Article 19. Traps of the Ego’s Language

A recent occurrence made us painfully aware of the trap created by the thought that we had reached the “final freedom” of a longstanding health issue. We had deprogrammed certain ego-elements the Sage had indicated as having been the cause for a blockage to healing. You could imagine our sigh of relief!

The relief did not last long, however, because the same symptoms returned the next night. Consulting the Sage about what happened, we learned that we had stepped into a trap of our commonly used language by allowing the thought, “Now I will finally be free!” That thought (which contained a hint of self-congratulation) was associated with a “demon of final certainty,” and accompanied by a changeling called “the sigh of eternal freedom.” It had deceived us about the fact that the thought, “Now I will be finally free,” also proclaims an absolute state of freedom — an idea that contradicts the Cosmic Principles of Harmony that are based on the Principle of Relativity. By introducing that “final certainty,” the ego put us into a new prison, in which the Helpers could no longer protect us in regard to the problem at hand. The problem with declaring anything as absolute is that it automatically creates its opposite, i.e., “the success will always remain aloof.” This is one of the biggest traps that keep us imprisoned in the ego’s logic.

The Cosmic Principles of Harmony are outside the ego’s logic.

They are something we spontaneously understand because our true feelings are based on them. That explains why, when we consult the Sage that speaks through the I Ching, its replies create a resonance in us with “what we have always felt to be true.” (The function of the I Ching as a book is to put the Cosmic truths into words our mind can understand.)

Does the Principle of Relativity mean that we must learn to live with uncertainty?

That is what the ego would tell us, and immediately the word “risk” comes to mind, with frightening images. Once again, the ego tries to draw us into the trap of thinking in terms of opposites: “If there is no certainty, then it means that we must live with uncertainty.” When writing our book, I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, and the two subsequent books, the Sage showed us, over and over that the Cosmic reality that functions according to the Principles of Harmony, is outside the reality that has been created by the ego’s logic. The Principle of Relativity ensures the duration of the harmonious order of the Cosmos. That order is not something rigid, but constantly evolving within the limits set by the Cosmic Principles of Harmony

What is the lesson to be learned?

First we need to understand the trap set by thinking in absolute terms. That happens whenever we use the words “always,” or “never,” or their equivalents, such as “final,” “finite,” or, “for all times.”

Next, we need to realize that using those words was a mistake. We then need to deprogram the thought or image that is connected with those words (such as, “now I am finally free of that problem!), and then ask the Sage to free us from their disharmonious effects. Doing so restores our Cosmic protection in regard to the issue at hand.

Article 18. What Makes Our Books on the I Ching Different from Other Books

In OUR BLOG we are sharing with you, our readers and potential readers, what makes our book I Ching, the Oracle of the Cosmic Way, and the two subsequent books we wrote, Healing Yourself the Cosmic Way, and The Psyche Revealed Through the I Ching, different.

I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way was inspired by concrete experiences that blew away our previous understanding of what we thought to be “irreversible principles” on which the I Ching was based. Our new understanding was made possible thanks to three factors:

• Carol’s experience of the Sage, the Cosmic Teacher that speaks through the I Ching. This experience came from many years of meditations in which the Sage had revealed itself to her. They are documented in her book, The Other Way, Meditation Experiences Based on the I Ching. Thus, to her the I Ching was no longer merely a book, but something the Sage was able to use to teach her hidden aspects of the text. What she learned in this way went into her other early books: A Guide to the I Ching, The Philosophy of the I Ching, and Love, An Inner Connection Based on Principles Drawn from the I Ching.
• Carol’s subsequent discovery, around 1994, of a method that allowed her to put direct questions to the Sage for the purpose of clarifying a message received through the I Ching text.
• An experience Hanna had in 1998, of spontaneous healing that was made possible through using the clarifying method mentioned above, on the one hand, and I Ching meditation, on the other. Both means enabled the Sage to correct several very basic false assumptions that had been written into the I Ching by scholars of the Confucian school around 350 B.C. One of the most fundamental of these was the replacement of the principle of transformation by what they called the “law of changes.”  The enormous relevance of this change is described below. I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way and all our subsequent books are based on the principle of transformation as the means through which the Cosmos achieves all things.

The difference between transformation and change is easier to understand today than in earlier times, since the most advanced research in physics, i.e., quantum theory, recognizes that the Universe is consciousness, and that matter is a manifestation of consciousness. Transformation refers to the process by which consciousness is trans-formed into form, as when atomic particles pop out of what appears to be empty space, and also the process by which things in form are trans-formed back into consciousness, as at death. Transformations are carried out by invisible forces that the I Ching, in a number of hexagrams, refers to as Helpers or friends that need to be engaged. By contrast, “changes” are of a purely mechanical nature. They are the result of the use of manipulation and force by humans who have refused to recognize the existence of the Helpers, thereby negating the most basic principle on which all harmonious progress is based. In a nutshell, mechanical changes are the result of a view that sees humans as the center of the universe — the ones who ‘do it all.’ The backside of that arrogance is the suffering in the world.

The original purpose of the I Ching was to show humans the true causes and effects of events happening in their lives. Its predictions were not to be read as foretelling a prewritten future, but as reflecting the effects of our thinking and attitudes: when our thinking is in accord with Cosmic truths, it automatically engages the invisible helping forces of the Cosmos and results in success. By contrast, when our thinking contradicts Cosmic truths, it creates what the I Ching calls “misfortune.” When we understand that the causes of misfortune lie in ideas and beliefs that contradict the Cosmos, we can correct our thinking accordingly. Our newer books on the I Ching also describe the help that is available to us to carry out that correction, and thereby return, step-by-step, to our true nature, which automatically knows the Way of the Cosmos. The purpose is no longer to “become” something through making changes (in our looks, or in the way we present ourselves to the world around us, or even in how we want to see ourselves), but to gradually free ourselves from the human-centered mindset, and thereby return to the Cosmic unity.

The articles we are posting on OUR BLOG are meant to summarize major steps in our process of learning about the Cosmic Principles of Harmony that govern all life, about healing ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, and about bringing Cosmic help into our lives generally.

Article 17. What is the Difference between "A Guide to the I Ching" and "I Ching, the Oracle of the Cosmic Way." By Carol Anthony

My book, A Guide to the I Ching was the result of ten years of insights gained in meditation from 1970 to 1980 while working with the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching. In 1980, a meditation occurred in which I saw myself walking through Grand Central Station, in New York City. There, I stopped at a kiosk where magazines and books were sold. To my surprise, I saw three books there written by myself. This meditation led to my first book, A Guide to the I Ching.

     What is the difference between I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, with Hanna Moog as co-author, and A Guide to the I Ching? The Guide is based on experiences in consulting the Wilhelm translation, which is based on the central idea that “changes” rule all of life, and that we are meant to adapt to them in order to bring ourselves into harmony with the Cosmos. Adapting often means that we accept negative circumstances in the hope that things will get better…this is the role of the “superior man.”

    I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, by contrast, is basically active, in that it shows how we can engage Cosmic help to correct matters on the outer plane. It connects us with our inner truth in regard to each situation. There is no model of “the superior man” that we need to “become.” Instead, we are counseled to “take away” obstacles in our thinking and point of view that prevent our attaining Cosmic help for each situation. In this regard it is active — referring to various kinds of inner action — rather than passive.

     On asking the Sage whether we were to discontinue publishing the Guide, we received a clear “NO” for the answer. As the Sage never gave us a “reason,” we cannot answer it here. We can only conclude that it is still helpful to some people, and that is reason enough.

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Article 1. The Sage as our Cosmic Teacher by Carol and Hanna

© by Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog

   Carol’s experience of the Sage in the 1970’s was of an alive consciousness that wants to communicate with us. This took away for her the understanding that what we read in the written text of the book, is all we have for an oracle. It becomes apparent through its use that the I Ching is a Cosmic gift to humans. Its purpose is show people (1) the nature of the Cosmos as a system of Principles of Harmony, (2) our true human nature, and (3) the way we individually can return to harmony with these Cosmic Principles when we have lost our way. 

   The Sage, as part of this interaction, is a presence within us that uses the oracle to draw up from the depths of our nature, our innate knowledge of Cosmic truth. (This truth is contained in the DNA of every body cell.) The I Ching Hexagram 61, titled “Inner Truth,” refers to this source that is stored in our bodies, not in words, but in the form of feelings of what is harmonious and what is not. Thus, the Sage uses the I Ching to speak through its text, but the text itself is not the oracle.

   The Sage makes it clear, through the method we call the retrospective-three-coin-method, or “rtcm” (which will be described in our next article), that it does not teach us the handed down platitudes that have often been taken as ‘ancient wisdom.’ It rather discourages this kind of memorized mental approach by reaching into our own deepest inner truth to bring forth the answers that are already there. We find, in so doing, that our inner truth has been suppressed in favor of these platitudes and commandments. That is why, on finding the answer we need, we recognize that we “knew that” all along, but did not dare to trust it. Thus, we find that the Sage is all the time connecting us with a part of ourselves that has been repressed through conditioning.

   This process of reaching into the depths is described in Hexagram 48, “The Well,” which calls our inner truth “a clear, cold spring from which one can drink.” Often, we cannot access our inner truth because “there is mud in the well” in the form of fixed, preconceived ideas, fears, old grievances, and memories of wrongs done to us. When we drink from this mud, we are kept stalling. With the help of the I Ching text, the Sage not only wants to make us aware of this fact, it also offers us help to cleanse our inner well. Then we find that our inner truth is a gold mine containing everything we need to know.

   The more we work with the Sage and give it the necessary space in our mind, the more we realize that it wants to speak to us as a friend, not as a godlike figure that expects obeisance and punishes us when we make mistakes. On the contrary, the Sage wants to free us from ideas that are either grandiose, making us see ourselves as the center of the universe, or that inspire us with fear and awe, and make us see ourselves as small and insignificant. The ancient Greeks had an idea of the Sage when they spoke of “a tutelary spirit that accompanies each person lifelong.” They named it “genii,” root of the word “genius.” Writers have long called it “the muse.” For many artists, athletes, and inventors, it is an “elusive thing” that takes over in us when we give up relying on the “brilliance and ability of the thinking mind,” or the pure brawn of our bodies, to provide the success we seek.

Article 2. Suspending Disbelief by Carol and Hanna

© by Carol Anthony and Hanna Moog

   The I Ching, Richard Wilhelm states in the Foreword to his Classic Translation of the I Ching, began as a yes/no system of putting questions to the Cosmos. As centuries went by the original answers became interpreted and edited by the various dynasties. After Carol discovered the “retrospective three coin method”* of asking the I Ching whether we understood it during a consultation, we found ourselves understanding the I Ching in new ways    — new by beginning to understand the original oracle sayings as guided by the Sage that speaks through the oracle. 

   In this manner, we found that the I Ching is not a belief system that tells us what to do and how to think, based on the way it was edited by scholars over the centuries; rather it wants to connect us with our own inner truth. Our inner truth, as we learned, is the largest storage place in the world that contains everything we need to know to live our lives in joy, harmony, and prosperity. For example, it contains:

• the feeling knowledge that we are part of the harmonious order of the Cosmos
• the feeling knowledge of the Cosmic Principles of Harmony
• the feeling knowledge of the help and support available to us from the Cosmic Helpers for all our needs
• the collected experience of humankind — not the collected myths, but the collected understandings about our true nature
• the feeling knowledge of our positive symbiotic relationships with the Cosmos and Nature

   The Sage made us aware that the beliefs we hold often contradict the feeling knowledge contained in our inner truth, and it is for this very reason that we usually come to the I Ching: one or more of those beliefs have created the problem for which we are seeking a solution. Obviously, we cannot understand the I Ching’s counsel so long as we remain convinced of those beliefs. The longer we work with the I Ching, the more we realize that the beliefs created by humans have blocked our contact with the feeling knowledge of our inner truth. If we think about it, we realize that the difference between beliefs and our inner truth is that we do not need to “believe” what we know on this deep level to be true, because it feels harmonious and fitting.

   For the same reason, we find that the I Ching does not want us to take on new beliefs, but to learn to listen to what we know deep inside ourselves. Because we have come so far away from this practice, and have been made to doubt that it even exists, the I Ching helps us connect with our inner truth. With practice, we gradually become free of our distrust, and we gradually begin to realize that our feeling knowledge contains everything we need to know; it has only been pushed aside by beliefs that have created disharmony in one or more areas of our lives. This disharmony, of course, is experienced as a lack of joy, prosperity, and good health.

   When we come to the I Ching, we tend to want to hold onto our beliefs because we think they give us a feeling of security. This thinking has made them into powerful habits of mind. However, if we are seeking relief from the problems they have created, we need to be willing to suspend them, at least temporarily. As long as we are captives of those habits of mind, the door to understanding the causes of our problems remains shut. To enable the I Ching to show us those causes, we are not required to give up or even suspend our beliefs; we are only required to temporarily suspend our disbelief in the existence of our inner truth.

   A second prerequisite to being able to learn something new is the temporary suspension of our preconceived ideas. Preconceived ideas equally prevent our mind from learning something that is outside their frames of reference.

For the person who wishes to consult the I Ching, we recommend the following exercise:

   Sit in a quiet place and close your eyes. Now, ask the Sage to temporarily suspend both your disbelief in the existence of your inner truth and your preconceived ideas.

(This exercise does not need to exceed one minute.)

*This method will be introduced in our next article.