Well, I can take this. Yes, thank you very much. Is that okay? It's very good. It's a good thing. So this evening we shall go a little bit more into the details of the I Ching. But we have to remember that I don't know where the same people are who were here last time. But I hope that some of you remember the chart which I drawn last time in which I show the transition from the old linear science to the symbolic signs, which are from the old Chinese tradition. Now, very strangely, this year, these signs have been practiced or have been reproduced in all books about I Ching.

[01:10]

But people have not realized that this system though very ingenious in its own way, is very difficult to remember. The Chinese themselves thought that it would be very difficult to remember because if you have 64 of these signs in hexagrams, then actually you get confused. What is a broken line? What is a straight line? What is an active line? What is a passive line? And so on and so on. Now, actually, this here shows these eight fundamental symbols upon which the whole I Ching is based. Without knowing these symbols, the I Ching becomes completely miraculous. I mean, we can't understand anything of it. So I want to show again that heaven and earth and thunder and mountain

[02:13]

fire and water, reflection and feeling. And here, the combination, for instance, of these both together, just as you can have this combination, you can have the infinite outside and the finite inside, as you find in all the mandalas, the Buddhist mandalas. So this is only by way of remembering. All through my book, I prefer to use these symbols as being easier to remember. And naturally, those names which I gave you just now, like heaven and earth, or like thunder and feeling, or lake, or whatever you may use, all these symbols, must be known before we can handle the I Ching. You see, until now, people used the translations, literal translations of the I Ching, which go back to the Kangxi edition of 1716.

[03:28]

So people and most scholars have been occupied with bringing out a good translation of the Chinese commentaries. But this was such a laborious work that people forgot to ask what the I Ching itself is to say. That means we knew all about the commentaries of the last 3,000 years or so, but these were speculations mainly based on various other philosophies which may not always reflect the ideas of the I Ching. You see, just now I thought about it. Now, for instance, if you imagine, let me say, 2,000 years after this time, people rediscover the famous universal formula of Einstein, E equal mc.

[04:32]

at the second potential. Anyway, whatever it may be, I'm not very clear about it. If you don't know what M and what C and what E and all these different things mean, Well, then the formula is absolutely useless. And the same thing has happened to us up to now. We have had all the wonderful formulas of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. We had everything, but we had no explanation what it means. That means we used symbols without knowing that... be first to translate these symbols into our own concepts. I mean, for instance, if you speak of heaven and earth, these are the two principles which only mean the illimitable and the limited, or the formless and the formed, or the immaterial and the material.

[05:43]

It depends on which level you will use that. Like in mathematics, You have a formula, let me see, in chemistry, H2O. Well, if you know that H means hydrogen and O means oxygen, then you understand that this is a proportion of two units and one unit. But if you don't know what the letters stand for, then this formula is completely useless. And you may repeat it a hundred times, you may worship it, you may do anything, but it remains simply dead. And the same thing applies to all these Buddhist mantras. Generally people repeat mantras without knowing what is symbolized in these mantras, what they mean. And if they don't know that, then the mantra becomes just a sound which is repeated and repeated again, but it may not have any meaning.

[06:48]

So in that case, we have to know how these mantras or on what principle they are constructed. And the same thing happens with the I Ching. And there are not only symbols like these which you see here now, but there are many more. got, first of all, the eight basic symbols as I showed here. Then we have got 12 animal symbols. Then we have five elementary symbols. And first of all, we have to translate the meaning of this in our own language and our own conceptions. For instance, we speak about the the, what I want to say, we speak about elements. Well, if we speak about elements, we think naturally of chemistry.

[07:49]

Elements are things which are stable in themselves, which are immutable, which are, so to say, they just cannot be changed into anything else or so. So elements are constant things or constant ideas or which we find in nature in the ordinary elements of chemistry. But even nowadays, we've come to the conclusion that even those elements, which we know from chemistry, are not irreducible. They can be reduced, probably, on the atomic level into something else. So even our elements, our so-called elements, are not stable conditions, but conditions which reappear again and again, but can be changed one into the other. Now, the Chinese elements.

[08:51]

or even more. You see, here you have the five elements. Now, again, these five elements have five symbolic names, like earth and water and fire and metal and wood. Now, you would think that there's a strange conglomeration of things, but it has not much to do with our idea of elements. But the Chinese meaning of these things, for instance, if you take here what is called wood, I put it in Tibetan because it's the shortest. If you take the so-called element wood, then it means not really wood. It means actually whatever is organic. That means anything organic. And if you take element iron, for instance, it has nothing to do with iron as such.

[09:59]

But it means it's inorganic. That means the organic and the inorganic. The heating. And the watery, water means not necessarily our, what we understand by water, but it means the liquid state, in general speaking. The liquid state, naturally, the best known part of it is water. And earth, again, is not necessarily meaning our water. or real soil or something like that. So it includes it. It means simply the state of coagulation. So now these five elements are associated with five different colors. And if you don't know the meaning of the colors in the I Ching, then you miss, naturally, the meaning of most things.

[11:03]

For instance, you will find, I remember just now somewhere in the aging it has been said that somebody is sewn into a yellow cowhide. Now you may ask, why a cowhide? Why not any other hide? And why a yellow one? And what does it mean? It stands that way. It is not without meaning. So that we have to know that yellow Yellow stands for the solid state and also for the traditional state because this color, yellow, as you see here, is actually repealed in the center, the center of everything. The yellow means the color of the center because you can have all the other elements developed on the basis of the earth.

[12:07]

Now, again, you see here the liquid element has been shown in blue. The organic element is green. The inorganic is white. And the fiery, naturally, is red. Now, fiery doesn't also mean, actually, it must be fire. It means any state of heating, any state of warmth. It may be warmth in the psychological sense. It may be warmth in the physical sense. It may have many, many connotations, even that of light. But there is one strange thing. You see the color of the blue. It has also another connotation. The concept water, or the concept of fluid, means something which goes downwards. And you see that here? Here. The triangle with the point downwards gives you the diagram here, which was used formerly.

[13:20]

The element higher is that which is rising up. And therefore, we have here the point upwards. In all the others here, you have got the thunder is upwards. That means thunder means the arousing, arousing in every sense, on the psychological level, on the material level, or on any any any form it means energetic and so then you see the opposite to it is a symbol called mountain which again is nothing much to do with a mountain but it means anything that is steadfast anything that is solid anything that is uh immovable apparently a movement or at least not movable in the sense of other things which change into other forms. So at any rate, all these things behave first to classify these eight symbols and then to see how they can be applied on what level.

[14:38]

Now, if you take one of the translations or one of the symbols and you want to combine it with another symbol, then you must have a symbol of the same level but not a symbol of a different level. I mean, you can't mix up a psychological term with a material term or a physical term with a philosophical term or a philosophical term with, let me say, a part of the body or with with appearances in nature. You have to keep always on the same level in order to make sense. If you compare wrong things which don't belong to each other, naturally the whole thing becomes a jumble. So that is the first thing which we have to do before we even approach the I Ching. Now, to speak further more about the colors in the element. So yellow, I gave you the example of the yellow cowhide.

[15:42]

What does it mean? Yellow means the color of the, not only of the Earth, but the color of the center, the middle. You see all these elements which are grouped here side by side. The other chart, you can see the yellow in the middle. Now, the yellow is, as I say, the most universal medium. And it means also anything traditional. You speak of the yellow emperor, for instance. Yellow is the color of the earth. It was the color of the dynasty. in China. So yellow could only be worn in those days by the emperor or by anybody who belonged to the emperor's family. So it was a sacred color. Now on the other hand, blue has got a twofold meaning.

[16:48]

Blue, if it is related to the elementary state, then it means the depths, that which is directed downwards. Now, depths can also have two meanings. Depths can be danger. It can be an abyss. It can also mean profoundness. It means depths in the psychological sense. So the blue, at the same time, but if you take blue in another sense, if you speak here of the law of heaven or of the infinite, Then you have got again the color blue, because even the sky is blue. We associate the color of the sky with something which is formless and infinite. And also with sunyata. And here again, these two concepts become one in the sense that shunyata is a very profound experience, the experience of the formless which creates all other forms.

[17:58]

Now, the red naturally is quite easy to understand, and the green, is organic and the white is inorganic. Why it is called iron is because it's clear. Because metal, you see, if polished, is pure reflecting. It's a reflector. And therefore, it is without any particular color. It reflects all the colors. Mainly, it reflects the light. So therefore, we have the white here. But now, it's another thing. These elements, we can't say that one element is better than the other. People might imagine that one element is greater than the other or lesser than the other or anything like that. But it all depends in which direction or in which combination these elements are used.

[19:00]

Now, for instance, here I see evolution and dissolution. The evolution is shown in this red star. It is how things evolve from each other. For instance, water creates wood, and wood creates fire. fire becomes ash, it becomes earth. And earth creates, in the earth we find the iron. So it is a productive stage. You see, one produces the other. But if you take this black circle, then it shows the dissolution. For instance, water extinguishes fire, and the fire melts iron, and iron cuts wood, and wood breaks up the earth, and the earth absorbs the water.

[20:14]

So on this black circle, circle, you have the dissolution that the elements become each other's enemies, so to say. While in the red star, the same elements produce each other. So it depends how you understand the position of each element. For instance, in nature we see that many elements seem to be inimical to man, but these very same elements are also the helpers of man. You can drown in the water, but the water is necessary for your life. You can burn in the fire, but the fire also cooks your meal. So everything has got two sides, a destructive or a creative. Now you see a roundabout here, around this circle, the colors have been repeated, and there are here two animal signs.

[21:28]

Now these animals, have been thought until now is having to do with a kind of astronomical zodiac. I mean, I think I showed you last time that even in this Chinese chart, which I had here, they showed the different signs of the zodiac according to European ideas. And indeed. certain elements, or very few, I would say, of the symbols may sound the same. For instance, here you have what you would call Taurus. But Taurus, in this case, well, in Chinese, they never say whether it's male or female or neuter or whatever it is. So I put here ox, just to show the genus, the general creature, which may be any of the two. Now, here you have got the tiger and the hare, and there the dragon, and there the horse, and the, no, what is it?

[22:45]

The serpent. Oh, the serpent. Here the horse. Here the sheep. There the monkey. the bird, the dog, the rat, and the . Well, now again, according to European ideas, you imagine that certain animals are very good. And certain animals may be very dangerous, or perhaps even bad. Or some animals may be very dirty and very lowly, and other animals very exalted. Now, in the Chinese symbolism, there is no value attached to any of these different animals. These animals simply represent certain known characters, characters which may be either for the good or for the bad.

[23:47]

For instance, let us take the idea here to the tiger. may appear very fierce, may be very dangerous. But in Chinese, the idea is not at all connected with it. The tiger has got his own nature. And he may be a very active creature, a very strong creature. And the hare, comparatively, may be a weak creature. But the hare has got, again, faculties which a tiger hasn't got. I mean, the hare has a great productivity, and the timer is much fairer. And then you'll find here one feature which gives you an idea about, again, the colors. In the four corners, you have yellow.

[24:54]

And that is from the center. That means here, ox and dog. And the dragon and the sheep are very different animals, but different characters are belonging to the earth. While these belong to the organic world, these belong to the earth. unorganic world. These belong to the south or to the warmth. And these here belong to the water. So you see with each animal symbol is connected with a particular color and with a particular character. Now, why, for instance, do the Chinese use animals in order to characterize certain qualities? I think the answer is very simple. Because each species of animal has got a fixed character, which may be variable in itself.

[26:01]

But still, there is something which is permanent. I mean, you can't speak of human people as being permanent. I mean, they are too individualized. While the animals show certain consistent characters is a species. So therefore, the whole thing boils down to 12 animals are a kind of characterology. And you will find, for instance, the sheep here, which in Europe would be regarded as a very docile and very timid creature. But you can also call it a ram. If you like, it makes no difference whether it's a ram where the sheep, they generally want to only to symbolize the spaces as a whole. So the sheep in Chinese symbolism is regarded as an image of happiness.

[27:03]

It may be an animal that... That is very docile. It may be a herd animal. But still, it represents happiness. The serpent here is a horse. Now, we have a dragon there. Dragon, serpent, and horse. Now, the dragon here is a yellow dragon. That means a dragon that belongs to the element Earth. Now, it is a dragon. belongs to the center. You see, neither the dragon nor the sheep nor the dog nor the ox are brought easily out of their balance. They are, so to say, an even temperament which represents the patience of the earth, of the central element. Now, again, in China, generally, the dragon is regarded to be a very

[28:05]

a very good symbol, while in Europe, the dragon is regarded to be a very negative or rather dangerous creature, because the dragon is always represented as almost an emissary of hell and of all the bad qualities, while in China, the dragon means the most, sometimes the highest qualities. But as I say, According to the association with different elements, you have the yellow dragon, the red dragon, the blue dragon, the green dragon, and so on. For instance, this here, Tassajara, is said to be, I think, the seat of the green dragon, the green god. So you see, the idea of a dragon in China is nothing offensive, but rather, something very positive. But the drain, naturally, can also, at the same time, be dangerous because it is like lightning in the sky that may be destructive or may be helpful.

[29:19]

It may create the rain cloud. So every animal that you see here, now these here, typically the monkey and the bird, the monkey lives in the trees. That means off the ground. And the bird lives in the air. So these are the animals which, so to say, are the most volatile and the most moving creatures. Then here you find the creatures which live in the depths, in the depths out of the earth, or sometimes in swampy ground, sometimes connected with water and all that. So each of these 12 animals has certain characteristics, but none of these characteristics are bad in themselves or high in themselves.

[30:20]

A horse is as good as, for instance, as a dog or as an ox or as any other creature. No. For instance, the dog. who is regarded in the West as being a very lowly creature. In China, the dog is the symbol of faithfulness. So that is a very good quality. And therefore, he is regarded to be belonging to the element of the center. So this whole, though if you get you can distribute these animals into the 12 months of the year. Now, that is where the error appears. because they are associated with the 12 months of the year, it doesn't mean it has anything to do with the constellations. So the constellations may also coincide with it, but our constellations are based on an entirely different system than the constellations would be in China.

[31:31]

In fact, in China, they associated quite different ideas. So therefore, we have to be very careful not to identify the animal symbols with the constellations. It is much nearer to say that the animals, due to the color scheme which is given here, are more associated with certain elements or with certain characters. Now, for instance, here when I say for instance, your ox or so. This is actually already an interpretation. I say ox because it does not say whether it's male or female. It can be a bull, it can be ox, it can be a steer, it can be, I don't know, a cow, it can be anything. In the old Chinese system, I think the idea may have been derived from the cow because the cow is the symbol of nourishment.

[32:33]

of mutual help, of kindliness, motherliness, and all that. So it all depends how we apply it. And now the question is, what is the connection between the elements and the animals? There are five elements. And there are 12 animals. Now, five by 12 make one cycle. That means what we would call 100 years. You see, 100 years in Tibet, as well as in China, are one century, because all the animals and all the different animals are combined in different ways so that the cycle of 60 contains all of them.

[33:37]

And you can identify each year with a particular animal and a particular element. So therefore, that is why the years are called after these symbols, even nowadays. I mean, here in San Francisco, we had, for instance, once the year of the dragon, and last year, I think, the year of the ram. By the way, ram, this is, again, European interpretations, because there's no reason to call it the year of the ram is just as well as the year of the sheep or something like that. But nevertheless, what is meant is these particular spaces. So you see the whole idea of the I Ching is that there is nothing Solid is such, nothing permanent, I would say.

[34:39]

The solid state can change into the liquid state, the liquid state into the solid one, the airy one into the liquid, and so on, the liquid into the airy. There are so many possibilities. These are only principles which repeat themselves again and again. And therefore, they can be recognized in our particular world. Now, the next question is we have to understand the combination of these elements. And then we have to understand the eight basic symbols. And now, again, these symbols are not fixed states, but rather they are transitional states. I mean, all these symbols here are not fixed and they are not like our European concepts which have only one meaning, but they are transitional states of existence or transitional states of phenomena.

[36:03]

So in a way it is a very scientific idea, a very dynamic idea. The whole of the I Ching is based on this dynamic idea that everything is in motion, everything is in change. And that's why I Ching actually means the book of change, or even better, the book of transformations. You see, because it generally has been translated as the book of change. Well, I rather object to that expression, though it may be phenomenologically defensible. But it is not arbitrary change. It is change according to law, a change which has one constant factor in itself, because it doesn't change at random, but it changes always in a certain succession, according to certain laws. Now, if we recognize the laws of the world, that means the Tao, then we understand that nothing is fixed, nothing is permanent, but there is an order, there is a law, there is something which we can handle because if there were no law, we would be

[37:24]

we wouldn't know what to do. I mean, if we know that the water runs down and the fire goes up and so on, or if we know the behavior of the different forces in the nature, then we can accommodate ourselves to these conditions. But if the conditions would be absolutely variable, absolutely arbitrary, we wouldn't be able how to find our own position. So therefore the I Ching says, if we know the nature of the world, then we can accommodate ourselves to this world and can live in harmony with the natural order. Otherwise, all what we call illok, all suffering and all that, is conditioned by our disharmonious behavior because we want to force our own ideas and wishes in a world instead of accommodating ourselves to the conditions of this world.

[38:27]

Now the great question is, how can we show the dynamic nature of the different science? And now I have devised here one way to show the movement. You see, this here is the system of Pouilly. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. The system of Pouilly, it means the universal system. And you see here, this red cross inside, vertical, Now, everything, if we want to show movement in physics, for instance, or in mathematics, or in higher mathematics especially, we can... we can show the movement by a system of two coordinates.

[39:38]

One is a perpendicular coordinate and one is a horizontal coordinate. Now these two coordinates, these two coordinates can show you whatever movement there is, isn't it? It means you have got these two coordinates, you may call it, like time and space or whatever you like it, or like this, negative and negative. That's all right. Can you bring some water, please? Your voice is getting husky. Bring some water. It's all right. Your voice is getting husky. Now, how do we find these coordinates in the itching? I have tried. both the systems, the system of Fuhi as well as the system of King Wen, and seen which one contains a kind of a consecutive system.

[40:42]

And here I found that the system of Fuhi is underlying all the movements in the I Ching. You can reconstruct the whole I Ching according to the system of Fuhi. And that shows, for instance, you have a movement that you see, you have a hexagram. A hexagram, as you know, is composed out of three trigrams. Now, they are like this. That makes a hexagram, isn't it? Six lines. One trigram is on top, and one trigram is below. Now, each trigram corresponds to one of these signs. into one of these states. Now, if you have two trigrams, what happens is that there is a so-called tension between these two signs. That means a movement between these two signs, which we can understand as tension. Not tension in the sense of disharmony, but tension in the sense like a chord in a violin.

[41:48]

I mean, if you don't make a thought, it doesn't give a sound. And if you make it too loose, it's also finished. It also doesn't give any sound. So you have to get the right tension between the two forces to create a harmony which we call a character. Well, a character naturally is not necessarily always harmonious. In fact, most of the characters are not. But they could be harmonious if they would find out of what they are composed. You see, the character of a human being is not a simple thing. It is not one thing. And even as Goethe says, we have two souls in our breast. That means we have In one way, we are living in this world. In the other sense, we are also living beyond it. We are both connected with the universe as well as connected with the terrestrial conditions.

[42:54]

And in most people, these two principles are fighting each other instead of accommodating each other. Now, this tension between these two in a hexagram That makes the whole movement. And as I explained, I think, last time, everything which is upwards, I have shown in red. Everything which moves downwards, I've shown in black. This makes much more. This appears as if there are only two movements. But you can have, out of these two movements, if you combine them, they become five or six. Namely, you can have, for instance, one movement goes upwards, one movement goes downwards. Or you can have it that one movement goes upwards and the other downwards in the sense that they penetrate each other. Or you can have two movements, which are both going across.

[44:01]

That means they are supporting each other. Or both movements go downwards. That is again intensifying. Now, the possibilities are either they are contrary, or they are compensating, or they are penetrating, or they are parallel, or they different, or they go in two different directions. They might part completely. One might go up and the other might go down. Now that would, I would say, would be the most difficult position because if things are completely separating each other in two different directions, that naturally is very difficult to harmonize. So according, in order to read one hexagram, we have to understand the two movements of the two trigrams.

[45:01]

Without understanding that movement, it is absolutely useless to ask for the oracle of the I Ching, because what you get is the so-called oracles. These are later commentaries which give you poetical interpretations, which may be sometimes quite useful and quite beautiful also. but very, very difficult to understand. And if we want to interpret them, then we have nothing to hold on to. If already we can judge how these two movements work together, that would be the very first thing we have to see before we can speak about the hexagram. Now, another thing which has confused the whole issue is that the Chinese gave a title to each of the 64 hexagons. Now, this title is generally quite a poetical title and quite a beautiful title, but very often simply derived

[46:09]

of the Chinese ideograms. You know, a Chinese ideogram is actually an abstract form of a picture. You can reduce it to a picture. And according to that picture, the name has been given. For instance, one would be called the cauldron, or the other might be called something else. And then, on the strength of that title, we tried to interpret the hexagram. But the hexagram has nothing to do with it at all. I mean, these are titles, these are names which have been given later on according to the outward impression of the ideogram, but not according to the actual inner nature of the hexagram. So therefore, we should not be misled. by the titles as such, but we should first see what is the structure of each hexagram and what is the structure of each trigram.

[47:13]

If we know the structure of the trigram, then we can know the structure of the composed hexagram. And then again, and here where the lines become important, We have not only to consider the two trigrams together as a hexagram, but also we have to consider the inner signs. For instance, you take these three together, leaving out one, the lower one and the upper one. And then we have to see the next three together. That means we get secondary signs which represent perhaps the inner stresses or the inner movements of a character. But before we can do that, I mean, that is already a very, very far-fetched idea, which before we come to that, we can first try to understand the movement between the two trigrams.

[48:20]

And now in order to show the movement, We have, as I said here, we have got the two, the axis, this red one, and the horizontal axis of the main things. The main things are heaven and earth and fire and water. These are the most essential components. Secondarily, comes this in between directions. And that is here, a and reflection, and feeling, and thunder. Now, that is now, again, very remarkable. You see? You might think that these are opposites, and those are opposites. But they are not, because this is only indication of the lines.

[49:22]

And if you know the line structure, which I showed here, then you see that this is opposite that, and this is opposite the thunder. That means the outward energy and the inner feeling, the outward energy and the inner feeling, the inner composure and the outer reflection. These are psychological terms. So again, now we shall come to the movement. And I will show you how I can Portrait the movement. The circle is up and the square is down. Yes, that's all right.

[50:38]

Quite all right. Now this was perhaps the most difficult question because so far all the representations of the I Ching. They are stationary and conceptual. And we have to get rid, first of all, of our conceptual understanding. And here, you see, I put the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That means the whole of the aging, the whole of the 64 science have been divided into houses. There's a house of heaven, a house of earth, a house of thunder, a house of feeling, and so on. It means all these qualities make eight houses.

[51:41]

Now, if you take this here, it's a system of coordinates. And here you have the position of these different symbols. That means a hexagram, which is composed of two things, shows the movement from one trigram to the other. And this here, I've given the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You see, these are all consecutive. But nobody has so far observed that the very same system has been applied to all the eight houses. There is never any deviation. The houses are not, the movements do not follow our idea about this. For instance, here we see these red lines show the movements from

[52:47]

from the element which characterizes the house. That means from a certain point in different directions. And the black ones, which you see here, the black ones show the movements from the opposite to the house denomination. So there are two movements. two controlling movements. And this system has been followed all through, through all the 64 diagrams, which shows very clearly that there is a mathematical system behind it. And without understanding the formula of these mathematical permutations, we naturally think that we are dealing with magic or something which is beyond understanding. But every step of the agent is very clearly based on an arithmetical and or a geometrical idea.

[53:56]

And then it follows through the whole thing. Now then, this here, what I've shown here, this here shows the house of heaven. It means the house of the illimitable, of the formless, or whatever you may call it. And the black lines start from the formed. It means from the earth. And the red lines start from the heaven. Now you wonder why there's number one. but there is no line showing the movement, because this is inner movement, which you cannot show outwardly. It means intensification of the same principles with heaven, heaven. So naturally, there can't be a movement between that. It can only be an intensified inner movement, which belongs to the two trigrams. So therefore, this has been only shown in a small circle, not as an outer line.

[55:02]

But here, you see the lines that are the movements. That means eight movements are in each house. I've only shown here the houses, not the individual 68 hexagrams. because it would be very, very tiring for you to go through all the 64 things, 64 diagrams. But now there are two ways. Now, here I show the movement in a straight line. And I take the system here, the other line, and there's a fixed system. But we can also do an opposite thing. We can show this. This science, we can show this science is a succession. You see? You can begin here. It goes through the whole thing around like this. And now you see the same system here.

[56:03]

The movement is curves. The movement is curves. And the system is the fixed background. It means that you see now what? Yeah, that sounds a little bit better. Thank you. Now you see. a very beautiful consecutive movement which shows the whole eight movements of the House of Heaven. And here I made a new discovery. I regarded until now that the sign of the mountain belongs to the negative side or rather to the to the earthbound side.

[57:07]

But if you use the same system for this mountain, what you get? Put it here, then. Yeah, all right. It's just going down the other way around. You barely want to hang it here. No, it reveals. It is not the opposite what we thought, but it actually becomes a mirror image of heaven. You see that? These two things correspond exactly to each other. Now you see these two diagrams.

[58:15]

What you didn't know before, you would not imagine the connection between the house of heaven and the house of the mountain. They seem to be more or less belonging to different categories. But here you see, if you put them into drawing, there you get the movement. Here. Number one actually cannot be seen. Number two, number three, number four, five, six, seven, and eight. So the eight movements show that they are corresponding to each other. That means that the house of the mountain or the We may call it the house of the contemplative attitude. It's very near to the house of heaven. They only reversed things. And that shows that we have, again, a clear to see here.

[59:23]

I didn't write the names here because it would be confusing. Only the symbols which you have seen before here. You can picture every single movement. And if you combine all these movements here, if you combine and project all these movements together, you know what you get? you get a wonderful diamond which shows you the 64 facets and 64 movements of the I Ching. And I can give you the number of each chapter of the I Ching in this design. I have not added it here because it would be too small. All these correspond to the 64 chapters of the I Ching, and they are the combination of all these movements together.

[60:23]

And that shows the proof what the I Ching means. I hope you can see it. Maybe we can only show it like this. Not necessary. Not necessary. Put it up. Is it all right? Put it up. Put it up, yes. Everybody wants to see it. We can pass it around if you want to see it. So, I mean, this is the final proof of the inherent system of the I Ching, because this here shows it fits exactly into each other. If it was only my invention, it would be of no value. But here the I Ching speaks by itself, through its own movement, through its own structure, through its own meaning. And then we can start to understand how it works psychologically, why it is so effective.

[61:33]

Nowadays people use computers. But unless we understand the nature of computer, we can't use it. So we have first to understand the nature of the I Ching before we can use it. And if we feed a wrong question into a computer, you get the wrong answer. But if you put the right question into the I Ching, you get the right answer. If you put the wrong question, you get the wrong answer. So it all depends whether your question is to the point, adequate to the real conditions or not. So therefore, we should be extremely careful in interpreting the I Ching. Well, I think we have come to a point... If you have got any answers... Questions. I hope answers. It may be an answer for me, but your question is very valuable.

[62:36]

Would you speak on the relationship between bodhisattva in the Buddha Dharma and Cintu in the I Ching? You know, that is a very dangerous thing. I know that, and I have got certain ideas, but I do not introduce them because it might look as if I tried to find the parallels between Buddhism and I Ching, which might not be historically justified. On the other hand, you know that Zen or Chan Buddhism is the outcome of I Ching together with Taoism and Buddhism. That means the combination of Taoism and Buddhism has produced Zen. And Taoism is based on I Ching, so therefore the I Ching is the origin of Zen Buddhism. And we have got many parallels, but it would

[63:43]

perhaps be too easily misunderstood because we should not try to explain one system by another one. Otherwise, we begin to introduce ideas which perhaps fit, which are of a later development. I mean, it's a wonderful combination, Zen Buddhism and Taoism. go hand in hand, I mean, they don't contradict each other, they compensate each other. And certainly the Buddhist idea of change, Buddhist idea that everything is transforming itself in something else, is one of the fundamental ideas of Buddhism. I mean, how could we speak of rebirth, how could we speak of all these, if we would not understand that everything in the world has to change? Because if it doesn't change, it is dead. And if we want to understand the universe as a living unit, then we must understand that it is a changing unit, something which is based on transformation but not on arbitrary change.

[64:56]

And there we come very near to the Buddhist idea, which I will not elaborate now because it would be an entirely different subject. But first of all, I wanted now not to give you my ideas about the I Ching, but I wanted to let the I Ching speak for itself. Please. In your remarks about each system being looked at on its own, I wonder about color, knowing that in different systems, like the Egyptian system, the colors are different. Quite. How do we understand the underlying laws of nature in that relationship? You see, there are many color systems. The Egyptian color system, the European color system, the Chinese color system and so on are quite different from each other.

[65:58]

That means we are just in logic. You can have a European logic, you can have an Indian logic, you can have a Chinese logic or a Japanese logic. That means they are all logical, that means consistent in themselves, but starting from different premises. And unless we understand the premises, we can't compare them. Therefore, I always say it is the most dangerous thing to compare European symbols with Chinese symbols. Take, for instance, as I said before, the symbol of the dragon, which in the whole history of Europe is regarded as the embodiment of evil, while in China it's the embodiment of the spirit. So they are a completely different interpretation of the same symbol. Or take the flames. I mean, you see in Tibetan Buddhism, certain figures of Buddhas, or perhaps people with the demons, who are apparently surrounded by flames.

[67:10]

So everybody says, oh, that must be demons. But that's wrong, because the European idea, especially the Christian idea, explains the outcome of hellish fire, and that anybody who is surrounded by an aura of flames must be some hellish being, some demon or something like that. While in Buddhist system, the flames mean wisdom and something cleansing, something transcendental, while in the Christian system, flames mean something destructive. So we have, that is perhaps the greatest danger in the In modern psychology, people think they can interpret dreams by the usual symbols which are, let me say, in European folklore, but it doesn't work for any other country.

[68:11]

For instance, if you dream of snakes, in Europe it's regarded very bad, but if you three of the same serpents in India, people will say, you have seen God. Because there the cobra is the embodiment of Shiva, of the highest gods. So you see the same symbol is interpreted in entirely different way. And in the same way, each color follows its own cultural pattern. In certain cultures there are different interpretations for colors and we have to accept them as they are. Now, for instance, green in Islam is the most transcendental color. Why? Because green is so rare in the deserts of Arabia that green appears as something beyond the earth.

[69:13]

So therefore, the color green is the most sacred color. Well, in Europe, let me see the blue. Or in other cultures, see the yellow. It depends on what you layer stress. Any other question? You said that Chinese people do not see constellations or do not see the Phoenician constellations which we see. Do they have a set of constellations which they imagine in the stars that's different from ours or they just not consider constellations at all? Well, the constellations which are, I mean, in modern astrology even, all these constellations are based on the Babylonian system. the Babylonian system was already 2,000 years old in Greece, in old Greece, in classical Greece, classical times. And even one of the philosophers of Greece of the third century said, how can you base your astronomy on the constellations which were correct 2,000 years or more ago?

[70:29]

He said, the whole constellations have changed in that time. They've changed very imperceptibly, but they do change. And so therefore, the whole Babylonian system cannot be applied to modern times unless we want to go into some Greek mythology, which after all we don't believe in. So, I mean, we are using a symbolism which is quite apart from the real facts. This symbolism may be very beautiful, it may be psychologically true in a way, but it reflects more our interior, our inner feeling, than the outer world. So we have to, if we want to, I mean, nowadays we have to decide. We can interpret things in terms of astronomy. But astrology, being based on a previous symbolism or the mythology, naturally can't be a science.

[71:35]

It is between the two things. It's not consistent again. Please, anything more? I have one more question about color, if you don't mind. If we are now discovering that through science that different colors have different vibrations, No, it's not a question of vibrations. Here there's a question of how the old Chinese felt about colors. He didn't speak about vibrations, not about objective things. He said, we feel green is something warm, something organic. We feel white is inorganic. We feel red is fire. We feel blue. I mean, that was their personal attitude.

[72:37]

I mean, this attitude may be different in different cultures, but as long as we are dealing with a Chinese system, we have to accept the Chinese feeling Taos is things. We cannot compare it with Egyptian and with European and with Indian or anything else, because each culture has a different interpretation. And besides the understanding, you see, up to now, people didn't understand the time cycles. You see, we are accustomed to think in the form of centuries. You see, centuries are 100 years, 100 solar years. But the old Chinese, or the Tibetans, and perhaps also the Indians to some extent, they had cycles in which certain elements repeat themselves, but in each type of different constellations.

[73:51]

You see, it can never repeat itself in the same cycle. So therefore, if the Chinese speaker or the Tibetans speak that somebody is a century old, well, it means 60 years, because 60 years is a normal cycle of human life. And if you are more than that, you are going to the second cycle, in which certain things may approximate again, but not repeat. Nothing repeats itself, but there are certain certain deviations. I would say it is like a spiral. A spiral repeats the same circle, but on different levels. So therefore, one movement which goes on is never the same as the former movement because it's on the higher level. I know that there are many more questions, and I think I would like to hear them.

[75:09]

Could you speak a little more about this chart on the bar right here? I don't quite understand how and why you charted it out just that way. Why does each of the lines go in the direction it goes in, and why did you try to number it? You go from one, I will show you. For instance, here, in movement number two, you go from the house of heaven to feeling. That means if you have got this sign together combined with this sign, that makes a hexagram. This makes three lines, and that makes three lines, doesn't it? So this hexagram represents a movement between these two exponents. Or this here, for instance, is the side of the mountain, the heaven and mountain.

[76:10]

These are two trigrams which make a combination of the third movement. And these movements are repeated. You see, if you read about these movements, you will wonder, what is the idea behind it? Why did the Chinese people take this kind of succession? But if you see the drawing, you see that two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. They follow all in the same direction. And so they get movements which either go from the house of heaven to the different exponents, or they go from the different exponents to the opposite, to the trigram of heaven. So that makes two kinds of movements. And these two movements are like this. You see, they are apparently opposite directions.

[77:17]

Because in a purely abstract system, you might think we go in one direction and try to combine all the eight houses. But it is not like that. It is not logically derived. It is rather more geometrically derived. For instance, in this figure here, where you get all the movements combined, all the 64 movements. You see, you go from each of these points, fire, or thunder, or earth, or anything. You see, from each point of these eight principles, there go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven rays. And one is the internal one. The other one is not there. So each point has the relationship to all other points.

[78:26]

That means 8 by 8 is 64. 8 by 8. I will do a better thing later on. I did it quickly. But it is interesting that it shows this form of a diamond which shows that the whole system is so well balanced and so absolutely mathematically clear. You see, all these lines meet in the same point. You see that? They meet there, they [...] meet here, they meet here, they meet here, they meet here. Everything, there's not a single line which goes out of the system. Next time I will show you. There is one interesting thing which I discovered later on. Richard Wilhelm, the famous sinologist, he mentions somewhere that apparently several thousand years ago,

[79:36]

when the book of the I Ching was printed on loose sheets, you see, like the Indian books. Apparently, perhaps the wind or anything else upset the whole sheets, and a few sheets fell out, and they didn't remember where to put them. I don't know whether they had put the page numbers or what. At any rate, they put the thing... is a thought, but apparently a few sheets have been misplaced. Now, when I read this, I thought to myself, if nobody has found it out until now, I shall never be able to find it out, and I didn't even try to do it. in the course of my studies by geometrical comparisons of the different systems, I could see that in one representation some lines were more than necessary and in other representations these lines are missing.

[80:50]

And then I found that the missing lines have to be replaced from one side to another. And then suddenly, you get the whole thing complete. And that shows exactly which are the sheets which have been mislaid. But that I must show in a more Victorian way. Any more questions? One last question. Last but most important question. Like the racehorse that gets the prize for being last. Like the racehorse that gets the prize for being last. Like the racehorse that gets the prize for being last. There are so many questions which we could think of in the I Ching because I mean, there are so many riddles still that I would be very glad if you would point out anything which is not very clear.

[81:57]

One can always improve upon it. . When would your book be available? Well, it is in print, and I hoped it would perhaps be ready around about Christmas, but now it seems to me it will take a much longer time. So in the first months of next year, it will come out. It's very complicated because there are more than 60 diagrams of this kind and in different colors.

[83:03]

And they have to be very, very accurate. And I want not to create any doubt. I want to show the diagram. the purely scientific method and without any particular interpretation.

[83:20]

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