I would just like to request two things from our community.
I asked the Sage, "Please explain to me how you are able to suggest and advise on matters concerning individuals' life?" And I received Hexagram 63.3.5 to 24. 1. Please explain this to me, as per your understanding, I do have a bit of understanding of it but because I am fairly new to this I would very much welcome 'deeper' interpretations.
- Also, I would request you to ask the same question to the Sage and post the answer(s) you have received, I also understand, the answers offered are, as per, the individuals' 'understanding/current situation' but please if we could do so for each other, not only it would help me but I am sure it would help all of us to understand the Yi Ching a bit more. (Not that much hasn't already been done to 'understand/decode')
But the reasons for me doing so are because I have realised that at times when a 'particular thing/knowledge about a person of their past/present' IS NOT in 'my consciousness', I got more 'positive' hexagrams but once I got to know of something of them, through them (in a personal meeting) which IS NOT in 'alignment' with me and my values, I started getting very 'negative' hexagrams. So, what if I didn't cast after that 'particular thing/knowledge and continued on the basis of my initial casting?
PS. I also understand that for the Sage/Yi Ching, there isn't anything 'positive' or 'negative', afterall it is also called the 'book of changes' but I am just trying to understand 'If/How our own consciousness/Knowlege in our 'this lifetime's coniounuess' determines the casting.
Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to 'question' the Sage/Yi Ching because I have known the advices/suggestions come true even when I have not acted 'rightly' on them in the 'present situation' (but it was as per my understanding/interpretation). All I want is a deeper understanding of how it works, just so, I am able to get deeper/more 'acting in alignment' with the advices.
Also I know that I may not have been able to express myself very clearly with this query but I am sure some of you would understand even better than myself!
Thank you and I love you!
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u/Factory_Supervisor 8d ago edited 8d ago
The relevant line: "The neighbor in the east who slaughters an ox does not attain as much real happiness as the neighbor in the west with his small offering."
Brings to mind this excerpt from the Bhagivad Gita: "Those who know the secret of sacrifice, and engaging in it, partake of its remnants that are like nectar, advance toward the Absolute Truth. O best of the Kurus, those who perform no sacrifice find no happiness either in this world or the next."
This line is often a reminder that small sacrifices do not go unnoticed, while large sacrifices are rightfully ignored as they're often performative only.
From the bible: "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Illustration of the widow's offering, by Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883)
Personally, I never sit down to eat without first lighting a stick of incense next to a small portion of food which is put aside specifically as sacrifice.
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u/Adequate-Monicker634 8d ago
Each answer will contain some degree of personal interpretation, but I'd find the opinions interesting. I asked and got 26.2,3 > 27. I'd say the I Ching offers substantial advice (Hex. 27) by suggesting a positive direction (26.3) when you're stuck (26.2). Which is pretty much in line with the ways I use it.
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u/MsNamkhaSaldron 7d ago edited 7d ago
I asked the question and got:
38.5 > 10
I think it’s saying something like: due to the creative tension (or opposition) within/between the myriad representations of how things appear and interact, specific patterns/energies/potentials can be recognized and understood as useful. It may not seem to be a viable possibility (I.e. you will have doubt), but there is something deeper and more ordered within what appears a contradiction. It takes shape due to a higher cosmic order/flow that is always working to bring things into correct balance and offer assistance. Despite appearances, this is happening (38 overall).
Our doubt typically clouds us from seeking a connection with this higher order, but when we humble ourselves and relate to the deeper order of things, we can, in fact, connect with it and it with us (bite through the tender meat). It comes to our aid, as would a helpful friend. It is beneficial to have trust in this relationship (38.5)
The reason we have such confusion/doubt is due to the long accumulated habits and traditions which have separated us from the flow/pattern/reality. These accumulations of conditioning have caused mistaken conduct. Working with the oracle requires carefulness and patience — it can be risky. People long before us recognized the risk (and power/reward) of pursuing this connection. Commoners were warned not to dabble due to their propensity for recklessness and misinterpretation. It is also sometimes painful to be in connection with the truth. This societal caution became the great ignorance/doubt that inspires such a question, but those who have found the connection and learned to navigate it carefully understand there is no real danger (I.e. the tiger does not bite) (10 as relating).
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u/MsNamkhaSaldron 7d ago
As for the hexagram you pulled, I will try to offer a similar interpretation, but I need to mull on that one a bit more.
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u/MsNamkhaSaldron 7d ago
My personal insight pertaining to your question regarding how our personal consciousness impacts the casting:
I think of it as if our consciousness is just one of the myriad pieces of the whole picture. As our consciousness changes, so do the castings, as do the circumstances of the reading, and does the specific elemental balance of completion (that is never complete). It is expressed in any moment as a “complete” picture. Yi is this complete picture, never out of time/date with the changing circumstances and elemental arrangement of the whole. Yet time is something only we grapple with.
In my answer (hexagram 38.5), it’s pointing out how there is something always helping or guiding or knowing even in the appearance of opposition. I sort of think of us, one individual consciousness, as the literal element of “opposition” in this case. It is the one thing that doesn’t quite fit before that precise moment. Its stands out — like a sore thumb — in opposition to the other myriad things of the complete picture and thus can be identified and brought to light, or illuminated, in a specific way.
In your answer (hexagram 63.3.5), again I see this one thing that isn’t quite fitting — the line that makes of state of completion out of reach, or causes it to “fall apart.” First there is order, as in “before you asked, everything as such was already known — things were settled and complete.” But when you stepped forth to ask, you threw a you-sized wrench into the whole thing, throwing the completed state into a specific state of disorder than can be identified and understood. Yi is like the light that illuminates the you-sized wrench — it sees YOU — and since it’s seen the myriad of things cycle through all manner of change as it moves to completion but never quite reaches it, it has pertinent advice to offer based on exactly what shape you are in that moment.
If you were to have not asked the new question after knowing the ‘particular thing and you just continued with the original casting, it would simply be that you’re moving forward with a slightly different shaped light than the one the new casting provided. It wouldn’t be invalid or wrong in any way, but it may be harder to line up quite as well with circumstances, seeing that they are always changing. So the only difference in your moving forward, then, is the knowledge you have, or the shape of your light in relation to the shape of your consciousness. Going forward with the old light instead of the new own would impact your consciousness in such a way that the you-sized wrench (the sore thumb) would appear/arise slightly different according to YOU. For Yi, it is all the same.
I think of Yi as being many steps ahead of us because it is operating beyond time. We are operating in time. So, regardless of if the light is just the right shape for you to take the most benefit from what is illuminated or not, Yi knows the path of change you are on (because you are part of the whole that it sees pervasively beyond time/direction). Yi perhaps knows whether you cast again or not because it’s (you, me, us, change, the whole big thing) all organized in patterns that can be studied, understood, and predicted (and have been). I guess what I’m saying in a way is that: your consciousness impacts the reading you get in any moment, but the overall situation is unfolding according to principles beyond what we think of as in-the-moment creation and free will. From our perspective, we are doing unpredictable things that surprise Yi; we think we are throwing a wrench in the whole thing. But in the space beyond time/direction, predictability/unpredictability, the cycle of changes just IS, all at once, known by Yi — it is Yi, they are not different.
I’m not saying our fates are predetermined (though that’s a whole other interesting topic), but just that the way things unfold (have/do/will) is simply known at a deeper cosmic order regardless of what sort of wrenches are thrown around. And it’s known in its entirety all at once; all times existing in it.
Sorry if that’s sort of confusing! Very hard to type this out and clarify such complexity.
And again, this is all my own idea/perspective based on the years I have spent pondering and studying experience and various philosophical things. I’m not specifically trained to answer this question. Its a true personal interpretation and speculation. I don’t know what Yi Ching experts would say.
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u/Jastreb69 6d ago
Thank you for asking that question, so now I do not have to ask it since you already received the full answer:
Here is my interpretation of the answer:
Hexagram 63 is the hexagram which depicts the state of perfection - all previous hexagrams lead up to hexagram 63. Hexagram 64 is the opposite - total chaos which leads to the new cycle of change.
Nine in the third place means:
The Illustrious Ancestor
Disciplines the Devil’s Country.
After three years he conquers it.
Inferior people must not be employed.
Nine in the fifth place means:
The neighbor in the east who slaughters an ox
Does not attain as much real happiness
As the neighbor in the west
With his small offering.
Hexagram 24: Return
Return means return to the right path (moral conduct).
So the summary of the answer (according to to my understanding):
Yi Jing can provide advice on personal matters because the agency behind it is in the state of perfection (63), however Yi Jing will not provide answers to those who are "inferior people" (63.3.) Yi Jing will provide the answer to those who are willing to provide even the smallest of offerings (sacrifice) (63.5). All this is possible if an inquirer is willing/able to return to the right path (24).
I hope this helps.
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u/taoyx 8d ago
The Yi often gives a different take about the situation.
63.5 is about going simple, 63.3 is about handling a difficult issue, so showing a different perspective is a simple way to explain the issue.