In OUR BLOG we are sharing with you, our readers and potential readers, what makes our book I Ching, the Oracle of the Cosmic Way, and the two subsequent books we wrote, Healing Yourself the Cosmic Way, and The Psyche Revealed Through the I Ching, different.
I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way was inspired by concrete experiences that blew away our previous understanding of what we thought to be “irreversible principles” on which the I Ching was based. Our new understanding was made possible thanks to three factors:
- Carol’s experience of the Sage, the Cosmic Teacher that speaks through the I Ching. This experience came from many years of meditations in which the Sage had revealed itself to her. They are documented in her book, The Other Way, Meditation Experiences Based on the I Ching. Thus, to her the I Ching was no longer merely a book, but something the Sage was able to use to teach her hidden aspects of the text. What she learned in this way went into her other early books: A Guide to the I Ching, The Philosophy of the I Ching, and Love, An Inner Connection Based on Principles Drawn from the I Ching.
- Carol’s subsequent discovery, around 1994, of a method that allowed her to put direct questions to the Sage for the purpose of clarifying a message received through the I Ching text.
- An experience Hanna had in 1998, of spontaneous healing that was made possible through using the clarifying method mentioned above, on the one hand, and I Ching meditation, on the other. Both means enabled the Sage to correct several very basic false assumptions that had been written into the I Ching by scholars of the Confucian school around 350 B.C. One of the most fundamental of these was the replacement of the principle of transformation by what they called the “law of changes.” The enormous relevance of this change is described below. I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way and all our subsequent books are based on the principle of transformation as the means through which the Cosmos achieves all things.
The difference between transformation and change is easier to understand today than in earlier times, since the most advanced research in physics, i.e., quantum theory, recognizes that the Universe is consciousness, and that matter is a manifestation of consciousness. Transformation refers to the process by which consciousness is trans-formed into form, as when atomic particles pop out of what appears to be empty space, and also the process by which things in form are trans-formed back into consciousness, as at death. Transformations are carried out by invisible forces that the I Ching, in a number of hexagrams, refers to as Helpers or friends that need to be engaged. By contrast, “changes” are of a purely mechanical nature. They are the result of the use of manipulation and force by humans who have refused to recognize the existence of the Helpers, thereby negating the most basic principle on which all harmonious progress is based. In a nutshell, mechanical changes are the result of a view that sees humans as the center of the universe — the ones who ‘do it all.’ The backside of that arrogance is the suffering in the world.
The original purpose of the I Ching was to show humans the true causes and effects of events happening in their lives. Its predictions were not to be read as foretelling a prewritten future, but as reflecting the effects of our thinking and attitudes: when our thinking is in accord with Cosmic truths, it automatically engages the invisible helping forces of the Cosmos and results in success. By contrast, when our thinking contradicts Cosmic truths, it creates what the I Ching calls “misfortune.” When we understand that the causes of misfortune lie in ideas and beliefs that contradict the Cosmos, we can correct our thinking accordingly. Our newer books on the I Ching also describe the help that is available to us to carry out that correction, and thereby return, step-by-step, to our true nature, which automatically knows the Way of the Cosmos. The purpose is no longer to “become” something through making changes (in our looks, or in the way we present ourselves to the world around us, or even in how we want to see ourselves), but to gradually free ourselves from the human-centered mindset, and thereby return to the Cosmic unity.
The articles we are posting on OUR BLOG are meant to summarize major steps in our process of learning about the Cosmic Principles of Harmony that govern all life, about healing ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, and about bringing Cosmic help into our lives generally.