For more than 11,000 years the I-Ching has been used, indeed relied upon, by many people to aid in decision making and predicting the future. By partaking in the spiritual experience of the I Ching, the Great Commentary states, the individual can understand the deeper patterns of the universe.
The American sinologist Edward Shaughnessy dated its compilation in its current form to the early decades of the reign of King Xuan of Zhou in the last quarter of the 9th century BC, and its (somewhat shaky) association with Confucius gave weight to the text.
The answers or predictions of future events are revealed by using a numerological system based on the Yin and Yang, where the Yin represents a broken line and Yang a whole line. The Yin and Yang are polarizing forces but are important in maintaining a balanced universe.
But, of course, the text tells almost nothing – it is the interpretation of the text that is fundamental. And the interpretation is little to do with facts and evidence and much more to do with intuition or feelings.
This has long been understood in China where the I-Ching originates, and in the east in general. However, in the Western world, I often think that we have such a heavy reliance on “facts”, and “science” as evidence of the way the world works, that we have forgotten all about feelings and emotions.
In fact – we seem to fear emotions.
How many times have you heard someone saying to a child who has fallen over, or dropped their ice cream – ‘don’t cry, it’s OK’. Or perhaps to an adult – ‘don’t get upset’ when someone looks like they are on the verge of tears.
Why are we so afraid of other people’s emotions? Why do we tell children not to cry, when it is perfectly natural for them to do it, and a better response would be
“I bet that hurts, it’s ok to cry” or “Oh no, you dropped your ice cream, it’s ok to be upset”.
Marisa Peers says that if a sad emotion is not expressed, it leads to other organs ‘weeping’ – i.e. something else is going to hurt. And there is some scientific evidence to support this.
You see we humans cry 3 types of tears.
- Basal Tears. These are 98 % water and are there all the time. There job is to keep the eye hydrated.
- Reflex Tears. These are tears formed in response to something – onions, smoke etc. These tears are much more prolific than basal tears and include high amounts of anti bodies to protect the eye from damage.
- Emotional Tears. Humans are the only animal on the planet that cry emotional tears, and scientists aren’t really sure why – but they are starting to understand. For millennia, women have known that having a ‘good cry’ is good for you. Now we begin to understand why from a scientific point of view. These tears contain stress hormones and also dopamine. The body is literally flushing the stress out and leaving you feeling good (that’s what dopamine does).
The point of all of the above is that we are often out of touch with our intuition and our emotions.
Finding your why, is about understanding what is going on, on the inside, putting you back in touch with your intuition and emotions – so that you can get rid of whatever is holding you back, and live the life you were born to live.
You don’t need the I-Ching to predict your future. If you know your why – you will create your own! For more detail about how you can find your why – click here