A couple of days ago, I recommended the Divine Purpose Unveiled course, and all kinds of debate ensued. Some of that was about the very idea of having a ‘divine purpose’ at all, and whether it’s remotely helpful. Is it good to believe that we have a specific personal contribution to make in the world, that there’s something we’re here to do, and to explore what that might be?
Some people balk at the idea because it seems presumptuous, or limiting, to think of this as something we could know. (And there was that enthusiastic headline about ‘knowing once for all’, which is probably going to sound odd anyone who’s spent much time with the Book of Change.) There’s maybe some underlying sense that we shouldn’t be trying to understand this kind of thing.
In regard to this, I think a lot depends on what you understand by ‘purpose’. If it meant your role in life, or your job description, then obviously that would be limiting. But – of course – it doesn’t. Purpose is not the job or role, it’s the meaning behind many jobs or roles, the single constant thread through all the changes. It can probably be described in just a few words. (Maybe ‘intermediary – mediator – interpreter – connector’ in my case.) Is this knowable? I think it can be… but if it isn’t, is that a reason not to explore it in depth?
Trojan made a different and more challenging point (it’s a habit she has… 🙂 ):
“As for the whole concept, that there is a purpose of why we are here…seems somewhat prosaic to me, as if one had to be useful and purposeful to justify living at all. Why can we not just be ? Seems a very human concept this divine purpose thing..kind of travelling in the opposite direction of spiritual unfolding…a bit like a protestant work ethic approach to spiritual development.”
I’m very much attached to the idea of being useful – far too much so, probably – but I don’t think that’s quite the same thing as being purposeful. The opposite of ‘purposeful’ isn’t ‘useless’, it’s ‘accidental’ – without intrinsic meaning. And while some spiritual traditions are averse to the idea that the life of the individual and their uniqueness are of value… well, some aren’t.
So does ‘knowing your life purpose’ mean limiting your growth to the bounds of your own understanding, or an insecure attempt to justify your existence, or a powerful and beautiful way to authentic living, or something else…?
I asked Yi:
What does ‘knowing your life purpose’ really mean?
Yi answered with Hexagram 49, Radical Change, moving at the first and third lines to Hexagram 45, Gathering.
Here are some preliminary ideas about this one…
I’d read the two hexagram names together as showing that knowing your life purpose brings ‘radical change in how you gather’. Think of the scene in Hexagram 45:
‘Gathering together, creating success.
The king enters his temple
Fruitful to see great people, creating success.
Constancy bears fruit.
Using great sacrificial animals: good fortune.
Fruitful to have a direction to go.’
The people are gathering around their point of spiritual connection, the king entering his temple and opening the flow of communication to the spirits. The diviners are consulted, the finest animals are offered. For a community, this is about collective effort towards a great goal. For an individual, it’s about gathering your whole self – choosing a focal point, making the commitment that all your resources and energies will be invested here.
This is about spiritual orientation – and to invest yourself utterly, to bring your best offerings without reserve, it helps to have a vision and a direction to go. The gathering is purposeful. It looks towards Hexagram 46, Pushing Upward; it implies a belief that there are higher places to reach, step by step.
There’s great intensity to this hexagram – reflected in the emotionality of its line texts. It insists on offering, participation, and things that bear fruit. At least in the absence of ‘bailout plans’ to fall back on, the issue of how you gather, how you invest your limited resources, is fraught with risk: that’s implicit in the oracle text, and explicit in the Image.
The same intensity is present in questions of ‘life purpose’. Do you really want to gather together your whole life into a single purpose? That’s like gathering all your water supply into a single earth-banked reservoir. You need to be very sure that it’s sound.
So to know our life purpose would mean radical change in how we gather, where we focus, how we invest ourselves, how we give of our best… and all that is only natural, because to be aware of purpose provides a single ‘direction to go’ to all areas of life.
What kind of change does Hexagram 49 represent? (English words like ‘change’ and ‘transformation’ are pretty vague; Yi is, naturally, very specific about distinct kinds of change.)
Looking at the Chinese character, which shows an animal skin stretched out to dry, this is the kind of change you get with a new skin. The lines about ‘tiger change’ and ‘leopard change’ suggest that there are some ancient roots here in shamanic work: putting on a new skin to reveal a new identity, to draw it into being. You can see how this might be true of knowing your purpose.
And looking at the hexagram’s tradition – the association with the Zhou people and how they overthrew the corrupt Shang regime – this is also a change of government. Not just different faces in the same jobs, but a different way of government: one that changes the way you run your life. Again, you can see how this is relevant.
‘Radical change.
On your own day, there is truth.
Creating success from the source, harvest in constancy.
Regrets vanish.’
On your own day, there is fu – the same word as in the name of Hexagram 61, Inner Truth, meaning sincerity, trust and truth, and a great sense of presence. On ‘your own day’, you identify with the moment, step into it as your own and liberate the full flow of creative potential. The past is past; of course ‘regrets vanish’, what else could they do?
Hexagram 49 is not about change for its own sake, but change that restores harmony. The Zhou didn’t take over from the Shang just because they could, but because they had the true, living relationship with spirit that the Shang had lost. The Sequence from hexagram 48 says that ‘the dao of the Well does not allow you not to change radically.’ If there is true connection with source, with spirit, then every human activity that’s fallen out of harmony with that will have to change – and so the whole ‘form of government’ will change.
If all this is the potential in knowing your life purpose, then clearly it is not a small or gentle thing. It might be simpler not to know. However, the moving line texts make it clear that just knowing is quite limited.
Line 1
‘Bound with yellow cow-hide.’
This line connects to hexagram 31, Influence: the first step towards radical change is to open up and create space where influence can be felt. I’d think of that as a spiritual influence: open up, allow yourself to be moved.
This is one of those ‘changing your skin’ lines – but nothing so glamorous as a tiger or leopard change. The first skin to wear is that of the docile, hard-working ox. Here at line 1, which is often associated with feet (for instance in the fan yao, 31.1), it’s time to tie on your boots.
At this point I can relate to the ‘Protestant work ethic’ idea. Knowing your purpose is a bond in itself, and cowhide bonds are unbreakably tough. They’re also ties to reality, and the ties of commitments already made. Radical, purposeful change must be expressed through these commitments (whether or not we like them) and in this reality. There aren’t any other places to start from.
Line 3
‘Setting out to bring order means pitfall,
Constancy means danger.
Words of radical change draw near three times,
There is truth and confidence.’
What does it mean to know your life purpose? Not that you instantly know how to fix your life! (Much less anyone else’s…) Nor yet that you can act to carry your insight through into reality (a meaning of ‘constancy’) with impunity.
Both the changing lines in this reading are in the inner trigram, before moving out into the world of action. Knowing your life purpose, radically changing how you ‘gather’ yourself, doesn’t mean change in itself – it means the preparation for change. It means you are bound to reality, committed to a long road ahead (tie on your boots…), and if you try instead to change the world to suit your new vision you’re in for a nasty surprise.
It is possible to reach the ‘truth and confidence’ that the oracle promises, but it only even starts to be ‘your own day’ after the words of change have gone round three times. I’d understand those both as words in conversation and as words of inner dialogue. (The Unveiled course provides for both.) These gradually engender trust, which allows for true momentum and a natural flow of change – this line changes to 17, Following. ‘Setting out to bring order’ would be a coup – and a failed one; sending the words round and around, so that awareness grows eventually into consent – that’s revolution.
…
There’s lots more to this reading, but this post is quite long enough to be going on with.
All day I’ve been hearing things that seem arrow-directed to me. Ouch–right in the heart! Are you authorized to do heart surgery, Hilary? I’m glad you’re living so radiantly in your divine purpose….
What comes to my mind is that there is a danger to use the Yi Jing to hide behind it, to take cover, neither having to make one’s own decisions nor to take a stand. Instead, let the Yi Jing speak as a kind of higher authority.
Do you need to turn to the Yijing as an oracle or wise counsellor if a situation gets uncomfortable, what role does your intuition play and isn’t there the danger of becoming addicted and leaving decision-making to the oracle – not to do something wrong?
I am not very experienced in the Yi Jing, so I would like to know if ‘divine’ has the same meaning in Chinese than it has in western languages. Perhaps we project our own conception of spirituality into the Yi.
Almah! Really glad you’re here – and that the arrows are flying as they should.
Laoshi – good points…
You’re certainly right that there is such a danger, and a danger of addiction, trying to substitute the oracle for intuition or moral autonomy. Yi tends to give short shrift to such attempts (Hexagram 40, anyone?), but it’s easily done.
It’s not something I’m doing here, though, since I’ve already made clear that I believe it’s valuable to know your purpose (hence the previous post). Talking with Yi about this allows for a more far-reaching, revealing exploration.
Hilary, thanks for taking up my critical points and sharing your experience. The meaning of divination with the Yi has become clearer to me and I will take a closer look at Hexagram 40.
chinging my life to reach my goal in this life study true love money key of life
Hilary seems to me you are using your answer from the Yi to support an opinion you already have.
We all inevitably do that to some degree in our readings, we can’t view the answer from a totally neutral space obviously, and the thing with the Yis answers are they are so personal to us, thats the beauty of them…….but here you don’t seem to be doing this reading just for yourself, you are asking the Yi for an answer that will answer all of us, as if 45 >49 were the truth about divine purpose..(and already in the question lies the assumption there is divine purpose at all so that narrows down how you will see the answer) As your answer, tailor made for you which i believe it was, i have no problem with the interpretation because its yours. But if you take your personal interpretation which holds all your beliefs and assumptions extend them as truth for others, as a kind of lesson for …well i think you are certainly going down a blind alley…littered with hubris..lol ..not that I’m saying you are an immodest person of course but theres plenty of writers about the Yi that just take it to support their own belief system , like Carol Anthony and Joseph Murphy..but then at least Anthony is ‘out’ as a Buddhist ( i think) and Murphy is open about his Christian take on it.
The thing with the New Age ‘religion’ is it doesn’t think it is a religion…infact it prefers not to think at all which is why its such a rag bag of contradictory beliefs and ideas..and why its priestesses always retort that you are not ‘coming from the heart’ if you question them…
Admittedly alot of the concepts i take on board and enjoy haphazardly like everyone else but I start to feel a bit wary when Yi itself via 49>45 supposedly endorses particular new age beliefs like a divine purpose for everyone. Hmm well if it is your belief its one thing, you can believe what you like…just not sure about using the oracle to back up your belief in discussion……but who wants to see the Yi slide new age wards at Clarity..not the whole hog anyway…nnooooo…please noooo.
I shall listen with interest to the forthcoming gathering about relationship with money because it has already been quoted over there that money is ‘nothing special that its just a thing you pass around when connecting with the divine.’..well something like that, so if in the gathering the group contrive to come up with a reading that suggests ‘money is nothing special…and its connection thats important’ ….well I’ll rest my case lol
Hm, do you think the reading fully endorses the idea? I wasn’t so sure. I think it both endorses it in principle, and points very clearly to its limitations – ‘knowing’ by itself doesn’t get you anywhere, and if you try to act on it thoughtlessly, you’re in trouble. It’s not a magic carpet (or tiger skin) that transports you straight to line 5.
No, there’s no narrowing assumption in the question. Nothing to stop Yi saying that ‘knowing your divine purpose’ meant 4.4, for instance, or 27.1, or any of a few dozen other potentially very embarrassing things.
If Yi provided answers so ‘tailor made’ for the person (or people) asking that it always supported them in their beliefs, it’d be a perfect waste of time. Where does this idea come from that anyone can ‘make’ Yi say what they want it to? That readings never challenge or change people’s beliefs?
???
There are 2 things muddled up here: did I ‘make’ Yi say 49.1.3 just to keep me happy, when the truth is something different? Or did I wildly misinterpret the answer so as to justify my own opinions? It seems to me that the latter is always possible (and that’s one reason why I posted this on the blog), but the former really isn’t.
No I’m not saying anyone can ‘make’ the Yi give them the answer they want i was saying they can misinterpret the answer to fit into their belief system which as i pointed out is pretty much an unavoidable hazard in personal readings anyway, all one can do is try to avoid that if it gets in the way…sometimes it doesn’t anyway. But when you are doing more than a personal reading, when you are extending a reading out to others as in “this is what the Yi thinks about divine purpose folks,this is Yis pronouncement on divine purpose” then you take it out of the realm of being your personal answer and into the realm of a general truth about divine purpose and imply ‘this is the Yis view on divine purpose in general.’
I’m saying i don’t think it is a statement of general truth about divine purpose from the Yi, it answers you with your particular understanding of what life purpose is.
I don’t think the Yi always does support ones beliefs..I think in this reading it certainly was working with your beliefs as obviously the notion of life purpose is useful to you…so in your world this answer makes perfect sense…. But for someone who believes the concept of ‘divine purpose’ is an ego fabrication this answer wouldn’t apply. So I don’t think you misinterpreted your answer, (i wouldn’t really know about that since its your answer) i just think you over rode the fact that it was your answer, yours and yours alone..(just as i think the 8>42 and the 42>8 were your answers also.)…we have been here before its just come up again because here you are presenting your answer as the ‘Yis view on divine purpose’ rather than ‘what the Yi says to me about my concept of divine purpose’. For me theres quite alot of difference between those two….though some might call it nit picking
Yes, we’ve certainly been here before. Either one person can receive an answer that’s relevant to many people, or she can’t. My experience says (repeatedly, loudly and unmistakeably) that this can and does happen; you haven’t had the same experience; maybe it’s time we agreed to differ? 🙂
Another place we’ve been before: just because we have this one reading about the usefulness or otherwise of ‘knowing your purpose’ doesn’t mean this is ‘Yi’s view on divine purpose.’ I think the answer’s talking about the ‘knowing’ part of the question in quite a focussed way.
Funnily enough, I thought you might look at line 1 – remember how Brad describes it, as an irksome bond that chafes? – and find your ‘work ethic’ idea reflected there. So I was looking forward to your take on the reading.
Ok then, trojan, here’s a challenge. Would you be willing to consult Yi with the same question and tell us what you get?
Perhaps I’d better come clean on my own position. Although many would no longer recognise me as a Christian, it still informs my worldview. Christian heritage is very familiar with “divine purpose”, though it is more usually referred to as a calling or vocation. Recent centuries have reinterpreted (misunderstood?) that to mean a job. But the job is merely the contingent expression of “what God wants you to do with your life”. Divine purpose is certainly not a New Age invention!
No i wouldn’t ask that question. I had an experience a while back i cannot personally doubt, though obviously i can’t tell you how it felt so it will mean far less to you than me but… I was wondering what was wanted of me by God/life/my soul blah blah etc etc and had a most lovely experience/understanding that absolutely nothing was wanted of me..that god, the divine whatever you call us does not need us to do anything for him/her. I may choose to give help in the way i can, where i can and i do, but i understand this isn’t because god needs me to do it..God doesn’t need anything..and i’m using the term god because you did..i think god or the divine or life is absolutely complete in itself and I suspect the idea that god is relying on us to perform some function is likley a bit of an ego identity thing or rather that is what i thought it was in my own self.
So no i wouldn’t take a challenge on a question like this.no point its not an argument really is it. I can’t exactly say categorically ‘there is no individual life purpose’ nor can anyone else say there is. We don’t know. I don’t even use the Yi like this. I ask about what matters to me, I don’t tend to consult for games and challenges
Re the christian notion of divine purpose…well yes Jesus seemed to have one thats for sure…but he didn’t have to sit and puzzle for a long time over what it was did he, he knew it, he was it. I don’t think the Christian idea of vocation was ever really extended beyond religious vocation was it ? At least i was given a very basic christian education and i can’t think for example of any christian notion of being divinely ordained as things such as ‘communicator, mediator etc’
BTW Topal didn’t point out the 42>8 blog post to you it was me
also wanted to add that though people keep saying divine purpose should not be confused with jobs i think they overlook the reality of the vast majority of humdrum jobs … you know so a man is a milkman all his life or a postman is he then supposed to think ‘ah the theme of my life is mail delivery so I’m a messenger archetype’ why would anyone want to limit and categorise themselves this way ? Beats me.
Having said all that i have to concede its a basic human thing probably to want to feel a sense of purpose…as i explained in above post I’ve often thought about it myself..and for me anyway following my personal experience i did feel a good deal of that wish was ego driven as in trying to pin down an identity. It is possible however life purpose may be way above and beyond all that …and if it is one would have to be incredibly 28.1 with advertising the unveiling of such a precious thing…. being careful not to tread on the toes of the divine tiger !
the amount of time i spend writing posts here i’m beginning to think my divine purpose is typing posts on clarity…i really must stop…..
The completeness of life and the divine – yes – beautiful – thank you for writing that.
I suppose that for me, ‘What is my purpose?’ is another way of asking, ‘How am I part of the completeness?’ It’s not ‘What ought I to be doing to justify my existence?’ – it’s ‘What am I living?’ (Just realised why quite a few of Michelle and CK’s exercises involve looking at your ‘story so far’.) Knowing the story (or more of the story, anyway) would tend to mean being able to live it more fully.
Well, no, of course not. Why should the theme of anyone’s life be defined by their job? (Doesn’t mean he can’t live out his purpose – whatever that may be – while he delivers mail.)
There are traps here: ‘my job defines who I am’ or ‘I have to find a purpose or my life will never be worth anything’ or ‘I have a humdrum job so I can’t be living my purpose’ or ‘I am living on purpose so everything I do is right.’ (Any I’ve missed? 😉 ) But there is something precious beyond all that. I don’t think I’ve been handling it with enough thatch-grass.
Hillary,
The community of minds and souls who wish to travel with you, look to you primarily as a visionary, a gifted communicator from a stance of long preparation, helping us peel back layers of meaning in perhaps the most abstruse writing in world literature. It is not clear to me that the I Ching truly answers anything and it bothers me that divination – let alone “divine purpose” – is deemed potentially to be for ‘everyman’, a modern notion of the democratic principle stemming essentially from the gnostic/christian idea that each one of us can be “saved”.
Verse 5 of The Tao (Thomas Cleary’s translation) says : Heaven and Earth are not humane;/ they regard all beings as straw dogs./ Sages are not humane;/ they see all people as straw dogs.
This is a warning, I think, against the (individualist) Narrative Fallacy – easy to fall into because our brains organise data for long-term recall along narrative lines (used to an absurd degree by world-champion Mr Memory-Man to recall the exact order of a shuffled pack of cards that he has seen for only 23 seconds!). We really do need to care that this Narrative Fallacy is not used to create totally false meaning in our lives, however comforting that “leap of faith”, much hated by French existentialists, may seem. Legends in our own lunch-time!
It is this unquestioning, self-serving “faith” that makes some of us so queasy about New Age thinking, and about any concepts such as Divine Purpose. The correspondence you have received on this looks like a bit of a warning-call to me. I hope that you will be able to resolve this dilemma for yourself and remain the pillar of wisdom we all know you to be, continuing to bring us Clarity.
(Brief pause to delete the pingback from a site about choosing the right knife set. Not seeing the connection here…)
Not sure I like the idea of being ‘followed’. Ugh. But I am quite clear that yes, divination is for everyone who wants it. Meaning and purpose likewise. I think you’re right that this has its roots in Christianity – I have a Christian background, after all, and though I may have decided (aged eight) that the religion wasn’t for me, the influence is strong. Individuals are of value; I don’t see any meaningless lives.
About the warning call – yes, definitely, though probably not quite what you have in mind. I failed (comprehensively) to empathise with the people who were reading my email and review. I was far too busy being enthusiastic about the course and glad of the opportunity to help Michelle, and didn’t take time to think about other readers’ experience. So the warning call I’m hearing says, ‘Look after your most important relationships first.’
Choosing the right knife-set? Could have been a meaningful, totally random input – in fact, sounds like the I Ching! Words, words, words – all we have, but communicate so poorly. Our individual lives are the latest expression (fractals?) of the great energies unleashed at the start of our universe. If we can get a glimpse of the (thermo-dynamic) wave, and its periodic eddies, hurrying us on to some unknown shore, it may help the subjective grasp of our position in dim self-consciousness, even comfort us. I am trying to convey agreement with your comments on divination here. We can, therefore, kid ourselves for a time, even though it is truly unknowable, that there may be some purpose in all this. For even greater comfort, we may indulge in the Narrative Fallacy about our individual lives, because we do not want to admit the part that chance plays in nearly all we have been, done & who we are.
This is not intended to change your mind, or heartlessly remove your sense of purpose. But I did not say that people “follow” you – rather while we rub shoulders as we travel along together, gently suggest that there may be other ways of seeing without resorting to Pascal’s Bet.
Good – I have zero desire to be ‘followed’. Even when leading a ‘cello section, I’ve imagined sticking that bumper-sticker to the back of my chair: ‘Don’t follow me, I’m lost too.’
The question of whether we view life as essentially meaningless, an accumulation of chance, or as meaningful and purposeful… is this a personal choice? Or is it deeply rooted in the individual’s nature and experience?
Sometimes the truly unknowable makes itself known regardless.
Yes – visionaries through the ages would attest to that, and it can be a kind of ‘grace’. It could also be a curse (Cassandra?).
No desire to lead . . . but what if your life purpose were to lead, and be followed? Is this what you’re here to learn?! Of course, an individual may choose, through general factors such as birth, nationality, and culture, underlying personal factors such as temperament, humour, good health, to believe that s/he creates a life like writing a novel, and that s/he participates in the grand plan of the Creator (however conceived). And will probably feel good about it – a very human response.
However, when one first gets a doubt about reliability of this subjective appraisal of our place in the Universe, and I would argue that a more dispassionate approach to the evidence of what life has meant and means for a vast majority of mankind who have inhabited this planet cannot but produce such a doubt, it becomes difficult to accept the subjective leap of faith – from whatever source – religious or otherwise – the “processing” toward meaningfulness may come.
Tell you what, Hillary, one of my beliefs is that the woman should always have the last word – so, go to it! I promise to shut up now.
The Chinese word Ming4 is normally translated Fate or Destiny and is also used in the phrase Tian Ming, Mandate of Heaven. Because I think that the Yi is most applicable to the self-directed and to the noble, I believe that the word is intended frequently in the Yi to refer to “higher purpose”, a work that is larger than we are, and I have translated it that way throughout. You can find all the instances of the term by searching for “4537” in my Matrix version (or by using the the R-K or Harvard-Yenching concordances)
ming4 4537 762a 30+5 06.4 (a, the) higher law, highest law, higher order, higher purpose, calling, vocation, destiny, fate, lot in life, charge, fortune, oracle, life, life’s course, span of life, one’s place in history, livelihood, mission, mandate, charter, constitution, appointment, assignment, commission, order, pronouncement, directive, command, law, decree, priority, investiture, higher power, higher authority; heaven’s will; name, denomination, designation, title; (to) name
Indeed – which shows that the idea of ‘divine purpose’ is not alien to Yi. I think receiving 49, but not line 4, was quite a pointed answer.
Radical way of change in coming together.
Could it be we are here to realize our Oneness, and everything else is secondary?
Michelle’s last blog post..Listen to Heaven and Nature Sing
It could, couldn’t it? 🙂
Remembering the question – about what it means to know your own purpose – maybe it’s a kind of radical re-alignment, retuning to gathering?
Loved your interpretation! Inspired!
I think the origin of “divine purpose” is very basic and not at all limited to humanity. Every animal has its ‘purpose’. A deer in the forest is living it, or a fish in the ocean. But if I make my dog neurotic, he does not live it. I think your purpose is to live what you really are. Your true nature. I would certainly call that ‘divine’. It is lots bigger than anything man-made.
Animals usually have no problem ‘knowing’ it. They simply go ahead and live it, if anyhow possible. Only humans can think themselves away from knowing it, but if you can open your intuition, it is not difficult to reconnect with it. And that is where Yi is a great help. Not telling you what yours is, but helping you to find it back.
“On your own day, there is truth”. That is when you find it, suddenly the truth is back in all its glory. You enter your temple again.
LiSe
Back in all its glory – exactly. 49’s trigrams look something like turning the lights on inside all the relationships/ personality/ thoughts/ emotions/ exchanges – all the daily stuff.
Hilary and LiSe,
Exactly! 🙂
LiSe, I like your ideas about intuition. I wrote an article recently and quoted the writing “Intuition” from the book 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao who said:
“Hawk doesn’t think during the hunt.
It does not care for theory or ethics.
All that it does is natural.
“Animals live simple lives close to Tao. They do not need to think or reason: They never doubt themselves. When they are hungry, they eat. When they are tired, they sleep. They respond to the cycles of the day according to their intuition. They mate at the proper season, and they nurture their young according to their own understanding. When they die, they fall under the teeth of predators or the dispassionate turning of the seasons.
“By contrast, we as human beings depart from the natural norm, and worry about ethical action. Extremes of behavior have become more varied running the gamut from the sadistic to the moralistic. Tao considers all this artificial and unnatural. Why divorce ourselves from nature?
“The follower of Tao prefers to live completely in concert with Tao, avoiding the interference of theory and excessive thought. Though one must first learn skill and ethics thoroughly, one must come to embody them so completely that they become subconscious. Reacting to a situation by asking what is right and wrong is already too slow. One must intuitively do what is correct. There should be no foreshadowing of an act, nor doubt about oneself.”
This writing also, to me, spoke directly about the advice we receive from verse 48 of the Daodejing (this is Brad Hatcher’s translation):
48 The pursuit of learning (means) increasing daily
b The pursuit of the way (means) decreasing daily
c Decreasing things and then subtracting
d In order to arrive at not doing
e (When) nothing is done, then nothing remains undone
f To capture the world, always apply the least effort
g As soon as one has to make effort
h (One is) no longer adequate to the purpose
of capturing the world
=============================
Or Steven Mitchell’s translation:
48
In pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.
True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It can’t be gained by interfering.
===========================
Learning and then letting go…..the human condition that leads to harmony, perhaps?
One of the footnotes on hex 49 in W/B speaks about the Heavenly Stems and seems to indicate the advice of following the cycles and laws of Nature, just as the animals do as they live intuitive, instinctive lives.
Yes, we can return to that connection and harmony. I imagine that would be the physical level of Oneness. Letting go as described in DDJ verse 48 is, I imagine, how we may attain the spiritual level of Oneness.
Perhaps the trigrams in hex 49 represent the “fire in the belly” (li in the Dan Tien) and a “song in the heart” since dui also represents joy and the mouth. The trigrams also lie on the E/W axis of the He Tu, and are both inner in that diagram. Perhaps that is an indication that we are looking at the inner self rather than the outer self?
Just some ponderings….
🙂
Michelle’s last blog post..Listen to Heaven and Nature Sing
My, this thread has gotten good in the last few days!
I was particularly struck by Bradford’s exposition of “the Mandate of Heaven”, and Michelle’s question, “Could it be we are here to realize our Oneness?” Renegade that I am, I was poised (credit card in hand) to take up Michelle and CK’s offer when Hilary wrote about it… but then I asked Yi. The answer reminded me that I already knew my “divine purpose” and had done since I discovered it at eighteen. Attributed to Confucius:
I am now 54 and hadn’t thought about this in years. However, recently I have (re)discovered the Yijing — lit up and shining bright! Its curious how, looking back, the other stages were well described too.
So like LiSe’s hawk, I am happy to live each day as it comes and see what happens. Which links nicely with Hilary’s hexagram 49 answer. Although its called “revolution”, the feeling I get from this hexagram is the same as when I am successful at “living in the present moment” for any length of time. It is more as if each moment the stale (mental) understanding of what has just been is replaced with the possibilities available now — possibilities I would have missed if I’d been stopping to think. So the “discovering our divine purpose” for me feels like “discovering now” moment by moment.
Hillary,
I felt your reading of the I Ching hexagrams was a precise and focused interpretation of what you were “taking” from it (the two hexagrams) at one time. An analogy might be made to one’s’ daily meditative practice and search, turning inward to seek a relation to one’s wish to be related anew to one’s wish to be – and a finer energy. Each effort is unique – it never get easier – and a sense of failure is often present, but that does not mean the effort was “bad” or “good.” No real effort is wasted. After all, it’s a practice. No reward should be expected, if one’s wish is sincere.
Those who ponder sacred texts or ideas in a meditative way can bring their state in relation to a finer level or energy. What they receive is relative to them and their search . It can’t be expressed “in words” really, like visions. It can be expressed in forms – verbal,auditory, visual etc . which communicate meaning to others.
I feel you brought through some (essential) truth , in your own words,
in your reading.
“I’d read the two hexagram names together as showing that knowing your life purpose brings ‘radical change in how you gather’.” seemed to me the essence of your insight. I forgot to quote it at the beginning of my comment.
Is the I Ching perhaps succinctly saying that sincerity ( inner life cultivation) is the key to being in relation to realising your life purpose ( always an unknown, a direction to move toward) . “Radical change” implies becoming open to something “new” in the moment, “beginning from the beginning.”
My blog’s started getting the strangest ideas about which comments to hold ‘pending’ moderation. Sorry, Chris.
Yes, this is getting good!
Michelle – thank you for the hawk, and the DDJ quotes. It reminds me of a couple of lines in Yi that seem to set out to invite that simple animal nature into play. 15.5, for instance – or 27.4, of course.
49 as ‘fire in the belly, song in the heart’ – perfect!
And I love the way Chris arrives at,
‘So “discovering our divine purpose” for me feels like “discovering now” moment by moment,’ while ‘pantherpanther’ says,
‘“Radical change” implies becoming open to something “new” in the moment, “beginning from the beginning.”’
It makes sense to me that this ‘discovery’ would have to be in the present moment if it were anywhere at all.
Hillary,
“I asked Yi:
What does ‘knowing your life purpose’ really mean?
Yi answered with Hexagram 49, Radical Change, moving at the first and third lines to Hexagram 45, Gathering.”
Rereading your first interpretation , I was struck at how it seemed to express your personal view while at the same time paying attention to each line and their meaning.
The sense of the query and the answer reminded me of the Lord’s Prayer (a very ancient prayer, structured in triads and embodying a whole teaching and cosmology) . There are correspondences between the lines of the hexagrams and those in the prayer – for myself, at least. Both are sourced from higher knowledge , express similar laws and guidance.
The request to give us this day our daily (supersensible) bread is similar to seeking how to know one’s life purpose. I am not really suggesting you are conditioned by having known the Lord’s Prayer!
Brad, I like your entry on all the meanings. Add them all up and they take you to the same place: Source. (AKA Universe, Enlightenment, Collective Consciousness, dare I say it…..God, etc.)
Chris, I’m a year ahead of you and it looks pretty good from here, as well. 🙂
Hilary, excellent examples, too!
Hilary, Chris, and pantherpanther, discovering the present moment….what a great insight! The only moment we have is the present one. Aren’t we always discovering and living in that?!
Here is my very true “present moment” story: I had the experience of visiting a scalar room (all outside electro-magnetic influences were filtered out) and listening to a hemi-synch (brain hemisphere synchronization) CD for two hours….this was about a year ago. Ever since, I do not experience the passage of time. You know how you have a feel for how much time has passed while engaged in a task, i.e. you’ve been reading for 30 minutes, or gardening for an hour? I no longer sense that passage of time. For me, all time is Now. If I’ve been doing something and time has passed, the only way I know is by looking at a clock. I have chosen to take advantage of this oddity and not to wear a watch unless I need to. The result is I live as “in the moment” as I can in our time-bound world.
pantherpanther, I’m sorry to hear that you feel “a sense of failure is often present.” How can there be a failure if you are in the moment? Failure, or success, is a judgement call. Don’t judge it, just do it, just live it, just Be it. 🙂
Michelle,
“Failure” in an impersonal sense, without “judgment,” which is an emotion, like self-pity ; ‘feeling good’ may also be emotional and deceptive. When a potter throws on the wheel , each pot is unique. A craftsmen can be impersonal .
As I wrote:
“An analogy might be made to one’s’ daily meditative practice and search, turning inward to seek a relation to one’s wish to be related anew to one’s wish to be – and a finer energy. Each effort is unique – it never get easier – and a sense of failure is often present, but that does not mean the effort was ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ No real effort is wasted. After all, it’s a practice.”
pantherpanther,
Thanks for the clarification. I was talking to someone the other day and explaining gratitude in the same way; one need not be grateful to someone or for anything in particular, but in my experience it is an especially powerful state of being in energy exchange when it’s impersonal.
Yes – being ‘in love’ is the same. No need for that to be directed anywhere.
I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if I were – I grew up with weekly church-going, so I must have known it by heart when I was tiny. Now I’m trying to see the correspondences you can see. Help?
So all thes last posts seem to me to go full circle in that theres really no need to go hunting down your life purpose, or naming it, or even identifying it as you live it moment to moment. You are your life purpose already. The Yi may refer to higher purpose but that is the higher purpose that the time demands which could be anything at all from moment to moment..fighting a war or not fighting a war..no need to define yourself as ‘fighter’ or ‘pacifist’ your purpose will change with the flow of you and the flow of the time….er so why is it again we need help unveiling our life purpose ?
Hilary,
“I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if I were – I grew up with weekly church-going, so I must have known it by heart when I was tiny. Now I’m trying to see the correspondences you can see. Help?”
It was an intutition that came to me after pondering the whole of your reading. As I tried to express , you were seeking the wisdom of the Yi in the same spirit that one may approach the Lord’s Prayer – as an exercise, if you wish – to open and relate oneself to the higher. The Yi was responding to your query on knowing your life’s purpose’ and prayer is a means to seek that at any time. It is an ancient prayer, so we are not speaking of any one “religion” really or whether you were familiar with it. I was raised as a Christian, too, and that is part of me, as is theirs for those raised in other faiths. In company with those of other faiths, I have never felt it mattered in our individual relations on a “human” level. Tragically, history shows us that all wars are wars of religion, clash of civilizations and so on. When living in different cultures, one has to learn the customs. Seekers of truth know one another, but they ( us) are also ordinary humans.
Specific “correspondences”? To try to unpack that in an intellectual way is an interesting challenge. Not so easy and I’ll see if I can do something, no promises. I was only trying to offer an appreciation of your reading.
A friend in England who is leading a Gurdjeff group this weekend wrote me today that he had consulted the Yi about it . He got Hexagram 6. I reminded him of Mark Twain’s words:
“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.”
I felt you brought a very meaningful reading as I hope he brings something meaningful to his people .
-p
Hilary, love is the best example of all. Unconditional love is probably the hightest form of spiritual attainment (enlightenment if you will) before the merging as Oneness. Jospeh Campbell called this “agape,” and one of the online dictionaries links it to God, Christ, and Jesus: A “the love of God or Christ for humankind.” B “(Christianity) Love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity.” That is an amazing thing to experience….no judgments, no disappointments, absolutely no hate allowed…..it’s just pure bliss.
trojan, I like that, “You are your life purpose already.” Why we need help is because being humans with complicated brains, we need to complicate things to prove how smart we are. My favorite example is the “Myth of Er” from Plato’s “Republic.” Caroline Myss – whose work I love – uses it to prove that you make a Sacred Contract before birth linked to your LIfe Lessons. (She used to have the whole story on her website, but I see it’s gone now.) Then, she tells you that you have been encoded with 12 archetypes that you also need to study.
The “Myth of Er” teaches a Buddhist principle in my opinion: in whatever you do, you should choose the middle course instead of the extremes: i.e. choose to be a person of sufficient wealth for your needs and reasonable pleasures, not a rich or poor person, etc.
I like the works of Caroline Myss, I really do, but focusing on all those archetypes can also be a distraction from the real purpose of life: be a living example of Loving Kindness as Buddha, Jesus, and countless others have done to attain Oneness.
What we really need help with unveiling is the balance and simplicity of life, and the knowledge that “You are your life purpose already.” We’ve covered it so effectively, some people never find it. 🙂
The ‘Myth of Er’ i haven’t heard of..Caroline Myss i have, just returned ‘Sacred Contracts’ to the library unread for the 2nd time…forgetting why i hadn’t read it the first time. How can she possibly ‘prove’ we make contracts before birth to have certain ‘life lessons” Maybe its just she can’t bear to live without a contract…needs it as some kind of container, the way some people need timetables and duties…back to the work ethic of spirituality.
Yes all the archetype stuff felt way too confining and just so fictional, i couldn’t read it, wanted to throw it all off like the itchy skin in 49.1…seemed dead, unimaginitive..