Part 3
As with any good teacher, the I Ching encourages you to seek your own understanding. Whereas the fact that any human subject would naturally project his own thoughts and feelings into the answers the I Ching offers might well lead a cynic to doubt its power at all, a Taoist who understands the link between himself, the I Ching and, indeed, all things, would see this as the realising of the closed loop of wisdom that all humans are part of. However, any experienced user of the I Ching will testify to the often extremely direct and unambiguous advice dished out from its pages.
My own experience of the I Ching is probably not an uncommon one. I too approached it with an open mind but was not at all sure what -- if anything -- to expect. I struggled, initially, to engage with it, but I did make progress, albeit slowly. But then a friend whose experience of the I Ching went far beyond mine, divined the I Ching for me in relation to a difficult situation I found myself in. The advice forthcoming was explosive. Even allowing for the tendency of the human mind to project itself into such moments, the advice of the I Ching demonstrated clearly that it had full knowledge of the situation and it was utterly unambiguous regarding what it was I had to do. That this meant I had to do exactly what I did not want to proved no obstacle at all, such was the completeness of its understanding.
From that moment on I have regarded the I Ching with a sense of healthy awe. Healthy in that I am suitably humbled and now willing to listen without doubt to what it tells me. As a result of my commitment, it has revealed to me a deeper level of its wisdom that it had, previously, kept from me. Subsequent divinations have left me only deepening my respect for the ancient Chinese oracle.
As a book of wisdom, as opposed to divination, the I Ching is equally as profound. It forms the bedrock of Taoist thought to this day; and it is upon the wisdom and knowledge contained within its pages that Lao Tzu, the most eminent of Taoist figures, based his Tao Te Ching. Such was the significance of the I Ching, even in Lao Tzu's time, that Lao Tzu will have known of it; a close examination of both texts reveals that far from simply knowing it, Lao Tzu understood it. The Tao Te Ching stands alone as a work of great truth and beauty; but alongside the I Ching, its many subtle shades and deeper levels of meaning are coaxed out, much in the manner of an archaeologist carefully brushing away the earth that covers a hidden treasure.
In both the I Ching and Tao Te Ching, the concept of change is central: universal processes in continuous flux, yet fixed to an eternal, unchanging point; the spinning wheel around a stationary and empty hub.
And the 'hidden treasure' is not the outwardly visible effects of change, but the internal and natural laws which govern it. Laws which, as explained by the I Ching, become set in their way in the same manner a river appears to be following a course: a course of its own making -- carved from the landscape by many years of continuous flow -- previously without a direction -- now forever more following itself.
Also found within the I Ching is the concept of an unseen 'realm', which acts upon the physical world in much the same way that the wind, not visible under ordinary circumstances, acts upon the surface of a body of water, shaping it, and revealing itself in the waves and ripples it creates. To be able to access that unseen realm by means of connecting directly with it via our consciousness is to gain the ability to act upon the shaping of the universe we can see and touch.
For those who do not have that access, nor particularly wish it, the knowledge of those who did is laid out in the I Ching and may be used for the value of its wisdom alone or for divination. But for those who wish that access for themselves, the I Ching serves as a gateway to it.
It must be remembered, though, that the I Ching cares not whether or not cynics reject it. It does not reveal itself easily -- if at all -- to the mind that must be first satisfied by verifiable and replicable proofs. But nor does it require an undiscerning character. In fact, all you need bring to the I Ching is a spirit of openness -- rational in that it will not dismiss a thing simply because it claims to exist outside of your normal parameters of what is true and what is false.
Again, speaking in his foreword, Carl Jung writes: 'The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of wisdom -- if there be such -- it seems to be the right book. To one person its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, shadowy as twilight; to a third, as dark as night. He who is not pleased by it does not have to use it, and he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go forth into the world for the benefit of those who can discern its meaning.'
