Perhaps it is this belief that no state is permanent but that the pace of change cannot be forced that gives us Chinese our forbearance. I remember being shocked and saddened by my aunt’s poverty and dismal surroundings when I visited her in Shanghai in 1979. She had been driven out of her home by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and was forced to live in one small room in a neighbour’s house. When I invited her out to lunch, she asked permission to take a bath in our hotel room. She was in the bathroom for so long that I went in to check on her. I found her luxuriating in the tub staring at the ceiling. ‘Are you all right?’ I asked. You have no idea,’ she answered, ‘how delicious it feels to lie in warm water like this unless you have been deprived of a proper bath for thirteen years. It feels so good that it was almost worth the deprivation to have this hour of bliss.’ Then she added, ‘Things are bound to change for the better now. This too will pass. I must not despair when life gets too hard nor be too complacent when I’m too comfortable.’
The German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), the inventor of calculus, was introduced to the I Ching through his friendship with the Jesuit priest Father Joachim Bouvet, who served as a missionary in China. Bouvet showed Leibniz the diagram drawn by Shao Yung
Looking at the hexagrams of the I Ching, Leibniz recognised his own system of binary mathematics in the symbols by representing yin
In our time, both the number system in computer science and Larry Fullerton’s recently patented digital pulse technology use Leibniz’s binary mathematics to carry out their functions. Like the computer, the I Ching was also designed by ‘wise men’ as a mechanism to facilitate man’s thinking in processing information. Aptly, I Ching has been nicknamed the ‘poor man’s computer’, the ‘archetypal computer’ and the ‘most archaic computer’.
Carl Jung began studying the I Ching during the late nineteenth century and continued to consult it frequently until his death in 1961. Jung viewed the conscious and the unconscious as having a correlating function in man’s behaviour, where the unconscious normally plays a complementary role to the conscious. Occasionally, however, this becomes impossible and then the unconscious is forced to be the adversary of the conscious, thereby causing inner conflict.
Undoubtedly, there are moments in our lives when we find ourselves stuck at a psychological impasse. Inside, we are in turmoil yet we are unwilling to admit the problem to ourselves, let alone discuss it with anyone else.
At such times, the conscious and unconscious may become successfully reunited through psychotherapy. It is important, however, that the patient in search of peace of mind be healed as a whole person, not treated merely for a particular symptom. Carl Jung agreed with the I Ching that there is a little yin (female) energy in every male and a little yang (male) energy in every female. He advised a holistic approach in treating patients, calling it ‘the process of individuation through a creative integration of opposites’. The key to success, according to Jung, was to make the patient aware of his unconscious as he goes about his conscious everyday life.
Jungian psychotherapy aims to reveal to the patient certain vague and unformed primordial images which may have manifested themselves in his dreams and fantasies. It is none other than a symbolic quest for his unconscious. The sixty-four hexagrams in the I Ching have been considered by some to be the union of psychic opposites. Each hexagram is composed of two trigrams. This combination may be seen as representing the union of the unconscious (inner trigram) and the conscious (outer trigram).
Consulting the I Ching
From time to time we all get stuck in difficult psychological situations. The Chinese recognised many centuries ago that the human mind is often over-burdened and confused. At those moments, the I Ching may offer a way out by providing a method of self-examination. Its hexagrams are symbols conveying messages which form the basis for meaning and substance in our human existence. These hexagrams can be randomly selected at any given moment. Each represents a specific instant in a continuous cycle of change. They explain and articulate certain inner truths about subjects which, on some occasions, many of us hate to admit or even think about: separation, divorce, death – and the attendant wills and legacies. My grandfather once told me that many elderly men of his father’s generation used to consult the I Ching before they wrote their wills.
In order to consult the I Ching properly and with a clear mind while avoiding the possibility of influence by the occult or the divine, one should follow a few simple rules:
Find a quiet, tidy room. Bathe and dress in comfortable clothes. Be alone. Lock the door. Take the phone off the hook.
Formulate your question to the I Ching carefully. Describe your problem or symptom. Spend time thinking about it. Write it down as succinctly and accurately as possible.
The number of the hexagram which will ‘answer’ your question can be found by either tossing a coin or dividing yarrow sticks. I recommend the latter – not because I believe in ‘black magic’ but because the ritual of dividing the sticks solemnises the occasion. It also takes longer. Coin-tossing takes about two minutes whereas dividing sticks may take from twenty to sixty minutes. During this time your mind should be concentrating on the question at hand. Some people burn incense to put themselves in the mood. The occasion should not be treated frivolously but with reverence and sincerity. It provides a period of self-examination and meditation, comparable to attending mass or going to confession.
If you can, use the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching (published by Princeton University Press in 1990). Unfortunately, Chinese is a very imprecise language, without gender, tense or numbers. Classic Chinese as written in ancient times is particularly difficult to understand. What you get out of the I Ching depends very much on your personal interpretation of the translator’s explanations and commentaries on the hexagrams you have located in answer to your questions. The whole process is something like looking at Rorschach’s ink-blots. What you eventually see will be a projection of your own latent thoughts.
Contemplate and reflect on the hexagram you’ve arrived at and its interpretation. Consulting the I Ching is really an occasion for soul-searching and self-analysis. For believers, this is the time for your private conversation with God. For sceptics, this is an opportunity to have the candid dialogue with yourself which you have been avoiding. Use it to clarify