3.1. Creación de la marca
3.1.2. Propósito
■In 2-1 The Rationale for Divination aka.
Now we come to the following questions. Why do we divinate?
How does it work? Why do we use six lines? Why is the time im-portant?
We can begin to understand the answers to questions like these by reviewing the Tai Chi diagram and seeing how simply it can describe our world. First we have Wu Chi, no change; hen we have the Tai Chi Stage, where there
is
a little change. Since now we have changed and unchanged, we have duality, the two forms called the Liung Yi. If we want to describe our world this way, we can draw a line as in figure 2-1 a.0 +
Figure 2-la
We can see on the line that from a point of origin there are two directions. We can call these plus and minus. By using these two forms,
5 6 The Tao Of I-Ching Chapter Two The Miracle Of Divination 57 we can describe any place on the line in relation to its origin. We need
one Yao to do this, and we can call our line one dimensional. Though we may rarely think of it this way, we frequently use one-dimensional thought. For example, in travelling from one town to another, we consider only one dimension. If we have a goal we are working towards, we picture a line from where we are to where the goal is and say things like "today I took a step backwards!" or "I am nearly there!".
If we take two of these lines and place them at right angles to each other, however, we begin to create a diagram that is more recognizable to us as the flat plane or Descartes Coordinants as shown in figure 2-lb.
+
1
Figure 2-lb
If we examine this diagram closely, we can see how we now require two lines — call them length and width — to describe any place on the plane. With these two Yao, we can locate any point in relation to the origin at the center. Since each Yao can take a plus or minus, we have the four symbols we can see in the diagram. Even though we live in three dimensions, we often use two-dimensional maps to describe the surface of our earth, the floor plan of a house, and so on.
But now we add a third line at right angles to the first two lines, and we have three dimensions or space coordinants, with a Yao for each, as shown in figure 2-1 c.
z
Figure 2-1 c
We can see how this creates a division of all space into eight sections, and how the minus or plus of each X, Y, Z coordinante in each section will create a different trigram. If we use a sphere instead of a grid, we have another useful diagram: each segment is a triangle with three sides.
We can analyze our spherical earth's surface with Yaos representing each side of the triangle as shown in figure 2-1 d.
Figure 2-1d
We experience our world partly as space. Though a child may never think "it is all three dimensions" the moment it is explained to him in school, he understands. Why? Because it is the simplest description.
If we try to use less, we fall short of describing space thoroughly. If we
0 +
5 8 The Tao Of 1-Ching Chapter Two The Miracle Of Divination 5 9 use more, then part of it is not needed and wastes our time.
Then we may ask, why six lines? The answer is that there is another aspect to our world that physical dimensions do not describe. We call it "time" and we also link it with mental and spiritual qualities. (See chapter Two, The Tao of meditation, Way to Enlightenment by Jou, Tsung Hwa, 1983.)
We might call this a fourth dimension. If we could be aware of all four dimensions then we would be in a godlike state, for the fourth dimension contains all past, present and future. But here we are stopper , for there is no place to add a fourth line to our diagram of space.
Sc we use our imagination and observation. What do we know about time`:' What do we know about the spiritual dimension? The answers that come to us are paradoxes. Time is with us constantly and part of everything we do, yet we have no idea how to describe it. Furthermore, all our space lines go forwards or backwards, but we see time only goes one way — past, present, future. Even more, we only occupy a tiny point on the time line, the present.
We find similar paradoxes when we try to look at the spiritual dimension. We are sure there are things, such as our soul, our spirit, our feelings, our will, that we cannot see, touch or hear in the physical world. Most of u4 can agree on the existence of phenomena. For example, the color yellow is yellow. However, in the spiritual dimension, we find agreements harder to reach, and perhaps only the poet or the mystic can say very much at all.
All of this creates a sense of mystery in life. Perhaps we are a little like shadows who are used to living on a two dimensional surface that is
part of a three dimensional world. A child with a ball on a string drops it among the shadows. Its appearance is a complete mystery. The child pulls the ball away with the string. Its disappearance is likewise totally incomprehensible. We live and breathe and take our nourishment from a four dimensional world, yet we have only three dimensions with which to talk about it. Even if we make a clock to show time, it is like a reflection of the fourth dimension in the three dimensional world — if we take the hands of the clock and turn them backwards, time does not go back!
Yet, this does not close the issue. We all have links with this greater world in our everyday living. We have all had the kind of experience we
first call "coincidence". Perhaps we are thinking of a friend, and just as the thought of him enters our mind, the phone rings and it's him.
We ponder someone we know in our work lives. Everything seems fine with them, yet somehow we think "something is happening"; even though there is no visible sign. Suddenly, we have a "brainstorm"; we snap our fingers and say, "I bet I know why she seems different. She's thinking of getting married." We look over the details and see nothing explicit. Yet we sense that there is a subtle change in her attitude and actions that shows this. We say "It is as if everything a person does and is appears in their everyday behaviour." We feel no surprise when she introduces her fiance to friends at the office the following week.
Or perhaps we have a spouse or an old friend we see frequently.
Another old friend shows up and says "how is he?" And we find ourselves giving a detailled description of their explicit feelings and plans.
Then we think, and realize, that he has never described any of these things fully to us in words. Yet, from a vague gesture, a tone of voice, a few words, we know everything.
If we cultivate our awareness of these "coincidences", we find them happening more and more just as anything we give our attention to seems to increase. Finally, we stop using the word "coincidence," and call it intuition.
And we think: "Well, I can't control it. It just happens." But then we think some more. We remember that when we became curious about it, it happened more often. So we do control it, indirectly, by nurturing it
Perhaps then we remember our school biology class and how we learned that all living things evolve: first creatures with only a dim sense of energy and warmth, then something like a starfish that can sense light, then later a creature with eyes that focus and distinguish objects.
Perhaps we think if life in general evolves, then it must be true that we have the opportunity to evolve as individuals. We begin with our five senses and now and then these "coincidences" occur. If we cultivate them, we begin to evolve more of them. We remember how bright and complete our sense impression of the world looked when we were children, and, if we are sensitive, it still looks bright and complete.
Somehow, however, our appreciation of its complexity is more intense as we grow older. We begin to sense that our body and spirit are not static.
6 0 The Tao Of I-Ching Chapter Two The Miracle Of Divination 61 Divination is one of the ways we cultivate ourselves in this way.
It deals with a sense we may someday develop a sense that we may perceive directly, with control — provided that we are willing to endlessly and patiently follow the modest and humble methods of
nurturing it in ourselves.
Whereas our three Yaos of space are explicit and definite, we must add something to them that recognizes the other perceptions we have of things we do not know how to describe so finally: time and the world of spirit. By adding a place for these to the Yaos, we will be focusing our attention upon the whole of our world when we divinate.
Why we are able to take yarrow sticks, coins, omens and time, and systematically derive a meaning from them, is a research area for a specialist. Now and then we read in a newspaper article how scientists discover that people have incredible powers under hypnotism, and so forth. This tells us that we truly do not know the true scope of our perceptions and actions. In the philosophy of the I Ching, we say that our living can be in harmony with all heaven and earth, and all our actions guided by them.
When we add our special Yaos to our ones for space, another line will not suffice, This fourth dimension we speak of has qualities that are not completely like the dimensional Yao, and we sense this. So we look back to the Liung Yi with its two forms, and we take time as a second form, and add not one Yao, but a set of three to match the first three.
Perhaps we may find other meanings to put into these three Yao if our understanding grows with time, but we begin quite simply by calling the first, past, the second, present, and the third, future. These represent our clearest simple understandings of time, and just as humanity is placed between heaven and earth, so our present comes between past and future, as shown in figure 2-le.
6 Future
We now have an empty "diagram" of six Yaos that describes our entire sense of our world. Sixty-four hexagrams can fit into this diagram, and only 64. One or the other will give us an exact and specific direction to look for understanding. Since this combination covers all events, we can examine situations in our life that are superficially unrelated, but are described by the same hexagram. Then we can do things like take a sure knowledge we have in one situation, and work at carrying it over into another with the assurance the knowledge will be equally workable there. By studying these 64, we are simultaneously studying our own lives in a thorough and systematic way.
Since our whole life is involved as we study the I Ching, our knowledge will increase slowly in many areas rather than rapidly in a few. For example, when we ask for a hexagram in divination, we are studying discernment. To extend this discernment in everyday life is a large area of study. Yet we must have the complement of discern-ment, which is to be able to act effectively and successfully with the information we gain. This, too, is a large area, and we study this using the structure of the hexagrams as a guide.
Sometimes we may study actively, by making the Hu Tien arrangement of trigrams to improve our understanding of the trigrams.
At times we may guide ourselves through personal events of the greatest seriousness. At other times we may study with light-hearted zeal and imagine ourselves like the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes who could patiently ferret out the densest mysteries with only a few clues.
If we have great ambitions in either a specific or general area, the I Ching can guide us in our development. We should never limit ourselves by the accomplishments of a figure of the past. For they made the beginnings of a value that has evolved as it has come down to us in time.
It is left to us to take it and develop it further.
Wherever we are in life, the I Ching can always show us that there is great opportunity open to us, and how to look for it. But to achieve real improvements in our life and enjoyment of it, we need to keep a basic approach firmly in mind — look for the answer by finding appropriate ways to correct our conduct or improve its quality. This carries over to the spirit of modesty in asking for guidance from heaven.
It is a simple and easy approach that always works towards harmony.
We may also consider this approach when we want to influence others —
6 2 The Tao Of I-Ching Chapter Two The Miracle Of Divination 63 instead of considering direct approaches or criticism, we ask ourselves
how we may improve our conduct so the harmony of its example is hard to ignore. The effectiveness of this simple attitude and approach can only be understood when we actually try it for ourselves over a period of time and examine the results.
Now we come to the actual rituals of divining with the I Ching. It should be remembered that a ritual is not a series of meaningless superstitions carried out without any sense of their meaning. It is a process that we can see in all human activity, even in something as informal as two people greeting each other. And it has the effect of focusing our attention on the importance and meaning of what we are
doing.
The traditional rituals of divination are recommended even to the modern student. Where it is not practicable to follow them completely, we can evolve our own modern translation of the spirit of them. By doing this, we reap the benefits of following tradition wherever possible, and we also recognize that change is part of the tradition of the Book of Changes.
When we can, we set aside a room that is used exclusively for divination and study. If we do not do this, then perhaps we find a place that we can set up to use temporarily in this way. We store our physical tools of divination carefully, and bring them out when we divinate. We choose a time and situation where we will be undisturbed, away from noise and distraction.
On the wall, we hang a picture of Fu Hsi, King Wen, the Duke of Chou, Confucius and the Great Yu (*A , An ancient Chinese King who dug canals prevent flood.) See figure 2-2a.
We have a low, square table, large enough to accommodate our work.
Behind this we have a smaller, long, narrow table for holding the incense burner and materials when not in use.
We have a bundle of 50 yarrow stalks, 15 to 20 inches long. In storage, these are wrapped in light red silk. The wrapped stalks are then put in a black silk bag. Finally, this is put in a Tu ( ), which is a cylinder made of bamboo or hardwood. It is about three inches in diameter and has a cover that fits over the top.
Figure 2-2a
The Tu is placed at the back of the square table, and in front of it we place two Sen Kua (E ). Sen Kua is a curved bamboo shell, about the size and shape of the cupped palm of a hand. In front of the Sen Kua we place an ancient Chinese jug, made of China or brass, to hold a stalk when we divinate. In front of the jug, we place an incense burner.
For recording our work, we use "the four treasures of a study room":
a writing brush ( ), an inkslab ( ), an ink stick ( ), and writing papers. We have six Yao bars. A Yao bar is a wood plate a half inch thick and about one inch by ten inches. On one side we have carved in the bar, the sign of Yin (- -) in black. On the other side we have the sign of Yang ( ) in red.
Before we begin our divination, we arrange these Yao on the table to form the hexagram Tai ( 1t. ), as shown in figure 2-2b.
All of these items comprise the tools of divination. Our large table should be set up in front of a window facing South. We now come to