Question; reading .47. ' what's my purpose?'

[Roma77]

Hello community So, I finally got the courage up to ask a 'big' question - one of those suggested in Hilary's book in fact and I got no 47 with no changing lines!I don't feel good about that. It seems bleak, depressing in fact. So - behind me asking this question is the fact that I'm at a crossroads, a transition. I recently lost my job as a teacher and was, anyway, thinking of making a change. I feel pulled at times to re-train (I'm 45 though)- 3 years to become an Educational Psychologist- status, money. But in some ways these seem like false goals to me. I have also 'always' wanted to be a writer.I put speech marks because although I say this I rarely commit to it in action. I do love writing, and feel at home when I can/do give time to it. It recently occurred to me I could do a creative writing degree- would give me deadlines and community but I feel pride around this. Along the lines of : you/one doesn't need to study writing, it's innate. Maybe there's fear there too. As I read Hilary's interpretation of 47 I felt some dread - is this my purpose, I thought, to be continually striving and not reaching!!? The words 'profoundly shaken and betrayed by the way things have failed to work out as they should' REALLY rang true for me. I can become very driven and experience surges of optimism embarking on something new (eg I started a social enterprise teaching mindfulness to teenagers), I can be very bold and put a lot of work in and achieve a certain amount but then...well it doesn't wotk out. Confinement' did make me think of writing. So solitary. Going within. Perhaps I'm petrified of not getting anywhere - no outward success. I balked at the sentence 'do not place too much importance on words' as I think, in a way, I wanted the reading to tell me that my purpose is writing. Any help would be so gratefully received...x

 

[rosada]

Maybe your purpose is to serve as a warning to others. Ha! I don't think so. But maybe this hexagram is commenting on your current circumstance and why you are feeling sort of rudderless just now. You say you recently "lost" your job which suggests you were fired or laid off or something, but that you didn't quit. So I think that explains the bit about "words having no effect" - your efforts were unappreciated. So that right there can leave a person confused and unsure what direction to take next.

The Image in each hexagram tends to describe the lesson to being learned or what one needs to do to navigate the current situation successfully. 47's Image says "The superior man stakes his life on following his will" so this could be encouragement for you to pursue your writing career or even the three year training program or whatever else appeals to you even if you aren't getting any appreciation from the outside world.

It can be helpful to look at the lines even when you get an unchanging hexagram. Here they seem to describe how one gets dragged down by the feeling of Oppression and what one should do to rise up out of it.

47.1 The worst sort of Oppression is when one is being passive aggressive, that is, sulking and refusing to even try to rise up. Interesting the line says the person could spend three years in this grumpy state if they don't do something to pull out of it. I think how you mention getting the credentials for being an educational psychologist would take three years. I would take this line to mean don't let that deter you if you feel you'd like to do this sort of work. three years will pass one way or the other!

47.2 The next line is for when your worldly situation isn't all that bad, it's just that you are totally uninspired by it all. It's an inner Oppression. Oppression can also mean Exhaustion and certainly when we don't have an instinctive feeling for our work it's becomes very tiring. The suggested solution to this inner disconnect is to join with others and let the group energy lift you up. (47.2 - 45) Perhaps the writing class?

47.3 Here the person reveals his inner lack of purpose by creating problems and blaming others but since the fault is really coming from within even his wife (his inner knowingness) can't help him until he realizes it's all his own damn fault (insert a few bars of "Wasting Away in Margaritaville" here)

47.4 So you finally face up to the fact that you've got to do something and as a matter of fact you do have a few ideas you'd like to try decide to get a job but it's not so easy to get a job where the employers goals are the same as your own.. You probably experienced this working as a teacher where doing what you know is right for the kid is often prohibited by the rules of the job. (like you aren't allowed to tell them Columbus was a jerk.)

47.5 Here a person finally decides, "What the hell, I see something that needs to be done and I'm going to do it. Even if no one else sings along!"

47.6 You may feel Oppressed but don't let that control you. What ever you choose to do - begin it!

 

[rosada]

So anyway, if one were to try to see a job description here I suggest its something along the lines of actually being an Oppressor (get a job teaching something really boring) or become a motivational speaker inspiring others by telling how you pulled yourself out of Oppression.
Good Luck!
(sorry for the typos - somehow the edit button doesn't work for me)

 

[Roma77]

Thank you so much Rosada for your reply.You're right - I didn't quit, I was unfairly dismissed (just won the appeal.) I was planning to leave soon though - so I have seen it, most of the time, as a good boot up the backside. What you write about the lines is helpful. I do feel the hexagram relates well - clearly, I mean- to my current situation; I think Hilary writes that sometimes it's like that - about something more pertinent than the chosen question. Probably my hopeful thinking too - don't see myself having the purpose of oppressing others- ha!

 

[rosada]

Giving this some more thought..
The image for the hexagram is of water beneath a lake, a sort of spiritual draining of the swamp. This suggests to me that the I Ching is saying you are at the part of the cycle where one is needing to detox from your last major cycle, job, and to take a moment to really complete and let go of the old experience. Maybe do a fast and get a massage? Then as a result of this soul cleansing you'll be able to easily recognize your next opportunity and true purpose!!!

 

[Trojina]

Hello community So, I finally got the courage up to ask a 'big' question - one of those suggested in Hilary's book in fact and I got no 47 with no changing lines!I don't feel good about that. It seems bleak, depressing in fact.

The very question, 'what is my purpose' is a false one. It is based on a false notion there is this particular purpose you have to find - it's not like that. You were born, you are a natural element of the universe, you do not need to justify your existence with a specific purpose, indeed you oppress yourself with this false idea. It's not a big question it's a false one. I don't recall any such question encouraged in Hilary's book ?

Anyway if you go here, click here you can see by clicking here, there's a whole thread on people's experiences with 47uc which may give you some thoughts.

It's not that I think a person's life is meaningless but that purposes may be very many, different layers, some emotional, some spiritual some practical etc etc. What I hate about this purpose question (in general not yours in particular) is it's really 'job' based with all that nonsense about one's perfect vocation. Actually not so many people find any such thing. Life happens, it's not linear it is manifold. Don't hem yourself in (47uc)

If you get an unchanging hexagram you don't need to read the lines as you didn't cast them. If you were meant to read them you would have cast them.

As I read Hilary's interpretation of 47 I felt some dread - is this my purpose, I thought, to be continually striving and not reaching!!? The words 'profoundly shaken and betrayed by the way things have failed to work out as they should' REALLY rang true for me.

I don't think Hilary would have intended it to be interpreted this way ? maybe we can ask her since it's her book you are working with @hilary; Of course your purpose is not to be striving not reaching, how could that be a purpose.

I think the 47 is about boxing yourself in with ideas of one lifetime purpose. Remember you aren't a tool, you are a person.

 

[moss elk]

When one is exhausted, worn out, been run through the woodchipper, experienced some failures, they may ask questions like, "what's the point?" "what's the meaning?"

For me, 47 unchanging has always come up in situations that just simply suck, and that you have to just go through. Focusing on, lashing yourself to a high(or higher) purpose is the way to get through it.

Our purposes are the ones we embrace.

 

[Liselle]

I wonder if it would help if you asked Yi directly for career advice? You could ask about the alternatives you mentioned, or, probably better, you could ask a general question, see what Yi has to say, and go from there. But don't shy away from the elephant in the room, I guess is what I'm saying. You're in a job/career crisis at the moment; there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that and asking Yi for help.

Maybe 47 is about exactly this process? It does a nice ouch job of describing your situation; maybe a point of it is to figure out how to un-confine yourself. Yi may have cut "What's my purpose?" way down in size - maybe it's talking about right now, not your whole life.

About "words not trusted" - no, that's not a great thing for an aspiring writer to hear. But reading Hilary's commentary, I wonder if Yi's more talking to you about the question you asked, your line of inquiry? Maybe pointing out you could usefully be a little less lofty (loftiness is not a 47-ish thing), and instead figure out how to sink roots into the ground? (The part I underlined.)

Hilary's commentary:

Do not place too much value on words: they will not provide you with a way out – neither conversation, nor argument, nor your own reasoning and theorising. Words alone are only circulating ideas; they lack the real, personal connection that would make them trustworthy.

[Edited: should make clear, of course, that that's how I'd apply what Hilary wrote to your reading - naturally it could be wrong all around.]

 

[hilary]

I'm quite fond of the 'what is my purpose?' question, on the understanding that it doesn't mean 'What's my ideal job?' Because a purpose is a multi-layered mysterious thing, it can be expressed through your work and your creativity, and in your friendships and family connections, and how you interact with a stranger at the bus stop and what you cook for dinner. A reading about purpose is going to be just as multi-layered - something you unpack over the course of years.

Hexagram 47 is oppressive and isolating, but it's also about the movement downward and inward into deep connection to source. Here's an article about it with a bit more on that.

Everyone (including you) has naturally understood this reading as a description of where you are now. I wonder whether it's saying not 'Here's what your purpose is,' but 'Here's how you find and know your purpose now.'

 

[Liselle]

Here is a clip from a YouTube video that I thought described 47-ish concepts rather well. Not that the person, Joyce DiDonato, cast an I Ching reading, of course (that I know of!). She was talking about her real-life experience. But I think it's nifty and helpful to stumble upon hexagrams unwittingly like this.

(Joyce DiDonato is, apparently, a famous opera star. I don't follow opera even slightly, therefore previously had only heard of, say, Maria Callas and Beverly Sills.)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5GeVg-5B3PM?start=409&end=463



(I realize we can embed YouTube videos actually on the page directly, instead of just linking - but it's a 40-minute interview, and only about one minute is relevant, and I can't figure out how to make it start and stop at the right place and embed in my post.)

 

[Trojina]

I'm quite fond of the 'what is my purpose?' question, on the understanding that it doesn't mean 'What's my ideal job?' Because a purpose is a multi-layered mysterious thing, it can be expressed through your work and your creativity, and in your friendships and family connections, and how you interact with a stranger at the bus stop and what you cook for dinner. A reading about purpose is going to be just as multi-layered - something you unpack over the course of years.

I don't know why all these things would be boiled down to the word 'purpose' as if one were a garden implement or something. People ask this when they want to narrow themselves down into something in particular and then when they get nonsensical answers, like this one, they feel distressed. Well it isn't quite nonsensical but I wouldn't take it as a literal answer about her/his life purpose.

Everyone (including you) has naturally understood this reading as a description of where you are now. I wonder whether it's saying not 'Here's what your purpose is,' but 'Here's how you find and know your purpose now.'

Yes, know the question limits you.

 

[Liselle]

I think Hilary's point, and Joyce DiDonato's for that matter, is that 47 can be a constructive, useful process. Which of course is different from enjoyable; probably few people would want 47, especially under duress.

Why couldn't such a thing be the purpose of Roma's life? Or a purpose.

It might also depend on what Roma was thinking - if what he or she really wanted from the answer was career/job advice, then as I said that's probably the question should be asked. But if it really was a "why am I alive, what is the purpose of my existence" kind of thing, then Yi saying something like, "your purpose is to learn how to deepen, to sink roots, to reach down and find the water (pair with 48), etc." sounds like a purpose, doesn't it?

Or as Hilary said, 47 might not be the purpose, but how to find it. Regardless, 47 is probably an important concept for Roma. (If we assume Yi was answering the question. I did wonder if it was an indirect answer, but I suspect I'm often too quick to think that.)

 

[Trojina]

But if it really was a "why am I alive, what is the purpose of my existence" kind of thing, then Yi saying something like, "your purpose is to learn how to deepen, to sink roots, to reach down and find the water (pair with 48), etc." sounds like a purpose, doesn't it?

If I cannot even believe in the concept of a 'life purpose', if it to me sounds a one dimensional, meaningless, limited concept, made popular in the most crass of new age literature, then I'm hardly going to be able to actually take 47uc as an answer to 'what is my life purpose' since I don't think there is such a thing.

That is what I think, that is the answer I gave to Roma in post 6 with my ideas about her answer.

If you have a different view then it is better to put that across to Roma directly, to her, than to try to convince me to see it how you see it. That would only derail the thread with dialogue between you and I rather than you simply sharing with her your view of the answer.

 

[Liselle]

I like Yi a lot better than I like crass, new age literature. But the only way I can think of to get at whether, or how, such a thing exists is to ask Yi that direct question. "What do you have to say about the idea of a 'life purpose'?" or "How should we conceive of the idea of a 'life purpose'?" or some such thing, which I never have.

How is my dialog with you in post no. 12 objectionable, but your dialog with Hilary in post no. 11 perfectly okay? At least I assume you wouldn't have posted it, otherwise.



Edited: just noticed the "dialogue/dialog" thing, haha - quick Googling reveals that "dialog" is more American, especially in computer contexts ("dialog box"), and "dialogue" is more British, and is recommended overall when referring to conversations. So - "dialogue," in this case.

 

[Trojina]

I like Yi a lot better than I like crass, new age literature. But the only way I can think of to get at whether, or how, such a thing exists is to ask Yi that direct question. "What do you have to say about the idea of a 'life purpose'?" or "How should we conceive of the idea of a 'life purpose'?" or some such thing, which I never have.

Really ? you have absolutely no thoughts, ideas opinions of your own about the concept of life purpose unless you go to Yi for it ? That's bizarre. I can think, have thought a great deal over many years, and read and thunk, I don't need Yi to tell me what to think. The way you speak it's like you wouldn't know whether to believe in anything unless you asked Yi.

How is my dialog with you in post no. 12 objectionable, but your dialog with Hilary in post no. 11 perfectly okay? At least I assume you wouldn't have posted it, otherwise.

It's not objectionable but you are asking me questions to expand on the whole thing whereas my answer to Hilary is just an answer, I'm not asking her anything just stating an opinion so she doesn't need to respond. Your post is asking for justification for my point of view and so on and so could get lengthy and off topic.

 

[Liselle]

Really ? you have absolutely no thoughts, ideas opinions of your own about the concept of life purpose unless you go to Yi for it ? That's bizarre. I can think, have thought a great deal over many years, and read and thunk, I don't need Yi to tell me what to think. The way you speak it's like you wouldn't know whether to believe in anything unless you asked Yi.

I do think there's such a thing as a life purpose. I'm not questioning it - hence our little "dialogue." But I think it'd still be interesting to see what Yi has to say about it.

It's not objectionable but you are asking me questions to expand on the whole thing whereas my answer to Hilary is just an answer, I'm not asking her anything just stating an opinion so she doesn't need to respond.

Am reading this slowly, letting it sink in, absorbing the implications... ... ... ... ... ...

Your post is asking for justification for my point of view and so on and so could get lengthy and off topic.

I don't think discussion about life purpose is off-topic on a thread about life purpose.

 

[Liselle]

I do think there's such a thing as a life purpose.

I should say, "a life purpose, broadly defined" or something like that. I do get that it can encompass many things, and have many facets. Still, there are probably themes we can pick out. For instance, one of mine might be "persevering long-term." Whether that's an end unto itself, or in service of an even bigger "umbrella" purpose, I don't know.

 

[Roma77]

Thank you, that was great to see; moving.

 

[Roma77]

Thank you. That was great to see, moving for me.

 

[Old Moon]

I recently got Hex 47 without changing lines. It provided relief in that it was one hexagram and no changing lines. I have read various versions of it and have taken up the word confinement as a boon. I found it one-pointed as in "I am confined to live as a contemplative Chan Master." In other words, I am to be devoted and one-pointed to this spiritual way of life. I accepted the words as plain and simple. I do, however, forget and wobble off towards one of the ditches that are both sides of the path. But...I am able to get upright far quicker than I did in the past. It is a reminder not to be overwhelmed, but to restore strength and fearlessness. And...I realize the confinement reminds me to rest since exhaustion is part of the message. I attempt to follow a plain, simple and serious approach to what comes into my life as my life. Being roped in or me being confined to One life is a relief.
Old Moon

Thank you. That was great to see, moving for me.

 

[Henry Zahir]

Hello community So, I finally got the courage up to ask a 'big' question - one of those suggested in Hilary's book in fact and I got no 47 with no changing lines!I don't feel good about that. It seems bleak, depressing in fact. So - behind me asking this question is the fact that I'm at a crossroads, a transition. I recently lost my job as a teacher and was, anyway, thinking of making a change. I feel pulled at times to re-train (I'm 45 though)- 3 years to become an Educational Psychologist- status, money. But in some ways these seem like false goals to me. I have also 'always' wanted to be a writer.I put speech marks because although I say this I rarely commit to it in action. I do love writing, and feel at home when I can/do give time to it. It recently occurred to me I could do a creative writing degree- would give me deadlines and community but I feel pride around this. Along the lines of : you/one doesn't need to study writing, it's innate. Maybe there's fear there too. As I read Hilary's interpretation of 47 I felt some dread - is this my purpose, I thought, to be continually striving and not reaching!!? The words 'profoundly shaken and betrayed by the way things have failed to work out as they should' REALLY rang true for me. I can become very driven and experience surges of optimism embarking on something new (eg I started a social enterprise teaching mindfulness to teenagers), I can be very bold and put a lot of work in and achieve a certain amount but then...well it doesn't wotk out. Confinement' did make me think of writing. So solitary. Going within. Perhaps I'm petrified of not getting anywhere - no outward success. I balked at the sentence 'do not place too much importance on words' as I think, in a way, I wanted the reading to tell me that my purpose is writing. Any help would be so gratefully received...x

The abuse you subject youself is neccesary to escape more dangerous situations. it will take time and allies to come out of it. And luck will have nothing to do with it. Your "Self" has decided you need to learn a lesson. Be strong and authentic. Danger is always danger but many times hollow.