Through my continuing analysis of the Book of Changes, using the Fu Hsi (binary) sequence as well as the King Wen sequence, I have been able to map the processes whereby a single hexagram serving as a general context will guide a situation to one described by another hexagram.
As you move through this website you will come across a lot of reference to the concept of context. Context is the 'location' of the rules and regulations, the grammar, both physiological, psychological, and sociological, that go towards guiding/controlling behaviour.
This behaviour need not be human behaviour, it is the rules and regulations that are part of the universe that serve to guide and control all members of that universe, whether they be planets, humans, or algae.
Global context is the source of universal laws. Local context is the source of species or individual laws.
Since context is the source of guidance as well as control, so the concept of motivation is a context-resident concept. In the application of the Book of Changes to human behaviour so context is synonymous with motivation where any act is analysed by others to determine the motivation behind the act - "why did he do that? what where his motives?" - and context is always behind.
In my analysis of the Book of Changes I have come to it from a scientific context in that what guides/controls me is the discovery of what is behind things, not so much the values as more the algorithm/formula that makes it possible to repeat or else predict a situation.
By having this 'bent' I have always seen the Book of Changes as an expression of something deeper; unlike most researchers into the Book of Changes I do not take the book as the base line.
For me what is behind the Book of Changes is a template used by us to create metaphors, metaphors used to add flesh to the abstract, dry concept of objects and relationships, concepts which our neurology works with.
The object/relationships dichotomy is hard-coded into our brain. In neurological texts it is often referred-to as the what/where dichotomy. What is important to note here is that since the neurology acts to filter data into object/relationship categorisations and since these categorisations form the context for the metaphors we create, so context has structure and this structure guides and controls all that follows. In this sense we are motivated by objects/relationships patterns of meaning.
The Book of Changes is a metaphor for describing simple as well as complex what/where meanings and as such can be used to symbolise ANY form of meaning.
In the Book of Changes each hexagram captures a specific state, an event. But this event does not 'pop out' from nowhere, the expression of an event is not a miraculous one, there is a motive involved and we can discover the nature of this motive by applying a text/context method of interpretation to the symbols of the Book of Changes.
Thus at the level of all hexagrams, the BASE trigram serves as context and so serves as motive. When we move to hexagrams with changing lines things get more complex in that the changing lines express the motives of another hexagram acting as influence to cause the change.
To go back to the trigram/hexagram level, elsewhere in this site I have emphasised that the characteristics of trigrams are DIFFERENT when the trigram is placed in a top vs bottom position of the hexagram. To summarise, here are the meanings:
Trigram - in lower position : in upper position
earth - devotion : total trust/faith in another (doublemindedness)
mountain - self-restraint : discernment
water - containment : control
wind - cultivation : influence
thunder - enlightenment : awareness
fire - guidance : direction (ideology)
lake - self-reflection : intensity, expressiveness
heaven - perseverence/confidence : singlemindedness (total trust/faith in oneself)
Since we assert that the LOWER position is the source of motive then when we map the Book of Changes to the template
and from there to the MBTI so we see the nature of motives that drive the individual.
Earth types -- I seek devotion and from that have total faith in another.(MBTI : XNFP)
Mountain types - I seek self-restraint and from that will learn discernment.(MBTI : XNFJ)
Water types - I seek containment and from that will be in control. (MBTI : XSFJ)
Wind types - I seek cultivation and from that will become influencial (MBTI : XSTJ).
Thunder types - I seek enlightenment and from that will be more aware. (MBTI : XNTP)
Fire types - I seek guidance and from that an ideology (MBTI : XNTJ)
Lake types - I seek self-reflection and from that intense expressiveness (MBTI : XSFP)
Heaven types - I seek perseverence/confidence and from that comes singlemindedness (total faith in self) (MBTI : XSTP)
The following links go well beyond the 'simple' trigram/hexagram relationships in that we are dealing with the motives behind the expression of all hexagrams (64 of them) as well as the more complex states of hexagrams in a context of another hexagram (the changing lines concept -- 4096 states).
Thes initial links cover the simple concept of determining the motivation that causes one hexagram to change into another. Analysis shows that for each hexagram there is a specific motive at work that leads to the expression of that hexagram. These may seem 'simple' at first but it gets more complex when we move into changing line concepts. Enjoy.