Apologetics for the I Ching.

Apologetics for the I Ching:

1.        The hexagram was not desired, but it was appropriate to the needs of the questioner, as answers are appropriate to questions.

2.      The meaningful answer was a coincidence Meaning and coincidence are contingent.

It cannot have MEANING without some COINCIDENCE, and neither can it be COINCIDENTAL without being-

Meaningful. And yet despite the seeming tautology, it is not a fallacy.

Meaning and coincidence are one, and this one item is inevitable only by virtue of the metaphysical forces in question. Rationally, there is no necessity for it outside of these forces, and were such a necessity found it could be equated WITH those forces.

Scientific epistemology demands one constant and one variable.

Either meaning or coincidence must be inevitable, and the other of the two must not be. Only when the two fall into accord does science recognise them. Yet this is but scientific thinking. It is not the only episteme that works, nor is it the most useful or most honest. In OUR epistemology as seekers, all things are possible, yet few can be promised. Will and chance play into all. So nothing is totally inevitable, nor is it totally NOT so.

3.       The setting of this reading is one of deep calm. At this moment of patience one KNOWS, without need of hope, that one is not importuning. The mood is need, not want, necessity without desperation.

It is therefore that one does not desire an outcome, nor is one biased when it DOES come, but rather one NEEDS an answer, and when one of SEVERAL* appears, it is a miracle.

*So many that one can’t have wanted it exclusively. So few that it was not inevitable or even probable.

If every answer is vague, just the very FACT that one can appear so specific is all ready not just improbable, but incredible.

Dm.A.A.

One can hold many biases, yet it is not inevitable that one shall rejoice when they’re full-filled, for after all some thing desired at one point in time might come when it’s least-

Needed. In the words of Isaac Brock:

‘You’re the loud sound of fun when I’m trying to sleep,’ etc.

Nor is it inevitable that a favoured item will appear at the same time as it is needed. Often it is only in well-integrated lives that Needs and Wants can so align. Such lives are not inevitable, given by Nature.

They must be CULTIVATED. If the tools to aid their cultivation are dismissed, the cultivation fails. Ergo it’s foolish to dismiss the superstitions that guide men towards greatness, either blaming fate (‘inevitability’) or greatness its self (the hubris of a man who thinks he did it all alone, his tools a mere placebo.)

For a King should heed the servant that predicts every Success and failure; it is probably the latter who does lead, and not the former. And if such a King would follow willingly, and if the path leads towards success without question, then let the servant then be venerated, and not sent away disgracefully.

Dm.A.A.

Now it would seem that yet again I speak in tautology, using an as-of-yet unwarranted conclusion as a warrant. Yet have I not warranted it? Now look again upon this question on ‘inevitability’. Even a GREAT man, whose appetites are no different from his needs, cannot GUARANTEE that he’ll receive the object of his appetites. The latter is quite likely, for he wants what he needs, nothing more. Yet WHEN shall needs be met? As regularly as he lusts? No. They are only met when the moment is opportune, and not when he would importune. So our Oracle remains consistent even as the heart might oscillate. It is a compass for the human heart. For lesser men it boggles them, refusing to accommodate their wants with such an obstinacy that mere chance would break under:

A testament to its intelligence. For common men, it serves them with that same intelligence, appearing quite miraculous. For great men, its efficiency grows with proportion to their greatness, thus becoming even more miraculous and never getting over-

Shadowed by the greatness of the man.

To praise the man and not his Oracle is to attempt to over-

Shadow it, a futile gesture, as its improbably gifts rival his own will in direct proportion.

Dm.A.A.

All though we can insure that a great man’s desires coincide with his needs, by virtue of his own greatness, we CANNOT determine, by that same greatness alone, that either need or desire, and thereby both, (for they are one for him,) shall be full-filled.

If they are full-filled, it can only be by virtue of the metaphysical miracle. As his virtue grows, this miracle grows more generous, yet all so it remains a matter of the proper timing; it is simply that these proper times become more frequent.

Dm.A.A.