Purpose
Throughout the text in Door to All Wonders there are references to hexagrams of the I Ching and the Chinese characters that name or otherwise describe them. We have included these images in the chapters for reader reference along with the text. Because of this pervasive presence of I Ching underlying Taoist thought and culture, we are including a simple introductory summary of the I Ching structure—as well as its amazing correlation to recent dis-coveries and developments in modern science. This knowledge has practical applications, especially in the area of molecular biol-ogy, the genetic code, our DNA, and the subatomic world of quan-tum mechanics. This translates into significant power for our life, our spiritual experience and for the fulfillment of our evolutionary birthright.
For those of us who don’t have an understanding of the work-ings of the I Ching or the modern science of genetics, some stream-lined basics will be presented in this section. The intention is to give a sense of their basic structure and functions, just enough to appreciate their value and significance. It is not necessary to have extensive knowledge in order to benefit from reading the ‘Door.’
In the Preface, Huang wrote: “… Tao Te Ching … The Text con-tains two sections. … He Shanggong (The Man-On-The-Riverbank), who was believed to be the reincarnation of Lao Tzu, divided the Text into 81 chapters. Numbers have always figured prominently in Chinese philosophy and symbolism. Tao Ching has 37 chapters and Te Ching is composed of 44. To assess this nu-merically, we see that three and seven is ten, and four plus four equals eight; together they are eighteen, or double-nine, which when multiplied equal 81 … the transformation of love and virtue into Pure-Person (the oneness between spirit-nine of pure soul and God’s nine of pure spirit).”
We will not attempt to assess the system and symbolism of Chinese numerology in this introduction. But, we will help readers who haven’t studied the I Ching to know some basic concepts of the structure and dynamics of the I Ching. The “double nines” are number designations (to be mentioned later) of two of the lines found in the trigrams of some hexagrams of the I Ching. There are different aspects in the process of reading the hexagrams; the lines
are read from the bottom up. When reading the trigram aspect of the lines, the lower three lines are regarded as the Earth trigram and the upper three constitute the Heaven trigram. Each of the
“double nine” lines referred to above is positioned in each of the two trigrams that make up the six lines of a hexagram.
Perspective
The roots of the Tao go back perhaps 20,000 years.4 The legend-ary Fu-Hsi (Fuxi) is credited with compiling the ancient wisdom about 5,000 years ago. He created trigrams with broken and un-broken lines to represent the eight elemental forces of the universe and nature, and he arranged them in the famous eight-sided pakua figure (as seen in the Universal Tao logo).
Eight-sided Pakua with the Tai Chi Yin Yang symbol in the center.
By combining the eight trigrams as pairs of all the possible trigram combinations, he delineated the structure of the earliest version of the 64 hexagrams and the system that has come to be known as the I Ching. (See Fu-Hsi’s table of the I Ching below.) The hexagrams were later rearranged and written down by King Wen about 3,000 years ago. This version was further refined by one of his sons, the Duke of Chou. Confucius and some of his disciples then edited the Chou version (and added more refine-ments) about 500 years later—during the time of Lao Tzu.
It may interest the reader to learn that the I Ching was recog-nized about thirty years ago as having the same mathematical struc-ture as the genetic code.5 Watson and Crick had correctly de-scribed the structure of DNA in 1953,6 for which they received the Nobel Prize in 1962. We will also provide a simple non-technical
summary for the matching structure of DNA, which correlates to the structure and dynamics of the I Ching.
In 1975, the wave character, the ‘other half’ of the DNA system was discovered—the half that is complementary to the material aspect. This implies that there is a universal system of communi-cation between the cells operating at much higher speeds than the humoral or neural systems previously known. Ultraviolet frequency biosignals ‘ride’ on the spirals of DNA and activate specific codons7 (biological information units in the 64-triplet code of DNA—analo-gous to the trigram combinations of the I Ching). This knowledge (as stated by Dr. D.A. Popp, discoverer of the wave character of DNA) leads us to the recognition that spirit can be transformed from matter, and matter only gains in significance through the spirit.8 Thus, from the Taoist perspective, it seems likely that our spirit/
consciousness can be cultivated to enhance the probability of the most beneficial possibilities in our lives.
I Ching Lines, Digrams, Trigrams and Hexagrams
The “I” in I Ching generally means change, transformation. There is also an ancient definition in Chinese that defines it as ‘generat-ing new life.’ This latter mean‘generat-ing is useful to keep in mind in corre-lating the structures and dynamics of the I Ching and the genetic code, DNA.
Tao in manifestation is represented as the interchange of two interrelated primordial phases, yin and yang. In the I Ching system of representation, yin is characterized as a feminine, receptive, contracting quality of energy and is shown as a broken line (— —).
Yang is the complementary component and is a masculine, dona-tive (giving), expanding energy represented as an unbroken line (——). In the binary number system, yin and yang is represented as (0,1) or also written as (0,L)—which is great for computer analy-sis, etc. The yin/yang aspects, or tendencies, of energy, are not isolated as opposites, but rather, are conceived as being interre-lated and working harmoniously for their common good. They are poles of an interconnected continuum of changing proportions, shifting by degree in relationship to each other. Thus, they are de-noted as polarities of a whole, rather than as dualistic and sepa-rate opposites.
Explaining the methodology and practice of the I Ching, Confucius said, “In ‘I’, there is Tai Chi (great void), which generates two poles, which generate four quadrants, which generate eight octants.” The two poles are the yang (——) and yin (— —) lines.
The quadrants are the digrams made up of combinations of pairs of yin and yang.
Digrams:
Old yin Young yang Young yin Old yang
6 7 8 9
The digram number shown beneath each pair is the number that is assigned for that configuration as part of the divination process.
The combinations of the two lines (poles) give rise to the double duality of the digrams—yin and yang furnish the basic duality or polarity, and one more line furnishes the additional duality of old and young.
Adding one more line to the digrams results in eight combinations of octants—trigrams.
Trigrams:
Ken Sun Li Chien Kun Kan Chen Tui
Kan Hexagram
When the paired combinations of all eight trigrams are config-ured, the result yields the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. For ex-ample, combining two Kan trigrams results in the Kan hexagram.
The eight hexagrams that pair two the same trigrams retain the same name as the individual trigrams, as in this example. Brief traditional texts—called ‘Images,’ ‘Judgments’ and ‘Oracles’—in-terpreting the meaning and structure of the hexagram have been appended to the hexagrams. The I Ching is capable of self-de-scription and self-renewal and has a built-in mechanism for avoid-ing absoluteness—it is a Relativity Theory on a grand scale.
I Ching Divination Process
The I Ching is perceived as a ‘world formula’ consisting of 64 pos-sible hexagrams that symbolize all states of being, or tendencies of energy orientation. Energy transformations occur in the unend-ing flow of changes in life from the microcosmic through the macrocosmic levels of existence. Likely possibilities and probabili-ties of the outcomes of change may be ascertained—based on relevant variables present in a ‘snapshot’ of experience at a given moment in time. These possibilities and probabilities are arrived at through the ‘oracular,’ or divination, process in association with the appropriate hexagrams. This conception is the theoretical basis for describing the dynamics of the Tao in creation. It is the under-pinning of Chinese mystical culture.
The sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching can also be thought of as triads of digrams; that is, combinations of three of the four pos-sible digrams. There are eight pospos-sible combinations of three bro-ken/unbroken lines (resulting in trigrams as seen above). In addi-tion to reading the trigrams, the I Ching divinaaddi-tion process includes
Fu-Hsi’s Table of the I Ching Upper
reading the digrams and their interrelated influence within the hexagrams and in relation to related hexagrams. Likewise, it reads the significance of individual lines in the context of a specific hexagram and related hexagrams. [Please refer to Appendix II for a complete listing of the hexagram configurations and Richard Wilhelm’s translation of their names.]
The divination process serves to narrow the focus of probabili-ties and possibiliprobabili-ties of transformations and outcomes—which can never be permanent and final, but only relative in nature. This is so, because—as Einstein has reminded us with his formula, E=mc2— even solid matter is a state of energy. The elements of the I Ching hexagrams represent 64 dynamic states of tension between the opposites of yang and yin in maintaining a particular state. At some point in the dual polarities, yang changes to yin and yin changes to yang, and the states of energy change.
DNA Notes, Basic Concepts and Vocabulary
The biggest biological success story is the elucidation of how in-formation becomes form. How genetic inin-formation flows, or how genes act, has been called the new paradigm of biology. We present here some basic concepts and vocabulary of current knowledge of genetics. Readers may take heart and be inspired with a sense of the practical probabilities of immediate benefits that one may influence in the genes. The principles of divination referred to above—which are determined as statistical probabilities and pos-sibilities based on known variables and with considerations of chance and luck—also apply in the realm of genetics. Genes do not work in a vacuum, but interact with the environment at many levels in producing a phenotype (the expressed form of a charac-ter). The relationship of genotype to phenotype across an environ-mental range is called the norm of reaction.
DNA is the common information storage and expression sys-tem for most organisms on the planet. It is a syssys-tem in which information flows from DNA to RNA to protein. DNA is the informational basis underlying all the processes and structures of life. The DNA—DeoxyriboNucleic Acid—molecule has a structure that accounts for two of the key properties of life, reproduction and generation of form. DNA is a double-helical structure whose inher-ent design is such that it can be replicated to make two idinher-entical copies. DNA replication is the basis for all reproduction, cellular
and organismal. So DNA can be viewed as the thread that con-nects us with all our evolutionary ancestors. Furthermore, DNA generates form because a code that contains the instructions for building an organism is written into the linear sequence of the building blocks of a DNA molecule. We can view this as information, or
“that which is necessary to give form.”
DNA works in virtually the same way in all organisms. Most genes code for some type of protein: either active proteins such as enzymes or proteins that play a structural role in cells. A major landmark occurred in 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick pro-posed a double helix model for DNA structure. It showed that DNA could replicate by progressive unwinding of the two intertwined strands of the double helix and using the exposed strands as tem-plates for new synthesis. Each one of the two intertwined strands of DNA is a chain of chemical groups called nucleotides, of which there are known to be four types.
Each type is composed of a phosphate group, a deoxyribose sugar molecule, and any one of the four bases—adenine (A), gua-nine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Two of the bases, adegua-nine and guanine, have a double-ring structure characteristic of a type of chemical called purine. The other two bases, cytosine and thym-ine, have a single-ring structure of a type called a pyrimidine. Be-cause proteins are strings of amino acids, a specific nucleotide sequence of DNA (a gene) contains coded information for specify-ing amino acid sequence and hence protein structure.
In the process of protein synthesis, RNA is a mediator between DNA and the resulting protein. In the code for RNA—which reflects the properties of DNA from which it is derived—the base letter T (thymine) is replaced by U (uracil). A phalanx of ribosomes moves along the mRNA (m = messenger), each starting at the 5/ end and proceeding along the entire length of the mRNA to the 3/ end. As a ribosome moves along, it “reads” the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA three nucleotides at a time. Each group of three, called a triplet codon, stands for a specific amino acid. Since there are four different nucleotides in mRNA, there are 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 different possible codons. These codons and the amino acids they stand for are shown in the figure, “Table of the Genetic Code.”
The combinatorial arrangement of triplets of digrams corre-sponds precisely to the way that the combinations of three bases in DNA generate amino acids in living cells. The four digrams that
combine in three’s to form hexagrams are analogous to the four bases, which combine in three’s to form genetic ‘codons.’
DNA is composed of two side-by-side chains (“strands”) of nucleotides twisted into the shape of a double helix, like a spiral staircase, with the strands running in opposite directions. In the double-stranded DNA molecule, the two backbones are in oppo-site, or antiparallel, orientation. The two chains are bound together by the pairing of specific bases: A with T and G with C. The bases of DNA interact according to a very straightforward rule, namely that there are only two types of base pairs: A-T and G-C. The bases in these two base pairs are said to be complementary. This means that at any “step” of the stairlike double-stranded DNA molecule, the only base-to-base associations that can exist between the two strands without substantially distorting the double-stranded DNA molecule are A-T and G-C.
List of the amino acids and their abbreviations in the above code.
Ala = Alanine Gly = Glycine Pro = Proline Arg = Arginine His = Histidine Ser = Serine Asp = Aspartic acid Ileu = Isoleucine Thr = Threonine AspN= Asparagine Leu = Leucine Trp = Tryptophan Cys = Cystine Lys = Lysine Tyr = Tyrosine Glu = Glutarnic acid Met = Methionine Val = Valine GluN = Glutarnine Phe = Phenylalanine
Second Letter
First Letter Third Letter
Table of the Genetic Code U
At the end of replication of a DNA molecule, two molecules re-sult. Each of these is a hybrid consisting of one of the parent strands intertwined with one newly synthesized strand, hence the term semiconservative. The coded information in the nucleotide se-quence must be translated in groups of three nucleotides for each amino acid. In 1966, the complete genetic “dictionary” of all 64 pos-sible triplet-coding units (codons) and the specific amino acids they stand for was deduced. Subsequent studies in many organisms showed that the double-helical structure of DNA, the mode of its replication, and the codon dictionary are the same in virtually all organisms, whether plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria. [“Notes”—
gleaned from Modern Genetic Analysis.]
By letting the above-mentioned nucleotide bases T (or U), C, G and A be expressed by the digrams of the I Ching—this correla-tion, if substituted in the “Table of the Genetic Code,” yields the same 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. Thus, the correlations are as follows:
Concluding Comments
For the sake of brevity, the presentations of both the I Ching and the Genetic Code were grossly oversimplified and superficial. The purpose was to provide a sense of the validity and significance of the I Ching for the uninitiated reader, since it is referred to often in the text. Likewise, due to the tremendous advances in genetic sci-ence, it is inspiring to have a sense of how we come to be the way we are. Consequently, it may also support us in our practices to know that we really do have the capability to profoundly influence our health and evolution. By getting the good biosignals humming and riding up and down those spiral stairways in our DNA, activat-ing those good codons in our cells, transformactivat-ing spirit from matter, and at the same time enhancing the quality and significance of our physical being—who knows what limits we may transcend!
That’s it! This is as far as we go in the discussion of the corre-lation between the I Ching and the genetic code. The key to the structure and dynamics of life in our genes is the same as the I Ching’s 64 dynamic states of tension between the polar oppo-sites of yin and yang. It is the same as the wisdom, the cosmology of the world, embodied in the I Ching that was compiled 5,000 years ago by Fu-Hsi. Except that the I Ching has been further re-fined and enhanced by spiritually achieved sages who followed in
the millennia since Fu-Hsi. By comparing the charts of Fu-Hsi’s hexagrams and the Genetic Code’s triplet codons, feel a sense of awe for the beauty and power of truth in the microcosm in each of the trillions of cells in your body. As well, sense the polar connec-tion with the complementary primordial Chi of the universe, the macrocosm.
Be like Niels Bohr, one of the godfather’s of the modern science of the subatomic world—quantum physics. The result of his work and others has confirmed the dual polarity nature of the wave/par-ticle reality in the subatomic realm of existence. After he had al-U = C = G = A =
or T in the case of DNA
(Preliminary trial, symbols exchangeable)