We are the change the world is looking for as we become true to ourselves again. Learning to become who we are as the Christ presence from within, as the Tao and I Ching can serve and teach us to become one with the universal wisdom we have always known.

There is a path to follow – some call it the Bodhisattva vow. Others simply calling it God or other names by faith. There is only one power and presence in the universe – our role is to go there in unity with all others. It is by and through learning from the I Ching our path or way can become clear.

The below was written almost twenty years ago as my own version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching from “Thoughts on becoming a Sage – The Guidebook to leading a virtuous Life”. (We are all becoming the sage when we follow our bliss in pursuit of our highest endeavor and ultimate destiny).

Thoughts on becoming a Sage – The Guidebook to leading a virtuous Life

Verse 3 – Preparing the Way

The sage must begin again by daily ritual and purification. You must prepare an area for optimum meditation and reflection. You must set aside all other activities and thoughts so as to be quiet, still, able to listen and be prepared to learn.

You must instill determination, release all desires, and come to find discipline. When you are ready all will flow unimpeded through you.

You are to become the vessel when and if you remain worthy of the mantle placed upon you. All is within you – everything you need is already here. We have been waiting for you to be fully prepared for the journey.

Clear your mind, cleanse your heart and open your mind and be prepared for the great and auspicious journey to come. Use every moment to seek clarity. Paying attention to detail brings focus necessary for true learning. Come forward to know thyself and all will become clear.

Now go. But remain vigilant and dedicated to who you are to become. Your endeavors will bring forth your ultimate destiny…

第３节 备道

圣人必须每天举行祭奠仪式，进行自我净化。你必须腾出一个地方，在那里认真沉思反省。你必须放弃繁事，摈除杂念，心平气和，这样才能够听和学.

你必须下定决心，清心寡欲，严于律己。当你能够做到这几点，一切就会迎刃而解.

你是否是一件精美的容器，就看你是否配得起放在你上面的盖子。一切都在你的掌握之中－万事俱备。我们一直在等待着你做好行前准备.

要头脑清醒，排除杂念，开放思想，准备参加这个伟大光明的旅行.

Becoming the Vessel Wuhan Museum

必须抓紧时间，清心明目。关心细节可以帮助集中注意力，有利学习。来吧，了解你自己，一切都将会明朗.

现在出发吧。但是，你仍然要头脑清醒，努力奋斗，成为你想做的那种人。你的努力终将会有回报.

Understanding change, as told in the Dazhuan, The Great Treatiseis the process of identifying and encompassing the I Ching within oneself – how to combine the Tao and change, identify within yourself a sense of spiritual cultivation and the transformation that follows. Just as Emmanuel Kant and Ralph Waldo Emerson taught us that in following our innate, inward nature, the Christ presence within us would emerge and we could become universal, find and know ourselves.

Connecting with the Way of the Tao. Ultimately, it is our own words joining, or linking, with the lines and oracle (as if a divine communication or revelation) and how they move us that matters. The Dazhuan tells us that the Book of Change, the I Ching creates the following as it serves to double all the processes that create the reality that we experience. Sometimes, it is as if knowledge and wisdom are gained by opening our hearts and minds to infinite possibilities to things we have not previously imagined or considered possible. Sending us off on what may be called the “Great Enterprise”. What is important is to acknowledge that this “Great Enterprise”described below encompasses all things not just man. China has historically described this as “the ten thousand things”. Everything found in nature is sacred. Divinity is all around us and we are all are sacred as something much bigger than ourselves. That there exists the “Christ presence” that is present in all things. Its what the American Indians knew instinctively about our connection to and with nature and the universe we live, they fought so hard to keep, and what Chief Joseph of  the Nez Perce expressed so well when he said “It does not take many words to speak the Truth”. That no one owns the sun, moon and stars in which we find our place to thrive with all other things.

Approaching and writing about the Dazhuan cannot be a haphazard affair. Commentaries by the greatest thinkers and philosophers in Chinese history, of which, Chuang Tzu, Confucius and Wang Pi, were only three of the most famous who created the framework for all who have weighed in on the Great Commentaries.These Ten Wings, of which The Dazhuan was numbers five and six, formed the basis of most all serious thought in China that would follow.

Interpreting the meaning of the I Ching was to take from the shaman and sage what it all means building on thousands of years of observing the universe and stars above, nature, cause and effect, and man’s connection to it all. The creator was not outside of us – it was in and us as well. There could never be thoughts of separation because everything is ultimately connected to everything else. We are all one – we are the world. It’s what Emerson and Kant taught us in the West about following our divinity and the innate nature we already inherently possess, our existing Christ presence and consciousness that sustains us.

What came out of something including us and all things found in nature, was always in direct correlation to what went into it in the beginning – mostly simply waiting to be built on and exposed. Like going out the same door you came in after you have arrived. In China, Taoists generally felt one way and the Confucians quite another. This created in essence a parallel universe when “what it all meant” would shape Chinese history and philosophy for all time. As if the process needed to find that place where duality is reconciled. However, many feel Confucius was a Taoist at heart based on the benevolence and virtue he expressed. It was later when others could use his words to say… well this is what he really meant that he was venerated for various reasons.

A second book entitled Cultivating Stillness interpreted by Eva Wong stressed equanimity, good health, peace of mind, and long life as the goals of the ancient Taoist tradition known as “internal alchemy”, of which Cultivating Stillness is a key text. Written between the second and fifth centuries, the book is attributed however to Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching. A principal part of the Taoist canon for many centuries, it served as the basis along with these two Wings for all learning by Taoist precepts in monasteries in China for over two thousand years. They are still in use today.

The third “book” along with Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, that was a requirement was the “Book of Lieh Tzu”. It would serve as a conscious effort to show how all the pieces fit together. My own version of the “Book of Lieh Tzu” entitled “My travels with Lieh Tzu, Interpolations along the Way”, also appears here at this website I wrote in 1994-95 in what is still an unpublished manuscript. All three, the Commentaries (including the 5th and 6th Wings), Cultivating Stillness, and The Book of Lieh Tzu were considered to be “teaching manuals or textbooks”.

It’s not a matter of simply reading the words. It is becoming what you have written through meditation followed by mindfulness, and incorporating as the wisdom you live by. It is what great artists do through calligraphy, and the 8th-century Chinese calligrapher Yan Zhenqing, who is considered as the father of Chinese calligraphy said to have learned to hold his hand just right by watching geese in the pond next to his home. Or works by musicians Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Artists like Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Monet, and van Gogh. The Beatles, and especially John, Paul, and George Harrison. Poets like Bob Dillon, Shakespeare, and Walt Whitman. Tolstoy, Aristotle and Plato.Today, movies, museums, and theaters depict similar themes we are innately attracted too. Its what churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples do to help to take us to our highest awareness of who we are… simply connecting us with ourselves. The architecture of Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Confucius Temple and Mansion in Qufu and Forbidden City in Beijing and the British Museum in London (I have been to all of them).

All of the above pushing us to find the love from within our own “Christ consciousness and presence”and use this as our own voice to the universe. Creating what some have been known to call “good vibrations”. Their purpose moving us to our own highest destiny. Because that’s who they were and why we are here. They were expressing themselves as our mutual highest endeavor, as our Christ presence and the Tao, or closer to our own divinity if you like. Along with so many more… who wrote, painted, and played music for the ages… for eternity and immortality and especially for us.

Or perhaps even the great metaphysicians and storytellers, who are here to help convey what it all means. It’s the presence that comes from within us. The words of Rumi and dancing as he takes us divinely above the clouds and the extension of the great Manjusri, the purveyor of wisdom exemplified by the Buddhist bodhisattva vow. Simply the vibrations we are all here to exemplify and become as well. It is the eternal essence of what the I Ching and Tao were to convey and teach us. Only after knowing who we are, can we begin to find our way to our source and move beyond where we are now. It is what eternity is about.

It is what the great Sioux medicine man Black Elk was told as a young boy in his vision by his spirit guides outlining the future of his People from atop the Black Hills of South Dakota.

What Martin Luther King Jr. was talking about before he died about “going to the mountaintop and seeing the other side”. He had no fear of what was to come because he anticipated in his heart and mind what might happen and was ready to go home. He had done what he was here to do this time. Just as all the great teachers had done before him. Ultimately, he was simply a man of the Tao, of God’s love for all of us and conveyed what the Christ within each of us really means.

All above here to guide us to the greatness within as to what is inevitably to come and how to make the most of our own story that writes itself. As we only fill in the details as yet unwritten. Even in my teaching at the university in China where I taught more than four-hundred students who planned to be English teachers themselves. I would tell them to find their niche and use their future role as teachers to discover who they were and to encourage students to contribute their own strengths and to help others find theirs as well. As if attempting to fulfill my own role, my own bodhisattva vow as a historian, storyteller and teacher. What I am guided to do here on my webpage.

The Dazhuan is composed of the 5th and 6th Wings of what is known as the Ten Essential Commentaries with each having twelve entries. Some written by Confucius, others by competing Confucians and Taoists prevalent at the time. Below are numbers one and two of the 5th Wing.

There are twelve parts to each Wing. (twelve in the 5th Wing and twelve in the 6th) All told, they convey the history of the I Ching with origins dating back thousands of years telling how each of us should live our lives in such a way that conveys our own innate virtue and are considered the benchmark to all essential wisdom. I wrote my own version of the Dazhuan in 2014. Below are segments that appear here on my website, the balance will follow in subsequent entries. This is going to be a lot of information. I don’t expect you to read and absorb in one sitting. Please keep for future reference. This entry represents only the first two of a total of twenty four that conveys the whole story. Like life, it continues as a work in progress. Telling the story is cathartic, i.e., corrective, invigorating, life-sustaining, restores us in re-claiming our essence of our innermost being. It teaches me how far I have yet to travel and prepare for the journey yet to come.

Part 1 of the Dazhuan

The Dazhuan 5th Wing Part I Number 1

A cosmic analogy – How Heaven and Earth define Change

There is a symbolic reality of what lies between figures formed in Heavenand are shapes on Earth as high and low places are spread about as both movement and stillness. Just as with in the face of Heaven each person stands alone, there are limits to what is knowable. Just as there are gates in which things come and go always transforming into being something new.

The energies that are at work in Heaven and Earth also drive the symbols of change as we observe that events never happen alone and thatall changes and the transformation of Heaven and Earth reside in theYijing, or I Ching. The symbols of change found in the I Ching contain the formative power of both Heaven and Earth as whole and broken lines that distinguish that events are both different and the same and can be interpreted and understood.

These transformations can be seen in the movement found in the Eight Diagrams, the bagua. These three-line figures contain the energy of natural processes: as thunder and lightning stimulate, wind and rain fertilize, sun and moon move on their prescribed courses and after cold comes heat.

The fundamental symbols of change are chien and kun. They contain the power of Heaven and Earth and serve to connect us directly with change. Quan or Chien (Heaven) helps us to change spontaneously letting us know change in our hearts. Kun (Earth)makes and completes everything. This gives us the ability to act without complications or pride (ego) and lets us follow change in life with simplicity and spontaneity. When we open ourselves to the influence of change, we acquire the ability to gain both the deep affection of others and ability to lead our own life as an independent person.

The Great Treatise tells us, “What is readily recognized is accepted. What is readily followed brings success. What is accepted can endure and what brings success can grow great. Endurance is the wise man’s power; greatness is the wise man’s task. Being spontaneous and simple means grasping the principles of all under Heaven; grasping the principles of all under chien, or Heaven, means finding one’s place in the midst of kun, or earth”. This is called the “Great Enterprise”. 

For myself, this exemplifies the true meaning of the universal “Christ consciousness and presence”, finding or place here on earth, returning to our source and becoming universal. he key to initiating a sense of understanding change is becoming aware of what is known as symbolic reality that teaches us to see the pattern of things. It is this symbolic reality that becomes our own reflection. Staying in the middle is a step towards freedom from compulsive emotion, the fear of anticipation, and sorrow over the unexpected. The I Chinggives you direct access to the symbolic world behind appearances and with practice follow structure and the ability to know our beginnings and what lies ahead.

Unfortunately, many in Western culture, and modern-day China as well, have attempted to portray the I Ching as nothing more than fortune-telling or like nothing more than reading their horoscope. Popular culture can demean what we don’t understand or may be seen to diminish our own limited beliefs.

Our horoscope is directly related to the cosmos and one of twelve constellations connected to the month and year we are born in. Our pull to this is similar to that of the pull of the tides of the ocean and the moon. Simply tendencies that are meant to keep us centered and on course. Even a tailwind pushing us forward, or a headwind if ignored. Something the earliest shaman knew as innately as the sun rising in the morning and setting at night. Its who we are.

The Dazhuan 5th Wing Part I Number 2

Following the Omens and One’s Fate

The shaman and sages created the hexagrams having observed the nuances found in nature then added statements to indicate good and ill omens as man followed the natural course of events. (A hexagram occurs by combining two of the eight elements pictured that show each having three lines with a total of sixty-four possibilities). That what came into a situation determined the outcome. An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future (as simple as heavy clouds coming this way portending rain). Often signifying the advent of change one learned through observation (cause and effect) and what occurs afterwards. People in ancient times believed that omens appear or come with a divine message from God who they saw as residing with the stars they could see at night and the coming of the sun and moon everyday as fixtures they could identify with that made them a part of something more than themselves. For early China this meant the shaman was considered to have a direct link with Heaven and what was to later be known as the I Ching and by extension the Tao. He/she possessing the means and was the method to communicate what these omens meant.

The key the shaman discovered was an understanding that the whole and broken lines of the hexagram once formed replace one another and that a person could alter his fate by staying connected to his or her source.

Thus, omens both auspicious and disastrous became figures of failure and success, and that troubles and distress are figures of worry and anxiety that leads to alternation and transformation… and change. And that it is how we connect through our insight and imagination back to our beginning, or source, that we can see and determine our future. All this will be further explained in later entries here describing the 5th and 6th Wingsthat follow this entry.

The key to understanding myths and legends in China is that they point to a door to further understanding over five thousand years of continuous history and culture. They point to the place where ancient stories were born, retold and modified to fit current events over and over again. This has always been the niche of the storyteller. Tradition tells us that the storyteller reveals, and thus shares, him/her self through his/her telling and the listeners reveal and share themselves through their reception of the story. It is this ability outlined above by the artisans of the agesthat told their own story through their art, words, and music that gained universal appeal. Storytelling offers the security of explanation; how life and its many forms began and why things happen, as well as entertainment and enchantment. We are strengthened and maintained through stories that connected the present, the past and the future. As if getting this close to your dreams and being able to touch them. Its where the storyteller takes you with your imagination in tow. It’s what and where knowing what the meaning of the I Ching tells and teaches us.

Like coming together to sing “We are the World”. The one/or ones telling the story in such a way that myth and reality merge into one story that fits or suits the times. Making connections, showing how through the stories from the ancients and those who came before us, that there was a way of becoming universal ourselves. What we have called becoming transcendental. We thereby become a part of the story through our lives and by living and telling our own version of events as we too come in harmony with change. Opening the door to who we have always been as our benevolent and highest self and will be again. Our purpose here is to first re-discover our source, i.e., who we are and have always been, and to simply remember as something for us to build on.

As if connecting with what truly defines us before history began and the deep wisdom that resided at a time when few people doubted the reality they expressed. Over time, it was just a matter of furthering a common story that everyone could identify with and then become a part of the story as well. It is a commonality everyone shares regardless of their origin. The key to transformation acknowledged by the shaman was that symbols were more lasting than words where meaning could be interpreted in many ways. These symbols are re-enforced by the rituals we perform in our daily lives.

It was the lines of the diagrams of the I Chingand words conveying certain meanings that created the language called change. Through the sage, who also represented the spirits, they learned the method of advancing and withdrawing energy, the alternation of light and dark, and the three powers or pivots – Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

The role of the sage has been to help us to take our place in history and finding tranquility, the place our hearts truly reside and the peace of mind to stay there. But it is the connection to the Tao, I Ching, and Cultivating Stillness to be illustrated here that begins with the movement of the six lines of the hexagram illustrating the Tao of the Great Triad. It is these Three Pure Ones that are the Taoist Trinity, the three highest Gods in the Taoist pantheon.They are regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all sentient beings. From the Taoist classic Tao Te Ching, it was held that “The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.”Ultimately understanding that there is only the Tao, the Buddha, the Christ presence, one unknowable God, as we may define him/her. Only that we need help in getting there with many lesser deities whose role and by ritual help to take us there as with the Buddhist practice that stresses ritual, mindfulness and meditation, and focusing on our internal spirit guide – the Buddha within. It’s not only so much as who you are (we are all divine). It’s what you do with what you have always known, and what you can accomplish with this knowledge and awareness as our growth contributes to our inner selves and how that extends to the world around us.

This key to the process of divination and understanding the role of the oracle is as if fine-tuning of prayer. As in meditation, expressing a problem, a difficulty, or emotion, you pose the question to change (to the I Ching) in words. Then you must take the words of the answer into your heart. The answer or symbol will arise as if a spirit has been evoked and the right answer will appear. It acts as the soul and changes the way one thinks setting foot on the Way of the Tao becoming what Chuang Tzu would call the Perfected Man and furthered by the Eight Immortals and Queen Mother of the West in Chinese history.

ThePerfected, or sometimes referred to Superior Man, finds his place in life resting content in the succession of change; he finds satisfaction taking delight in his thoughts and words. When he acts, he observes the alternations and takes delight in the omens, as if knowing the future that lies before him. Thusly, becoming the person he is meant to be. The grace of Heaven and eternal dragons (or some may call angels), always coming to his aid as the way of the Tao becomes auspicious and open to him as his highest endeavor and destiny is now secure. This is often known as wu-wei in China. With this he has become the sage and returns home to rest again with his peers.

(This is the first of twelve entries, each containing two of the 5^th and 6^th Wings outlining the origins and purpose of the I Ching, the Dazhuan. Please stay tuned as there is more to the story).

2) The I Ching, yin/yang theory and our eternal essence… Connecting with who we have always been with nothing to seek beyond fine-tuning and virtue because we are already where we are meant to be.

Taoist philosophy. What’s interesting is that some scholars doubt Lieh Tzu actually existed. There needed to be a repository for the stories needed to be told that was to become “The Book of Lieh Tzu” and Lieh Tzu’s  writings are considered to be a compilation of various writers of the time. No one is really sure. He became Chuang Tzu’sparadoxical, or corresponding opposite, considered as the “Everyday Man” opposite Chuang’s“Perfected Man”, so that more people could relate to their own journey they needed to make themselves and better see the way forward.

Incorporating the words as my own was not a matter of just writing my own version. I became the words with instructions with only my virtue intact as if only a reminder. It was as I had written earlier. “What you write is who you are to become”. It is as they say… All great writing is autobiographical. This has been my focus and my passion ever sense. Following this path, I was never to be the person I thought I was here to be. Fitting into the status quo life brings each day became as if irrelevant. My path was to lead me elsewhere. I found over time that when I was angry or disappointed in someone or some event, it was not stemming from something outside of myself. But my own inability to change into who I was or am ultimately here to become. I think this is the challenge we all face.

I firmly believe that our “brethren spirits”, in some cultures they are called our “spirit guides” come looking for us. We often see them as metaphors taking shape as reminders of what and those who we have always known.  First, to find us to help guide us through life’s events, and second perhaps many years later – return or come back to further “wake us up”in order to re-direct us to who we have always been and are as yet to become when we are ready. (Some in a religious context refer to this as being “re-born”). As if once we awaken to our essential self, we acknowledge there is more here than meets the eye. Many times though it is our attachments, symbols, and words we cling to in the present that keeps us from the change we need to fulfill our destiny. We grow comfortable with what we don’t know about our true selves.

Change is not what we discover, or occurs outside of us we often find in the “status quo”, or the comfort found with how others think we should adapt ourselves to someone else’s vision of reality.  Life becomes not just striving “to fit in with others present”, but the process of growing as our eternal innate selves. When we can do this our “outward actions” begin to match the benevolence of the expression of love the universe is calling us to return to and express in such a way that others can begin to see change within themselves that helps them to discover the virtue found in their own innate path.

“Our relationships with others” becoming for example the essence of more than twenty-five hundred years of the teachings of Confucius, as well as, the shaman and what would become Taoism thousands of years earlier. Chinese history is like a continuous stream of thought and Confucius’ teachings were symbolic of inner change each person demonstrated through benevolence and virtue through all their activities.

By tradition, he was said to have written the first two of the Ten Wings of the Essential Commentaries, of which the 5^th and 6^th Wings are the focus here. What’s important to acknowledge, is that what is attributed to him was a process covering hundreds of years of people saying… this is what he said and meant. It was their interpretation of his words and then giving them meaning by stature they gave him as a sage. He was also credited with updating the five classics of ancient China that historically have always been his claim to fame. Much more to follow on Confucius later.

There is a famous saying that “When you are ready the teacher will come”. It appeared that way in China. Confucius was to become the great teacher and is still seen as such today. Especially in Qufu and Shandong Province where I lived and taught for so many years. Where I was reminded that change is an inside job we are here to embrace from inside us. 

Remember the story of Chuang Tzu’s meat cutter, he found his joy in his job of cutting the meat that matched his connection to the universe and the Tao. He loved his work as he loved himself regardless of his task because of his connection with something beyond the present. It becoming only the extension of virtue he embraced. People and positions they hold are always evolving. Our resistance and reluctance to change is what keeps us from doing so.  A re-occurring theme that expresses what we do is not who we are unless connecting us to our beginning that contributes to our way or path, or as I like to say… finding and living our dreams. It’s all we are here for.

The Dazhuan – The Meaning of the I Ching

Understanding change, as told in the Dazhuan, The Great Treatise is the process of identifying  and encompassing the I Ching within oneself – how to combine the Tao and change as self-cultivation, identify within yourself a sense of spiritual cultivation and the transformation that follows.

Connecting with the Way of the Tao.

Ultimately, it is our own words joining, or linking, with the lines and oracle (as if a divine communication or revelation) and how they move us that matters. The Dazhuan tells us that the Book of Change, the I Ching creates the following as it serves to double all the processes that create the reality that we experience.

Approaching and writing about the Dazhuan cannot be a haphazard affair. Commentaries by the greatest thinkers and philosophers in Chinese history, of which, Chuang Tzu, Confucius and Wang Pi, were only three of the most famous who created the framework for all who have weighed in on the Great Commentaries. These Ten Wings, of which The Dazhuan was numbers five and six formed the basis of most all serious thought in China that would follow.

Interpreting the meaning of theI Ching was to take from the shaman and sage what it all means building on thousands of years of observing nature and cause and effect. What came out of something was always in direct correlation to what went into it.

Taoists generally felt one way and the Confucians quite another. This created in essence a parallel universe when“what it all meant”would shape Chinese history and philosophy for all time. A second book entitled Cultivating Stillness recently interpreted by Eva Wong stressed equanimity, good health, peace of mind, and long life as the goals of the ancient Taoist tradition known as “internal alchemy”, of which Cultivating Stillnessis a key text. Written between the second and fifth centuries, the book is attributed to Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching. A principal part of the Taoist canon for many centuries, it served as the basis along with these two Wings for all learning by Taoist precepts in monasteries in China for over two thousand years. They are still in use today.

It is as Joseph Campbelltaught us that one of the biggest differences between East and West is a concept that the universal presence of a God figure in the West is some omnipotent entity outside of ourselves we must follow. Verses the Eastwhere this presence is reflected through us as us. It is our pre-existing innate nature. In purely philosophical terms, universal love comes from within us as the very essence of our being.

A major influence affected by naturally occurring events, including human nature and all-natural phenomenon that the I Ching re-enforces, is it teaches pragmatism. (A philosophical movement or system having various forms, but generally stressing practical consequences as constituting the essential criterion in determining meaning, truth, value, and in the usage here… the eternal virtue that exists within us).

Too often we try to direct the outcome through what we do before it occurs that fits what should come naturally and universal. As if things are intended and be meant be transcendent. What is seen universally as – do unto others as you would have them do unto you and that what is good for me must be good for you as well. If you are coming from virtue, then what occurs can only be the extension of your innermost self. What is often seen as procrastination is only our waiting for events to match our vision that fits the step we next need to take. When there can be no rush to what may ultimately occur when cause and effect ares universally considered.

Enabling us to look at all sides of an issue, see pro and con, and reach conclusions that fit the very essence of our being and everything else as the same. There had to be a process where symbols and words could match who we are from within that would further explain who we are individually and how we fit in to the universe around us. With all things being equal there cannot be right verses wrong in the literal sense if everything comes out of their own inherent divine nature and going there to the beginning as the initial step to freedom. An end result where what occurs is universal with consideration of the divine right found by all in nature is lifted together. The I Ching is the practical application of practical consequences that fit who we have always been, are now, and will be in the future and can be a guide in getting there.

Rather myth, legend, or reality, a shaman who lived in 2700 BC named the Yellow Emperor, in Chinese history known as Huangdi, is said to have invented the lines of the eight diagrams  of the I Ching (as well considered the father of Chinese medicine). Historically, he was considered to be from Qufu more than two thousand years beforeConfucius.

The obelisk at the birthplace of the Yellow Emperorin Qufu

During the Han dynasty in roughly 200 AD an Emperor came along and said… no the Yellow Emperor had been an actual person who had been a great shaman and yes, he had in fact invented the original eight hexagram lines of the I Ching and it was in fact the real thing. At the time, the Emperor had the moniker of being the “Son of Heaven”. In effect, saying myth and reality can merge into what should be taken as truth.

In practical terms, there had to be a process where symbols could match words that spoke individually to each of us reflecting who we are. Things always change and nothing stays the same over time, so how do we empower and enable ourselves to match this with our highest endeavor?

It’s like they found with the stars above. The same stars in the sky would re-appear at the same time once a year. Matching yourself with the stars you were born with you could tell how old you were and claim a totem the symbol of a protecting animal assigned to you as a protector here in the natural world that correlated with the stars above.

What is critical is that we do no harm to ourselves and others along the way. Our life experiences are here to teach us how to live within ourselves and reflect that in all our activities… love thy neighbor as thyself. We need structure to do this and ritual, symbols, and words become the process to take us there. Over eons of time, we have learned that it is love that keeps us centered and not being afraid to open our imagination, our hearts and minds to something new that changes us into something beyond what we think we know. And mostly importantly – love knows no bounds. In going there, we continue with the next step.

What we discussed back in Numbers 1 and 2 here in the 5^th Wing about Heaven and Earth is connecting with the sky above as Heaven with the Earth where we are now. That people are like the four seasons as they themselves moved around the sun too. They/We are born, live, die, and would return again as something new. If we could be connected with the stars, then our eternal essence would always be secure giving us a sense of freedom. That there is nothing to fear in death if we have lived our lives in harmony with who we are here to become continually growing as our eternal selves as we connect with all other things.

Also this is only the second of a total of twelve of furthering how the I Ching works through us. We have far to go. If you are following this website and my entries here, please don’t jump to conclusions as to where this all is headed. Using your own innate wisdom and imagination go with the flow and just let it take you there. You have the freedom to do so, or not.

The following is from Chapter One – Heaven’s Gift of “My travels with Lieh Tzu” that I wrote in January 1995. We are all living history. What matters is what we come to find as our starting point and finding the benchmark of our words, actions, and deeds.

A Conversation with the Yellow Emperor or Forever Knowing the Outcome

Knowing no origins. Finding no difference between one thing and another.

Death not simply an ending, but the art of transforming from one thing to the next.  Knowing neither birth nor death.  Life but a shadow, sounds but an echo. Always coming and going as nothing made into something, only to be made into something once again.

Somehow taking shape in the end. Simply coming forward to know the way of virtue. Being born to be reborn. Having shape to be made shapeless. Endings never escaping their end just as whatever is born again can never escape its beginning. Living only as the eternal spirit always merely coming and going. The only possessions that exist belonging to Heaven and Earth. Each taking care of man’s spirit and remains. Whatever else could there be.

What is man, but what takes shape through infancy, old age and death. Each simply one’s spirit working out the details along the everlasting Way or Tao. Coming in with harmony and virtue intact. Later only to find turmoil as desires rise and fall.  With challenges and lessons to be lived and learned. Each serving only as the knapsack of one’s destiny.

Knowing hunger and where morsels must be found. Keeping to one’s internal compass and staying on the course of events that must be followed. Finding comfort in one’s blanket to be kept warm by never contending with anything.

Coming to know old age and knowing that imperfections found since infancy have been simply built upon. Looking forward to death so that you may eagerly try again.   1/8/1995

The Dazhuan is composed of the 5^th and 6^th Wings of what is known as the Ten Essential Commentaries with each having twelve entries. Below are numbers three and four of the 5th Wing. All told, they convey the history of the I Ching and how each of us should live our lives in such a way that conveys our own innate virtue and are considered the benchmark to all essential wisdom. I wrote my own version of the Dazhuanin 2014.

Below are segments that appear here on my website. This all sounds complicated. But it’s really like learning to drive. It’s simply knowing the rules of the road, staying on course (our life), and following them. It’s like the universe asking you not to be anyone but who you are already are and going there. It’s not simply opposites that attract each other… it’s complimentary opposites coming together to find common ground. As if two drops of water at the crest of a ridge pole or middle setting a passageway for eternity to follow their lead. Setting the tone in harmony with each other. It’s finding this within ourselves that makes the I Ching appealing.

The Dazhuan 5th Wing Part I Number 3

The Statements – What the Words Show 

We first look to how great and small are related in theI Ching and in our lives as the images and symbols that connect us to the invisible world.Great and small are key words, the oldest terms foryin and yang.

Through them we know if we should be forceful and follow our own idea, or are flexible and yield to others. It is the hexagramsthat refer to figures while the line statements refer to alternations. Alternations are the act or process of alternating, or in what might be considered alternate succession or repeated rotation.

Understanding this concept is one of the key components of theI Ching and ‘complimentary opposites’ which represent the reality of yin/yang theory as the essence of the I Ching, and the role of facing “underlying contradictions” of our character that define us – both good and bad… much on this later.

In reading the lines auspicious and disaster means success and failure. Trouble and distress refer to minor mistakes; no misfortune means mistakes can be mended. Therefore, what is seen as noble or base depends on position, just as sorting out what is great or small depends on the hexagram while discerning rather something is auspicious or disastrous depends on the statement. Worrying at trouble and distress depends on the risk as quaking at no misfortune depends on distress. Thus, the hexagrams deal with great and small, the statements deal with danger and comfort and show the way things are going.

It would be those who could successfully read the symbols that made consulting the spirit world central to what could be known and what could not be known. Just as we ourselves are in constant transformation, our spirit always advancing and withdrawing as we look for and to a change of heart that defines us through the ability to know the Way, or Tao, is through the words we speak and write that define both ourselves and our relationships with what we encounter.

Anxiety occurs due to our innate desire to know what the Tao teaches – and staying within the limits of the Way, or Tao.With this the Superior Man or Women will know how to act as their own divine return signals at both danger and ease. This is how the talisman became important as it defined one’s eternal connection with nature and the universe. (A talisman is a stone, ring, or other object, engraved wit figures or characters supposed to possess power to connect one with the universe and worn as an amulet, bracelet, or charm. Its presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings and/or emotions  human feelings and/or actions).

Remember that this process took thousands of years of understanding cause and effect and what occurs in nature, and how it is a reflection of our own universal presence. How each of us comes forward through our relationships and our response that occurs through our actions that comes into sync with this. It is tied intrinsically with and to who we have always  been as “universal truth”. That we are here to further, and just as important, to do so under the auspicious of “divine order”. It is not a conjecture, or simply opinion.  To always live in the presence of this love and have our energies guided thusly. Also you should not view this process in a religious context tied to a particular set of beliefs.

You can still follow the Christ presence within, the Bodhisattva vow, the Tao, or other path that takes you to your highest endeavor and destiny.It serves as the universe speaking directly to us – each individual – and the ten thousand things – everything and used as a tool, can help to take us there.What the I Ching provided over the centuries, and continues to do so, was the context giving structure to philosophy and religion that would give a commonality and purpose. Using the I Ching as it found way to the middle (that complimentary opposites attract each other) that reconciles our universal presence and transcendent universal nature.

Therefore, what is seen as noble or base depends on position, just as sorting out what is great or small depends on the hexagram while discerning rather something is auspicious or disastrous depends on the statement. Worrying at trouble and distress depends on the risk as quaking at no misfortune depends on distress. Thus,the hexagrams deal with great and small, the statements deal with danger and comfort and show the way things are going.

It would be those who could successfully read the symbols that made consulting the spirit world central to what could be known and what could not be known.  Just as we ourselves are in constant transformation, our spirit always advancing and withdrawing as we look for and to a change of heart that defines us through the ability to know the Way, or Tao, is through the words we speak and write and our actions that follow. Anxiety occurs due to our innate desire to know what the Tao teaches – and staying within the limits of the Way, or Tao. With this the Superior Man or Women will know how to act as their own divine return signals at both danger and ease. This is how the talisman became important as it defined one’s eternal connection with nature and the universe. (A talisman is a stone, ring, or other object, engraved wit figures or characters supposed to possess power to connect one with the universe and worn as an amulet, bracelet, or charm. Its presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings and/or actions).

In Chinese history, Fulu is a term for Taoist practitioners in the past that could draw and write supernatural talismans calledFu which they believed functioned as summons or instructions to deities, spirits, or as tools of exorcism, as medical potions for ailments. Again, it is important to remember that the Yellow Emperormentioned above was consider both the founder of the symbols of the I Ching, and also theFather of Chinese medicine. If he did exist, he was the greatest shaman and teacher of his age/time.

A talisman depicting desire for wealth and success.

It is believed by Taoists that in the past the ability to write Shenfu (similar to an oracle) which they believed functioned as summons or instructions to deities, spirits, had been once decreed by their deities to authorized priests or daoshi. Lu (Chinese: 籙) is a register and compilation of the membership of the daoshi as well as the skills they were able to use. These practitioners are also called Fulu Pai (Chinese: 符籙派) or the Fulu Sect made up of daoshi from different schools or offshoots of Taojia. It is a symbol that connects us to the invisible world. It’s the vibrations, or light, we attract that puts us in tune with our inner self.What is the light? We/You are the light, with our ability to be conscious and mindful, and to act with wisdom and foresight. To serve the light means to show up which means simply to be present – for yourself, as your best and highest self, and to show up for others in your life as well.

For myself, trying to see this through “today’s eyes” can be difficult. But in context to what they knew at the time, and what they saw as “universal truths”. The use of the talisman is common in almost all ancient cultures and was universal throughout time and the world.

This was one of the major precept’s outlining the shaman’s influence connecting to the sky above (especially the Big Dipper) and what could be seen and observed in nature.  This gave the shaman the ability to converse with nature. It was through symbols that the ancients found the doorway to Heaven. Examples of these symbols first illustrating the sun, moon, and stars, wereunearthed during the Han dynasty at Nanyang in Henan Province and depict the sixteen stars of theAzure, or Green Dragon constellation.

The Azure Dragon occupies the four constellations that define the horizon.From prehistory forward, the ancient Chinese felt a direct connection to the stars as if they were in reality the place of their ancestors. First on tortoise shell then later on the hip bone of a horse, bear, or elk, and even later yarrow sticks, came the desire and need to communicate with the spirit world and others and speak – to develop a vocabulary with words that spoke to the divine spirit within. It was this innate urging to connect with the universe that cultivating stillness through meditation was fine-tuned over the centuries.

It was this use of imagination and images that attached words to the divine connection of man and in stillness that man’s divine nature could manifest to the fullest. It was then thatthe paradigm shifted and the words could define the symbols and everything changed.

Then six lines became eight and the bagua came into being and in about 1100 BC. King Wen (1152 – 1056 BC) added words, i.e., statements with meaning to the lines.  It was with the consultation process that the lines were considered as transforming. It is when a line “transforms” that it turns into its opposite. This is when the words attached to the lines take on great importance. It is here that the spirit is changing shape, so that we know how to act.  Over the centuries many others would write their own commentaries as to the meaning of the lines to fit their philosophy to what they would say the I Ching and Tao really meant. Key among those would be Confucius and then later Wang Pi in the Han dynasty. The primary connection between the I Ching and the Tao is rather change is flowing or is blocked and it is the position of the strong and supple lines that help us to know whether our place in life is great or small. This speaks to our innate moral center or virtue and our desire to find and stay in tune with what is universal. It is in this way we return to the Tao and our eternal self.

The Dazhuan 5th Wing Part I Number 4

Embracing Tranquility as the Sage, the Spirits, and Change 

The I Ching and change is always taking the measure of Heaven and Earth in every person, place and thing and is the source of all beginnings. It is the union of opposites containing the signs ofHeavenand knowledge of what is light and clear with what is dark and obscure – the patterns of Earth.

The ancient shaman and later the sage understood this and could go to the beginning of things and trace its impact and nature to the end. By observing nature, they could see how birth was a beginning and death an end that united heavenly spirit with earthly realizing power. That life is a never-ending continuum of one’s soul or spirit. It would be much later when Chuang Tzu would have this realization and express this best.

It was in early pre-history that spirit travel was said to be common for those who were adept at conversing with what could not be known. That by and through following the cosmos and movement of the stars, the shaman could fix their location with the stars and return.

My own source – the Libra constellation

It was this fixing of the stars, sun and moon that allowed the universe to speak and the sage to listen and then speak and communicate on its behalf in what was to becomethe traditional roll of the dragon in Chinese folklore and history.

The ultimate allegory – a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; a figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another depicting man’s connection to the universe and the Tao. Becoming one with the dragons one could reach his/her ultimate endeavor and destiny and understanding the underpinnings of the I Ching. It would be in this way universal truths could be shown and appear through you. The greatest shaman of old were storytellers who could tell and convey the symbols from which all began.

It was through this understanding that all things come about first as a symbol (hsiang) and that  the symbol is a heavenly spirit that connects with body-energy (chi) by using the realizing power of Earth (K’un) in life.

In death the soul wanders, detaches itself and floats up. It is in this way a transformation occurs. Life is not simply the union and separation of the light and the dark with death, but a celebration of how one returns to his origin. It was with this knowledge the shaman could penetrate all mysteries. And it was the I Ching and what was later to become Taoism that drove the connection between Earth and Heaven by what the earliest shaman, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu, Confucius and so many others were to contribute to the spiritual and philosophical world. It is with this realization that they become your peers again and again and you become the peers of others.The Taoist teachings of Lao, Chuang and Lieh Tzu; Confucian ethics of Confucius and Mencius; universal love of Mo Tzu, and the individualism of Yang Chu, we find all of them in change and the I Ching.Using change, they brought security to those who depended on them. By following fate such an enlightened person can be free of care and sorrow. Fate defined as a person understanding the flow and vibrations of their life as it connects with all around them.

To stay in tune with this universal understanding you must use affection, dialogue and divination (one’s perception by intuition and/or instinctive foresight), not simply diligence and study.

Nothing can separate us from our eternal path or spirit except our own lack of focus and effort. We learn not to become anxious when it is time to speak, as our voice becomes a mirror or reflection of Heaven. You (we) have always had this power. It is our understanding, wisdom, and furthering coming forward that allows us to use our power and great vision of things to come. It is in unblocking the power that already resides within us that determines our fate. The key being the spirits(shen) not being confined to our thoughts and change not being confined to our body.

(This is the second of twelve entries, each containing two of the 5^thand 6^th Wings outlining the origins and purpose of the I Ching, the Dazhuan. Please stay tuned as there is more to the story).

3) The I Ching, Leo Tolstoy and the essence of prayer. To know thyself and following the pathways of Heaven and Earth – As we acknowledge that the world begins and continues with us as we keep our promise to both.