As mentioned in other blogs, sometimes I resort to using the IChing as a contemplative oracle, for its advice is based on the laws of nature. Thus, if the question is replied with, say, a water and a fire sign, then the Ching tells us that we are in conflict, or exhausted, or some such notion equated with the mixing up of fire and water. We are then told what to do, what posture or action to take, given these circumstances.
It is a very inexact metaphysical science, although its advice is always sound - for instance, when confronted with insurmountable obstacles, perhaps like the coming of winter, it is indeed a good thing to fall back on our inner worth until the time (and the season) changes.
However, this assumes an eternally cyclical nature to nature itself, one that can be contained in a "book of changes." In this way, it appears that the god, or force, that is found behind this cycle is chained to the rules it made, and can be summoned or used by pat formulas. True, the wisdom in the IChing is often applicable and useful, but it often might lead us away from the real nature of nature itself (which is also suggested in some of the hexagrams of the IChing) - that is, that within its regular cycles is buried a constant element of change that causes the unique, the unexpected, and the absolutely unpredictable.
Take Super Bowl XLIX - please! (not really - as a New England native, my team allegiance was predestined). Who could have predicted that in the last minute of the game, with the Seahawks down by 4 and on the 50 or so yard line, they (Wilson, QB) would throw a Hail Mary which would be (as usual) blocked - but would then be caught by the receiver who was already on the ground, the ball that had been knocked away bouncing off his knee and into his hands, putting them near the 5 yard line? And who then could have predicted that an unknown defender would come from behind the receiver and hit him so hard that he lost the ball, and then go on to recover the ball himself on the goal line with 26 second to go and victory assured for the Pats? Who? And the Monday morning quarterbacks - who could know what would have happened if Pete Carol had actually had Lynch run the ball for the Seahawks instead of throwing that intercepted pass?
It is what it is, as the brilliant sports analysts often say, and that is true: within the predictable is often, is perhaps always, an element of chance and novelty that cannot ever be anticipated. Whether it's in the small confines of a sports arena, or the larger scope of planet earth, or an open -ended and unfathomable universe, there is always the unpredictable, the outcome that no one could see, no matter the degree of expertise of the prognosticator. And so it seems for the nature of our reality - that as much regularity that it shows, from the personal to the planetary, there is always that element of the unpredictable, even the impossible. It is as if God is unpredictable and creative, too; as if the world and cosmos moves in ways that might break its bounds at any moment; as if the bounds themselves are only an illusion dreamed up by those with limited minds, or who hope for a limited and comprehensible universe. And yet on and on it goes, the unpredictable, the novel, the surprise, the break to the cycle that shows a chaos in the pattern, an exception to the rule that sometimes proves the rule, but always, in the end, invalidates it.
And so we have Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary movement - a pull towards a greater unity, but a pull none the less that sooner or later disrupts or eclipses the former patterns. It is not only in biological systems, however, but in everything. We can guess; we can feel comforted or alarmed by the IChing or by scientific law; but sooner or later the novel comes in to disrupt, to perturb, to destroy or create anew. That, the creative or unexpected rather than the repeated circular pattern, might be our greatest legacy and our greatest insight into what is. FK
It is a very inexact metaphysical science, although its advice is always sound - for instance, when confronted with insurmountable obstacles, perhaps like the coming of winter, it is indeed a good thing to fall back on our inner worth until the time (and the season) changes.
However, this assumes an eternally cyclical nature to nature itself, one that can be contained in a "book of changes." In this way, it appears that the god, or force, that is found behind this cycle is chained to the rules it made, and can be summoned or used by pat formulas. True, the wisdom in the IChing is often applicable and useful, but it often might lead us away from the real nature of nature itself (which is also suggested in some of the hexagrams of the IChing) - that is, that within its regular cycles is buried a constant element of change that causes the unique, the unexpected, and the absolutely unpredictable.
Take Super Bowl XLIX - please! (not really - as a New England native, my team allegiance was predestined). Who could have predicted that in the last minute of the game, with the Seahawks down by 4 and on the 50 or so yard line, they (Wilson, QB) would throw a Hail Mary which would be (as usual) blocked - but would then be caught by the receiver who was already on the ground, the ball that had been knocked away bouncing off his knee and into his hands, putting them near the 5 yard line? And who then could have predicted that an unknown defender would come from behind the receiver and hit him so hard that he lost the ball, and then go on to recover the ball himself on the goal line with 26 second to go and victory assured for the Pats? Who? And the Monday morning quarterbacks - who could know what would have happened if Pete Carol had actually had Lynch run the ball for the Seahawks instead of throwing that intercepted pass?
It is what it is, as the brilliant sports analysts often say, and that is true: within the predictable is often, is perhaps always, an element of chance and novelty that cannot ever be anticipated. Whether it's in the small confines of a sports arena, or the larger scope of planet earth, or an open -ended and unfathomable universe, there is always the unpredictable, the outcome that no one could see, no matter the degree of expertise of the prognosticator. And so it seems for the nature of our reality - that as much regularity that it shows, from the personal to the planetary, there is always that element of the unpredictable, even the impossible. It is as if God is unpredictable and creative, too; as if the world and cosmos moves in ways that might break its bounds at any moment; as if the bounds themselves are only an illusion dreamed up by those with limited minds, or who hope for a limited and comprehensible universe. And yet on and on it goes, the unpredictable, the novel, the surprise, the break to the cycle that shows a chaos in the pattern, an exception to the rule that sometimes proves the rule, but always, in the end, invalidates it.
And so we have Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary movement - a pull towards a greater unity, but a pull none the less that sooner or later disrupts or eclipses the former patterns. It is not only in biological systems, however, but in everything. We can guess; we can feel comforted or alarmed by the IChing or by scientific law; but sooner or later the novel comes in to disrupt, to perturb, to destroy or create anew. That, the creative or unexpected rather than the repeated circular pattern, might be our greatest legacy and our greatest insight into what is. FK
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