The Book of Change 易經

Eight Trigrams of the Yijing

Tonight seemed like a good time to read my Blofeld. John Blofeld’s translation of the I Ching (Yijing) has always been my favorite. This most ancient of books always offers value. In my youth, studying Baguazhang (8 Trigram Palm), specifically Jiulong Baguazhang with my Grand Shifu John P. Painter, we lived the trigrams and hexagrams of the Yijing.

Ch'ien Heaven

Every night we leaped and spun and crawled and kicked and dodged and struck with the open palm whilst envisioning various aspects of the 8 trigrams and the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing.

One hand might lift palm upward like half of the White Ape Presents

K'un Earth

Fruit posture, whilst the other palm waited in a yin position at waist height. This was Heaven and Earth, in the Wade-Giles spelling, Ch’ien and K’un. If Earth was ascendent then the hexagram was T’ai, Peace, Heaven and Earth were in accord and all was well.

Tui Joy

But, if Ch’ien was uppermost then Heaven and Earth were disparate, apart, and Stagnation resulted. 

In the martial art these were but one of many combinations, thousands when stance was included, and they might be strikes or blocks or both.

Both palms uplifted was Ch’ien and represented the people reaching upward to accept gifts from the gods.

Two palms down, K’un, the gods bestowed gifts on the people. So combine them and either T’ai or P’i would result. Good or bad.

T'ai Peace

In meditation each night we would consider a trigram or a hexagram depending on the present stage of training. There were also eight short forms, one for each trigram. I was particularly fond of Tui, Lake. And Tui can also be a pool or a marsh or…Joy. It all depended on the circumstances.

Those were heady times moving and being still. Meditation was often deep and Wushu practice could be incredibly rewarding. When the mind and body move together there is a feeling of oneness with the universe. The mind commands, the body moves, qi flows.

P'i Stagnation

So, tonight I decided to see what my Blofeld had to say. As I threw the coins and the hexagram grew from bottom to top I knew immediately what I had. And although I do not believe in much more than the quantum flow of the universe, I am never pleased to see Heaven above Earth, P’i, Stagnation.

Blofeld writes: “This hexagram symbolizes heaven and earth cut off from each other. To conserve his stock of virtue, the Superior Man withdraws into himself and thus escapes from the evil influences around him. He declines all temptations of honour and riches.”

Well, declining temptation is usually a sound idea. And, if you study the Yijing, this was a hexagram of stagnation not a stagnant hexagram. It had changing lines. So in the theory of the Yijing, the hexagram represents the present. Reverse the changing lines and you have the near future. I have not yet looked into the future.

Tonight I will withdraw into myself and contemplate the now which I too often eschew.

Kung Fu-tse

The Yijing talks about the Superior Man, I prefer to think of it as “The Superior Being” and when I was leaping and punching and rolling and blocking, I often took action based upon the advice of the Book of Change. Many years passed before I began to realize that if one were not the Superior Being of Kung Fu-tse (Confucius-who evidently heavily edited the Yijing just as something to do), if one is not a Superior Being (right acting?) then look out if you tried to take the advice of that ol’ I Ching.

Ha, I damn near bought the farm, figuratively anyway, by trying to act upon “The Superior Being stakes one’s life on following one’s will.” Woo. Try using your will as a guide and not being one of those Superior-type folk. Man, you can get into a lot of trouble.

On the other hand, the Book of Change helped me craft a motto for my tai chi teacher of which I am still proud. “The Superior Person seeks harmony, not sameness.” This can be taken many ways, but even just literally in relation to tai chi practice it means every damn time you practice your tai chi strive to get better. Sameness is not enough.

So, I guess I better get to withdrawing and contemplating before I bite off more than I can eschew.

Tomorrow I will look at what the changing lines bring, but I already know that Tui is one of the trigrams in that new equation. I hope it is the Joy part. And, even though the Yijing is not a true oracle, it always offers good advice.

Some years ago whilst serving as Editor of Internal Arts Magazine, I wrote an editorial on this same hexagram. http://www.piercewatters.com/files/IAMJanFeb1989Ed2.pdf

Space, the Moon, and I

This article makes me kind of happy:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35390304/ns/technology_and_science-space/

I learned to read at age three, sitting in my father’s lap. He would hold me and we would read comic books. About age five I began using the public library. I exhausted their supply of books on earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Then I went on to dinosaurs and archaeology in general. I still remember how enthralled I was by Roy Chapman Andrews’ chronicles of his adventures in China and other parts of the far East exploring for fossils.

Next came a novel entitled “Danger, Dinosaurs!” by Richard Marsten. It was science fiction, and I was hooked. All through my extreme youth I read about space exploration and other planets, solar systems, even other galaxies. The universe was mine, all between the covers of a book.

Earthrise

 And now the International Space Station is really beginning to take shape. I know I am too old to go into space, but oh how I would love to visit the space station. Robert A. Heinlein wrote a story, “The Man Who Owned the Moon” about a millionaire who felt the same way I feel, and was able to make it to the moon to die. How glorious it would be to view the Earth from the Moon. And Mars, ai-ya, to stand on the red sand of the planet Mars, well, that would be indescribable.

Alas, I cannot and will not, but at least I can live vicariously and read about the astronauts on the internet, on the effing internet, hoo, real science no-longer-fiction at the tips of my fingers—I can read about the space station as I read about Roy Chapman Andrews 57 years ago. I should call someone on my cell phone, cell phone, ha!, on my little handheld computer, but, it’s still too early in the day.

Holy Moley Addendum: or maybe, Addendum: Holy Moley. I was just toodling around the web and discovered that Richard Marsten was a pen name for Evan Hunter. Crikey, that means the book might even have been well-written. But the few remaining Winston Science Fiction Series copies are too rich for my blood. Oh I long to go once more, dinosaur hunting in a time machine. Wait, I can do that with Ray Bradbury, too.