Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
brambletoad
visitor
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2011
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 0
Dear Seekers and Seers, I'm a several years' lurker here at Online Clarity, an American in New York City. I love the I Ching for its contemplative and sensitive answers, and I first want to thank you for sharing with us, your readers.
I am shortly about to begin my first hunger strike. I am more frightened by my laziness and lack of discipline than the hunger itself. What scares me is I might fail to adhere to the rules of not eating, become weak, and stop before the strike's peaceful goals have been accomplished. The strike is to increase awareness of an oppressed group in America, and hopefully gain civil rights and more career opportunities for them. I was born as a member of, and belong to, this subculture.
I did not ask the I Ching a yes or no question, but instead asked it to present a meditation on the journey ahead.
Casting the coins, I received 16.3.5 > 31.
LiSe's awesome oracle calls 16 "Hesitating", and that pretty much sums up my fears. The strike begins a month from now, and I'm a slightly pudgy person who dislikes being kept from even one meal. As 16.3 says, I am definitely "staring hesitantly" and "resenting delays". I feel like a beginning diver looking over the edge of the board over the vast swimming pool below, and I'm scared waiting for the January start date will whittle away my resolve and make me chicken out. I'm anxious to just jump in and start the strike now -- but more experienced hunger strikers have warned me striking requires a four-week preparation where you phase out foods slowly until you are finally down to water, vitamins and salt. They tell me jumping in, unprepared, will make it more likely I break down and give up early -- to give it time. But part of me doesn't trust myself. I want to plunge in straightaway.
16.5 is interesting. LiSe's translation shows it as "Persistence. Chronically ill, but does not die." To me this is a great example of how accurate the Yi is. I want to believe it's counseling me that I will show the correct amount of persistence, and that I will get thin and weak, but the strike's goals will be accomplished in time, because luckily, I will "not die". But what I do not understand here is 31: "Being Affected"?
Who is being affected here: me (as I was, by the plight of the minority I am striking to try to assist), or the powers that be, who can give them better rights?
I guess what I am asking then is if someone wiser than I can look over my shoulder and see to it I am reading Hexagram 16 and its lines correctly, without inserting what I'm most scared of or desire the most into it to color it -- and if anyone can identify which party is "affected" at the end. PS, the minority is a racial one: a group of women of one race, who often seem to get the short end of the stick in America, especially in career.
Thank you for any pointers and illumination. I have been enjoying this forum for more than four years now.
I am shortly about to begin my first hunger strike. I am more frightened by my laziness and lack of discipline than the hunger itself. What scares me is I might fail to adhere to the rules of not eating, become weak, and stop before the strike's peaceful goals have been accomplished. The strike is to increase awareness of an oppressed group in America, and hopefully gain civil rights and more career opportunities for them. I was born as a member of, and belong to, this subculture.
I did not ask the I Ching a yes or no question, but instead asked it to present a meditation on the journey ahead.
Casting the coins, I received 16.3.5 > 31.
LiSe's awesome oracle calls 16 "Hesitating", and that pretty much sums up my fears. The strike begins a month from now, and I'm a slightly pudgy person who dislikes being kept from even one meal. As 16.3 says, I am definitely "staring hesitantly" and "resenting delays". I feel like a beginning diver looking over the edge of the board over the vast swimming pool below, and I'm scared waiting for the January start date will whittle away my resolve and make me chicken out. I'm anxious to just jump in and start the strike now -- but more experienced hunger strikers have warned me striking requires a four-week preparation where you phase out foods slowly until you are finally down to water, vitamins and salt. They tell me jumping in, unprepared, will make it more likely I break down and give up early -- to give it time. But part of me doesn't trust myself. I want to plunge in straightaway.
16.5 is interesting. LiSe's translation shows it as "Persistence. Chronically ill, but does not die." To me this is a great example of how accurate the Yi is. I want to believe it's counseling me that I will show the correct amount of persistence, and that I will get thin and weak, but the strike's goals will be accomplished in time, because luckily, I will "not die". But what I do not understand here is 31: "Being Affected"?
Who is being affected here: me (as I was, by the plight of the minority I am striking to try to assist), or the powers that be, who can give them better rights?
I guess what I am asking then is if someone wiser than I can look over my shoulder and see to it I am reading Hexagram 16 and its lines correctly, without inserting what I'm most scared of or desire the most into it to color it -- and if anyone can identify which party is "affected" at the end. PS, the minority is a racial one: a group of women of one race, who often seem to get the short end of the stick in America, especially in career.
Thank you for any pointers and illumination. I have been enjoying this forum for more than four years now.