Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
Well, gotta go. If you know of any short versions of the I Ching you think are good, I’d love to hear about them. Any other time-saving tips appreciated.
dobro said:Ditto sex - foreplay's such a bore; quickies rule.
I wonder why I never noticed this before...
Glad you like my site.listener said:ewald, I love your site, (and love the energy exercises), and the instant, fingertip access to every hex. I have used it for a long time as a quick reference. BUt I dont throw the virtual coins...so it wasnt ME doing the hundred plus readings!
I'm just not a big fan of scholasticism.
sparhawk said:That certainly sounds like something I would say; coming from you, I don't know... It rings oxymoronic...
L
PS: I mean it as a compliment.
bruce_g said:Trojan,
I know what you mean. I like that trait though, to see both sides of something, each from a radical perspective. He often echoes my own sentiments, from the diametrically opposite side. He makes me think.
And me thinks Lindsay likes to tease, in a taunting way.
lindsay said:Look, I'm sorry if I seem a tad negative. Nobody specific is my target here. Certainly not Hilary, for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration, and whose hospitality makes it possible for me even to say my bit at all. Thank you, Hilary. But somehow it always comes down to words, words, words. Where do all these words come from? After a while you begin to suspect the Yi means everything and anything, depending on who's talking. It is hard to have confidence in one's own interpretations. Everything feels mushy and plastic.
Which would be OK if we did not turn to the Yi for resolving our doubts. Instead our practice is to multiply them. We ask for advice, but apparently the Yi uses the same words to imply conflicting notions to different people. We seek comfort, and only find uncertainty and contention. Each of us can say our interpretation is the correct one - but we don't go to the Yi only to find what we already think we know, do we? Isn't the Yi about something? Doen't it exist in its own right?
The problem with relying on the text alone (even with a little lip service to structural elements like trigrams or nuclear hexagrams) is there is no skeleton, no underlying ironwork on which to hang our interpretations. All we have are our individual opinions. Our Western practice resembles those inflatable buildings that only stand erect as long as we pump air into them.
The Chinese do not have this problem. To them, the Yi rests on the solid foundation of tradition, dogma, and commonly accepted theory. There is lively debate, and many schools of thought exist, but everybody is more or less on the same page. Even the nay-sayers are quite clear about what they object to. All this we choose to reject. Our Yi stands by itself, without the traditional framework that supports it in its home culture. Our Yi resembles having a racing yacht in the middle of the Sahara.
The world is in a state of flux, and none of this would matter very much if the traditional Yi did not possess great powers our version so obviously lacks. Our Yi is weak because we do not know how to use it. We never bothered to learn. Or at least this seems like a credible hypothesis based on years of observation, watching practitioners fumble around trying to make sense of it, hardly doing better ourselves.
One of the principle powers of the traditional Yi is prediction. This is a subject we are embarrassed even to talk about - but the Chinese have a long history of using the Yi to see into the future. For them, prediction is a science.
I estimate about 50% of my questions to the Yi are questions about the future. But my efforts at prediction are pathetic, being limited to text-based interpretation and elementary structural considerations. No Western authority is much help, because fundamentally most of them do not believe in the Yi's power to predict. These are the same people who make elaborate plans based on long-range weather forecasts or the advice of their stockbroker. If you believe the Yi is humbug from the start, you'll never learn anything.
How many times have people on this forum thrown up their hands in despair at being asked yes/no questions or questions about specific timing? Do you think the traditional Yi is that anemic? Well, it isn't. Why do you suppose theories based on the Yi defeated Western science in China until Western military power and technology made resistance futile? Some people equate technology with science, but that is a misconception.
Maybe you are happy with the way things are. Why should anything change? I have nothing to offer right now, except the increasing realization we may have missed something very big and powerful by putting all our eggs in the Zhouyi basket. The Chinese see that period as the birth only, not the maturity of the Yi. Why do we seek out the baby and shun the full-grown woman?
Lindsay
lindsay said:Thanks, Dobro, for your thoughtful reply. You are right: I am frustrated by the whole I Ching experience as characterized on this board. I've been arou nd here so long I don't know anything else. It's just not good enough. Maybe I'll come back when I find something better. Or maybe I'll take Luis's advice, and give the whole thing up.
Lindsay
lindsay said:I estimate about 50% of my questions to the Yi are questions about the future. But my efforts at prediction are pathetic, being limited to text-based interpretation and elementary structural considerations.
Lindsay
That's actually what I did to my first copy of Wilhelm, and with the same temperament as you describe, and I think for the same reason too. I wanted something concrete, not just nebulous, philosophical blathering. So I got religion. Then, 20 years later I wound up ripping that to shreds too.lindsay said:I am soo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o frustrated with the Yi right now I could rip off the front cover (riiiip!) and tear off the back cover (riiiiiip!) and start in on the hexagrams one by one (riiip, riiip, riiiiip) – there goes hex 23, hex 57, and the Dazhuan! I could kick it into a corner and jump up and down on it. Up, down, up, down, up. Ah, I feel better already!
What is the problem with prediction, anyway?
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).