Getting the Right Answer From the I Ching

I've had a number of people who have expressed difficulty with being able to get a coherent or useful answer out of their I Ching castings.

When I help them analyze their casting, it is quite often, certainly more than half the time, that the very first thing that becomes evident to me is that the caster did not take the time to formulate the ideal question.

This is the most important part of an I Ching casting, in the sense that it is the first thing you must figure out, and forms the ground for everything that comes after!

The nature and quality of your question will fundamentally determine the answer you receive.

The nature of your question speaks to the state of mind you have at the moment of making the casting: part of formulating the right question is not just a matter of the question itself, but of taking the time to contemplate and center yourself, to be in the right state to approach the casting.

So remember, first and foremost, when you are going to cast the I Ching, first give yourself a good while to work out what you want your question to be. Think about what it is you really need to know about the situation you want to cast about, and how you can phrase that in a way that will present you with the right sort of answers you can actually use.

Just "Being In The Moment" is Useless

"In the moment" is kind of a tricky term. Because in fact no matter what, we're ALWAYS 'in the moment'. The real question is whether we're Conscious in the moment, and what that means. Just 'living in the moment' is nothing special, and it's actually useless.

 

 

Fundamentally, being Conscious in the Moment is about bringing the Future INTO the moment. It means being sufficiently aware of one's own self that you expand through Space/Time in this very moment to be able to INCLUDE where you've already been and where you're likely to be into this moment.

So what does this do? It gives you free Will. Without this Active Consciousness, you are still here, in the moment but the moment is actually very small, so small that you don't really have the power to really control what happens to you. You are a prisoner of the past and doomed toward a given future because you're not Aware enough to Change anything.

If you are Conscious in the Moment, then Space/Time is all existing right there, in that moment. The gives us the power to move; to change. What has led us to here, and where here can lead to, is part of our Awareness, and we can alter it.

Just being 'in the moment' without any Consciousness is basically being an animal or a robot.

On the other hand, being Conscious in the Moment means that you have the power to transform reality itself.

Do Kanye & Trump Really Have "Dragon Energy"?

Today, rap musician Kanye West caused some controversy on social media for coming to the defense of Donald Trump on Twitter, something that must be a surprise to many of his fans, and was clearly a surprise to a great many political commentators.

His Tweet was interesting because of the reason why he expressed sympathy for Trump: he stated that he and Trump "are both Dragon Energy". 

This was a  bit of an amusing surprise for me to read. And it's very likely that Kanye did not intend to refer (at least not consciously) to the ideas of the School of Yin and Yang or to Qi Gong terminology of the I Ching. But it leads to an amusing question: let's assume that IS what he meant... is he right? Do Kanye West and Donald Trump both have "dragon energy"?

In the terminology of Qi, different forms of Yin and Yang have traditional associations to different animals.

So for example,  the Mare is associated with the World trigram, the three Yin lines.
The Moon trigram with it's "fat middle" is associated to the boar. The Air/Wind trigram to the Tiger, with it's one-yin-line tail at the end of it's two yang-line body.

And the Heaven Trigram is the Dragon. The power of great Yang.

So if someone is full of "dragon energy" what would that say about them? Well, it is:

-Extremely forceful

-Creative

-Filled with confidence

-Prone to risk-taking

-Potentially arrogant

-Defiant of any opposition to their goals

-Unconcerned with blame or praise from others

-Unwilling to show fear or uncertainty

-Extremely effective at accomplishing their goals

-Boastful

-Brave

-Extremely determined in their beliefs

-Aggressive

-Rarely open to criticism

-Regal

-Ambitious to ascend in life

-Strong, and also concerned with the appearance of strength

-Assertive

-Favoring action over contemplation

-Favoring reason over feelings

-Unwilling to submit/surrender to anyone

-Insistent on their own self-expression

-A lover of life and life's pleasures

-A dreamer

-Interested in the Big Picture, less interested in minor details

-Tending toward intense relationships, demanding loyalty

-Protective of family and loved ones

-Tend to be spiritual but not conventionally spiritual


Dragon energy in this form is all Yang and no Yin, so unless it is counterbalanced by Yin people or Yin cultivation, it will tend to cause disharmony and instability. 


So, what do you think? Does it sound, based on what Dragon Energy is, that Kanye and Trump both have it?


And if so, is that a good thing?

I Ching Commentary Video - Hexagram #11 "Intercourse"

Here is the youtube video for the newest in my commentaries on the I Ching, on the subject of the 11th Hexagram- "Intercourse".

Members of the Yi Fa Society get access to additional I Ching video and text commentaries that go into more depth on the symbolism and divination uses of the I Ching's Hexagrams. If you are interested in joining the Yi Fa Society, please get in touch.

"Incipiencies": More on How the I Ching Works

Incipiency is a concept inherent in the I Ching, because it is inherent in space-time. But the term (it's explanation, and centrality to I Ching studies) is largely attributable to the master Zhu Xi.

It emerges out of the question of "how does the I Ching tell the future"? The answer is: it doesn't. The I Ching measures the present, this moment. But you have to imagine this moment as a set of interconnecting streams from trillions of previous choices, from events that took place yesterday, the day before that, 50 years ago, 4000 years ago, 12 million years ago, etc. Each choice both sealed off a whole bunch of possible futures, and created a cascade of effects that would have a possibility of happening in the future. And in the present moment, we have the culmination of that weight of trillions of trillions of circumstances.

With me so far?

So, if we understand that, we also understand that the future is observable in the present moment; by looking at those past streams, where they can and cannot lead, which of them cannot be altered at this time (unchanging lines) and which of them could be (changing lines). The future exists as a kind of seed already in the present. It is not here but the ingredients for it are all here.

In I Ching study there's a saying that goes something like "you cannot change something once it has happened. If you want to change something, you need to change it before it happens".

The changing lines reflect those incipiencies, the malleable spots in the present moment in Space Time, where you can make a choice, you can drop a new pebble in the stream of space-time to alter the current and change the course of the future.

"Synchronicity" and the I Ching

Many people in the west try to claim, in answer to the question of how the I Ching works, that it is through "synchronicity".  This was a term used by the psychologist C.G. Jung (who was a great admirer of the I Ching, and tried to explain its function through the lens of his psychological theories), and was later bastardized for common use by the new-age movement.

(Jung, giving a questioning glance at New Age woo)

Synchronicity, as it is most often used by people involved in applying the term to the I Ching, supposes that "random" events, random convergence, random meaning, all just comes together as little more than some sort of "coincidence on steroids" (as one of my Yi Fa Society students put it).

It is a way you can feel like something has meaning, but you still don't have to really challenge your ideas beyond the assumption it's all just random chance.

It allows you to 'cop out' in various ways:

-to chicken out of needing to take a casting seriously if you decide you don't like what it's saying

-to chicken out of considering your own deeper consciousness ("I just look for synchronicity and let the universe guide me!!")

-to chicken out of exploring the vaster significance of the I Ching's expression of space-time

-to chicken-out of having to move beyond our 20th/21st century post-modern Baby-Boomer western paradigm

This Western Paradigm is the one that says things like "spirituality is just some kind of primitive superstitious psychology", or "you are the center of the universe so of course the universe will send you personally unique personal messages when you toss some coins around, because of how special you are", or "there is no actual reality, all that matters is what you're feeling and what you imagine"!

But in fact, profound study of the I Ching shows that nothing at all is really "random".  All events are caused by Incipiencies: the quality of previous events in space-time synthesizing to plant the seed of future events in space-time. As a certain Canadian philosopher once said: "Fate is just the weight of circumstances".   Every event consists of a moment (represented by the Hexagram) that is the product of literally TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of previous choices made, that weigh down on that moment to make it THAT moment and no other possible moment.

Within that moment, there are only a certain number of malleable points, where one can act to create a new Incipiency that will work to shift the movement of time in the future. These are represented in an I Ching hexagram by the Changing Lines.

So Incipiency is like the "Gravity" of Time.

If you understand this, then you'd get that "synchronicity" as a notion has nothing to do with the structure of the I Ching.  Or, for that matter, with reality, except in the sense that you can take any coincidence and apply meaning to it, sometimes to good purpose.

Scaling Yongjia's Green Crag Mountain

Scaling Yongjia's Green Crag Mountain

(An I Ching poem, by Xie Lingyun, 4th century poet)

With provisions packed and a thin staff,
I walked a winding path, and scaled to a hidden place,
I went upstream and went beyond the trail.
I reached the peak, but had not yet found harmony.

The gentle rivulets frosted in winter beauty.
Strong bamboo glistened with frost.
The stream wound along, often losing its direction.
The forest was vast, the mountains deep.

I looked west anticipating the moonrise;
I glanced east, observing the light of sunset.
I walked on until night, having marched from dawn to dusk.
Even the most hidden places have become known to me.

The top line of Gu (#18): serve no king or prince.
The second line of Lu (#10): right pushing brings good luck.
A Hermit will always walk peacefully.
His great Virtue is incomparable.

How far is the distance from "yes" to "no"?
In stillness, I dedicate myself to Union.
As Harmony and Truth combine,
Only then can one begin to Repair.