I’ve just started reading Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Tao of Psychology. It’s a wonderful book. Not much writing about synchronicity really seems to ‘get it’, but this most assuredly does:
“Synchronicity is the connecting principle… between our psyches and an external event, in which we feel an uncanny sense of inner and outer being linked. In the experience of a synchronistic event, instead of feeling ourselves to be separated and isolated entities in a vast world we feel the connection to others and the universe at a deep and meaningful level. That underlying connection is the eternal Tao, and a synchronistic event is a specific manifestation of it.”
Yes. Absolutely. That’s exactly how it feels to me when a reading ‘connects’. The feeling of connection expands and becomes more constant as I’m ‘tuned’ by the reading to notice more.
I have never left a comment before. So here it goes… The teaching level and the way it is being presented really pleases me. Congratulations on your work with the I Ching and thank you very much for your dedication towards the members of CLARITY. I take the opportunity to make a question: How to distinguish the past, the present and the future using the I Ching? I have Richard Willehm´s translation translated into Portuguese. I am a recent student of it and I still have a lot to learn from the I Ching.
Back again afer a long pause and looking forward to getting involved
In the first place I would suggest removing all need for expertise by making the distinction in your question. Ask about the time you’re interested in: ‘How did I get here?’ or ‘Where am I?’ or ‘Where is this headed?’ (Most of the time, asking about the present moment will get you more helpful answers. After all, it’s not so easy to change past or future…)
And secondly, if you’re looking at a reading that describes unfolding events, you might expect changing lines at the bottom of the hexagram to represent the present or even (at line 1) immediate past, and for lines further up the hexagram to be further into the future. But this is a general suggestion and in no way a ‘rule’. The unique qualities of a particular question and answer can always override such generalities.
The connection! Because at the deepest level, we and all that exists are connected. Nay,even more than that, we are all one. The separation is only an illusion. I see you, I see me. For we are one. What an incentive this is to not hurt another, for in doing so, we are hurting ourselves. Love your neighbor as yourself, not because it is the golden rule, and it is a nice thing to do, but love your neighbor because he/she IS you. See hexagram 61.
Gene
I recall having this worderful sensation of being connected to the Universe only a few times. And when it happened for the very first time it was something so pleasant and so present that I didn´t concentrate on anything else except to be in this connection, to live the experience as well as to get a notion of what it is like to be with God. This feeling of unicity may be different from person to person . As a general aspect you may feel COMPLETE. You may learn how to get linked to the whole and every time it may have a different thing to sense.