Measure of time and space

Over the past few millennia, millions of people have tried to learn how to predict future events and their fate. Of the numerous prediction and divination systems made available today for enthusiasts, students, and masters, perhaps the most accurate and comprehensive divination system ever devised is the Book of Changes.

While other prediction and divination systems can be limited by time or space, by the use of this Oracle, no events on earth and in heaven can remain hidden for long. Not only can the Yi be used to predict fate – a number of fortune telling and astrology systems can also do that accurately – the Book of Changes, unlike those systems, also teaches Yi aficionados and/or their clients how to master their fate by overcoming time and space.

Therefore in the Great Treatise, it is said:

In it are included the forms and the scope of everything in the heavens and on earth, so that nothing escapes it. In it all things everywhere are completed, so that none is missing. Therefore by means of it we can penetrate the tao of day and night, and so understand it. Therefore the spirit is bound to no one place, nor the Book of Changes to any one form.

“We are shown here how the individual can attain mastery over fate by means of the Book of Changes. The Book can enable us to penetrate and understand the movements of the light and the dark, of life and death, of gods and demons. This knowledge makes possible mastery over fate, because fate can be shaped if its laws are known. The reason why we can oppose fate is that reality is always conditioned, and these conditions of time and space limit and determine it. The spirit, however, is not bound by these determinants and can bring them about as its own purposes require.”
[Commentary - W/B]

While many may tend to dismiss that the Zhouyi (the Zhou Book of Changes) can enable us to penetrate and understand the movements of the light and the dark, of life and death, of gods and demons, regular readers of my various entries on related Yi divinations may believe it can be or has been done.

The Chinese believe that when the spirit manifests many wonderful things can happen, one of which is Wu Wei. Chen Tuan in his manual on physiognomy (Xiang), the Mirror of Auras, mentioned that those whose spirit has manifested cannot be read.

In the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung Yung), it is said:

It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to foreknow. When a nation or family is about to flourish, there are sure to be happy omens; and when it is about to perish, there are sure to be unlucky omens. Such events are seen in the milfoil and tortoise… . When calamity or happiness is about to come, the good shall certainly be foreknown by him, and the evil also. Therefore the individual possessed of the most complete sincerity is like a spirit.
[Legge]

Yi aficionados are fortunate to have an affinity with the Zhouyi and yet often do not fully appreciate the great wisdoms and the most accurate and profound divination system contained therein. The Great Image contains much wisdom, yet it is often ignored by students. There is no need to learn derivative systems to augment oracle interpretations and their timing. The hexagrams and/or the eight trigrams can be used to determine the time and space. Why look elsewhere?

If Yi aficionados really want to learn how to overcome time and space and to master their own fate, perhaps a good start would be to drop all prejudices which may hinder their learning or studies. To become sincere and a Junzi, we have a need to study the ancients and to cultivate.

Only with the cultivation of a Junzi, do we have a chance to manifest the spirit. With the manifestation of the spirit and when the Yi speaks, we will be able to foreknow all things on earth and/or in heaven; and thereby the means to overcome time and space.

Surely, Yi aficionados would love to be able to do just that. Who wouldn’t?

Cheerio!