and the tone of their voice the man noticed that something was happening. The people reading the story at the and were telling him. This is exactly what is going on in my life now.

The man at the beginning thought it might be a coincidence but after a long time the same thing happening again and again realized that this was not just a coincidence but something else that he couldn’t explain. Some of the people who read the stories visited again the man. There were people told him that the story they read help them to solve their problem and some others told him that they wish to pay more attention to the story they read because it turn to be the solution of their problem but they realized when it was too late.

“You are a wise man” one day someone told to the man with the box. No I’m not, he replied. I don’t do anything, the box does. The box and you.

There are many stories about what happened to the man and the box. Some stories say that when he was near to the end of his life he gave it to a young man and told him “remember, it doesn't belong to you but to all the people” Some other stories say that he met some people that he trust him and let them make a copy of the stories saying them the same thing. “Never forget that you are just the carrier of this box. It’s the box and the people who search for it that make the magic. Don’t force the people to use it. Those who need it they will come and find you”

This is the story of the magic box.

( sorry for the various mistake :bag:- too much to correct )

 

[sooo]

One day a woman came to this place. She'd cast some readings and wasn't sure how to interpret them, so she asked what they meant. Someone said, first you think on the symbols and come up with the meanings that you see. She asked, I need a teacher, will you teach me, do you offer lessons? The man said, first see what you make of it, and then that will become your teacher. Now she understands when someone asks her, what does this mean?