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.

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