The Best Kept Secret of Life

The Man-Made Bāguà 2 (The Bad Bāguà Effects)

The good bāguà effects are evidences of a natural way of life. In contrast, the bad bāguà effects signal the rise of an altered ego, an ego inflated with trapped emotion.

Which means the bad bāguà behaviors are the symptoms of an evil growth. So, just like any other major disorders, early detection is the best way to curb its growth.

Here is a list of the bad bāguà symptoms.

1. A wild Heaven (天, ☰: go-go-go): A runaway expansion.
A control freak in an offensive mode; driven mindlessly by a powerful undercurrent.
The mindless expansionist acts just like a growing snowball, which rolls down a hill uncontrollably, destroys everything in sight, and ends inevitably with a bang at the bottom of the hill.

2. A depressed Earth (地, ☷: stop-stop-stop): A deep depression.
A disorderly person who closes their minds in a depression.
The depressed screwed up is like an outlaw who imprisons themselves with regrets.

3. A volatile Water (水, ☵: stop-go-stop): A volatile emotional state.
An unruly character who bullies while in a depression.
The depressed bully is a trouble maker, who terrorizes habitually by continuously disrupting peace and stability, theirs as well as others’.

4. An out-of-control Fire (火, ☲: go-stop-go): A stressful state.
An aggressor who resists the urge to expand.
The wound up state is like a pressure cooker, which cooks by raising temperature with internal pressure built up by the steam.

5. A tormenting Thunder (雷, ☳: go-stop-stop): Excessive worrying.
A control freak who closes up in a depression.
The depressed slave-driver inflicts pain upon themselves, by stirring up the shits trapped within.

6. A crippled Mountain (山, ☶: stop-stop-go): A jammed state.
A rebel who goes against the strong undercurrent within.
The internal struggle often blinds one from the many divine messages popping up in their surroundings.

7. An ever-changing Wind (風, ☴: stop-go-go): An opportunist outlook.
An unruly character who preys in an expansive mode.
The predator is an opportunist who gains advantages at the expense of ethics or morals.

8. An uninhabited Swamp (澤, ☱: go-go-stop): A marshy growth.
An expansionist who grows indiscriminately in a depression.
The indiscriminate growth produces a marsh-like state; carpeted with mosses, and punctuated with islands.

If a natural way of life is the reward for taking orders from Dào, a hellish life must then be the aftermath for surrendering to a devilish ego. But, both are extreme cases. In reality, most people are living a twilight zone; caught in between the natural and evil worlds.

Mr Fúxī equated the twilight zone to a hexagram; and offered advises in six poetic lines on how best to deal with it.

Still, what exactly are they? The hexagrams? The six poetic lines?

(Picture from images-cdn.moviepilot.com)

 

The Inspired Change A (易: An Elixir of Life)

The Chinese loves changes. They even have a word for every imaginable change, designed cleverly to implant the mode, and fashionably to capture the mood, of the change; for examples,

變 (biàn): A shocking change that raps (攵) to disrupt order (䜌); like 变心 (biànxīn): a change of heart that rocks a relationship.

換 (huàn): A progressive change that courts (扌) excellence (奐); like 换季 (huànjì): changing wardrobe to keep up with the latest seasonal trend.

更 (gēng): A natural (丿丶) change triggered off (由) by a limit (一); like 更代 (gēngdài): replacing one with another to refresh a cycle.

改 (gǎi): A directional change that strikes (攵) at the halfway mark (己); like 改行 (gǎiháng): changing profession presumably for a better prospect.

But, 易 (yì) beats them all as the No.1 word for “change”, as it offers 64 modes to change for the better, especially attractive for those who are down-and-out.

Also, it titles a classic for thousands of years, which grows a simple yīn-yáng concept into a doctrine with a worldwide following, and is still evolving promisingly into a miraculous cure for all human ills.

An elixir of life (长生不老葯, chángshēngbùlǎo yào)? Maybe it is just a wishful thinking, but if it is true, then “joy to the world”.

True or false, it is best to let 易 (yì) speaks for itself.

易 (yì): change / easy / simple
日 (rì): sun / day / daytime
勿 (wù): must not / do not / without / never
(ctext.org)

 

The Inspired Change B (日: The Sun Part 1)

日 (rì) means the Sun.

“The sun at the heart of our solar system is a yellow dwarf star, a hot ball of glowing gases. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris in its orbit. Electric currents in the sun generate a magnetic field that is carried out through the solar system by the solar wind — a stream of electrically charged gas blowing outward from the sun in all directions.”
(solarsystem.nasa.gov)

To I-Ching, Sun is Heaven, and Heaven is Sun. Then, what is said of the Sun should tell on Heaven too.

That assumption turns out to be the key that unlocks I-Ching’s secret world; conceptually as a sun-driven, ever-expanding human universe, realizable as an enlarged presence resulted from a huge mind explosion, practicable and perfectible as an art of living that can transform anybody into a “body-less” existence, a grounded, spiritual being living a larger-than-life life.

Now, let’s see what the Sun has to say about Heaven.

 

The Inspired Change B (日: The Sun Part 1)

日 (rì) means the Sun.

“The sun at the heart of our solar system is a yellow dwarf star, a hot ball of glowing gases. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris in its orbit. Electric currents in the sun generate a magnetic field that is carried out through the solar system by the solar wind — a stream of electrically charged gas blowing outward from the sun in all directions.”
(solarsystem.nasa.gov)

To I-Ching, Sun is Heaven, and Heaven is Sun. Then, what is said of the Sun should tell on Heaven too.

That assumption turns out to be the key that unlocks I-Ching’s secret world; conceptually as a sun-driven, ever-expanding human universe, realizable as an enlarged presence resulted from a huge mind explosion, practicable and perfectible as an art of living that can transform anybody into a “body-less” existence, a grounded, spiritual being living a larger-than-life life.

Now, let’s see what the Sun has to say about Heaven.

 

The Inspired Change B-2 (日: The Sun Part 2)

“Sun is the heart of the solar system” rhymes with “Heaven is the heart of the human universe”, which implies “whoever gets Heaven gets the universe”.

The Sun’s enormous mass in the Solar System (99.86%) -- translated as a huge amount of resources, high visibility, and easy accessibility – makes this mission to court Heaven even more inviting.

“Sun is a hot ball of glowing gas” tells of a fast-expanding Heaven (a hot object expands, and a very hot object expands very fast), which tallies with I-Ching’s ever-growing human universe -- driven by an external life-force (Dào, 道) a million times the size of the internal life-force (qì, 氣) -- which then makes Heaven the pacer, and human the racer.

The vast difference between the temperatures of the Sun (top 15 million degrees Celsius) and Earth (no more than 58 degrees Celsius) lends support to this pacing-Dào-racing-Qì model.

“The Solar system is held together by the Sun’s gravity” suggests that deviating from the heavenly path will cause the collapse of a human universe, a tragic fate I-Ching dedicated to avert by uncovering all possible ways to diffuse the threat.

Moreover, staying within the orbit of Heaven guarantees a perpetual, natural way of life, an outlook embodied by the Sun’s perfect sphere, a symbol for a continuous loop of natural life cycles.

 

The Inspired Change B-3 (日: The Sun Part 3)

“The Sun’s strong magnetic field” supports the model of an earth-heaven magnet – a human magnet that magnetizes the extremes-rich human domain with an earth (south), heaven (north) link -- which powerfully transforms a southward-bound failure into a north-heading success.

“The all-around, outward blowing of the solar wind” showcases the magnetic treatment – the inside is relentlessly bombarded with forces of nature from the outside – which naturalizes the extremes inside, and revitalizes the entire human system.

Furthermore, the Sun is superrich in Hydrogen (70%) -- a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, non-metallic, highly combustible diatomic gas, the lightest element on the periodic table -- and Helium (30%) -- a colourless, odourless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas, the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table.

Correspondingly, Heaven is supersaturated with the simplest, yet highly reactive, yīn-yáng data (as building blocks of the human universe), and absolute truths (as inert materials for constructing a solid foundation to support the growth of the universe).

So far so good. Let’s see if the similes also match the definitions of 日 (rì).

 

The Inspired Change C-1 (日: An Invisible Guru)

日：實也。太陽之精不虧。从囗一。象形。

a) 實也 (shí yě): It brings realization, solidifies stuffs, and makes one honest.

實 (shí): real / solid / honest
實 strings (貫) inside (冖) and outside (亠) into one continuous space; best visualized as a factory, a semi-enclosed space for processing raw materials into useful products.

• The inside (冖) is isolated by an emotion thatch – a layer of negatives amassed over time -- that disrupts (left丿) and dictates (right 丿).
• It is a Pandora’s Box, where evils are kept.
• The outside (亠) is where inspirations (丶) reside, accessible by breaking through the emotion thatch (一).
• It is a resource centre, where hopes lie.

That makes 實 the sun’s lock-breaking mechanism, prying open the evil box with powerful natural pulses, and bringing hope to human.

Hope, however, means different things to different people.

For those desperately in need of help, it is a divine intervention that miraculously resolves the seemingly unresolvable.
For most, it is an inspiration flow that realizes extremes, solidifies ideas, and exposes unknowns.
For the experienced, it is an invisible guru, not just to answer calls 24/7 on any subject under the sun, but also volunteers stop/go signals -- convertible to painful reminders, or merciless corrective actions, if the signals are ignored – to facilitate human realizing their missions in life.

 

The Inspired Change C-2 A (日: The Pulsating Nourishment)

b) 太陽之精不虧 (tàiyángzhījīng bù kuī): The spirit of the sun is inexhaustible.

精 (jīng): essence / semen / spirit
精 is a divine nourishment (米) that greens (青).

The divine nourishment (米) drives outside (丿丶), and bombards inside (丷), with natural pulses to create perfection (十), a natural (一) and magnetized (丨) state.

While driving outside (丿丶), a natural pulse closes/opens doors; nudging one towards one’s destiny. And, when bombarding inside (丷), it excites with motives to arouse action, and cools down with restraints to consolidate.

The outside job is often shrouded in mystery, as an invisible hand is at work, hence is beyond one’s control. The inside mechanism involves regulating qì-flow in response to the outside stimuli, hence is subjected to human interference.

An uncoordinated outside-inside job causes deviation (from destination), a major source for misfortune.

On the other hand, pulsating with the divine nourishment (米) leads to a cloning process, which moulds human in the image of Heaven, as a strong force of nature.

 

The Inspired Change C-2 B (日: The Greening Effect)

Greening (青) is an attempt to mitigate, or even reverse, the damages inflicted by human on their natural worlds, by naturalizing (月) with a dominant, earth-heaven magnet (龶).

Naturalization (月) mimics the endless looping of the lunar phases, bombarding the inside with natural pulses to swing one’s mood like a pendulum -- from one end to another repeatedly -- until one dances to its tune.

Meanwhile, the earth-heaven magnet (龶) exerts its dominance through its vector filed, which magnetizes by dictating direction with powerful pulses; often manifested as stop/go signals for the compliant, carrot and stick for the neutral, and death and rebirth for the recalcitrant.

So, a spirit (精) is a pulsating nourishment that naturalizes and magnetizes.

That makes the spirit of the Sun (太陽之精) the Sun’s semen, bearing its DNA, and reproducing itself in human as a hero, a person with a mission fighting for a just cause.

And, the Sun is an infinite source of this almighty force of nature.

 

The Inspired Change C-3 A (日: The Sun’s DNA)

c) 从囗一。象形 (cóng wéi yī, xiàng xíng): It follows the characteristics of an enclosure and a limit. Each symbol is shaped to tell its own story.

The enclosure (囗) mirrors the Sun’s perfect sphere – a never ending loop – symbolizing a host of divine qualities, traceable in various degrees in all cloned heavens.

The roundness suggests perfection, radiated as holiness by both the “nobody” who lives a simple yet happy life, and the “somebody” who answers their calls to fulfil their missions in life.

The endlessness stands for timelessness, an incorruptible value found in religionists who live by God’s words; or in works created out of thin air by thinkers, writers, inventors, and the likes.

The continuity shows the persistency of the Sun in completing its mission, manifested as perseverance in survivals who never give up on life, or visionaries who always strive to scale new heights.

The looping reflects the cause and effect working principle of the Sun -- what goes around comes around – practiced by simplists who treat the roots rather symptoms to resolve recurring problems; or karma believers who cushion their lives with good deeds, believing that one good turn always leads to another, and that violence begets violence.

The circle symbolizes a full natural life cycle, spun continuously to move one along the evolution scale through thick and thin; a way of life pursued by naturalists who wish to be one with the universe, or fate believers who always take everything in their strides.

The above listed divine qualities, though not exhaustive, are enough to show the size of your birth rights. But, the actual amount inherited is dependent upon the purity of your feed; expressed as a divinity value, the equivalence of a pH value, ranging from -10 to +10:

Divinity Value = Pulsating Nourishment – Toxic Emotion (Both feeds are valued between 0 to 10)

A maximum score of ten creates a saint with a halo; a negative ten yields a monster capable of destroying the world; and a zero results in a swamp-like character that encompasses diversity.

To be a monster or saint, nobody or somebody, failure or success, the decision is entirely yours.

 

The Inspired Change C-3 B-1 (日: Limits)

A limit (一) is as far as one can go.

While the Sun is almost limitless in every quarter – size, power, resources, wisdom, and so on -- human is defined by limits, the lowest is earth, and the highest, heaven.

The lowest is a base below which is a bottomless pit that does not support life; cascading the depressed soul from one bottom to another with endless miseries.

So, it is a “bottomless pit” that inflicts miseries nonstop, and not because the lack of will to fight the odds, as commonly diagnosed. Logically then, constructing a base -- earthly enough to hold the fall and stage a rebound – should end the sufferings once and for all; sparing one the agony of a head-on, no-win fight with the depression, as normally prescribed.

On the other hand, the highest is one’s growth limit beyond which is a mysterious headwind; retaliating ferociously against any encroachment; and engaging the obstinate in a prolonged tug of war, to either exhaust the intruder into submission, or stretch their lives until it snaps, free falls, and lands with a big bam at ground zero, for a restart.

There is a distinct difference between a “challenge” and “headwind”. A challenge energizes you to rise above the occasion and scale new height. A headwind tires you out with increasing resistances for every step forward until you are totally exhausted. So, take on the challenges but respect the headwinds, if you want to live happily ever after.

Yet, the worst kind is a man-made limit, an emotion thatch, a hardened layer of negatives that starts to coagulate the moment you were born, amassing junks like:

• Extreme emotions like uncontrollable anger, excessive worrying, or crippling fear.
• Traumatic experiences like serious accidents, abuses (physical, emotional, or sexual), or catastrophes (war or natural disasters).
• Unresolved issues like conflicts, unfulfilled ambitions, or regrets.
• Distortions like half-truths, prejudice, or extreme thoughts.
• Trivialities like insignificant details, petty issues, or inconsequential incidents.

No detaching is what causes the hardening, the same way how people disregard their lawns with excuses like – don’t know how, don’t care, it’s pointless, too much work, too busy, etc. The bad news is, regardless of how good your excuse is, the consequence is the same – a rapid declining divinity value with an equally fast increase in impermeability.

Over time, it will turn unbreakable, cutting one off from the outside world to create a breeding ground for a monstrous character, an altered ego that seizes control over the inner domain.

Here is the inside story of its rise to be the master of your destiny.

 

The Inspired Change C-3 B-2a (日: Enemy of the Ego Part 1)

The first sign of an emotion thatch in play is the upsurge of “inertia” – a strong resistance to change – every time you wish to uplift your life; even simple wishes – such as keeping fit, changing to a healthier diet, or opening to a new idea – seemed like high hopes.

Initially, it is a ding-dong battle -- win whenever you receive a positive vibe from the outside (the natural guà, the upper trigram of a hexagram, is coming to your aid), and lose whenever your mood takes over (the man-made guà, the lower trigram of a hexagram, is boxing you in).

At this juncture, there is no joy in winning, nor sadness when losing. What it does bring is regrets -- for wasting time and energy fighting the many, meaningless battles; and losing opportunity due to slow responses.

But, it is a different story if you are losing all the time. It means that a “depression” -- a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity – has set in.

The slump tells of the further hardening of the thatch, solid enough to cut off the outside supply that nourishes the inside. Over time, the isolation will degenerate into desolation – a marshy existence, devoid of vegetation (no growth), carpeted by mosses (trivialities) and walled by volatile emotion that fuels erratic behaviours.

If isolation is indeed the cause of depression, then calming the erratic behaviours by drugging the depressed could be suicidal. Because it addresses only the symptom (calming the behaviour by numbing the senses), but not the cause (calming the inside by neutralizing the extremes), with a dire consequence – numbing of the sixth sense meant for communicating with the natural world outside.

If the marshy condition is left to deteriorate further, the next worst thing is “compulsion” – the irrepressible urge to do something that you know you shouldn’t – driving ugly, vicious behaviours that plague the internet with cyber bullying, highways with road rage, or society at large with harassment.

In a way, a bully is a victim themselves; falling prey to a fast growing mass of trapped negatives that pressure cooks the inside into a live volcano; out bursting violently to release the escalating pressure; and spurring poisonous thoughts and vulgarities onto whoever and whatever blocking the way, to sooth the inner turmoil with pleasure derived from dispensing the pains.

Some might not give a damn being labelled a bully; but they would be hard-pressed for ignoring the deadly consequences that descend together with the next round of degeneration.