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I'm reminded of the Gauls in Asterix - the only thing they feared was the sky falling on their heads. If people have no fear, even of death, should you celebrate them, or be afraid of them? If people are afraid, especially of death, should you be content with their meekness, or exploit it to your advantage? What does it mean to a ruler to have a population that is afraid? Without knowing more about the balance between philosophy and governance of the time, this is a tricky one for me, but at the same time it seems appropriate today. On the one hand we're told to be brave and courageous, innovative and clever. On the other hand, such values are also often looked down on if deemed 'against society'. Good discussion. I suspect I'd glossed over this one quite a lot.

for the world to learn the right way a feather falls seagulls in the wind

Thanks for the reply, Shidifen. I use a 3-coin toss method, although I flip a single coin in order 3 times for each line rather than 3 coins together - I have a (strange?) belief that the gua hierarchy is fractal, and like to stick to the sense of linear generation that a single coin gives. A single coin also seems to fit with the idea of a single source, but I digress. The statistics side of things is really interesting though. I'll have a think about it when I get a moment, but yes - a 50/50 on each flip should give an even split of gua. My instinct is that I get more fire and water over time, but definitely keen to go back over previous casts and check the figures. I should also really try to publish my casts somewhere...

I was thinking about this the other day again, and observing what happens when I speak - or when words form in my mind. It feels like there's a 'collapse' when words form. All other thoughts need to be blocked out for this to happen. Speaking becomes a singularity - one possibility among many. 'Knowing' is a bad word in this case. An empty mind, but one with structure, can 'know' things 'like this!' - because it allows all possibilities to be real. The immediate conflict between 'knowing' as 'all possibilities' and 'speaking' as 'one possibility' - is this what Lao Tzu was getting at, rather than the longer-term idea that people who talk tend not to listen?

I hate speaking in "public" (including closed groups) too - but over the last few years have become more at ease with it simply by being more subjected to it. Practice does wonders. 2 tips: 1. Choose where you speak out loud - this gives you more of a sense of control. Go to something you're interested in, where you might have to contribute at least once, but otherwise as little as possible. (I've been to unconferences where 100+ people introduce themselves with 3 words. The pressure is oddly intense, but after a few times you do get used to it. A big crowd can increase the pressure, but also lend a sense of anonymity afterwards.) 2. Practice privately - recording yourself, even if you don't listen back to it, is scary and brings out a lot of the same judgement we have when speaking in public, if we're not used to it. Pick a little something - an intro, a piece of text, a subject - and say it out loud, record it, etc. The only way to do it is by taking the pressure off yourself, and getting over the idea that you sound or feel silly. Eventually you get to the point where a) you can more easily choose what you want to say, and you care less about how it comes out. Now I can't shut myself up ;-)

Thanks for the quote and links - fascinating stuff, had never looked into it before. IMHO a ranking is still implied - partially because the third world/state seems to have always been conceived as lacking in power compared to the "first two worlds", and secondly because I'd guess that most people using the term these days (including myself) aren't aware of its origins. There's an argument that the ranking is based on proximity, so the term might be relative and depend on which world you live in... "Luxury problem" definitely sounds less self-aggrandizing, although a lot of "problems" seem to do with use of IT, and maybe are more just technocapitalist progress problems. Not as catchy a hashtag though. Anyway. Just musing out loud. I have a sad love of unpicking terminology ;-)

Is "first world problems" the only use of the term "first world" these days? I've been 'taught' for a long time that we've moved on from such rank terminology. (Although developed/developing doesn't do much to avoid the banner-waving "we're better than you" perspective either.) Still, I'm up for anything that gets people reflecting on the "first world" solutions developed and depended on over many decades. It is easy to take things like running water, flushing toilets and social media for granted.

Piece of peace for all The wooden flute lies empty While the kettle boils

I would like to see Qi-branded yoga mats that charge you and your paper-flexible phone up while doing the Sirisana stretch. Kind of a electric-blanket-cum-wireless-nutrition. Your iWatch could have a nice "wat? chi!" custom band on it too.

For instance - the sequence at the start of the year has been very influential on me. Not sure the best way to put this down, but I generally use a 0 for yin and 1 for yang: 010 101 (water | fire = not yet fulfilled, 64) moving to 110 101 (lake | fire = diversity, 38) 101 110 (fire | lake = abolishing the old, 49) moving to 101 111 (fire | heaven = seeking harmony, 13) 101 010 (fire | water = already fulfilled, 63). No moving lines. These were the readings in order, with no others in between, with each reading around 10 days apart. The links between the upper guas and lower guas stand out to me. Diversity (38) swaps upper and lower to become Abolishing the Old (49). Already Fulfilled (63) seems to be the counterpart to Not Yet Fulfilled before it. The whole sequence talks of a new cycle, things reaching a turning point. More recently, my last two readings (about a week apart) have been pretty consistent too: 000 000 = (2) Responding, lowest 2 lines moving. 010 000 = (7) The Army/Multitude, lowest 2 lines and 5th line moving. More generally, I've had a run of several months of the first, lowest line following the moon - a yang line generated when the moon is waxing, and a yin line when it's waning. This happened for 10 readings in a row. I've come round to accepting coincidences as something more, it's a useful thing to believe in. But everything I've generally read is about generating a single hexagram and applying that, rather than interpreting readings over time and the structures and changes within them. Hence my post

Greetings, just signed up and thought I'd say hi. I don't know why I'm here and haven't read through things too much yet. It seems like a nice place though. I've been interested in the tao for about a decade, which sound longer than 10 years. A good friend introduced me to the Tao Te Ching, and it went from there. I've mostly been reading half a dozen books and letting it all wash over me in time. I practice tai chi infrequently. More recently I started out with the I Ching and it scares me to the point of laughter. Looking forward to listening to all your voices.

The end of Hero always gets me. And Waking Life is always great to watch.

This makes a lot of sense too. There are two aspects of the i ching - divination, and a description of 'how things work' - which work along side each other. My experience from tai chi is learning when to act and when not to act - I don't know if this is different to when to let things be, and when not to. That is, when should you let yourself (as part of a connected situation) act, and when should you let yourself refrain? Maybe some meta i ching is called for indeed ;-)

Huang has written a 'partner' book to his I Ching translation on the numerology of it, which is pretty fascinating: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Numerology-Ching-Sourcebook-Traditional-Structutres/dp/0892818115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425680057&sr=8-1&keywords=i+ching+numerology Some parts are more structured, lengthy or interesting than others and I'm only half way through, but it's a good way in to thinking through some of the mathematical structures involved, as well as some insights into the ordering of the I Ching.

=) yes, eery would be a good word perhaps. I'm fairly new to it, and I'm looking to understand it better - currently it would be fair to say I have half a handle on it, but it seems to have more of a handle on me. Perhaps there's a subtle difference between being scared and being afraid. Or rather, a logical part of me finds various coincidences 'spooky'. To an illogical part of me, not exercised much, the coincidences feel almost natural, comforting. Maybe it's time to find an i ching teacher? Does that even make sense?

so does a rice bowl have the right amount of rice? steam in the morning.

Thanks, Soaring. I always like to watch a forum at first to get a feel for the ambience, but will jump in if the mood takes me...

oh yay, haiku. put eyes on my feet i can see the reflections in mucky puddles