So for a few years now, since I started learning about the I Ching, I've been keeping track of my readings in plain text in files. There I put down readings, commentary, my own ideas and thoughts all in one place.

But now I'm wondering whether journal software (either the Resonance Journal one on this site, or other software) is superior... any thoughts?

And because it seemed appropriate -- I asked Yi "What if I just keep doing it the way I've been doing it?"
21.5 Biting Through > 25 Innocence
.5: "Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame."
Sounds like it's not perhaps ideal, but it works and gets results, as long as I'm aware of its limitations. It was the method I adopted when I was new to all this (25).

How do you keep track of your castings, and what are your thoughts on this topic?

But now I'm wondering whether journal software (either the Resonance Journal one on this site, or other software) is superior... any thoughts?

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The Resonance Journal is by far superior. For a start you automatically can access Bradford's, Lise's and Hilary's translation - they come up alongside anything you cast, plus the search function obviously so you can see all the times you cast 21.5 and so on plus you can also store dreams and synchronicities and tag them and everything so it is easy to make connections you wouldn't otherwise have noticed.

I can't understand why anyone would use anything else

I don't use half the functions, I basically store my readings, use search function and I just learned tagging, almost uch: and I like having the translations to hand. But other people such as @Liselle; use and understand all the functions - I'm a bit lazy with it but Liselle knows all about it and I imagine would recommend it above the rest.

For the cost I don't know why you would plod on with your own files when you won't have even a quarter of the usability of the Resonance Journal.

I agree with Trojina.

But then I'm confused about the reading! I'd always thought 21.5 was a pinnacle of 21 (along with line 4) - encouragement to keep going, to be "constant," because there's gold to be had if you do. And you got line 5 when asking about sticking with your current method. Huh.

Line 5 is similar in structure to lines 3 and 4. All of them endorse continuing the chewing and biting through. Even line 3, where you encounter poison, says it's only "small shame" (not "pitfall") and "not a mistake." Line 4 sounds even more favorable than line 5, actually - "bears fruit" and "good fortune." But you didn't get line 4, so never mind it.

(Having read threads posted since this one, the below, and anything else here that's not otherwise attributed, is from Hilary's translation!)

21.3: 'Biting into dried meat, Coming on poison. Small shame, Not a mistake.'
21.4: 'Biting into dried, bony meat, Gains a metal arrow. Constancy in hardship bears fruit. Good fortune.'
21.5: 'Biting through dried meat, Gaining golden metal. Constancy means danger, Not a mistake.'

(For what it's worth, though, I think it might be more line 4 that fits what you said:

Liquidity said:

Sounds like it's not perhaps ideal, but it works and gets results

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The metal arrow in line 4 is said to be a useful tool. Quoting Hilary's commentary:

This arrow is still not what you were hoping for [...] It does not feed you; it gives you the means to catch better food independently [...] it will always fly straight and true. (Etc.)

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)

I suppose the contrast between lines 4 and 5 might depend a lot on the particular situation. If you're at line 4, the line of the minister who must get things done, a good arrow is much more useful and important than a piece of gold. If you're the king, at line 5, whose basic needs are well met and who has the freedom to choose what's in his life, you'll be more impressed with a gold nugget.

So here Yi gave you line 5, when your question was "What if I just keep doing it the way I've been doing it?"

Maybe there's something unique to you that would cause Yi to say this?

The "dried meat" in all the lines can metaphorically represent old things - as Hilary puts it, "tough, longstanding problems" - you're chewing through. History, the past...

And since the subject here is about storing readings...

The act of searching could be described by 21, I think - chewing through, investigating. How do you search through your old readings now?

The only thing I can think of is - bringing in 25, Without Entanglement - is that if you start doing something different, your older readings will be "unentangled" from your newer readings. You'd have to do every search twice, you would not have one single list of results, and from the reading - as an answer to your question - it seems that might not be a good thing for you; it might somehow cause you to miss gold nuggets. In this case maybe it's desirable to be entangled?

Having said all that - there is the part in line 5, "Constancy means danger. Not a mistake." So what is the danger?

Bradford Hatcher says if you bite too hard, chew too vigorously, you'll break your teeth on the gold and have to use your new-found riches to fix them. So he's suggesting maybe don't chew through your old stuff too much, as he puts it, "Half a bite might be the best portion." Maybe too much searching for gold isn't a good thing.

Wilhelm translates it as, "Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame" - there's no blame, no mistake, as long as you're aware of danger as you persevere. He makes much of the yellow color - yellow was an important color in ancient China. He says, "The case to be decided is indeed not easy but perfectly clear. Since we naturally incline to leniency, we must make every effort to be like yellow gold-that is, as true as gold and as impartial as yellow, the color of the middle [the mean]. It is only by remaining conscious of the dangers growing out of the responsibility we have assumed that we can avoid making mistakes."

Karcher's translation: "Trial: Going through adversity is advantageous. Confront the hungry souls and angry ghosts. This is not a mistake." So he makes it sound like the danger is something necessary and ultimately helpful, not something to be avoided.

Ack. I'm probably making this too complicated (as I am prone to do). You might give some thought to what your golden nuggets could be, and what the danger could be, in the context of continuing to store your readings as you have been.

You could also consider asking a second, parallel question, about an alternative like Resonance Journal.

This isn't from the reading, just out of my own head, but one option might be to keep your readings as you have been, for consistent searching, but use Resonance Journal for easier reference purposes - things like Hexagram Browser and Hilary's fabulous glossary?

If you haven't already, you might read through all the information Hilary provides about Resonance Journal, in conjunction with your readings.

So basically, after all that rambling, I'm not sure! :bag:

And because it seemed appropriate -- I asked Yi "What if I just keep doing it the way I've been doing it?"
21.5 Biting Through > 25 Innocence
.5: "Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame."
Sounds like it's not perhaps ideal, but it works and gets results, as long as I'm aware of its limitations. It was the method I adopted when I was new to all this (25).

Click to expand...

Who's translation is it ? I don't understand how so many people are quoting without saying who they quote ? Is it down to the deKorne website ?

I think 21.5 simply shows the decision making process you are going through, you are trying to cut through to decide before you take advantage of the free trial of the Resonance Journal

Is there still a free trial I don't know. Will check. Yes there is click here

No point in agonizing over a Yi answer is there when you can just get it free for 30 days and make your mind up that way.

Well, let's see ... I start with notes I take on recycled paper, some of which become posts on this site. The unused recycled paper stack gets smaller and the stack with my Yi notes gets larger, until it is so large, it ends in the recycle bin.

However, I am thinking that once I retire at the end of the year, I'll try to get more organized and make use of the Resonance Journal software I bought about a year ago ... but then again that may have to take a back seat landscaping my yard and finally cleaning my house and ...

Best, D. :bows:

Trojina said:

No point in agonizing over a Yi answer is there when you can just get it free for 30 days and make your mind up that way.

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Which could be the 21.5!

Trojina has bitten through, I think.

Freedda said:

Well, let's see ... I start with notes I take on recycled paper, some of which become posts on this site. The unused recycled paper stack gets smaller and the stack with my Yi notes gets larger, until it is so large, it ends in the recycle bin.

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You throw your readings and so forth away???

I mean, you're not the first person on this site who's said they do that, but I'm always shocked.


(P.S. That sounds pretty grumpy, sorry . Obviously what you do is up to you and no skin off my nose!)

Trojina said:

For the cost I don't know why you would plod on with your own files when you won't have even a quarter of the usability of the Resonance Journal.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the thoughts... the main reason is that software programs go out of development sometimes and then their data is hard to retrieve, but that's not true with text files. Those are forever.

I can search my text files, but it's definitely a bit more cumbersome than with the software, no doubt.

Liselle said:

Ack. I'm probably making this too complicated (as I am prone to do). You might give some thought to what your golden nuggets could be, and what the danger could be, in the context of continuing to store your readings as you have been.

You could also consider asking a second, parallel question, about an alternative like Resonance Journal.

This isn't from the reading, just out of my own head, but one option might be to keep your readings as you have been, for consistent searching, but use Resonance Journal for easier reference purposes - things like Hexagram Browser and Hilary's fabulous glossary?

If you haven't already, you might read through all the information Hilary provides about Resonance Journal, in conjunction with your readings.

Click to expand...

Great points, thanks!

Just for kicks I ran the alternative like you suggested: "What if I switched to the Resonance Journal?" and got

61.2.6 Inner Truth > 3 Difficulty at the Beginning
WB .2: "A crane calling in the shade. Its young answers it. I have a good goblet. I will share it with you.
WB .6: "Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Hrm.... It sounds like it perhaps would enable me to make more connections. It's certainly taking the "good goblet" that is being shared in terms of the software and partaking of it.

On the other hand, perhaps it's trying too hard to change something that doesn't need fixing; it's just overly ambitious in the wrong way (.6).

Trojina said:

Who's translation is it ? I don't understand how so many people are quoting without saying who they quote ? Is it down to the deKorne website ?

I think 21.5 simply shows the decision making process you are going through, you are trying to cut through to decide before you take advantage of the free trial of the Resonance Journal

Is there still a free trial I don't know. Will check. Yes there is click here

No point in agonizing over a Yi answer is there when you can just get it free for 30 days and make your mind up that way.

Click to expand...

Sorry yeah the translation was from WB, and yes from DeKorne. And good point about the trial...

Freedda said:

Well, let's see ... I start with notes I take on recycled paper, some of which become posts on this site. The unused recycled paper stack gets smaller and the stack with my Yi notes gets larger, until it is so large, it ends in the recycle bin.

However, I am thinking that once I retire at the end of the year, I'll try to get more organized and make use of the Resonance Journal software I bought about a year ago ... but then again that may have to take a back seat landscaping my yard and finally cleaning my house and ...

Best, D. :bows:

Click to expand...

Oh, you have posted many things since I started writing this (sorry for all the post-crossing)
-----

The very handy reference parts of Resonance Journal are probably pretty much "forever," though. Fortunately it's a downloadable standalone program, not some web-based thing that could disappear overnight.

I do see your point, though. I have many readings stuck in the old San Shan program, which has become incompatible with modern computers so I can't access them now. There might be ways around it - Flashlight in a different thread encouraged me to try emulators - but it's a job I have to get to... *weary sigh*

liquidity said:

Just for kicks I ran the alternative like you suggested: "What if I switched to the Resonance Journal?" and got

61.2.6 Inner Truth > 3 Difficulty at the Beginning
WB .2: "A crane calling in the shade. Its young answers it. I have a good goblet. I will share it with you.
WB .6: "Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Hrm.... It sounds like it perhaps would enable me to make more connections. It's certainly taking the "good goblet" that is being shared in terms of the software and partaking of it.

On the other hand, perhaps it's trying too hard to change something that doesn't need fixing; it's just overly ambitious in the wrong way (.6).

Click to expand...

Nothing other than what you said yourself comes immediately to mind about your reading, but interestingly, the icon Hilary selected for Resonance Journal is related to hexagram 61.



The box with the pole through it has to do with this (from Hilary's book, in the Oracle section of hexagram 61):

The Chinese character for ‘inner’, a square with a vertical line through its centre, probably originally represents a drum mounted on a pole. It suggests centrality and balance, and also the vibrations that carry through an inner space.
[...]
The very present truth vibrates through you like a drumbeat; you apprehend it directly, as an inner resonance. The lines of the hexagram itself show a space at the centre, open to listen and resound with the intensity of experience.

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Here she explains specifically about using it as the software icon:

hilary said:

(It's Justin's work - I hate making icons.)

The character is zhong, meaning 'centre', as in zhong fu, Hexagram 61. It may show a flagstaff planted to mark the centre of a settlement - or (and I like this idea best) it may show a drum mounted on a pole. So that gives the idea of something that resonates through the centre. It also has meanings like 'centred', balanced and connected. It seemed like a good thing to be clicking to bring up a journal.

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liquidity said:

Thanks for the thoughts... the main reason is that software programs go out of development sometimes and then their data is hard to retrieve, but that's not true with text files. Those are forever.

I can search my text files, but it's definitely a bit more cumbersome than with the software, no doubt.

Click to expand...

Very good point. (Not that we have any plans to stop developing the Resonance Journal, on the contrary, but still, good point.) This is why, under 'Entries' in the Resonance Journal, you'll find an option to export all entries to Excel. xls files are also pretty close to 'forever', and they preserve the data structure so it's easier to use than in plain text.

5 stars for Resonance journal!

It's easy to review same hexagram experiences all together, a library of resources can be on hand for reference (so far, I'm only using Hilary's which comes with the RJ though), it's set up to be able to see how hexagrams are trending at a glance, it has exploring capability by being able to sort whatever is tagged, and has a variety of journaling options such as notes, dreams, translations, etc. It's just the best.