HISTORY OF OUR PROJECT

HISTORY OF THIS PROJECT

When I came across the I Ching, I realized that understanding the scripture would not be simple. I would consult the book, by asking questions for myself or to acquaintances, and I noticed that those involved - myself included - were not understanding the meaning of the texts, or were biased in their interpretation of the answers. So I began to deepen my studies. Perseverance was fundamental to the process.

Since I did not find a school to guide me, the way I chose to study the hexagrams (the 64 archetypal situations worked out in the I Ching, in the book's chapter format) was to read them randomly, interspersed with questions related to my daily life.

The advantage of having read the texts randomly was that I could study them in an unbiased and unpretentious way. On the other hand, the advantage of having read the texts through a consultation was to have a reference situation, which could serve as a real example for me to study the results obtained (although I was emotionally involved in the situation).

As I have mentioned in several posts, what has always impressed me is synchronicity. At first I called them "coincidences" - the exclamation was often, "Wow, what a coincidence that the answer have a correspondence with the question!".

There are several confirmations of synchronicity: when someone ask a question and, not satisfied with the answer he got, ask again. At the new query they receive the hexagram 4 - Immaturity, which in its Judgment says:

JUVENILE INSENSATE is successful.
It is not I who seek the foolish young man, it is the foolish young man who seeks me.
At the first query I answer.
If he asks two or three times, he becomes importunate.
To what becomes importunate I don't give any information.
Perseverance is favorable.*

Another example was when a teenager came to ask a question about his parents and got as an answer Hexagram 37 - The Family, which in the Commentary on Decision says:

The correct position for the woman is inside, the correct position for the man is outside.
The supreme concept in all of nature is that man and woman occupy their rightful places.
Among family members there is one strict authority: that of the parents.
When the father is really a father and the son a son, when the older brother fulfills his role as older brother and the younger one his own, when the husband is really a husband and the wife a wife, the house is on the right track.
When the house is in order, the world is set on a steady course. *

or Hexagram 18, which I will exemplify below with only one of its lines, from several of them in this hexagram, with the subject of parents and family:

Six in the fifth position means: Correcting what has been spoiled by the father. Praise is found.*

And had the experience of understanding the hexagram 56 - The Traveler.

At first I interpreted this hexagram relating it to a journey, even more so when the question literally related to a journey.

One day, studying this hexagram at random, I paid more attention to its text and realized that it talked about the possible attitudes that a person displaced from his or her group (family, friends, club, soccer team or any other sport, religion, nationality, etc.) could have, thus creating the feeling of an lonely traveler.

In the translation of this hexagram in Richard Wilhelm's book we can replace the word traveler with the expression "a displaced person":

"...in this way the two trigrams do not stay together. Strange lands and separation, behold the fate of the traveler."

and in lhe judgment:

"THE TRAVELER. Success through what is small. Perseverance brings good fortune to the traveler."

and in the lines:

"Six in the first position means: If the traveler occupies himself with trivial things, he draws misfortune upon himself." 

"Nine in the sixth position means: The bird's nest is set on fire. At first the traveler laughs, but later he will lament and cry. By an oversight he loses his cow. Misfortune!"

Anyway, my fortuitous interest in the I Ching, my perseverance mixed with the singular surprise of coincidences, the gradual understanding of the texts, and the will to share the knowledge acquired, generated the idea for this project.

After starting the texts of the project, in a complementary way, we thought about a new format for presenting the ideas. The complexity could generate resistance to those people who were not used to the denser texts of a scripture. And so that we could spread these teachings, we started working on a new segment that we call Hexagrams Without Myths (which are being exposed on social networks), through a lighter form of exposure, supported by contextualized images and more simplified language.

Thus, today we have our project being publicized on this website and on social networks (Facebook and Instagram).

We will soon have new areas on the website that will bring more news!

* Translation of the book I Ching The Book of Changes by Richard Wilhelm.

LINKS RELATED TO THIS POST

• I Ching History