wong chee kwan

The Inspired Change C-3 B-2b (日: Enemy of the Ego Part 2) Next is a vicious cycle that snowballs the trapped emotion into a highly toxic, dense mass of negatives, which sucks indiscrimately like a black hole to satisfy its insatiable desires to possess; fuels terror acts to exert its dominance; and infests weaklings with poisonous thoughts to spread its influence. Then, an ugly head rises from the pool of shit, seizing control of the inner domain, and dethroning the true ego – the will to control thoughts and behaviours – to become the new master of your universe; born to terrorize lives, yours and others’, until they perish in anguish. The birth of the “altered ego” pits human against heaven, which, unfortunately for individuals but fortunately for mankind, is equally determined to have its own way; and more so since it is the one with the muscles. So, it is a lopsided fight from the very beginning, with human always the loser. The confidence in the might of heaven is so strong that some even proclaim victory in the face of injustice, shouting out mantras like: 邪不能胜正 (xié bùnéng shēngzhèng): The evil will not triumph over the virtuous. 天网恢恢，疏而不漏 (tiānwǎng huīhuī shū ér bùlòu): The mills of God grind slowly but surely. The constant cry for justice reflects badly on heaven on one hand (that it is taking its own sweet time to settle scores), but shows its compassion on the other. Because it uses a karmic system that weights positives against negatives, a very time consuming but merciful process, as it offers chances for redemption to everyone, even the condemned. If you wish instant justice, take on the devil within instead. Because heaven is merciless when directly challenged; levelling the emotion pits with powerful pulses to restore naturalness, a free flowing environment that links the inside with outside. That explains why I-Ching prescribes the self-administration of “the Almighty” as an instant cure for all human ills. For those besieged by the warmongering altered ego, who perceives the Sun as an enemy bent on destroying their worlds, here is the advice: “Take a deep breath, pull back, and look again.” Hopefully, the deep breadth could gain enough traction for a small pullback, the gap of which enables the entry of a mediator – the Sun’s pulsating nourishment – capable of tempering an evil intent to hurt into just an urge to curse, hence reducing the chance of a fatal accident. For those who are still holding the fort, and see the Sun as a white knight that restores natural order, here is what I-Ching has to say: “Master the art of saying No (勿, wù).” 勿 is a construction blueprint for an incubator that draws on the Sun (日) to change your life to the way it should be -- a simple, easy, and ever-evolving way of life (易).

The Inspired Change C-3 B-2a (日: Enemy of the Ego Part 1) The first sign of an emotion thatch in play is the upsurge of “inertia” – a strong resistance to change – every time you wish to uplift your life; even simple wishes – such as keeping fit, changing to a healthier diet, or opening to a new idea – seemed like high hopes. Initially, it is a ding-dong battle -- win whenever you receive a positive vibe from the outside (the natural guà, the upper trigram of a hexagram, is coming to your aid), and lose whenever your mood takes over (the man-made guà, the lower trigram of a hexagram, is boxing you in). At this juncture, there is no joy in winning, nor sadness when losing. What it does bring is regrets -- for wasting time and energy fighting the many, meaningless battles; and losing opportunity due to slow responses. But, it is a different story if you are losing all the time. It means that a “depression” -- a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity – has set in. The slump tells of the further hardening of the thatch, solid enough to cut off the outside supply that nourishes the inside. Over time, the isolation will degenerate into desolation – a marshy existence, devoid of vegetation (no growth), carpeted by mosses (trivialities) and walled by volatile emotion that fuels erratic behaviours. If isolation is indeed the cause of depression, then calming the erratic behaviours by drugging the depressed could be suicidal. Because it addresses only the symptom (calming the behaviour by numbing the senses), but not the cause (calming the inside by neutralizing the extremes), with a dire consequence – numbing of the sixth sense meant for communicating with the natural world outside. If the marshy condition is left to deteriorate further, the next worst thing is “compulsion” – the irrepressible urge to do something that you know you shouldn’t – driving ugly, vicious behaviours that plague the internet with cyber bullying, highways with road rage, or society at large with harassment. In a way, a bully is a victim themselves; falling prey to a fast growing mass of trapped negatives that pressure cooks the inside into a live volcano; out bursting violently to release the escalating pressure; and spurring poisonous thoughts and vulgarities onto whoever and whatever blocking the way, to sooth the inner turmoil with pleasure derived from dispensing the pains. Some might not give a damn being labelled a bully; but they would be hard-pressed for ignoring the deadly consequences that descend together with the next round of degeneration.

The Inspired Change C-3 B-1 (日: Limits) A limit (一) is as far as one can go. While the Sun is almost limitless in every quarter – size, power, resources, wisdom, and so on -- human is defined by limits, the lowest is earth, and the highest, heaven. The lowest is a base below which is a bottomless pit that does not support life; cascading the depressed soul from one bottom to another with endless miseries. So, it is a “bottomless pit” that inflicts miseries nonstop, and not because the lack of will to fight the odds, as commonly diagnosed. Logically then, constructing a base -- earthly enough to hold the fall and stage a rebound – should end the sufferings once and for all; sparing one the agony of a head-on, no-win fight with the depression, as normally prescribed. On the other hand, the highest is one’s growth limit beyond which is a mysterious headwind; retaliating ferociously against any encroachment; and engaging the obstinate in a prolonged tug of war, to either exhaust the intruder into submission, or stretch their lives until it snaps, free falls, and lands with a big bam at ground zero, for a restart. There is a distinct difference between a “challenge” and “headwind”. A challenge energizes you to rise above the occasion and scale new height. A headwind tires you out with increasing resistances for every step forward until you are totally exhausted. So, take on the challenges but respect the headwinds, if you want to live happily ever after. Yet, the worst kind is a man-made limit, an emotion thatch, a hardened layer of negatives that starts to coagulate the moment you were born, amassing junks like: • Extreme emotions like uncontrollable anger, excessive worrying, or crippling fear. • Traumatic experiences like serious accidents, abuses (physical, emotional, or sexual), or catastrophes (war or natural disasters). • Unresolved issues like conflicts, unfulfilled ambitions, or regrets. • Distortions like half-truths, prejudice, or extreme thoughts. • Trivialities like insignificant details, petty issues, or inconsequential incidents. No detaching is what causes the hardening, the same way how people disregard their lawns with excuses like – don’t know how, don’t care, it’s pointless, too much work, too busy, etc. The bad news is, regardless of how good your excuse is, the consequence is the same – a rapid declining divinity value with an equally fast increase in impermeability. Over time, it will turn unbreakable, cutting one off from the outside world to create a breeding ground for a monstrous character, an altered ego that seizes control over the inner domain. Here is the inside story of its rise to be the master of your destiny.

The Inspired Change C-3 A (日: The Sun’s DNA) c) 从囗一。象形 (cóng wéi yī, xiàng xíng): It follows the characteristics of an enclosure and a limit. Each symbol is shaped to tell its own story. The enclosure (囗) mirrors the Sun’s perfect sphere – a never ending loop – symbolizing a host of divine qualities, traceable in various degrees in all cloned heavens. The roundness suggests perfection, radiated as holiness by both the “nobody” who lives a simple yet happy life, and the “somebody” who answers their calls to fulfil their missions in life. The endlessness stands for timelessness, an incorruptible value found in religionists who live by God’s words; or in works created out of thin air by thinkers, writers, inventors, and the likes. The continuity shows the persistency of the Sun in completing its mission, manifested as perseverance in survivals who never give up on life, or visionaries who always strive to scale new heights. The looping reflects the cause and effect working principle of the Sun -- what goes around comes around – practiced by simplists who treat the roots rather symptoms to resolve recurring problems; or karma believers who cushion their lives with good deeds, believing that one good turn always leads to another, and that violence begets violence. The circle symbolizes a full natural life cycle, spun continuously to move one along the evolution scale through thick and thin; a way of life pursued by naturalists who wish to be one with the universe, or fate believers who always take everything in their strides. The above listed divine qualities, though not exhaustive, are enough to show the size of your birth rights. But, the actual amount inherited is dependent upon the purity of your feed; expressed as a divinity value, the equivalence of a pH value, ranging from -10 to +10: Divinity Value = Pulsating Nourishment – Toxic Emotion (Both feeds are valued between 0 to 10) A maximum score of ten creates a saint with a halo; a negative ten yields a monster capable of destroying the world; and a zero results in a swamp-like character that encompasses diversity. To be a monster or saint, nobody or somebody, failure or success, the decision is entirely yours.

The Inspired Change C-2 B (日: The Greening Effect) Greening (青) is an attempt to mitigate, or even reverse, the damages inflicted by human on their natural worlds, by naturalizing (月) with a dominant, earth-heaven magnet (龶). Naturalization (月) mimics the endless looping of the lunar phases, bombarding the inside with natural pulses to swing one’s mood like a pendulum -- from one end to another repeatedly -- until one dances to its tune. Meanwhile, the earth-heaven magnet (龶) exerts its dominance through its vector filed, which magnetizes by dictating direction with powerful pulses; often manifested as stop/go signals for the compliant, carrot and stick for the neutral, and death and rebirth for the recalcitrant. So, a spirit (精) is a pulsating nourishment that naturalizes and magnetizes. That makes the spirit of the Sun (太陽之精) the Sun’s semen, bearing its DNA, and reproducing itself in human as a hero, a person with a mission fighting for a just cause. And, the Sun is an infinite source of this almighty force of nature.

Dear SeekerOfHealing, As a matter of fact, helping you and me to be the master of our own universes was the original aim of Mr Fúxī (伏羲) in inventing the I-Ching. I am still at the early stage of exploring I-Ching, a long way off being a master, but thankfully, manage to put Fúxī’s vision within sight. Initially, the exploration was like peeling onion – tearfully ripping off one layer, only to discover there is another waiting – making it a long, tedious, painful, exhausting, and joyless labour. Lately, aided by the incredible techniques inspired by I-Ching, the search for truth has turned into a treasure hunt, eagerly searching for spiritual clues to unearth treasures that are not only mind blowing, but also elevating when realized. By the way, I have just gained another insight into reading the hexagram 53, 漸 (jiàn), which predicted a gradual progress for my postings. That sudden flash of insight eventually led me into adopting a gradual pace, resulted from me synchronizing with the prevailing energy state of the forum, thereby subduing the strong urge to pour out the unearthed wonders all at once. With hindsight, it does make a lot of sense. After all, it took me years to crack the tough nut, and therefore should be unfolded layer by layer, one point at a time, and animated for easy understanding and acceptance. Again, in retrospect, the casting of 漸 (jiàn) is actually a reminder for me to go slow and easy for the benefit of the readers.

The Inspired Change C-2 A (日: The Pulsating Nourishment) 太陽之精不虧 (tàiyángzhījīng bù kuī): The spirit of the sun is inexhaustible. 精 (jīng): essence / semen / spirit 精 is a divine nourishment (米) that greens (青). The divine nourishment (米) drives outside (丿丶), and bombards inside (丷), with natural pulses to create perfection (十), a natural (一) and magnetized (丨) state. While driving outside (丿丶), a natural pulse closes/opens doors; nudging one towards one’s destiny. And, when bombarding inside (丷), it excites with motives to arouse action, and cools down with restraints to consolidate. The outside job is often shrouded in mystery, as an invisible hand is at work, hence is beyond one’s control. The inside mechanism involves regulating qì-flow in response to the outside stimuli, hence is subjected to human interference. An uncoordinated outside-inside job causes deviation (from destination), a major source for misfortune. On the other hand, pulsating with the divine nourishment (米) leads to a cloning process, which moulds human in the image of Heaven, as a strong force of nature.

Dear centertime, 漸 (jiàn): gradually Jiàn is blessed by a divine Wind (風, xùnguà, top ☴: stop-go-go) – it blows from a high to a low pressure area – supposed to transform a “nobody” (凡虫) to “somebody”. Unfortunately, it is blowing over a jamming Mountain (山, gènguà, bottom ☶: stop-stop-go); symbolizing a person trapped in an emotion pit (凵). The net result is a slow and painful progress rather than a smooth ride to the top on the wind of change. If it is read from my perspective (as a wind blower), it means that I am not high enough to start a strong wind of change. In fact, thanks to Taomeow’s reading, it triggered off a self-imposed solitary confinement for six months; trying to inch my way upward for a better view of I-Ching, and a high enough position to start a credible wind of change. If the reading is about you (as a receiver), it shows your reluctance in lowering your position to fully embrace the wind of change, hence slowing down your progress in better understanding the I-Ching. Either way, it predicted a gradual progress, unless there is a change in position on both ends – the blowing and the receiving – to quicken the inspired change.

The Inspired Change C-1 (日: An Invisible Guru) 日：實也。太陽之精不虧。从囗一。象形。 a) 實也 (shí yě): It brings realization, solidifies stuffs, and makes one honest. 實 (shí): real / solid / honest 實 strings (貫) inside (冖) and outside (亠) into one continuous space; best visualized as a factory, a semi-enclosed space for processing raw materials into useful products. • The inside (冖) is isolated by an emotion thatch – a layer of negatives amassed over time -- that disrupts (left丿) and dictates (right 丿). • It is a Pandora’s Box, where evils are kept. • The outside (亠) is where inspirations (丶) reside, accessible by breaking through the emotion thatch (一). • It is a resource centre, where hopes lie. That makes 實 the sun’s lock-breaking mechanism, prying open the evil box with powerful natural pulses, and bringing hope to human. Hope, however, means different things to different people. For those desperately in need of help, it is a divine intervention that miraculously resolves the seemingly unresolvable. For most, it is an inspiration flow that realizes extremes, solidifies ideas, and exposes unknowns. For the experienced, it is an invisible guru, not just to answer calls 24/7 on any subject under the sun, but also volunteers stop/go signals -- convertible to painful reminders, or merciless corrective actions, if the signals are ignored – to facilitate human realizing their missions in life.

The Inspired Change B-3 (日: The Sun Part 3) “The Sun’s strong magnetic field” supports the model of an earth-heaven magnet – a human magnet that magnetizes the extremes-rich human domain with an earth (south), heaven (north) link -- which powerfully transforms a southward-bound failure into a north-heading success. “The all-around, outward blowing of the solar wind” showcases the magnetic treatment – the inside is relentlessly bombarded with forces of nature from the outside – which naturalizes the extremes inside, and revitalizes the entire human system. Furthermore, the Sun is superrich in Hydrogen (70%) -- a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, non-metallic, highly combustible diatomic gas, the lightest element on the periodic table -- and Helium (30%) -- a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas, the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Correspondingly, Heaven is supersaturated with the simplest, yet highly reactive, yīn-yáng data (as building blocks of the human universe), and absolute truths (as inert materials for constructing a solid foundation to support the growth of the universe). So far so good. Let’s see if the similes also match the definitions of 日 (rì).

The Inspired Change B-2 (日: The Sun Part 2) “Sun is the heart of the solar system” rhymes with “Heaven is the heart of the human universe”, which implies “whoever gets Heaven gets the universe”. The Sun’s enormous mass in the Solar System (99.86%) -- translated as a huge amount of resources, high visibility, and easy accessibility – makes this mission to court Heaven even more inviting. “Sun is a hot ball of glowing gas” tells of a fast-expanding Heaven (a hot object expands, and a very hot object expands very fast), which tallies with I-Ching’s ever-growing human universe -- driven by an external life-force (Dào, 道) a million times more intense than the internal life-force (qì, 氣) generated to keep pace with the explosive growth -- which then makes Heaven a driving pacer, and human a driven racer. The vast difference between the temperatures of the Sun (top 15 million degrees Celsius) and Earth (no more than 58 degrees Celsius) lends support to this pacing-Dào-racing-Qì model. “The Solar system is held together by the Sun’s gravity” suggests that deviating from the heavenly path will cause the collapse of a human universe, a tragic fate I-Ching dedicated to avert by uncovering all possible ways to diffuse the threat. Conversely, staying within the orbit of Heaven guarantees a perpetual, natural way of life, an outlook embodied by the Sun’s perfect sphere, a symbol for a continuous loop of natural life cycles.

The Inspired Change B (日: The Sun Part 1) 日 (rì) means the Sun. “The sun at the heart of our solar system is a yellow dwarf star, a hot ball of glowing gases. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris in its orbit. Electric currents in the sun generate a magnetic field that is carried out through the solar system by the solar wind — a stream of electrically charged gas blowing outward from the sun in all directions.” (solarsystem.nasa.gov) To I-Ching, Sun is Heaven, and Heaven is Sun. Then, what is said of the Sun should tell on Heaven too. That assumption turns out to be the key that unlocks I-Ching’s secret world; conceptually as a sun-driven, ever-expanding human universe, realizable as an enlarged presence resulted from a huge mind explosion, practicable and perfectible as an art of living that can transform anybody into a “body-less” existence, a grounded, spiritual being living a larger-than-life life. Now, let’s see what the Sun has to say about Heaven.

The Inspired Change A (易: An Elixir of Life) The Chinese loves changes. They even have a word for every imaginable change, designed cleverly to implant the mode, and fashionably to capture the mood, of the change; for examples, 變 (biàn): A shocking change that raps (攵) to disrupt order (䜌); like 变心 (biànxīn): a change of heart that rocks a relationship. 換 (huàn): A progressive change that courts (扌) excellence (奐); like 换季 (huànjì): changing wardrobe to keep up with the latest seasonal trend. 更 (gēng): A natural (丿丶) change triggered off (由) by a limit (一); like 更代 (gēngdài): replacing one with another to refresh a cycle. 改 (gǎi): A directional change that strikes (攵) at the halfway mark (己); like 改行 (gǎiháng): changing profession presumably for a better prospect. But, 易 (yì) beats them all as the No.1 word for “change”, as it offers 64 modes to change for the better, especially attractive for those who are down-and-out. Also, it titles a classic for thousands of years, which grows a simple yīn-yáng concept into a doctrine with a worldwide following, and is still evolving promisingly into a miraculous cure for all human ills. An elixir of life (长生不老葯, chángshēngbùlǎo yào)? Maybe it is just a wishful thinking, but if it is true, then “joy to the world”. True or false, it is best to let 易 (yì) speaks for itself. 易 (yì): change / easy / simple 日 (rì): sun / day / daytime 勿 (wù): must not / do not / without / never (ctext.org)

The Man-Made Bāguà 2 (The Bad Bāguà Effects) The good bāguà effects are evidences of a natural way of life. In contrast, the bad bāguà effects signals the rise of an altered ego, an ego inflated with trapped emotion. Which means the bad bāguà behaviors are the symptoms of an evil growth. So, just like any other major disorders, early detection is the best way to curb its growth. Here is a list of the bad bāguà symptoms. 1. A wild Heaven (天, ☰: go-go-go): A runaway expansion. A control freak in an offensive mode; driven mindlessly by a powerful undercurrent. The mindless expansionist acts just like a growing snowball, which rolls down a hill uncontrollably, destroys everything in sight, and ends inevitably with a bang at the bottom of the hill. 2. A depressed Earth (地, ☷: stop-stop-stop): A deep depression. A disorderly person who closes their minds in a depression. The depressed screwed up is like an outlaw who imprisons themselves with regrets. 3. A volatile Water (水, ☵: stop-go-stop): A volatile emotional state. An unruly character who bullies while in a depression. The depressed bully is a trouble maker, who terrorizes habitually by continuously disrupting peace and stability, theirs as well as others’. 4. An out-of-control Fire (火, ☲: go-stop-go): A stressful state. An aggressor who resists the urge to expand. The wound up state is like a pressure cooker, which cooks by raising temperature with internal pressure built up by the steam. 5. A tormenting Thunder (雷, ☳: go-stop-stop): Excessive worrying. A control freak who closes up in a depression. The depressed slave-driver inflicts pain upon themselves, by stirring up the shits trapped within. 6. A crippled Mountain (山, ☶: stop-stop-go): A jammed state. A rebel who goes against the strong undercurrent within. The internal struggle often blinds one from the many divine messages popping up in their surroundings. 7. An ever-changing Wind (風, ☴: stop-go-go): An opportunist outlook. An unruly character who preys in an expansive mode. The predator is an opportunist who gains advantages at the expense of ethics or morals. 8. An uninhabited Swamp (澤, ☱: go-go-stop): A marshy growth. An expansionist who grows indiscriminately in a depression. The indiscriminate growth produces a marsh-like state; carpeted with mosses, and punctuated with islands. If a natural way of life is the reward for taking orders from Dào, a hellish life must then be the aftermath for surrendering to a devilish ego. But, both are extreme cases. In reality, most people are living a twilight zone; caught in between the natural and evil worlds. Mr Fúxī equated the twilight zone to a hexagram; and offered advises in six poetic lines on how best to deal with it. Still, what exactly are they? The hexagrams? The six poetic lines? (Picture from images-cdn.moviepilot.com)

The Man-Made Bāguà 1 (The Evil Thoughts) What about the three lines in a man-made trigram (guà)? Are they inner voices too? Yes, they are also voices from within; and to be exact, very loud and imposing voices from a parallel world created artificially by human. They too interact with each other -- using the go/stop voting system -- to generate an abnormal three-beat pulse, which competes fiercely with the normal three-beat pulse of the natural world for the grand price -- the master of one’s fate. The man-made world also has a base -- an emotional thatch (a hardened layer of extreme motions) that replaces the earthly base as one’s operating platform. The bottom thatch-line is a radical voice; reflecting its extreme stands. A go thatch-line stands for a far-right position, a synonym for -- fascism / dictatorship / tyranny / oppression / repression / bureaucracy / control / cruelty. A stop thatch-line represents a far-left stand, a synonym for – anarchy / lawlessness / chaos / rebellion / mob rule / reign of terror / turmoil / hostility. The middle line represents an unjustified past, accumulated emotions trapped by an emotional thatch, which severs the earth-heaven link that powers the emotion cycle. The middle soggy-line is a cynical voice; reflecting a saturated emotional state with limited capacity for new stuffs. A go soggy-line signals the release of the extreme emotion buildup within; driving an offensive behaviour, identifiable as being -- abusive / irritating / obnoxious / rude / stinking / rotten / nauseating / repulsive. A stop soggy-line signals a closed mind to avoid the pains of taking in new stuffs; yielding a defensive behaviour, recognizable as being – opposing / averting / guarding / uptight / interrupting / resistive / preventive / balking. The top line signifies a powerful suction that pulls everything inward to satisfy an insatiable desire to possess. The black-hole phenomenon is caused by a highly dense mass of trapped-emotions, whose suction is powerful enough to cut one off from the reality (a yīn-yáng world) created by Dào. The top undercurrent-line is marked by wild mood swings; inflicted by powerful undercurrents. A go undercurrent-line warns of a destructive growth that flattens everything in sight. A stop undercurrent-line tips of a deep depression that cuts one off from the real world. In a nutshell, a man-made guà is a path to hell meted out from a radical platform, saturated with trapped emotions and dictated by strong undercurrents. As such, the thoughts spewed out from this distorted world are inherently extreme (because of the imbalance stand), toxic (caused by the lack of emotion refreshment), and infectious (due to the pull of a highly dense mass of trapped emotions). In short, a man-made guà is an evil-thoughts generator.