Letters to the Editor

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03fa11c3.gif"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3c8784b0.gif" border=0 width="120" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Theirs is a primal power, light-giving, strong, and of the spirit.  This hexagram represents the strong, electrically-charged creative energy of the Deity.  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF33CC" FACE="Arial" >It also represents the action of a sage or holy person who with his power awakens all beings and develops their higher nature.</FONT> It is tireless, beyond space and time, ceaseless duration is the image inherent in the Creative.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="5c859590.gif" border=0 width="89" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="64680580.gif" border=0 width="128" height="88" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Dragon, Tomb 5</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4d3628f0.jpg" border=0 width="98" height="143" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Coiled Dragon</div> <div> Hong-shan culture, northeast China , c. 4700 BC</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#99CC00" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Online Journal of the I Ching, Yi Jing</B></FONT>     <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CCCC66" FACE="Arial" >|   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Online Journal of the I Ching, Yi Ji"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="want_to_be_an_i_ching_diviner_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diviners Page"><U>Diviner's Page</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diviners Code of Ethics"><U>Diviner's Code of Ethics</U></A>   |   <A HREF="buddhism.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Buddhism"><U>Buddhism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="taoism.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Taoism"><U>Taoism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="alchemy.htm" 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SRC="5ca59590.gif" border=0 width="89" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>Letters to the Editor may be emailed to Midaughter's list </I><I>or you may </I><A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><I>Contact Us. </I></U></A><I>.  They may be edited for content. </I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>March 24, 2001</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>I have been studying the I Ching for 30 years, yours in the best site on the net.  Thanks for sharing this important information and making this effort.</I></div> <bR> <div> earanks So g for over 30 ours b</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="303" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="108"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="108" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="188"><div> <U>rand@lvcm.com </U></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 21 WIDTH="108"><div> <B>Home Page</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="188"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="21" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="188" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 45 WIDTH="108"><div> <B>City</B> </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="188"><div> Las Vegas </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 15 WIDTH="108"><div> <B>State</B> </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="188"><div> NV </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 15 WIDTH="108"><div> <B>Country</B> </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="188"><div> United States </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Dear  Editor:</div> <bR> <div> RE:  Article from the Page of Hexagrm 52.  How does the Yi work?</div> <bR> <div>      Many people from ever seriously considering such arcane traditions as the I Ching, astrology, alternative healings techniques, etc. because they simply can not explain "how it works".. And even when they see a stunning demonstration of "it working" they still remain basically unconvinced and suspicious that they've been duped in some manner they can't explain. </div> <div>      When we look at this situation we realize just how important "rational explanations are to us". We somehow feel more comfortable if we can delineate the mechanism of phenomena and thus can place it in its proper niche in the scheme of things. </div> <div> I think our understanding of the world of the I Ching is greatly enhanced by our recognition of our mental biases and eccentricities and by attending to the fact that a mental attitude and cultural environment thoroughly different than our own created and developed the IC.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Mary cited a passage from <I>Eight Lectures On the I Ching, </I>by Richard Wilhelm which is clarifying:<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> " The theory of law and energy is basically the same as the "meta" theory of the Divine Intelligence: The Universe is an impersonal energy yet it has intelligence and responds to our thoughts. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="arial" ><I>The idea of having to explain the mechanism as to how the Yi works is basically alien to the Chinese mind and there is very little discussion of it in Chinese philosophy."</I></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Wang Fu-chich is one scholar who undertook to explain the mechanism by which the Yi works.  He wrote that between heaven and earth there exists nothing but <I>law </I>and <I>energy</I>. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="68d5fc80.gif" border=0 width="95" height="200" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#CC66FF" FACE="Arial" >             </FONT>" Between heaven and earth there exists nothing but law and energy. The energy carries the law and the law regulates the energy.  Law has no form.  It is only through the energy that the image is made manifest.   This reveals itself in great things and small things.</div> <bR> <div> Only a person of highest moral integrity can understand this interaction of law and energy and basing himself on its manifestation, he can grasp the symbols, images, and hexagrams. By observing its small expressions, he can understand the auguries. In this way, consulting the oracle comes about by itself."</div> <bR> <div>    </div> <div>      I think that approaching the question from an "energy" aspect is one way to do it. An illustration of this is found by looking at the numbers Four and Five.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Western civilization is based on the <I>Four</I></div> <div>  While the Chinese is on the <I>Five</I><I>.</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Number Four logic system:</B></div> <bR> <div>      The number four is the key number of geometry and mathematics, sciences which are the foundation of western civilization.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF33FF" FACE="arial" > The four is the progression from a dichotomy</FONT></div> <div>  (perception of simple contrasts, 'this' and 'that' ) to the double dichotomy ( 2 X 2 ) which produces the grid, the matrix for pattern awareness, cognition.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF33FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>Marc Jones in his <I>Fundamentals of Number Significance, </I>says:</div> <bR> <div>       "Multiplied by itself the TWO produces the grid that is perhaps the most common basis for diagramming and understanding all <I>structuring, </I>either by nature or by man in an imitation of natural development of any solid or tangible sort...The symbolization of pure number presents the FOUR as the case of the service to each other of two systems of coordinates such as <I>time</I> and <I>position</I>. "<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF33FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div>       Jones goes on to say " The FOUR always identifies a <I>relationship </I>in variation of occasion in connection with function, and this in practical everyday fact is what always can be seen to be the building operations or the simple maintenance responsibility through the whole spread of nature at large....the development and perfection of the cooperation between <I>purpose </I>and <I>potential </I>leading to the <I>ends </I>thus sought is the never deviating concern of any TWO emphasis . Thus in numerology it is the FOUR that is the fundamental fabricator in every sense of the term"<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF33FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The Logic system of the number 5:</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div>      Jones says "the FIVE reveals the basic establishment of selfhood in its utterly ecstatic maintenance of an innate poise in the total context of all the swirling convergence's of reality of each <I>special moment</I> ...He adapts the sheer liquidity of the <I>universe of flux</I> to the ends in view of his own."<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC33FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#CC33FF" FACE="arial" >Anyone who has ever attempted to discover the interface between the western "four elements" and the Chinese "five elements" will have an immediate appreciation of the nuances of the FOUR and FIVE and the ramification these have had on shaping the two cultures. </FONT></div> <div>      As has been noted oriental science/philosophy, particularly the Chinese, attends primarily to an "<I>energy process</I>' perspective while in the west the emphasis is on the <I>manipulation of matter</I>. Consequently the western "four elements" describe a fundamentally functional/structural reality. The Chinese "five elements", on the other hand, have nothing "substantial" about them at all, but are instead essentially "moving agents".<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#CC33FF" FACE="arial" >     Another characteristic of the attitude of the FIVE is in its perception of CAUSE. Because the FOUR can plot everything, i.e., everything in its limited universe, it does not give reality to anything it can't connect with a cause. </FONT>The FIVE, however, is at home in the <I>swirling convergence's of reality </I>and therefore does not waste a lot of energy attempting to sharply delineate chains of cause and effect. This is expressed by Buddha's doctrine of "interdependent origination" - any effect is the product of such a vast multitude of interdependent causes it is impossible to identify a given chain of causes with any certainty.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Gene Johnson</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="68cb4780.gif" border=0 width="180" height="120" ALT="The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth by Hua-ching Ni" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Editor's Comments:</div> <div> That should set off a few thoughts in everyone's mind.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="5c550500.gif" border=0 width="80" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="5c550500.gif" border=0 width="80" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="5c550500.gif" border=0 width="80" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Chinese Vs Western Language Structure:  How do it Work?</div> <div> Letter to the Editor, 2/17/01</div> <bR> <div> Dear Editor,</div> <bR> <div> Re:  How do it Work? Word Tyranny in Language Structure</div> <bR> <div> The reason why Taoism and I Ching theory present, at first sight such a puzzle to the Western mind is that we have taken a restricted view of human knowledge. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >For us, almost all knowledge is what a Taoist would call CONVENTIONAL knowledge because we do not feel that we know anything unless we can represent to ourselves in words,(</FONT> or in some other system of conventional signs such as the notation of mathematics or music)  . Such knowledge is called <I>conventional</I> because it is a matter of social agreement as to the codes of communication.</div> <div>       Just as people speaking the same language have tacit agreements as what words shall stand for what things, so the members of every society and every culture are united by the bonds of communication resting upon all kinds of agreement as to the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" ><I>classification and valuation of actions and things</I></FONT>.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >      The task of education is to make the children fit to live in a society by persuading them to learn and accept it codes-the rules and conventions of communication. Spoken language is especially part of the codes and rules of convention.</FONT> The child is taught to accept "tree" instead of boomjun, for example.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT>  What is MUCH LESS OBVIOUS is that convention also governs the delineation of the<I> thing </I>to which the <I>word </I>is assigned.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > For the child has to be taught not only what words stand for what things, but also the way in which his culture has tacitly agreed to divide things from each othe</FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >r, to mark out the boundaries within our daily experience. Thus scientific convention decides whether an eel shall be a fish or a snake, and </FONT></div> <bR> <div> GRAMMATICAL convention determines what experience shall be called <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >objects</FONT> and what shall be <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >events or actions.</FONT>......These grammatical conventions of language are arbitrary yet fundamental to our thought processes.</div> <bR> <div>  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >This is why we have difficulty </FONT><I>in terms of our language structure</I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > seeing their Eastern world, the mythical landscape, and the way they see themselves in it.  All this to due to different, yet both valuable, profoundly different grammatical conventions. </FONT>How arbitrary these grammatical conventions are may be demonstrated: What happens to my fist (noun-object) when I open my hand? The object (fist) miraculously vanishes because an ACTION was disguised by a part of speech usually assigned to a thing.!!  In English the differences between things and actions are clearly if not always logically distinguished but a great number of Chinese words do duty for both nouns and verbs- </div> <bR> <div> SO ONE WHO THINKS IN CHINESE has little difficulty in seeing that <I>objects</I> are also <I>events</I>, that o<I>ur world is a collection of processes rather than entities</I>.</div> <bR> <div>  This is basis of our difficulty the very different structure of the language. To arrive at our understanding of how the Chinese see the Yi working it helps to put the experience in their way of looking at things. Another example: In English we say "the tree is wood" <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >Our sentence has subject (tree) and object (wood). This is dualistic language structure of English into subject-object. It is so fundamental to our thought processes and we have difficult in explaining, saying, or even visualizing in an instant into Chinese language structure</FONT>: The Chinese would say the essence of the tree is wood, they cannot be two things tree or wood, they are the same .   This in a non dualistic language structure.  Because <I>wood </I>is the very essence of the tree.    <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >T<I>hey have by their language conventions a much easier time of seeing nature as a series of processes, that it is a process is a given in their understanding, </I></FONT>therefore they have a much easier in the structure of their language explaining mystical and magical processes of the Universe. How do it work?  It is alien to their thinking. </div> <bR> <div> Yours in Tao,</div> <div> anon</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Editor's Comments:  </B></FONT> The most notable western philosopher of this genre was the late Allan Watts.  His tapes and books such as <I>The Way of Zen </I>deal with the subject at length.  Don't oversimplify the differences just be cognizant of them.  Many I Ching theoriticans of ancient times will surprise you with their views of the I Ching in philosophy, moral, and spirituality which are often close to our own thought processes.  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="5c647470.gif" border=0 width="71" height="71" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="6384b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="6384b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Dear Editor:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Re: Developing Intuition, Diviner's page</B></div> <bR> <div> I am a psychologist, and I studied with a psychologist, Sy Epstein, who developed a contemporary theory of personality that is well accepted by a good many people nowadays. </div> <div>      <I>I believe the goal of divination is to help make non conscious, seemingly irrational knowledge available for conscious and rational use.</I> </div> <div>      According to Epstein, our personal "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >rational information processing system</FONT>" is the seat of consciousness, and our "<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >experiential system</FONT>" is the seat of non conscious information.  The two systems--rational and experiential--work in parallel, and the information they encode and store is complementary and of equal value.</div> <bR> <div> 1.  The rational system encodes and stores information analytically and deliberately. t." Rational belief requires justification via logic and evidence.</div> <bR> <div> 2.  The experiential system encodes information about lived experience. It synthesizes information rather than analyzing it,. The experiential method of information processing is characterized by holistic, affect (feeling)-oriented processing that encodes reality in concrete gestalts (wholes): Images, metaphors, and narratives. </div> <bR> <div> It is important to remember that experiential informational processing is context-dependent. The experiential system is<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" > most readily engaged through sensory imagery and metaphor....</FONT></div> <bR> <div>   <I>(The correlates with the intuitional or pattern school of I Ching theory and this is why the study of images and symbols of the Yi is so important), see diviner's page., edit)</I></div> <bR> <div>  Now I'd like to try to sketch out my reasons for thinking this<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" ><I> theory of personality</I></FONT> is very relevant to the divination process:</div> <bR> <div> 1.  The rational system must come to accept and believe that trustworthy and personally useful non rational information can be accessed from the experiential system.  As a final step in the process, the individual must actually find the interpretation of the personal experiential material trustworthy and personally useful.</div> <bR> <div> 2.  Divination is another method that allows the rational system to access trustworthy and personally useful high-level experiential (intuitive) knowledge.</div> <bR> <div> The first step of the divinatory process, is to intentionally bypass the rational method of processing information while simultaneously focusing attention on experiential processing. <I>The experiential system's synthesized, holistic understanding of the individual's current life context is what is to be accessed through divination</I>. Thus, a non rational approach is required. At the same time, although the rational system is bypassed initially, it should never be completely turned off. The success of the divinatory process depends on<I> simultaneous processing </I>of information in both systems.</div> <bR> <div>  As the divinatory process bypasses the rational system, it simultaneously primes the experiential system. Many people have noted that questions with an urgent quality often lead to clearer answers. Part of the reason for this may be that it indicates a preexisting priming of the experiential system. The rational self is being prompted by the experiential. You're trying to tell yourself something. Learning divinatory systems is one way of training yourself to "hear" these internal prompts--and then seek an answer. The experiential system attempts to synthesize both the question and the symbolic answer. The resultant synthesis is the<I> intuitive knowledge</I> that is available for access by the rational system.</div> <bR> <div>      Note that at this point in the process, the intuitive knowledge is available to, but not yet accessed by, the rational system. At this point in the process, the rational system must interpret the divinatory answer so that it becomes more compatible with rational understanding. The translation from experiential to rational knowledge is accomplished by applying the divinatory system's method of translation to the text of the divinatory answer. This interpretative phase of the process is known as the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF00FF" FACE="Arial" >divinatory reading</FONT>. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Ken Packer-Fletcher</div> <bR> <div> <U>http://www.geocities.com/~ninalee//tarotref/intuit1.htm</U><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="6384b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="6384b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="6384b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>           <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FF33FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="buddhism.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Buddhism"><U>Next</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="midaughter_s_i_ching.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Online Journal of the I Ching"><U>Home</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="midaughter_s_i_ching.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Online Journal of the I Ching"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>