I Ching
Interpreted by wu wei

It is said of the ancient book of wisdom;
Neither far nor near, neither dark nor deep exist for it.

wu wei's comment:
There is nothing hidden from it. It sees into the heart of everything. Time does not exist for it, neither does space. It transcends all barriers. Is that not wonderful?

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 those things and more. Open your mind to the words on the following pages; allow yourself the freedom to believe that all of the above is possible.

We are part of the universe—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 matter.

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 can be is an endless now, within which change occurs.

Within that endless now, we are eternal, as is everything else, all of us and everything simply going through endless change.

Because we are a part of the universe, 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 that the universe knows; all we need is a key to unlock the fount of sublime wisdom and complete information. That there is a key is unquestionable; every time a new idea seems to arise spontaneously, we have used the 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 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 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 meditating or interpreting dreams.

All of the systems work perfectly, up to the limits of the systems and the capability of the questioner. 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 a card with several sentences of guidance printed on it, you can obtain counsel beyond yes or no. The more sophisticated the system, the more sophisticated 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. One answer can be sufficient for many questions. For instance, all questions regarding the taking of action can be answered generally with counsel to take action, take no action, or delay taking action. Once the answers have been formulated, all that remains is to devise a method for determining which answer applies to which question.

We would necessarily have to build into the system a means of preventing ourselves from intellectually tampering with the results, a means of allowing only the spiritual portion of ourselves-that portion that is at one with everything else-to participate.

In shaking coins in cupped hands and throwing them, in selecting a card from a deck whose faces cannot be seen, in choosing a stone from a pile of inscribed stones whose faces cannot be seen, or in following similar practices, the questioner exceeds his intellectual ability to determine the outcome because he cannot know how the coins will land, 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 from his inner spiritual source that knows everything.

When all of our answers have been furnished and our method of selecting answers has been determined, we can proceed confidently to ask questions because there is that within each of us that knows all the answers we have written and that will guide us in choosing the correct answer to any question we ask. Fortunately, we do not have to create a system of answers. The I Ching masterfully fills that need.

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 hexagrams, each comprised of six linear lines stacked one above the other, either undivided ( —– ), or divided ( – – ), such as this: ( ` ). Each of the hexagrams is formed by combining two trigrams, which are three line figures such as this: ( g ). The two trigrams that form the hexagram are called primary trigrams. There are two other trigrams in the hexagram called nuclear trigrams which will be described in detail later.

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 is always in time to the rhythm of the universal heartbeat, always mirroring the universe itself. Taken together, the hexagrams and their lines represent every conceivable condition in heaven and on earth with all their states of change.

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

The hexagrams 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.

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 re-divided eighteen times.

Does the system work? Yes. Does it work perfectly? Yes. Every time? Yes. Will it work perfectly for you? Yes, if you seek the truth with reverence and sincerity. Why? You are a divine being in an eternal universe, which is an inexhaustible wellspring of the divine, from which you may freely draw. Can you draw from it correct answers to hurt another? No. Can you draw from it correct answers to gain an unfair advantage? No. Can you draw from it correct answers if you will misuse the information? No. All guidance given in the I Ching is virtuous, beneficial, and given with the intent of guiding you along the highest possible path for your greatest possible good. You will not be assisted by your higher self to commit acts harmful to yourself or another.

Will frivolous questions be answered? Yes, frivolously. Will questions that imply doubt in the source of the answers be answered? Yes, but only in a way that will confirm the doubt in your mind; you cannot run a test on your divinity.

How can you be certain the answers are correct? After you have received an answer to a vitally important question and feel everything within you resonating with the truth, wisdom, and guidance contained in the answer a resonance so pure and sweet that it brings joy to your heart, and sometimes tears to your eyes you will, at that moment, be certain that the question was perfectly answered, divinely answered. At those moments you can experience your oneness with All That Is. Having had the experience, you will never again wonder who it is or what it is answering your questions or whether the answers are correct.

In the I Ching you can read that teaching is a holy task, to be withheld from no one. You can derive from that statement that the answers provided in the I Ching are given in the form of guidance, of teaching, which will not be withheld from you. Not only will you be provided with answers to questions, but you will also be given counsel concerning the way to proceed to obtain a particular result. Additionally, under certain conditions, you will be told what condition will replace the current condition. For the divine within you, time is not a barrier nor is distance.

Fu Hsi discovered the laws of the universe and set them forth so that we could be guided, so that we could be free, so that we would no longer be subject to the tyranny of events, and so that each of us could be in charge of his own fate. He created the sixty-four kua so that we could know the operation of the universe and so that within the universe each of us could find his place. He spoke in terms of "good fortune" and "misfortune." Good fortune brings you good friends, security, food, clothing, good health, shelter, opportunity, wealth, a good mate, and windfall good luck. Misfortune takes any or all of those same things away from you.

Fu Hsi spoke of the paths of life, calling the path that leads to good fortune "the way of the superior person" and the path that leads to misfortune "the way of the inferior person." He spoke in terms of "good" and "evil." In modern times we rarely hear these terms used, but for this present work they have been preserved because they impart a sense of who Fu Hsi was, and they retain the flavor of the ancient texts.

We live in a perfect universe in which only perfect events can unfold; the universe will not tolerate anything else; if it could or would, it would be in danger of allowing its own destruction.

One of the great truths that can be gained from a study of the I Ching is that the universe is slightly inclined in our favor; there is more of the good force than the bad that is why and how the universe persists and that is why you can always triumph over any evil force if you are good enough. The way to do that is not to combat evil directly*thereby becoming an instrument of evil yourself*but to make energetic progress in the good: following Fu Hsi’s path of the superior person.

My fellow traveler, I wish you well.

Your servant,

–wu wei