cyber_faust

Perhaps the most important thing to know about the yijing dao is that its conception of the universe is of constant motion; there is NO static state [/]. Life, existence is a constant flux, a true dialectic, but without the Hegelian/Marxist idea of a linear, teleological synthesis. It is much closer to the dialectic of Heraclitus. Existence is change, that is its nature, that is its condition, that is its narrative. One flows into the other ceaselessly (Consider the symbol of the Dao). The YIN (- -) and the YANG (---) are not static concepts, but concepts that constantly change into the other. The Yin and Yang lines form the Hexagrams, which represent the universe. However, the hexagrams are symbols standing for changing transitional states; thats right changing, transitional. Attention centers not on things in their state of being, but upon their movements in change; the hexagrams are not representations of things, but of their tendencies in movement.

However, this change is not meaningless; this change is the tao (or dao). By understanding the meaning of change, one comes to realize the eternal law at work in all change, the dao. To quote Wilhelm, understanding the dao, the law of change, allows man to make himself independent of the tyranny of eventsThe Book of Changes offers him a view of the varieties of human experience, enabling him to shape his life of his own sovereign will into an organic whole and so to direct it so that it comes into accord with the ultimate tao lying at the root of all that exists (Wilem lviii).

What this means, is that fundamentally, the yijing dao is a philosophy of praxis. Stereotypes of the way of the dao as being the way of detachment from the world, and the way things are are misinformed. The yijing dao is a system for taking the right course of action to take advantage of change and to bring one into the flux of existence. The skilled reader can transform the flux to form themselves, for the moment. I say for the moment, because change will come to that form also; therefore, in the yijing, man and woman always have the chance to remake themselves. It is eternally optimistic (not that its readings are fluff bunnyish). The fact that the nature of the universe is change is extremely liberating.