Many Variances

One of the beautiful and key things about the I Ching and the concept of yin and yang is that it can be taken on so many levels. Hence an affirmaton of the old principle, as above so below. Albeit, in many cases, on different levels the principles seem to reverse themselves. As such, while on many occasions yin would appear to be "evil" while yang is "good," this is not really the case, except as the outside observer would emotionally attach those qualities to it. For whatever is cannot exist without its opposite. And this is key to the I Ching and the Tao Teh Ching. Therefore, while it often appears in the I Ching that yang is being given positive press, in the Tao Teh Ching it would appear yin is being given positive press. Nevertheless, when we understand that nothing can exist without its opposite, we understand that neither one pole nor the other can be evil or good in and of itself. It is only when yin and yang express themselves in opposition to each other rather than in complement to one another that "evil" appears (to the observer).

Therefore the permutations between the powers of yin and yang cannot be exhausted. And on one level yin and yang can refer to space and time, on another it can refer to the interaction of the sexes, hence we get information on relationships. On yet another level it can refer to the rulers in relationship to the masses, or it can refer to conscious in relationship to subconscious, or it can relate to the higher self in relationship to the lower self, ego to spirit, spirit to matter, and on and on and on.

In many societies matter is considered to be evil, being devoid of its spiritual nature. But matter is merely the manifestation of the interactions of interference waves which are in essence spirit. So if we call matter bad in essence we are calling spirit bad as well. (This does not negate or belittle the argument that matter is bad, it is all a matter of context and understanding the real intent behind the metaphor.)

Again, yin and yang can refer to the soul of man as in contrast to the spirit of man. Unfortunately a certain website no longer exists that discussed this concept in depth. The creator of the website, Peter Novak, has decided to invest his time elsewhere. His books however, are I believe still available. They speak of the division of soul and spirit after death, the spirit being consciousness and the soul being subconsciousness, and all that these concepts intail. After death, if a person has not properly integrated these two forces, then soul and spirit separate, and the conscious mind no longer has any memory of itself, and just goes back to the universal force from which it came. In Japanese understanding, the spirit goes back to its Kami, or God. The soul, losing its conscious reason and logic, goes into a tailspin of memory and emotion, replaying its life experiences over and over again, with no rational thought on how to interpret these experiences.

We have not discussed this concept of the i Ching much, I hope to do much better in the future about daily getting out material that covers different aspects, including relationship analysis, spiritual analysis, and cosmic analysis with also some interpretation relating to the death experiences. The multidimensionality of the I Ching is for all practical purposes without end, and it becomes impractical to try to cover or discuss them all, but as much as possible I hope to do it.