The past week or two i was thinking of throwing the I Ching. I waited. Today it was a good time for me. I had work to do, so i didn’t have plenty of time to work on ellenpronk.com. And the I Ching is something i can simply do at home, not difficult.
I did have a vague question. How do i go further?
This morning i went to the vet with my cat Muis (= Mouse). His diabetes is playing up. His blood was checked, i got insulin for him. Yes, plenty of money, i’m afraid.
I still feel there is something inside me, or outside me, connected to this website, waiting to burst out. But you know, i could be wrong! Easily! I could be sitting here in my house waiting for it to be sold of, me to be homeless and without steady internet. Seeing my life crumble before my eyes. I can see all the people laughing at me, pointing their fingers at me, saying I told you so!
That won’t happen. I’m pretty sure. Almost a 100%. Like 99%.
I don’t know.
I still feel there is something around me. But it is hard to talk about it with friends. Or strangers. Or at all. I gotta keep on going, now is the time, i can not let anything distract me from my true goal.
Goal?
Well, those sort of thoughts.
I do know my thoughts are changing. I’m watching tv a lot more critical, watching the people say their words, do their things. Some of it is terrible. This whole world is filled with people talking their mind with no proper thought. Or so it seems.
Why do i see myself in the center of that world?
It’s not that i have all the answers.
I think.
27. I / Corners of the Mouth (Providing Nourishment)
This hexagram is a picture of an open mouth; above and below are firm lines of the lips, and between them the opening. Starting with the mouth, through which we take food for nourishment, the thought leads to nourishment itself. Nourishment of oneself, specifically of the body, is represented in the three lower lines, while the three upper lines represent nourishment and care of others, in a higher, spiritual sense.
THE JUDGMENT
THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Pay heed to the providing of nourishment
And to what a man seeks
To fill his own mouth with.
In bestowing care and nourishment, it is important that the right people should be taken care of and that we should attend to our own nourishment in the right way. If we wish to know what anyone is like, we have only to observe on whom he bestows his care and what sides of his own nature he cultivates and nourishes. Nature nourishes all creatures. The great man fosters and takes care of superior men, in order to take care of all men through them. Mencius says about this:
If we wish to know whether anyone is superior or not, we need only observe what part of his being he regards as especially important. The body has superior and inferior, important and unimportant parts. We must not injure important parts for the sake of the unimportant, nor must we injure the superior parts for the sake of the inferior. He who cultivates the inferior parts of his nature is an inferior man. He who cultivates the superior parts of his nature is a superior man.
THE IMAGE
At the foot of the mountain, thunder:
The image of PROVIDING NOURISHMENT.
Thus the superior man is careful of his words
And temperate in eating and drinking.
“God comes forth in the sign of the Arousing”: when in the spring the life forces stir again, all things comes into being anew. “He brings to perfection in the sign of Keeping Still”: thus in the early spring, when the seeds fall to earth, all things are made ready. This is an image of providing nourishment through movement and tranquillity. The superior man takes it as a pattern for the nourishment and cultivation of his character. Words are a movement going form within outward. Eating and drinking are movements from without inward. Both kinds of movement can be modified by tranquillity. For tranquillity keeps the words that come out of the mouth from exceeding proper measure, and keeps the food that goes into the mouth from exceeding its proper measure. Thus character is cultivated.
Six in the third place means:
Turning away from nourishment.
Perseverance brings misfortune.
Do not act thus for ten years.
Nothing serves to further.
He who seeks nourishment that does not nourish reels from desire to gratification and in gratification craves desire. Mad pursuit of pleasure for the satisfaction of the senses never brings one to the goal. One should never (ten years is a complete cycle of time) follow this path, for nothing good can come of it.
22. Pi / Grace
This hexagram shows a fire that breaks out of the secret depths of the earth and, blazing up, illuminates and beautifies the mountain, the heavenly heights. Grace-beauty of form-is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic.
THE JUDGMENT
GRACE has success.
In small matters
It is favorable to undertake something.
Grace brings success. However, it is not the essential or fundamental thing; it is only the ornament and therefore be used sparingly and only in little things. In the lower trigram of fire a yielding line comes between two strong lines and makes them beautiful, but the strong lines are the essential content and the weak line is the beautifying form. In the upper trigram of the mountain, the strong line takes the lead, so that here again the strong element must be regarded as the decisive factor. In nature we see in the sky the strong light of the sun; the life of the world depends on it. But this strong, essential thing is changed and given pleasing variety by the moon and the stars. In human affairs, aesthetic form comes into being when traditions exist that, strong and abiding like mountains, are made pleasing by a lucid beauty. By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society it becomes possible to shape the world.
THE IMAGE
Fire at the foot of the mountain:
The image of GRACE.
Thus does the superior man proceed
When clearing up current affairs.
But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way.
The fire, whose light illuminates the mountain and makes it pleasing, does not shine far; in the same way, beautiful form suffices to brighten and to throw light upon matters of lesser moment, but important questions cannot be decided in this way. They require greater earnestness.
A short thought on these signs and their meaning for me right now. I does remind me of the past ten years, in which i remained silent. I was leading a perfectly ordinary life, working, gaming, watching television shows. But i was standing still.
I d feel different now. I’m moving. Thinking out loud, in this place. I don’t mind that much that this place is not visited by many people. I need this time to clear my head, formulate my thoughts, look around and determine my position. Where do i stand? Where do i start from? What do i want to say?
So for now, these two signs do tell me something valuable.
I need to find a position from where i can sit still and look around. From where i can watch the world hurtle by.
I am almost there.
I think.
