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The I Ching and the Body

dannyl

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I am not sure if this is the right place for this thread, or even if there is a right place! So feel free to move the thread or whatever as you see fit.

Basically, I am interested in finding out if anyone here relates the symbolism of the I Ching to their body. Bodywork practises are for me a hugely important part of the my own spirituality/development (I don't particularly like either of those words but they'll have to do!) and the I Ching has found it's way in there - largely through the practises of Ba Gua. I am also aware of (and have tried) various Taosit derived meditations, some of which make use of I Ching symbolism.

Ba Gua means "8 palms" are uses the 8 trigrams as a way of systemising some basic strikes and blocks. The whole art is filled with Taoist thought and metaphor and the basic "mood" is one of constant flowing change, paralleling that of the I Ching. I've found it an excellent way to bring Taoist ideas "alive" for me.For instance, still standing meditation is refered to as WuJi- ultimate nothing (?) and in practising this, one certainly gets a feel for this "concept" sometimes. I relate this to Hexagram 25 also.

So, does anyone around practice anything they'd like to share? Any historical perspectives would also be useful. Useful links would be good as well.

One thing I'm interested in at the mo, is links between the 9 palaces diagram and the body.

Cheers

Danny
 
J

jesed

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Hi Danny

of course, there are some Tai Chi practices, based on the trigrams.

But, had you try/hear "The Secret of the Golden Flower"?

Maybe you can find it interesting

Best wishes
 

frank_r

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Hallo danny,

In acupuncture there are several relations between the trigrams/hexagrams and the body/meridians.
For instance the heart is connected with trigram lake when you look at the fu shi sequence.

If you tell me what relations you are looking for maybe i can help you further

Best wishes Frank r
 
P

peace

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Hi Frank:

I'd be interested in knowing what the relationships are.

Thanks,
Rosalie
 

frank_r

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Hallo Rosalie

The relations when you look at the pre heaven (fu shi) sequence are:

Trigram Heaven; Galbladder, Bladder
Earth: Liver, Kidney
Thunder: Large intestine
Wind: Lung
Fire : Spleen
Water: Stomach
Lake; Haert and Pericardium
Mountain; Small intestine and triple heater.

Best wishes Frank r
 

Yuuichi

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Are there hexagrams (not trigrams) which relate to the organs or points on the body? Thanks
 

Gmulii

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Hi.
This is very complicated question as the Five Arts(part of them are all forms of I Ching/Yi Jing) are interrelated, so its difficult sometimes to move something in only one system/style/approach. If you want to use any system in depth in combination with TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine) first you need knowledge of TCM.

When it comes to diagram of the body connected to the palaces, that is very much used in Qi Men Dun Jia(that is one of the supreme 3 systems in the Five Arts).



Here is article from Sweeneys book where we can partially see that, I think the relations were explained here(Head - Li etc.) if they weren't I can post them from a book.

http://tarotcanada.tripod.com/ChineseOrWesternMedicine.html


As Qi Men Dun Jia uses the same Trigrams/Palaces we use in Yi Jing, its very easy to think we can just use them in normal Yi.
However that isn't exactly the case, as this specific way of divination is specific for QMDJ that is very related to space(after all its the practical aspect of "the art of war").

If you are open to moving to some deeper form of Yi jing, can try Mei Hua. This is interesting book for relation of body/health and Yi Jing:

https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Ching-Oracle-Healer-Within/dp/0936185384/

This is just scratching the surface however...

For fuller view we use Liu Yao(Six Lines Divination). That uses the branches and stems from the Chinese calendar on the lines.
Its not as old as the original Zhouyi, as we can follow it back for only around 2200 years ago to Jing Fang
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jing_Fang), however I very much agree with the idea that the system was already used for a long time back then, he is just oldest written record of it in the way we use it today.

In WWG back then and even in Mei Hua at times we just use the elements. Yin element - hollow organ, Yang element - solid organ.
What is hollow organs info here and in any TCM article/site you can find:
http://www.cloudforestchinwoo.org/traditional-chinese-medicine/six-hollow-organs/

There are other Images and relations we use... For example Officer(line that controls the Hexagram/situation) shows the disease etc. But all this need some WWG/Liu Yao knowledge.
Of course, you need TCM background, as there is a lot of Images that will be missed otherwise. Some basic stuff like arterial blood - yang, venous blood yin, stuff like that.

Hopefully this can be helpful a little. The Five Arts are very extensive, so there is no way to even mention all relevant info to health and divination(both different arts, still very much interrelated as all the Five arts are). However if you just learn both at the same time, Traditional Chinese Medicine and whatever divination art from there you choose, the way to use them together will be more and more clear, as the terminology, relations and images used are the same.
 
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Freedda

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Yuuichi (Not dannyl - thanks Hilary!):

Others are more in the knowledgable than I about this, but I don't know of any particular system where specific hexagrams are assigned to specific parts of the body. As other have noted, it is true for the trigrams.

There are of course numerous times where the body or body parts or functions are mentioned in the Yi: leading with one's toes, stepping on the sleeping tiger, eating, drinking, making great crossings, etc. But there is no systematic application that I know of.

It makes me wonder, what is your purpose in asking this? Is it just a general inquiry or do you have a means in mind? And when you talk about 'bodywork practices' what do you mean? Massage, tai chi, listening, tasting, digestion, defication, etc?
 
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hilary

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Are there hexagrams (not trigrams) which relate to the organs or points on the body? Thanks
Not in a formal, 'this hexagram always means this part of the body' way, no. The enduring associations are with a) trigrams and b) line positions (basically, the hexagram maps to the human body - as you can see in the text: if a line refers to feet, it's at the bottom of the hexagram).

However, in real-life divination hexagrams can absolutely describe parts of the body. I have seen 48, the Well, describe the heart, and 50, Vessel, describe the brain, for instance. These are not fixed associations - they are the oracle at work, speaking to someone in the moment, and in the next reading it will create new associations.

David, you may want to look at the date of the original post ;)
 

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