Aspects of the Yi jing ASPECTS1.TXT *********************************************************************** I want to say a little about the recent notion of aspects of the yijing. By this I mean, a notion that there are "technical" aspects of the yijing, and "experiential" aspects of the yijing. Without denying the Polarity of the notion, I want to say that all aspects of the yijing are important to a deep understanding. I imagine it something like this: If I want to go to Akron, Ohio, I will probably go to the local AAA and get a map. This map will show me how to go to "Akron, Ohio" in English, and in readily understandable terms for a relatively literate resident of America. On the other hand, if Ely wanted to go to Akron, she would get the same information in Portugese. (although I imagine the drive to Akron from South America would be tedious.) The point I want to offer is this, if I were to get Ely's map, my drive to Akron would be substancially more difficult, because my map was in Portugese, which I do not read! Likewise, the yijing is a map of the way to "Buddha Consciousness," and its language is largely unknown. Imagine, for a moment, that Terence McKenna is correct in his notion that the yijing is an ACTUAL MACHINE that can be activated and will then perform its "task" automatically. Now I believe the yijing is probably something along these lines. Fu Xi, historically, was very likely one of the legendary Immortals (Rishis, Prophets, Angels, Gods, Goddesses, whatever. Sai Baba proves their existence. He fullfils all extant parameters.) Of course, I cannot know if this is a fact, yet I can readily imagine it is likely. If this is the case, it increases the likely hood that McKenna is on the right track with his "machine" notion. Now I can imagine the Fu Xi wrote down a "thing" in a language that IS NOT CHNESE. Fu Xi "invented" Chinese Ideograms seperately. The Chinese was added 4000 years later (if legend dates are accurate. Wen wrote in the middle of the -1100s and Fu Xi wrote 4000 years earlier, -5100s). Lets put this in perpective. The Egyptain text "Coming Forth By Day" is virtually unchanged from -3000 to -500, only 2500 years ago. In the time of its existence, the later scribes obviously did not know the actual meaning of the text. This can be showed by "scribal errors." It is known that by 300 AD there was (almost) no one who understood Heiroglyphs at all.Anyone who did know, wasn't talking. The language was "dead." Now, 2500 years later, we have only barely begun to unlock this deeply insightful text in the 200 years there has been knowledge of the script. If we look back 2500 years, the text is illegable. Wen looked back TWICE that time in the matter of revising the yijing, and by legend, believed the original was all but lost. His clarifiction was in CHINESE, NOT the language the Fu Xi originally "wrote" it in, and, since Fu Xi "invented" Chinese, if he had wanted or needed a Chinese text to clarify the text, he could have added it himself, yes? I have no doubt that Wen (I choose to believe the legend) was a deeply insightful man, and I am sure his additions to the text are extremely accurate and helpful (in other words, he knew how to "activate the machine"). I have no doubt that Wang Bi knew how to "activate the machine." Lui I-MIng, likewise wrote a meaningful Commentary. Now, clearly, the yi jing is a deeply "spiritual" artifact. On the same point, Sai Baba would seem to be showing me that "activation" is a spiritual process, and unlocking the Mind of Dao is neccesary to the process. Because I view the yi jing not only as an oracle, it is also a very old "periodic table" that may, literally, have been written by one of the "Gods", I see the Hexagrams and trigrams as a map within themselves, and I see the additions as "clarifiers" of this map (rather like a map's "Legend"). I agree that the experiece of the yi jing is "subjective," and I do not do "readings" for my clients, I merely share with them the notions I have learned from reading countless commmentaries and attempting to clarify the language of the yi jing (meaning the text that has come to us, including the Commentaries (wings)). I encourage THEM to do the operation, to become the Shaman, and to experience the "activation" subjectively. I feel I cannot know what the yi jing means in their experience. The same with me, and my process with the yi. It is highly subjective. I have thrown out the ENTIRE Chinese text many times, when the Hexagram itself speaks to me. (More often, though, I find that the text actually enhances my sense of the Hexagram). Any defination of experience involves the Mind, thus, it is retrospect. Although one may say that the possibilites of this line or that line occuring is (or is not) important, I can conceed this, I still feel that knowing (for instance) that Yin is traditionally considered to occur more often that Yang, is of great value in attempting to activate the machine. No matter what someone says, it can be said to be "from their experience." The recent discussion on Probabilities points this out to me clearly. To imagine that the experience that Kirk and Mike shared over the math of the yi jing is "technical" instead of "spiritual" denies the possibility that McKenna (and Lui I-Ming, Wang Bi and many others) are right. I can see myself not currently agreeing with McKenna, yet still admit that he COULD be right. I actually believe there is a deeply Spiritual Aspect to the Universe that Western Science has missed (thus, their consistent failures to define "REALITY" in an accurate way.) This is exactly what Schwaller talks about as Sacred Science. I have a notion that consciousness is, in and of itself, the "Unified Field" that Western Science needs to find. I believe that common reality is largely a process of the Manifestaion of Yang Creation, just as outlined by the yi jing. Yang arises from the collapse of Yin (thus there is no beginning) and that the substane referred to by the yi jing as qi is the "substance" that is neither Yang (complete Force/Energy) nor Yin (Complete Field/Manifestation/Matter). Example: the Dao exists as all the possibilities of the manifestation-creation cycle. A yang flash (let's use this as an ARBITRARY starting place) occurs, and begins to manifest. At the moment of the Yang flash, infinite possibilties exist. Through conscious effort, the particle begins to "warp" the fabric of the Dao, and choses one of the infinite possibilites. The probability of that Yang becoming this "thing" increases (where attention goes, energy grows) until, at the moment of full Yin (I actually see Full Yang (Qian) and Full Yin (Kun) as limits, not occurances, so, for me, NEITHER actually occurs. There can be no Yang without Yin) there is complete synchronsity between the "consciousness" of the thing warping the Dao and the possibility of its existence. The probability of the things existence becomes 100%, through the action of its use of attention to warp the Dao. Thus, the common reality I experience is a "Yin Bubble," that is, it represents the billions of individual "manifestations" of billions of Yang Flashes.(And, fractally, the singular manifestation of a singular yang flash.) This is the map of the yi jing, it shows the process that qi takes from its Creation to its manifestation, and back. Qi is shown only the Hexagrams that contain both Yin and Yang lines, I believe. To say the Yin (receptive, oracle) aspects of the yijing are more valuable than the Yang (Creative, Mapping) is, to me, ignoring half the picture. I cherish each posting from the Hex8 group, be it about structure or divination. The truth, for me, is melding the two, and accomplishing the activation. "Once in a while You can get shown the light; In the strangest of places, If you look at it right." -Robert Hunter Be Blessed! Never Thirst! Thou Art God(dess) Ankh