I Ching


“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

– C.G. Jung


 

I found the I Ching many years ago and I’ve studied and used it extensively. It’s a book in which philosophy, sociology, psychology and more are symbolised and examined. These are some of my writings. I go deep into the philosophy, which is rare.


 
There is a difference between establishing the I Ching and explaining it. The first has a logic of this means that within the system. It’s essential, but not sufficient or conclusive. The second is deeper but neglected, partly tracing back to the Ten Wings. They are a Confucian commentary, separate from the hexagrams.


 
There is a mystery layer to the I Ching because we don’t fully know how or why it began. There are other layers, relevant for today, where the book connects with ideas from Jung, Husserl, Hegel, Nietzsche, and other important thinkers.


 
Some people say the book is an oracle and I’m not interested in philosophy. But if they read for someone else, they dispense philosophy. Other people say the I Ching is a book of wisdom, not divination, but the same applies. If you find a relevant hexagram, it doesn’t matter how you do it, the wisdom becomes real not scholarly:


 

“Divination, therefore, becomes a practical way of fulfilling oneself in certain critical conditions of life”

– Chung-Ying Cheng, The Primary Way


 

“From this point of view, the I Ching is seen as a tool assisting the observation and understanding of the anatomy of events. This observation and understanding is in turn supposed to form a basis for living in harmony with the pulse of existential time. ”

– Thomas Cleary, The Taoist I Ching


I Ching 
I Ching Knowing
2 December 2024 by James 


  The Absolute on this view is not to be grasped in conceptual form, but felt, intuited; it is not its conception,...


Read More
I Ching 
Dragon I Ching: Why Now
6 November 2024 by James 


The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled The shape changes, But not the form –...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Nine Three Quarter
2 October 2024 by James 


Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Election
21 September 2024 by James 


Do you hear your own heart beat? – Master Po   Ignorant armies clash by night – Matthew...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Dialectic
1 August 2024 by James 


And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Retreat
26 July 2024 by James 


Look, it cannot be seen – it is beyond form. Listen, it cannot be heard – it is beyond sound....


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Innocence
29 June 2024 by James 


The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a wheel rolling on its own, a prime movement,...


Read More
I Ching Photography Writing 
Komorebi Dreaming
16 May 2024 by James 


I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk) On a winter’s day (On a winter’s day) – California...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Tao
21 April 2024 by James 


The images of the Book of Changes are of such sort that one can act in accordance with the changes and know...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Meanings
10 April 2024 by James 


The serpent, however, and the eagle, when they found him silent in such wise, respected the great stillness...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Clouds
1 April 2024 by James 


What is above form is called Tao; what is within form is called tool – Ta Chuan (The Great Treatise)...


Read More
I Ching 
Five Element I Ching
27 March 2024 by James 


A tree on a mountain develops slowly according to the law of its being and consequently stands firmly...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching and Words
14 March 2024 by James 


You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else for that matter. Too much...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Return
8 March 2024 by James 


There seems to be such a thing as beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous. – Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker...


Read More
I Ching 
Since Feeling Is First
7 March 2024 by James 


Bringing things very remote, and independent on one another, into one view, the better to contemplate...


Read More
I Ching 
Elegance of the Hexagram
22 February 2024 by James 


In addition to its use as an oracle, the Book of Changes also serves to further intuitive understanding...


Read More
I Ching 
Tao of Creativity
19 February 2024 by James 


We know what we are but know not what we may be – William Shakespeare These rules, the sign language...


Read More
I Ching 
Voice of the Silence
15 February 2024 by James 


The world’s secrets are hidden inside silence – Erling Kagge What we cannot speak about we must...


Read More
I Ching 
Call and Response
11 February 2024 by James 


We have already grown beyond whatever we have words for – Nietzsche The psychophysical event includes...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching of Things
8 February 2024 by James 


The Yi has two aspects: the spatial aspect of correlation of things, and the temporal aspect of succession...


Read More
I Ching 
Fields of Action
8 February 2024 by James 


Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us – Nietzsche But heard,...


Read More
I Ching 
Changing Energy
25 January 2024 by James 


Good ends, as I have frequently to point out, can be achieved only by the employment of appropriate means....


Read More
I Ching 
Then Spoke the Thunder
25 January 2024 by James 


God comes forth in the sign of the Arousing; he brings all things to completion in the sign of the Gentle;...


Read More
I Ching 
Night Walking
25 January 2024 by James 


We should let history illuminate thought, but we also should let thought illuminate history...


Read More
I Ching 
I Ching Twitter
18 January 2024 by James 


The psychology of a large crowd inevitably sinks to the level of mob psychology – C.G. Jung The sage...


Read More
I Ching 
Six Lines
18 January 2024 by James 


Heaven is far from the things of earth, but it sets them in motion by means of the wind. – Wilhelm,...


Read More
I Ching 
The Power of Maps
11 January 2024 by James 


The book is enacting the fundamental nature of the Cosmos itself. Even after the most exhaustive and accurate...


Read More
I Ching 
Tree on a Mountain
4 January 2024 by James 


The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach....


Read More
I Ching Writing 
Technology, Nature, Musk
9 November 2023 by James 


What we may well believe has the power to cut and shape and hollow out the dark form of the world surely...


Read More
I Ching Photography Teaching 
Outdoors Aesthetic
16 March 2023 by James 


Does the outer space into which we dissolve taste of us at all? – Rilke There are shadows because...


Read More
I Ching Photography Teaching 
The Tao of Photography
19 January 2023 by James 


Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in –...


Read More
I Ching Writing 
The Land and the Street
15 November 2022 by James 


In the mountains, there you feel free – T.S. Eliot Some years ago I met two ladies in a Lake...


Read More
I Ching Writing 
January Down
20 January 2022 by James 


  The light has sunk into the earth: the image of darkening of the light – I Ching  ...


Read More