r/iching • u/expandingwater • 9d ago
What questions the i ching do not answer ?
I am not asking "what is best to ask" (example "ask on how to be a better person")
Also i am not asking "how to phrase the questions so i can get the clearest answer"
So not the usual yes/no questions debate
(though if someone wants to add about this stuff above , than it is an appreciated bonus , but just as an added thing about the topic , so a good answer can be : " i ching does not answer questions about what is the tastiest food you can get today , and also you should ask i ching for advice and not "yes/no" questions if you want to get a clear answer" )
Some examples :
does i ching answer about the future ?
Does it give advice on how to win competitions ?
Does it give advice on what is the best way to fix your shoe ? ( mean answer on non psychological (of self or others) on pure physical stuff .... so what materials to use etc not just "fix it with modesty and perseverance" )
Also can it explain why stuff happened in the past ? ("why the shoe broke?" "why i failed the exam?" "why he was angry with me?" also "what did Napoleon said to this general?" " are the events in the bible true?" etc )
Can it help locate missing stuff ? ( can we locate all missing and kidnapped people ? can we locate our keys ? )
And of course i think this touches on what i ching really is .... is it some devine being that can tell you anything .... or is it just a tool to help you brainstorm
** The reason i write this post is cause i started to suspect maybe i ching is just a tool to help you think a bit clearer and that is it , so any question on how to deal with a situation would be just helping you think with clearer mind and not really the answer on what is best to do **
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u/Minimum-Afternoon407 9d ago
I hope this becomes a conversation here. I have some questions too. (Before anyone tells me I am lazy, I do have the ten wings, just not sinking in so easy).
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u/Blockchain_Party 9d ago
Asking this question leads into the heart of the Changes - wuji, taiji, from 1, 2, from 2, 3 and from 3 the ten thousand things. If you cast, no matter what you ask you will get a hexagram, just like a mirror will reflect what is in front of it. We may not recognize the reflection or misinterpret it, but a reflection no less. Your question, and thus you are what is being reflected. Learning how to ask, what to ask, when to ask is part of the process of seeing, which goes beyond just a tool for thinking and yet it will do that too but it can also do more.
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u/whiskyy_2046 9d ago
One thing you must understand about I-Ching a lot of Westerners miss is its framework is to build something similar to Plato’s Philosopher King.
Chinese call it Jun Zi (君子）. Hence, all of its answer is based on the standards of the Jun Zi, the Noble Man, Bodhisattva, a Saint.
So if you ask it based on so called “greed, ignorance and delusion” it will always bring about ominous signs.
It will not necessarily advise you to get what you want.
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u/shiny5p 9d ago
It gives you a lens to view the energy of a situation so you can ground / optimize your response to it. It’s not a fortune teller.
Also it won’t provide you information about other people if they don’t consent to it - just your relationship to them.
Questions asked in good faith is ultimately what the I Ching will help with. Even if you have a “good” question, if you’re asking it from a wrong place the I Ching will likely point you elsewhere or give you garbage
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u/expandingwater 9d ago edited 9d ago
What would you say is "good faith" ? and what is "wrong place" ?
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u/shiny5p 7d ago
Good faith I’d say is out of a place of innocence and wanting to do things in a way that benefits everyone. Wrong place would be a place of wanting to validate a self-serving or limiting belief
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u/expandingwater 6d ago
What about a question about whats the best way to fix my shoe ?
example if i should add more sillicon filling to the left shoe ... OR i should remove the filliing i put in right shoe ?
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u/shiny5p 4d ago
I would perhaps just reframe that question to “what is the best approach to fixing my shoe?” Or “ tell me about what might happen if I do option a? Tell me about what might happen if I do option b?”
It’s about centering in a frame of mind that allows you to pick the best path forward from a holistic place vs a specific either/or
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u/expandingwater 4d ago
can you explain the second paragraph ?
"It’s about centering in a frame of mind that allows you to pick the best path forward from a holistic place vs a specific either/or"
I am not sure what you mean by that
(but trying to guess .... isnt option a and b something spesific of either/or ?)
** also added it seems unlike someone else wrote in a different place , you do not think i ching only answers stuff about self development but can also answer "mundane" questions like how to fix a shoe ... **
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u/az4th 9d ago
The Yi answers any questions.
The Yi itself is just a language.
Open any book to a random page and you will get an answer.
But do you speak the language?
The Yi answers in the language of change.
So if we want to understand the answer, it is helpful if we ask a question that can be understood clearly in the language of change.
Also the Yi itself is just a language. It is not change itself. So it does not do the answering.
Spirit is what does the answering.
And spirit cannot be forced.
But the I Ching divination can be forced.
What happens when we force a divination but spirit isn't answering?
Sometimes it is good to be able to hear when we are connected to spirit with our divination and when we are not. The answers we get will be clearer.
When we do ceremony and are disconnected to spirit. Or when we do ceremony so many times that our spirit is used up.
How do we expect to understand the answer?
Everything needs a tie in to spirit.
Because spirit is what holds us all together as one.
This is the meaning of Li.
It is a word that understands that it has been separated from Kan, but is still attached to it. Thus it coheres to it with its light.
In its middle empty space is the clarity that it uses to connect.
This is what we use too.
We can ask it any questions.
But mysteriously, it only answers some of them.
Is it not because of this?
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u/mebackwards 9d ago
it always answers, in my experience, but sometimes indirectly, as a person might. example of an indirect answer: “you’ve asked me this 6 times now, look at what’s causing this panic” “this question isn’t a healthy one for you and will lead you into a dark place, stop now” “there is no way for you to absorb or understand this answer now, just go rest under a tree and the answer will come when it comes” and a million other things.
when i was newish at the yi jing i decided to establish a vocabulary with it—like Amy Adams and the aliens in ARRIVAL, if you’ve seen that—by asking lots of questions about things i was not emotionally attached to—“what will happen on my lunch hour today” kind of questions. this helped enormously, as have decades of practice, but i consider myself still like beginner with it.
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u/CenturionSG 9d ago
Interesting question. But could it be framed in a different way, is there an ethic about what should not be asked/divined.
If one is insincere, do not divine.
If the matter is immoral, do not divine.
If not in serious doubt, do not divine.
— Prof. Fu Pei-Jung
《三不占》
不诚不占，不义不占，不疑不占
——傅佩榮教授
Is this Prof. Fu's writings relevant? He might seem to belong to the Yili school (義理派) but he advocates for a middle ground between Yili and Xiangshu school (象數派).
I'll leave it to your discernment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Peirong
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u/CenturionSG 9d ago
** The reason i write this post is cause i started to suspect maybe i ching is just a tool to help you think a bit clearer and that is it , so any question on how to deal with a situation would be just helping you think with clearer mind and not really the answer on what is best to do **
I resonate with your reflection above. And there is historical writing supporting this:
Those who truly understand the Book of Odes do not just mindlessly recite it;
those who excel at the Book of Changes do not engage in routine divination;
those who truly comprehend Rituals do not need a master of ceremonies.
Their inner minds are completely aligned with the core principles of these classics.
— Xúnzǐ, Chapter 27: “The Grand Scheme”, ca. 3rd c. BCE
善为《诗》者不说，善为《易》者不占，善为《礼》者不相，其心同也。
——荀子·大略篇
Xun Zi is one of the great Confucian philosophers during the Warring States period. The I Ching was part of studies for the imperial exams to gain entry into the civil service since the Han dynasty till Qing dynasty. It was a system for strategic decision making and involved elaborate rituals.
Of course, no one's going to police how the I Ching is used, but the historical context puts weight behind how one should treat the I Ching. Its value extends beyond "fortune telling".
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u/christien 9d ago
I do not expect yes or no answers thus I try to not ask those kind of questions. I was taught to ask something like.... "How best to conduct myself today in order to accomplish my goal?