Why I Enjoy Reading the I Ching

 I first discovered the I Ching as a teenager, by way of reading Philip K. Dick's science fiction novel Man in the High Castle. This novel depicts a group of characters, one of whom is able to tell the future through the I Ching, which serves to contextualize the events of an alternate history where Nazis had defeated the Allies in World War II. It was not long thereafter when I found my own copy of the I Ching--a black paperback edition, in fact--and started using coins instead of yarrow sticks to "tell my own fortune". I found the I Ching readings to be especially helpful when I had a perplexing question that needed answering. To my surprise, I found that most of the I Ching readings shed a lot of light on the things I was going through, and even helped me gain insight into a few dilemmas I was facing by visualizing a story around it. Although some psychologists have commented that the I Ching works only through our unconscious associations formed with the text, I think of this text as a living being of sorts. Jung seemed to suggest that the I Ching brings out the synchronicity found in all things, by creating a surface upon which we can see unfolding events.

   I have recently been reading sections of the I Ching sequentially, as though it were a novel. This is perhaps not proper (and even irreverent at times), but the point of my exploration is that it allows me to get a good general outline of it. I think one thing I like about the I Ching is that it has a flavor of seeing human beings as parts of a greater unfolding cosmos and nature, where forces beyond our control or comprehension play themselves out. Rather than placing agency entirely in human hands, the I Ching narrates a world where proper timing, tact and unfolding conditions work together, alongside the twin aspects of Ying and Yang which interweave with each other to create new permutations.

    The moral universe of the I Ching is leaning toward restraint, modesty, care and consideration of timing. "Tact" might be a good word to describe all these qualities, where the reader is taken into a place where forces vie together--some hidden and not yet ripened yet. Waiting is sometimes considered a virtue, but swift action also works in this universe. The point is that we learn to read the signs of the text to understand what we're up against, the best course of action, and the kinds of qualities we may need to cultivate while going through life's perils and hazards. There is a certain aesthetic beauty in this text that makes me feel in awe of the mystery of life--both the active unfolding of politics and society as well as the more passive and mysterious forces of nature and the mind. But the I Ching always gives me hope that situations have an unfolding harmony which somehow works itself out in some way, even when we don't feel it's particularly orderly or predictable in the beginning.