Today I'm inviting you to take another look with me. We'll take a preliminary trip using the ancient Book of Changes, or I Ching as a guidebook.
Over the past fifty years I have made friends with the I Ching. It's not unusual for a friend to ask, "Do you believe in that book?" My answer is No. The Book of Changes is for me like a microscope. Do you believe in a microscope? They are tools. On the shelf, they are simply things. Used wisely, they can help bring about clarity and understanding.
Those of us who see the Bible as a collection of teaching stories compiled over centuries can find wisdom and solace and ethical challenges. Those who consider the Holy Bible as their God's teachings dictated to and transcribed by holy men, well, they tend to be very wary when some old Eastern book is trotted out. The Chinese have brainwashed the hippies! Heaven forbid!
Crack open the I Ching and, depending on the translation/adaptation and your motivation, you may find either a cryptic collection of mountain, lake, wind and thunder symbols, or you may discover a patient, sagacious, imaginative set of sixty-four evocative portrayals of sixty-four different states of being that all humans know and live. In the introduction to most volumes, you'll read about how to "consult the oracle." I've known a lot of folks, hippies and non-hippies, who stop right there. Bah, more fortune-telling. More giving up your own free will to give yourself over to some Chinese hocus-pocus. No thanks.
But wait. Linger with me. Suspend disbelief. And lean into the discomfort of considering the possibility that humanity has not necessarily become wiser or more thoughtful over time. The I Ching is not based on religion or, to my mind, any belief system. It is, rather, a poetic and brilliant compendium of the human condition, starting with the one,
So yes, some people like to see it as a fortune-teller or even a misfortune-teller. For me the I Ching is the wisest, most patient Aunt/Uncle I could dream of. S/he challenges me to look deeper within, to forgive myself, and to laugh at my folly. So how does it work?
How To
• borrow or buy the book - I like The I Ching Workbook by R.L.Wing for starting out.
• read and contemplate the introduction - It helps to internalize the inner meanings of the building blocks (yin & yang & the 8 trigrams) before setting forth to do a reading.
• contemplate a situation or relationship or decision that you'd like to better understand - This contemplation is at the heart of this process. You will be considering a way of approaching or looking at that which you've been contemplating. This is not a Yes or No situation. It's all about How.
• while reflecting on the myriad facets of your inquiry, toss three coins six times - See the tossing of the coins as a further opportunity to reflect. There's no magic here besides the wonder at how all of us are, everything everywhere always is connected.
• building from the bottom up, the six lines, broken or unbroken, moving or staying still, are revealed by the six coin tosses - First you build one trigram, then a second on top. Look at each trigram and recall what you've learned about each.
• locate in the Book of Changes which of the sixty-four hexagrams you've arrived at - It's time to read the passage for that hexagram. Do your best to simply picture what the words bring to mind. No need to form a conclusion or claim an answer yet. If any of the lines you've "tossed" are moving lines, then draw a second hexagram in which a moving, unbroken Yang line becomes a broken yin line, and vice versa.
• in your own heart, in your journal, or with a trusted friend, reflect on how the meaning of this hexagram illuminates your rumination - In the days that follow, bring these images to mind. Don't spit them out. Don't swallow them whole. Just chew.
You are your own oracle.