Consulting The Yijing

The Yijing (I-Ching), or "Book Of Change," is an ancient divination manual and book of wisdom. Its legendary author is Fu Hsi - a prehistoric chieftan - with later additions by King Wen and the Duke of Chou. The Yijing is structured around 64 hexagrams, which in turn are permutations of the "eight trigrams." The eight trigrams - the Bagua - are combinations of Yin and Yang, represented visually by solid or broken lines. There are various methods for consulting the Yijing: using yarrow sticks, or coins, or the Internet! Whatever method you choose, the first step is to have a specific question in mind. Once you've come up with your question, you then toss the coins or yarrow sticks, or hit the "return" key and - voila! - the Yijing Oracle provides you with her answer ... Once you have in hand the Yijing's words of wisdom, the final step is to use your own intutition to see how they apply to your particular question.

My favorite translation of the Yijing is Thomas Cleary's The Taoist I-Ching, which features commentaries by the Taoist adept Liu I-ming. In this version, the text is presented as a guide to Self-Realization while living an ordinary life in the world. This idea of the realized sage living a very ordinary life is expressed beautifully in the 36th hexagram - "Concealment of Illumination." A portion of Liu I-Ming's commentary reads:

Once one has advanced to illumination, and inside and out are lucid and clear, then one can conceal one's illumination and nurture it unbeknownst to others, eventually to reach the realm of consummate good without evil, causing illumination to be free of any defect.

Have fun!