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With enlightenment comes awareness
This site demonstrates the existence of a template we humans use to create maps to aid us to identify, and re-identify, the meaningful from the meaningless. This demonstration is done through a usable and detailed exposition of the Book of Changes (I Ching), traditionally an ancient Chinese method of predicting, as well as summarizing the more 'scientific'-biased maps including Mathematics, the MBTI®, and Physics; all of which use dichotomy (pairs of extremes e.g. yin/yang, hot/cold, firm/soft, wave/particle) as a method of mapping. Additional material can be found at the sister site.
You may... Consult the Book of Changes (old version)
Consult the NEW Book of Changes (NEW program)
take the shortcut to the hexagram table. review the essays page
go thorough the site link index email comments/questions
See how the traditional I Ching is not the 'only' I Ching. From the ONE can come the MANY.
or learn more specifically about IC+ by simply reading on....
Whenever we make maps of reality, usually for the purpose of prediction, we often fail to recognise that the maps are metaphors for how 'in here' interprets 'out there'. This is the case not only for the esoteric maps (e.g. The I Ching, Astrology) but also for the scientific maps (e.g. Mathematics, Physics). I have discovered that underneath all of these maps is a neurologically-determined template which allows one to easily make analogies and create metaphors; it is a template of meaning that appears to be shared by all of these categorisation systems. Simply put, all maps of reality are metaphors for the way the brain categorises objects (wholes, parts) and relationships (static, dynamic), and the template emerges from this process.
In the process of evolution there appears to be a transition from reactive, chance processes to proactive, determined processes. The change is due to the internalisation of a map of the context in which one is evolving; the map enables a lifeform to predict and so intergrate fully with the context. The price for this map is that as we develop faster so we become more dependent on the map; the map becomes the territory and we live through metaphors (i.e. the map) that we often take too literally. This development process reflects the transition from the use of metonymy (part-for-whole identifications, LOCAL emphasis) to metaphor (created maps, GENERAL emphasis) and under all of this is a METHODOLOGY that our brains use to establish meaning and this methodology is based on the use of layering dichotomies.
Furthermore, once particular meanings have been dichotomously derived, so their re-integration back into the whole requires trichotomous methods.
IC+ is so called since it has emerged from an innovative analysis of the traditional Book of Changes AKA The I Ching. This analysis started in the realm of Psychology and Cognitive Science (my background is in computers) and was based on the question as to how the so-called 'esoteric' disciplines still maintained a degree of 'value' in a culture that is strongly science-biased.
This journey of discovery has taken me to many places and many disciplines, with the result of this analysis being the discovery of a template for metaphors, which, due to it's cross-cultural nature, suggests it has neurological roots.
This discovery implied that the traditional I Ching material covers but a fraction of what is there, where the supplementary information only emerges when we interpret the I Ching as a metaphor for the brain's way of dealing with objects (wholes, parts) and relationships (static, dynamic).
To a Taoist, the objects and relationships are metaphorically described by the terms of T'ai Chi (whole) and Yin/Yang (aspects). (Of note for beginners, the T'ai Chi link gives a full introduction to the I Ching within the context of refinement; spiritual alchemy being a foundation of taoist thought. A rough idea (not so much reading!) can be obtained by just looking at hexagram creating.)
The discovery of this template introduces a level of analysis far greater, and far richer, than the traditional, Wilhelm- oriented approach, in that it shows the I Ching in two parts:
A system for the categorisation of information that is based on using the yin/yang approach, where symbols are created dichotomously to represent specific states. Due to the nature of the process (dichotomous analysis) these symbols can describe anything. This system, once developed to a degree of six levels (six line hexagrams) is 'closed' in that each derived symbol has both text and context; it becomes a 'whole' who's aspects are all known, to a degree where deeper analysis would only lead to a minimal increase in information or even confusion.
Understanding the whole can help in the analysis of situations as well as allowing for using the system in a 'what if..' manner as we take a whole and 'play' with it's aspects. However, any 'creativity' diminishes over time since all creativity is done within the context of the whole and is thus adaptive in form rather than innovative.
A system to introduce contextual variation, where the context of a hexagram is replaced by linking the hexagram with an 'external' context. This is a 'classic' property of metaphor, where I can take any two apparently unrelated words/symbols and join them to see if they add any new 'meaning' to a situation. This process is done by using coins, marbles, yarrow sticks, dice, or anything else to help create a hexagram 'randomly' whilst thinking of a question; thus the question becomes the context in which I place the generated hexagram. Analysis of this can then help to possibly see aspects of a situation not previously considered. (It can also lead to 'rubbish'). In the context of creativity, this method is highly innovative but can also lead to the 'dissapearing' of the whole, in that the large number of text/context possibilities leads to the viewing of trees and the missing of the forest.
The emphasis in IC+ is to bring-out the overall structure of the I Ching as a categorization system (part A), showing all of the fixed contexts, and thus bring forth a stronger understanding of the I Ching as well as a stronger understanding of how we categorize wholes and their aspects. From there we move on to part B where we add-in a sense of the dynamic.
(From here onwards, some knowledge of the trigrams and hexagrams is assumed. For those of you who are not familar with these, go through the T'ai Chi material) or the shorter introductory hexagrams material)
The first step is to put the I Ching in a 'natural' order. This order is called the binary sequence and emerges when we build the hexagrams line by line, grouping hexagrams by their line character. Thus all hexagrams with yin as the base line are grouped together as are those with yang as the base line. To look at this at the level of the trigrams, we create hexagrams by first ordering the trigrams thus:
We then create hexagrams by using the same trigram order within the context of each trigram :
Top : earth mountain water wind thunder fire lake heaven Bottom: earth earth earth earth earth earth earth earth
Thus each hexagram is considered as a trigram (top) in the context set by another trigram (bottom).
This raises the question as to whether the 'meaning' given to a trigram is the same regardless of position. In IC+, and more implicitly in the I Ching, this is not the case for the emphasis on refinement means that the trigram in the upper position has a meaning slightly more refined that the meaning given for the bottom position. These different meanings are here listed where we start with the name of the trigram, followed by it's 'meaning' in the bottom position followed by it's meaning in the top position:
When applied to a hexagram, each hexagram is described in the form of "With (BOTTOM) comes (TOP)". Thus the hexagram that has the Wind trigram as both top and bottom is read as "With Cultivation comes Influence". In the I Ching this is hexagram 57 SUN. The name means:
"SUN: base on which things rest; support, foundation; mild, subtly penetrating; nourishing. The ideogram: stand and things arranged on it. The subtle influence of the ground."ERANOS p605
It is important to recognize that the ability to have similar meanings linked to the one symbol is based on context. In the above case I still 'battle' with using the term "cultivation" rather than the term "foundation" for wind in the bottom position. The reason for this 'battle' is the subtle changes in context that exists with all of the hexagrams with Wind at the bottom. Hexagram 48 is "With cultivation comes overcoming(Control)" and the name means:
"CHING : water well at the center of the fields; rise and flow of water in a well, rise and surge from an inner source; life-water, nucleus of life; found a capital city. The ideogram: two vertical lines crossing two horizontal ones, eight fields with a well at the center"ERANOS p 521.
Thus the well works as a foundation, but also enables cultivation from which emerges a degree of control(overcoming); the battle continues.
Continues with Hierarchy in the I Ching & IC+ refinements