Wei I Ching The Book of Answers

The Profound and Timeless Classic of Universal Wisdom
1. Auflage 2005
ISBN: 978-1-4835-4713-8
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 422 Seiten

This revised and expanded edition of Wu Wei's well-loved version of the I Ching is unparalleled in its clarity, making this the easiest-to-grasp I Ching ever published. The I Ching is a book of answers that miraculously guides us to success in every possible situation. Yet, if we are to rely with absolute certainty on the I Ching for guidance to our most vital questions, we need answers that are clear and straightforward, leaving no room for confusion or misunderstanding. Wu Wei has guided thousands of people in the use of this great book and knows precisely what you need so you can put your trust in its prophetic guidance. Wu Wei's insightful interpretations of the I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams provide perfectly clear, unambiguous direction while remaining completely true to the ancient writings. You will know exactly what action to take to avoid misfortune and achieve success. The I Ching: The Book of Answers contains everything you need to know about the I Ching and how to use it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wei, Wu

Leseproben

part one

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

If you knew which of your actions would bring you good fortune and which misfortune, which actions would lead to your success and which to failure, would that knowledge not be better than gold and diamonds? Would it not allow you to achieve any goal? Have anything you desired? If you could transcend the barriers of time to look into the future, into the past, if you could see the road that led to happiness, the road to despair, would you not consider yourself fortunate indeed?

When you become adept in the use of the I Ching, you will be able to do all those things and more. Open your mind to the words on the following pages; allow yourself the freedom, the luxury, to believe that all of the above is possible.

We are part of the Universe—each one of us—as much a part as are the galaxies that whirl through space and, here on our little planet, as much a part as are the trees, the mountains, and the sky. We are no less a part of the Universe than anything else is or was or ever can be. We are an integral part, made of the same stuff as the rest of the Universe: Universal energy. All is one.

The Universe is alive, conscious, and aware—acutely aware of each of us. And how could it be otherwise since we are it? The Universe experiences itself through us … and through the breeze blowing through the trees, the snail crawling on the ground, the lightning that strikes the mountain top, and the galaxies that whirl through space.

The Universe wants to continue. How do we know? Because it does … that means that all the laws of the Universe are in favor of continuation. If there was even one law that favored discontinuation, surely destruction would have come to pass during the billions of years since it all began. But, it has not come to pass. That also means that everything that happens is perfect—must be perfect—that the Universe will not tolerate anything less. If it could, it would be in danger of its own destruction because one imperfect event could lead to two, to three, to four, and so on, leading to destruction. It never allows even the first imperfect event to occur. That means that since we are the Universe, a part of it, everything that happens benefits us. It may hurt us or take something away from us, but it always benefits us. If we act on the basis of that, Universal law will bring peace to our souls and joy to our hearts.

Everything that happens, happens within time. We like to think that time stretches illimitably forward into the future and illimitably back into the past while we exist on a hairline of time that separates the future from the past, the hairline we call “Now.” Quite the reverse is true; all there is and was and ever will be is an endless “Now,” within which change occurs.

Within that endless “Now,” we are eternal, all of us, as is everything else, simply changing—endlessly.

Because we are the Universe, a part of it, and because time is a living, breathing entity that contains consciousness—may indeed be the consciousness of the Universe, permeating everything, including ourselves—we can know everything the Universe knows; all we need is a key to unlock that fount of sublime wisdom and complete information. That we each have a key is unquestionable; every time a new idea seems to arise spontaneously within us we have used our key. Egotistically, we like to think that we created the idea, but actually what we did was no less noteworthy: we channeled the idea from the source; we used our key. We know that the Universe wants us to have that knowledge because we have been provided with the key.

That the key exists within each of us is the premise of all divination. Divination surmises that there is a part of us that is at one with everything, including time, and therefore knows what everything knows. The English root word of divination is divine. The Latin root word is divinus, meaning a deity, and also, to foretell!

For us to be able to draw from the fount of Universal wisdom, we must have a means to do so. Some people draw from the fount with prayer; some by meditating; some by being quiet and focusing their attention on the subject under question, or no question at all; some by talking with psychics or astrologers; others by manipulating objects such as coins, tarot cards, ruins, yarrow stalks, or any of a number of related objects; still others by interpreting dreams.

All of the systems work perfectly, up to the limits of the systems and the capability of the questioner or interpreter. If, for instance, you ask a question and flip a coin to get an answer, you are limited to a yes or no answer. If you ask a question and select from a deck of cards with several sentences of guidance printed on it, you can obtain counsel beyond yes or no. The more sophisticated the system, the more complete and detailed will be the answer.

If you and I decided to formulate a system to obtain answers to questions, we would put into that system as many answers as there are questions. That may sound difficult, even impossible, but one answer can be sufficient for many questions. For instance, all questions regarding the taking of action can be generally satisfied with three answers: to take action, to take no action, or to delay taking action. Fortunately, we do not have to create a system of answers: the I Ching masterfully fills that need. Once the answers have been formulated, all that remains is to devise a method for determining which answer applies to which question. Because we are searching for cosmic answers, we must prevent ourselves from intellectually tampering with how we obtain the results, a method that will permit only the spiritual portion of ourselves—that portion that is at one with All-That-Is—to participate; the yarrow stalk method perfectly accomplishes that end.

When we close our eyes and grasp a number of yarrow stalks from a bunch of forty-nine stalks, when we select a card from a deck whose faces we cannot see, when we choose a stone from a pile of inscribed stones whose faces we cannot see, or in following similar practices, we exceed our intellectual ability to determine the outcome because we cannot know how many stalks were grasped, or which card was chosen until its face is seen, or which stone was chosen from the pile until the inscription on its face can be read. All such methods of choosing rely completely on the intuitive ability of the questioner, on his ability to draw upon his spiritual source that knows everything. In the words of Lao Tzu, “… to feel beyond touch … to hear beyond sound … to see beyond shape, and … to tell beyond words.”

When all our answers have been developed and our method of selecting answers has been determined, we can proceed confidently to ask questions because there is a part within each of us that knows the answers to all our questions and that will guide us in choosing the correct answer.

Fu Hsi (pronounced foo shee), the great Chinese sage to whom the I Ching system is attributed, constructed his answers in the form of sixty-four six-line figures the Chinese call kua, each line stacked one above the other, either solid (— ), or broken (- -). Each of the kua is formed by combining two of eight basic trigrams, which are three-line figures such as this: . The two trigrams that form the kua are called primary trigrams. There are two other trigrams in the kua called nuclear trigrams, which will later be described in detail.

Before the lines exist, there are six empty spaces. The lines fill those spaces and move within them. Following the law of eternal change, the lines are always in motion, always moving upward. As a new line enters from the bottom, it pushes the five lines above it upward, thereby displacing the line at the top. The movement always follows the rhythm of the Universal heartbeat, always mirroring the Universe itself. Taken together, the kua and their lines represent every conceivable condition in Heaven and on Earth with all their states of change.

Each of the sixty-four kua can change into one another through the movement of one or more of the six lines that form the kua. There are 4,096 possible combinations (64 × 64), which represent every possible condition in Heaven and on Earth.

The kua and trigrams are both called kua (pronounced “gwa,” with the “a” sounded as in father), which means symbol. To avoid confusion, but to retain the flavor of the ancient text as much as possible, the six-line figures will be referred to as kua and the three-line figures as trigrams.

Each of the sixty-four kua, with their combined total of 384 lines, represents a situation or condition. Each situation or condition contains the six stages of its own evolution: 1. about to come into being, 2. beginning, 3. expanding, 4. approaching maximum potential, 5. peaking, and 6. passing its peak and turning toward its opposite condition. By taking the appropriate action, we can turn any condition into any other condition. (See my A Tale of the I Ching, Power Press)

The kua not only represent every conceivable situation and condition possible, but also include all their states of change. Fu Hsi’s method for selecting the appropriate kua is unique: the manipulation of fifty yarrow stalks, one being laid aside as an observer stalk, the rest being divided and redivided eighteen times.

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