I-Ching one of the oldest wisdom on this Earth
I Ching is one of
the oldest Chinese classic texts which are based on the symbolic language
of the hexagram. I ching is also known as the “Book Of Changes” or “The Oracle
of Changes”. The book is a symbolic system used for guidance for the betterment
of one’s life, this small book can be very useful in difficult times and its
wisdom will show the path to awareness and light. The Iching text describes an
ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is intrinsic to ancient Chinese
cultural beliefs. The cosmology is based on the science of opposite forces, the
negative and the positive i.e. the yin and the yang or the masculine and
feminine energies of the universe. The book is structured as an 8x8 matrix of
sixty four hexagrams representing the states and the dynamic relationship of
the eight elements, each represented by a trigram.
The concept of yin and yang (or earth
and heaven) describes two opposing and, at the same time, complementary
(completing) aspects of any one phenomenon. According to the Hindus they call
the same energies by the name of “Prakrati” and“Purush”, Prakrati is the yin
energy, the feminine energy, and it’s the energy of God which is sleeping and
Purush is the yang energy, the masculine energy and this energy is the energy
of consciousness, the energy which is awake. These 2 energies are always in
conflict within a person, a man has both these energies inside him, and the
Purush (Yang energy) is always pulling him upwards and Prakrati (Yin Energy) is
always pulling him downwards.
Osho Says in his book “Philosophia Perennis” about this
“Man is a meeting-point. That is the glory of man, and
his misery too. That is the anguish if not understood well -- because if you
don't understand that you are a meeting of two immense powers, polar opposites,
you will remain in a state of anxiety, anguish; you will feel torn apart, two
forces pulling you apart. Your life will become a great anxiety: what to be?
This or that?
The earth pulls you downwards, the sky calls you upwards. The body says,
"Follow me!" and the soul says, "Come with me!" And their
ways are different; you cannot follow both simultaneously. It seems almost
impossible. If you follow the body you start feeling guilty, because you have
not listened to the deepest voice in your being, to that still, small voice. If
you follow that still, small voice, you start feeling that you are being hard
on your body. The body starts feeling undernourished, unloved, and the body
starts rebelling against you. So whatsoever you choose...! If you choose the
body, the soul feels suffocated; if you choose the soul, the body feels
undernourished, neglected, ignored. Either way you feel in a state of tension.
This is the misery of man.
But IF these two laws are understood, and you can understand the rhythm
of these two laws, that they LOOK opposite, but deep down they are
complementary.... All opposites are always complementary. Life and death are
opposites and yet complementary. Man and woman are opposites, yet
complementary. Good and bad, opposites yet complementary. If you can see the
complementariness, then there arises a transcendence in you -- and your glory
comes into manifestation, you become a splendour.
That is the state of a Buddha, the state of a Jesus -- call it
Christ-consciousness or Buddha-consciousness or Krishna-consciousness, it
doesn't matter what name you use, but the meaning is this. When your tension
dissolves, your anxiety Is resolved, when you can be the body and the soul
together in harmony, when you have learnt how to play with your body and your
consciousness together, simultaneously, with no friction, then your life
creates great music. That music is meditation. Then your life becomes a melody
of tremendous import. You become a festival, a celebration. You bloom.
You use the body as a foundation and you use your consciousness to
create a temple. The body becomes the foundation, the consciousness becomes the
temple. You use your body as a flute, and the consciousness becomes a song
through the flute. You use the body as a sitar, and your consciousness becomes
the music that arises out of it.”
So I Ching is nothing but creating that music and harmony
between his male and female energies, his yin and yang energies, his Purush and
Prakrati energies.
So these 2 energies are opposites but at the same time complement
each other, complete each other.
I Ching has described the Qualities of Yin and Yang in the following way...
Yin qualities
are characterized as passive, dark, feminine, negative, downward-seeking,
consuming and corresponds to the night.
Yang qualities
are characterized as active, light, masculine, positive, upward-seeking,
producing and corresponds to the daytime.
There are Four Laws
of Yin and Yang...
1. Yin
and Yang are polar opposites. These
2 energies are poll apart from each other, the negative and the positive poll,
the winter and the summer of the year.
2. Yin
and Yang are mutually rooted. These
2 energies might be poll apart but they are part of the same phenomena, when
you put together form the entire phenomena. Only when negative and positive
meets the electricity is formed or the winter and summer makes up the whole
year.
3. Yin
and Yang are merging into each other.
These 2 energies are the energies of circle, the yin and yang. That is how life
is: opposites meeting. That circle YIN and YANG is half white, half black. In
the white there is a black spot, and in the black there is a white spot. The
white is moving in the black, and the black is moving into the white -- it is a
circle. The woman moving into the man, the man moving into the woman... this is
life.
4. Yin
and Yang mutually wax and wane. These
2 energies grow together, the person has both the same level of energies, they
grow together and they decrease together. A person is both capable of being a
saint and sinner at the same time.
The I Ching
is a "reflection of the universe in miniature." The word
"I" has three meanings:
1.
Simplicity – the truth is always simple. The
fundamental law underlying everything in the universe is utterly plain and
simple, no matter how difficult or complex some things may appear to be.
2.
Change - the truth is always changing. Everything
in the universe is continually changing. Life becomes death and death becomes
birth again. This wheel of change is always moving.
3.
Unchanging - the wheel of change is always moving but
there is a point in a wheel which is unchanging and fixed. While everything in
the universe seems to be changing, among the changing tides there is a
persistent principle, a central rule, which does not vary with space and time.
Ching in Chinese means bells and bells produces sound, a sound which
brings awakening, so I Ching is the sound of truth which brings awakening and
awareness of the self.
I Ching works as a
Mirror
Today most of the people uses I Ching for divination but
its purpose is much larger, its purpose is to bring awareness on the path. Once
you choose the path of awareness, as your witness starts growing you start
enjoying the I Ching also not before that before that I Ching is just a mirror.
They reflect your own unconscious -- nothing much. They never give you anything
new, they simply reflect you. But you don’t know yourself, that's why you think
something new has been gained; some new knowledge has been gained through them.
Osho also says in his book “Tao: The Three Treasures”
that in the I Ching you will find a mirror. If a Buddha reads the I Ching it is
going to be totally different, because the mirror will show Buddha. If Lao Tzu
reads the I Ching, it will show Lao Tzu. If you read, of course you will see
yourself. You can see only your face. So don't be bothered. Become a Buddha,
and then it will be worth looking at the mirror.
The text of the I Ching is a set of predictions
represented by a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called hexagrams. Each hexagram is a
figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines, where each line is either Yang
(an unbroken, or solid line), or Yin (broken, an open
line with a gap in the center). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top
there are 26 or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams
represented.
The hexagram diagram is conceptually subdivided into two
three-line arrangements called trigrams.
There are 23, hence 8, possible trigrams. The traditional view
was that the hexagrams were a later development and resulted from combining the
two trigrams.
There are eight
possible trigrams -
1. Dragon [Father] also known as Heaven stands for the energy, the fire,
the strength. The power through which all the creativity happens. This energy
can be manifested the way a individual wants, this is the energy which becomes
the Buddha, which touches the sky. The dragon symbolizes the masculine energy
also known as Yang in Chinese symbolism. It is the expansive energy, the sky.
2. Earth [Mother] represents the feminine
energy also known as the Yin in Chinese symbolism. She stands for motherhood,
fertility, dark, warmness, love and receptivity. This is the receptive energy,
that which yields.
3. Thunder [Eldest Son] represents
something coming as a shock, also stands for enlightenment and destruction, the
flashing light is a symbol of sudden change happening bringing awareness and
watchfulness. Keywords are excitation, revolution, division.
4. Water [Middle Son] also known as Chasm stands for danger, coming of a
difficult situation, also stands for challenge, testing of faith, falling into
the pit and facing the darkness. Keywords are danger, rapid rivers, the abyss,
the moon.
5. Wind [Eldest Daughter] also known as Wood stands for sensitivity and gentle
attitude, being like a warrior strong from outside and conscious from inside.
It also stands for dedication and discipline. Its nature is gentle penetration,
flexibility.
6. Lake [Youngest Daughter] stands for
truth and purity of heart, also representing deep understanding and learning
from life. Keywords are joy, satisfaction, stagnation.
7. Mountain [Youngest Son] stands for the
heights, the stillness, and the stability also representing the highest peak of
spiritual awareness. It’s the rising of the energy. It represents stillness,
immovability.
8. Fire [Middle Daughter] stands for the
light of awareness in the dark, the twinkling of a star in the dark night. The
lamp helpful on the path to avoid us from pits and problems. Rapid moments,
radiance, the sun.
These 8 trigrams can be placed one above another giving
results to 64 different possibilities of Hexagram. These 64 Hexagrams have 64
different meanings with its title and an image of its own has a special purpose
and that purpose is to learn the lesson and grow in life.
Hexagram Lookup Table
The hexagrams
The text of the I Ching describes each of the 64
hexagrams, and later scholars added commentaries and analyses of each one;
these have been subsumed into the text comprising the I Ching.
Each hexagram's common translation is accompanied by the
corresponding R. Wilhelm translation, which is the source for the Unicode
names.
Also its very interesting that these 8 trigrams forms the
64 hexagrams, both the numbers 8 and 64 have a very special significance in
many life traditions. The simplest to understand is that 8 stand for infinity,
knowledge which has no end and no beginning and 64 is the square of 8 and when
8 x 8 the result is realized totality, this is the numeric value of truth. So
in the coming blog we will be exploring the detail of each Hexagram, I hope
these hexagrams reveal the secrets and laws of universe which they are carrying
within them for us.
Love
posted by Siddhartha @ 6:21 AM
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