I Ching

[Jim D.]

I just read a thread from a man who is seeking a better understanding of Hexagram 15. My understanding of the process is to ask the Oracle on how to approach the problem being faced. I don't believe that the Oracle will answer questons that begin with "what."

 

Synchronicity

 

Some years ago, a psychologist named Carl Young, took an interest in how the I Ching worked. His conclusion: Sychronicity, meaning coincidence.

 

I would like to take his conclusion a step further. I have read that the Oracle is within us. We are the Oracle. It could possibly be characterized as our Unconcious. Before consulting the I Ching, I believe that we are predisposed to the answer we are looking for. It is already there. It is innate. When the question is formulated, we let down our walls/defenses and become open to stored unconsious material that has been encoded over the years that we have been on this planet (please refer to my second post entitled The Way for an example of my spiritual dillemma).

 

Regarding jobs and hating them. Probably the best way to approach a feeling is to ask myself, what is it about the present job that I resent. Write it out in detail. Write until you can't write any more. Put it down, and come back to it the next day, and the next day. And then, formulate a question for the I Ching that is open ended...for example, how should I approach this problem or delimma. The answer given should point towards core values you already have within you...or the core values of the greater society.

 

I would pay attention to the commentaries made by Confucius who's philosophy encompassed Flial Piety and social harmony. To harmonize with others, I must know myself first and foremost.

 

JD

 

 

 

 

 

 

[galloway87]

I just read a thread from a man who is seeking a better understanding of Hexagram 15. My understanding of the process is to ask the Oracle on how to approach the problem being faced. I don't believe that the Oracle will answer questons that begin with "what."

 

Synchronicity

 

Some years ago, a psychologist named Carl Young, took an interest in how the I Ching worked. His conclusion: Sychronicity, meaning coincidence.

 

I would like to take his conclusion a step further. I have read that the Oracle is within us. We are the Oracle. It could possibly be characterized as our Unconcious. Before consulting the I Ching, I believe that we are predisposed to the answer we are looking for. It is already there. It is innate. When the question is formulated, we let down our walls/defenses and become open to stored unconsious material that has been encoded over the years that we have been on this planet (please refer to my second post entitled The Way for an example of my spiritual dillemma).

 

Regarding jobs and hating them. Probably the best way to approach a feeling is to ask myself, what is it about the present job that I resent. Write it out in detail. Write until you can't write any more. Put it down, and come back to it the next day, and the next day. And then, formulate a question for the I Ching that is open ended...for example, how should I approach this problem or delimma. The answer given should point towards core values you already have within you...or the core values of the greater society.

 

I would pay attention to the commentaries made by Confucius who's philosophy encompassed Flial Piety and social harmony. To harmonize with others, I must know myself first and foremost.

 

JD

Hi Jim, 

 

It was myself who asked the question! Thank you in your interest in the topic and insight. The question I put forward was 'How can I find a job that I truly enjoy'. 

 

I don't see the I Ching as some sort of future telling device, where would be the fun in that?! More as a wise old friend who has been around the block a few times and has a bit of experience under their belt. I find your comments above quite interesting, theorizing that we already have the answers that we are looking for. You mentioned Carl Jung above and synchronicity, and as I'm sure you know it was Carl Jung who also coined the phrase 'collective unconscious', very crudely put a storehouse of information shared by members of a species gathered over time, like you mentioned above. 

 

Another person who I found had a very interesting theory on the I Ching was Terence McKenna, who theorized that the I Ching was formulated by the study of patterns and cycles that emerged in time. (I'll try and find a link because it's an interesting watch!)

 

Of course the Sage pointed me to a very simplistic answer- to be more modest in the situation and to abandon ego. I have interpreted this as to stop thinking I am better than the situation I am in. In all fairness I hadn't given the job a fair trial and was feeling very stressed because I felt I was in a little over my head, and that it didn't fit in with my image of an 'ideal' job for me. Maybe I have landed where I am because I'm going to pick up some useful skills that will help me in the future!? Who knows?

 

My main interest with your theory is how do you feel the I Ching works alongside synchronicity and the collective unconscious? By this I mean how does the link between the question being asked, the coins being thrown, and the hexagram being formulated come into being? I find all of this truly fascinating  

 

Here is the video I mentioned earlier, well worth a watch if you have time! 

 

Kind regards, 

 

David 

[Daeluin]

Just in case you fine gentlemen have not found it yet, we have an entire sub-forum dedicated to topics on the I Ching (Yijing) within the Daoist Textual Studies area:

 

http://www.thedaobums.com/forum/349-yijing/

 

Either or and what questions are indeed answered, I believe. However, with either or questions I believe the answer to be in between, and with what questions the what may be many whats, not necessarily the direct what related to one's query. So answers to these questions may very well be valid, but are very difficult to accurately interpret.

 

Asking how and why questions offer more easily accessible interpretations, IMO. I've read that in the past questions were only framed regarding past and present situations, and it was just a little taboo to ask about things in the future. And then we look at Shao Yong who wrote an entire book of mostly accurate future predictions. Naturally there are many techniques...

 

My main interest with your theory is how do you feel the I Ching works alongside synchronicity and the collective unconscious? By this I mean how does the link between the question being asked, the coins being thrown, and the hexagram being formulated come into being? I find all of this truly fascinating

 

This quote comes to mind:

 

 

Another peculiarity of the method of using the I Ching Wang Liping learned from his Taoist mentors is that when divining a matter by means of a hexagram, one directs questions about the matter to the hexagram; so there is a host-guest relationship, which must be correctly defined in order to obtain a correct answer. The hexagram is the host; the self is the guest; when the self asks the host about something, it is necessary to place the sixty-four hexagrams outside, the sixty-four hexagrams forming a large sphere surrounding the self. This is the correct relationship. If the self is regarded as the host, and the sixty-four hexagrams are set up in one's own mind, then the answers to questions are all subjective, all in one's own mind -- then how is it possible to question things?

 

From Thomas Cleary's translation of Entering the Dragon Gate about the teaching of Wang Liping.

 

My sense is that, with stillness and sincerity, one questions the changes, and receives an answer based on the loudest stirring within one's conscious/subconscious sphere. Thus the answer is subjective, but if one is able to cultivate stillness, and take care to ask questions related to one's most dominant concerns, one will receive clear answers.

 

Taking it deeper, once one has cultivated enough stillness that one may avoid tainting questions with one's own local noise, one may selectively tap into deeper spheres, or collective unconsciousnesses, as one is able.

 

Also...

 

 

 

... Actually, the eight trigrams and sixty-four hexagrams should also be considered a hologram of the universe, with the evolution of all things proceeding according to the same natural laws.

 

A special feature of the use of the eight trigrams as taught to Wang Liping by his mentors is in regarding them as a sphere, rather than as a plane as ordinarily understood. The heaven and earth trigrams are the extremes, so they can be removed; the remaining six trigrams correspond to above and below, left and right, front and back, thus forming a three-dimensional structure. All things and all beings, all entities that have form, are inseparable from this sphere.