The I-Ching and the Quest for the Alternative Text




The I-Ching is the accompanying text for a oracle/divination system that exists in Chinese culture. The easiest way to explain divination to those who are not familiar with it is through the example of the casting of lots in the story of Jonah in the Bible. Jonah defies God's command to go to Nineveh and gets on a boat headed in the opposite direction. At sea the boat enters a great storm. The men on the boat think someone on board has done something wrong and cast lots to find out who they should throw off. Jonah gets the shortest lot and is thrown over the edge of the boat into the sea where he is swallowed by the whale.

While divination is considered by many to be spookism, "NOI Reference" Christianity can often be characterized in similar ways. The power of Jesus is that he defies natural laws or at least understands natural laws other beings do not which in turn make him God like. Belief in God and the Son of man hinges upon his ability to do miracles and operate in the realm of the spiritual though he possesses a physical body. The sacrament of communion operates in a similar way. Though many of us take communion, the assertion that the bread and wine become the blood and body of Christ suggest an invisible magic that is hard to verify without the energy of faith.

I have long sought a practical religion. Here the I is simply a reference to path and destiny as compared to ego and will. To restate, it is my path and destiny to seek a practical religion. While I have not found the perfect one yet, certain elements of what works for me have presented themselves through my studies and experience in life thus far.

Recently, I have come to the conclusion that a spiritual practice/religion must give its practitioners access to prayer, meditation, and some form of divinitation. Prayer is the ability to speak to the higher forces. Meditation is the ability to still the mind and feel one's connection with the world of the spirit. Divination is the ability to see the connection between the shape of one's life and a text that has been handed down (written or oral). In divination the text can serve as a mediator between the world of the spirit and day to day reality.

In the Western world the Bible is not simply the great text, it is also the core of the spiritual connection with Christianity. As text it is viewed by many as the literal world of God. While the I-Ching (to my knowledge) does not operate in this way, the book functions as a text that contains words that reveal the fundamental constructs of human modes of consciousness. There are 64. They are all composed of six lines that are either yin or yang. Some lines change. The changes reveal how the energy/consciousness will alternate.

Even if one does not want to study divination via the I-Ching, the book is an excellent piece of literature which contains many of the codes and culture of Chinese culture. The I-Ching is a systematic metaphorical way of thinking. Study of the book enables ones to understand the metaphoric infrastructure the text refers too is not simply "the text" but a textual version of how energy operates in the world. In the same way, one studies the Bible in order to understand the Western World, one can study the I-Ching to begin to understand portions of Chinese Culture.

Suggestions for beginning to explore the hexegrams are to simply go to a particular hexegram and read the text until you find something that you understand. Savor and expand that understanding and then apply it to some instance from your life. Though there are other ways, this will suffice for beginners.

What is most important is to "read" the text as most people in the West read the Bible. To suggest that you have "read" the Bible like a novel is a statement of ignorance. One does not "read" the I-Ching, one "studies" the I-Ching.

Study of the I-Ching is tactical and powerful in contemporary life because the book represents a ancient text from a long standing literate culture that reveals their fundamental codes of knowledge. More importantly, that culture's continuity and ascendancy on the world stage is related to the I-Ching's role in Chinese culture over the years. While this can be debated, so too can the Bible's role in the ascendancy of Western Culture.

I recommend the translation by Richard Wilhelm.

The I-Ching is arguably superior to the Tao in its ability to reveal the workings of yin and yang within everyday phenomena.

Transcendence

China, India, and Africa for America

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