I Ching Quotes

Buddhism teaches us not to want things, not to avoid things, not to be upset by the loss. In the I Ching, there's a hexagram that says, "Be like the sun at midday". View all things as being equal. ~ Frederick Lenz

If you pretend abundance when in fact you are in need, those who would aid you will not because they will either believe you to be abundant or recognize your pretense and consider you to be unworthy. ~ Wu Wei

Before a man can become great, he must look foolish to the crowd. ~ I-Ching

To become aware of what is constant in the flux of nature and life is the first step in abstract thinking. The recognition of regularity in the courses of the heavenly bodies and in the succession of seasons first provides a basis for a systematic ordering of events, and this knowledge makes possible a calendar ... Simultaneously with this concept, a system of relationships comes into the idea of the world. Change is not something absolute, chaotic, and kaleidoscopic; its manifestation is a relative one, something connected with fixed points and a given order. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

The superior person cultivates virtue by bringing about revolution within himself. ~ I Ching

The title 'Now He Sings, Now He Sobs' comes from 'I Ching,' an ancient Chinese book that I was into in the '60s when I was studying different philosophies and religions. ~ Chick Corea

According to a Confucian view, there are four steps in social develpment, wrote Wilhem (Sr.). There are the individual, the family, the state, and mankind. The West had always emphasized the individual and the state. Individual development is extolled, and the single human being is regarded as central and as an atom of society. Over-emphasis on the function of the individual has led to deterioration of the family. Unlike Westerners, the Chinese have given greater weight to family and mankind. The consciousness of the individual is contained in the family, and since traditional China considered itself the world, Chinese considered themselves responsible for humankind rather than for the state. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

Every position in life is balanced by creating a harmony between the inner self and the surrounding world. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

There are many indications that the hexagrams were the original images from which the trigrams were then later abstracted and that the configurations of double lines are derrived from a still later anaysis. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

Great music stops the inner turmoil of thought and allows the mind to seek its natural state of joy. Music frees our minds and allows us to soar to heights where we can experience the celestial. Music opens our minds to allow the perception of new thoughts of a higher nature, which gives us a spiritual lift, which produces yet more joy. ~ Wu Wei

To lead people or influence them, we must first align ourselves with them. By identifying with individuals or groups, we gain their confidence and can then lead them into a higher understanding or direct them to the achievement of lofty goals. ~ Wu Wei

When we are clear enough about our own point of view, we can find help in the methods of Eastern Christianity or in the ways of the Far East, perhaps by consulting the I Ching or through mandala contemplation; we may even find help in the ways of shamanism or Islam. If we are clear about where we stand and the direction we must take, such methods may be useful in order to follow our own way to the end. ~ Morton T. Kelsey

It may occasion surprise that the decree of a temporal power sufficed to give the classics a position that can be compared in other cultures to the place of sacred scriptures inspired by divine revelation. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

Therefore, the eight trigrams are frequently coordinated with the day, and they can of course also be correlated with the course of the year ... A cycle of twelve hexagrams from the Book of Changes, the so-called P'i Kua is often also correlated witht he course of the year ... These eight trigrams, then are coordinated with the times of the day and the cardinal points, and have, in addition, very interesting psychological correlations. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

Each person reveals himself by what he says and does, by the way he dresses, by the way he responds to events, by what he reads and watches, and generally by the way he lives life. By observing anyone, you can see what that person is like. ~ Wu Wei

The person who desires to leave things better than he found them, who does more than his share, who is not attached to rewards, who is always seeking to benefit others, who knows he is cared for and rewarded by the Universe for his every effort, is able to act selflessly, without expectation of a reward or a return, without thought of advantage, and of him it is said, "He is better than the best," and, of course, he is greatly rewarded. ~ Wu Wei

If practicality and morality are polarized and you must choose, you must do what you think is right, rather than what you think is practical. ~ Philip K. Dick

The parallels to modern physics [with mysticism] appear not only in the Vedas of Hinduism, in the I Ching, or in the Buddhist sutras, but also in the fragments of Heraclitus, in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, or in the teachings of the Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan. ~ Fritjof Capra

I decide to go out and spend all my money on underwear, then throw them about the room to
decide my fate like a satiny, lace-gusseted I Ching. Let the gods of Beau Bra decide. ~ Belle De Jour

The I Ching tells us that for every ending there is a new beginning. In other words, what appears like a transition isn't really a transition; it's a continuum of existence. If you close your eyes for a moment the room will appear to go away. But does it really? Open your eyes again and the room will still be there. That's all death is. ~ Frederick Lenz

(T)his is precisely the importance of the world-view described in the Book of Changes: there is no situation without a way out. All situations are stages of change. Therefore, even when things are most difficult we can plant the seed for a new situation that will preserve within itself the present situation, though we must be capable of adapting and finding the proper attitude. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

To me, the circle and the square where the sky and the earth, as symbolized by the ancient Oriental religions; they formed a kind of rudimentary alphabet by means of which everything could be expressed with the most limited means. They evoked prehistoric runes and the early I-Ching, or Book of Changes. ~ Michel Seuphor

Remember, when you don't know what to do, it never hurts to play Scrabble. It's like reading the I Ching or tea leaves. ~ Kelly Link

The illusion of permanence ~ I Ching

It is true that we are in charge of our imaginations, and by using them to imagine wonderful futures for ourselves, and by acting on that basis, it will follow, unerringly, that for us, it will be so. ~ Wu Wei

The person who takes power will never be happy with those things they gain. They have lost their essential balance and innocence. And without innocence, nothing can further, as they say in the I Ching. ~ Frederick Lenz

Things that accord in tone vibrate together. Things that have affinity in their inmost natures seek one another. Water flows to what is wet, fire turns to what is dry. Clouds (the breath of heaven) follow the dragon, wind (the breath of earth) follows the tiger. . . What is born of heaven feels related to what is above. What is born of earth feels related to what is below. Each follows its kind. ~ I-Ching

He had a particular facination with the I Ching, that art of tossing three coins three times and divining a pattern out of heads and tails. Pete would begin with questions:
What determined the pattern? Was it random? Was it a higher power? Was is mathematical? Wasn't poker based on mathematical probability and not just luck? Did that mean randomness was actually mathematical? And if the I Ching was governed by mathematics, hey, wouldn't that mean the I Ching was actually predictable, a prescribed answer? And if it was prescribed, did that mean that your life followed the I Ching, like some sort of equation? Or did the I Ching simply capture correctly what had already been determined as the next series of events in your life? ~ Amy Tan

I wonder whether, perhaps without realizing it, we seek out the books we need to read. Or whether books themselves, which are intelligent entities, detect their readers and catch their eye. In the end, every book is the I Ching. You pick it up, open it, and there it is, there you are. ~ Andres Neuman

The question is not how can I overcome fear? The question is: how can I use it creatively? If you have problems (and we all do), how are you going to deal with them? To be is to be imperfect. Contentment is resiliency, the willingness and the ability to see the opportunities presented by mistakes. Take what you like and pay for it - failure is the price you pay for success. It is the wages of growth. Success is failing forwards, figuring out how to conduct suffering, and in its reconstruction to transform it into illumination. Eschew impatience. Let stillness teach you where your centre is, where your origins are. Be impeccable in all your dealings with the world. Integrity isn't a luxury - it's an essential. Remember the best advice of the I Ching: perseverance furthers. ~ Billy Marshall Stoneking

According to tradition, the originator of Taoism, Lao-tzu, was an older contemporary of Kung Fu-tzu, or Confucius, who died in 479 B.C.1 Lao-tzu is said to have been the author of the Tao Te Ching, a short book of aphorisms, setting forth the principles of the Tao and its power or virtue (Te e). But traditional Chinese philosophy ascribes both Taoism and Confucianism to a still earlier source, to a work which lies at the very foundation of Chinese thought and culture, dating anywhere from 3000 to 1200 B.C. This is the I Ching, or Book of Changes. ~ Alan W. Watts

The extraordinary value of the I Ching is that it reveals the secrets of dynamic natural law. Working with its changes opens up access to the middle level of the Positive Paradigm Wheel, the "e" energy layer of Einstein's Unified Theory.

This middle level serves as mediating, two-directional gate-keeper between the ever-changing surface rim and the universal, timeless center. You can't get from here to there, except through the middle layer which, in Western thinking, is effectively taboo, buried in the inaccessible "unconscious."

To the extent that natural law is a blind spot in the prevailing, linear and exclusively empirical paradigm, we are left powerless to move beyond the surface level of experience. The realm of light and conscience which rests beyond, on the far side of the dynamic energy level, remains functionally inaccessible.

Moral codes promoted by religionists or politicians are sometimes equated with conscience. But they're no substitute for direct experience. Only by becoming intelligently competent in managing the subtle energies of the middle level is it possible to travel further inwards for the immediate, personal experience of inner light.

When the middle level becomes clogged with painful memories, negative emotions and socially taboo urges, it becomes a barrier to deeper knowing. The Book of Change is indispensable as a tool for restoring the unnecessarily "unconscious" to conscious awareness, so that the l ~ Patricia E. West

And when a futurist dies, the tragedy is that we lose access to all the possible futures they imagined for us. Our only connection, afterward, is through the arcane procedure like literary interpretation, like reading the flight of birds or throwing the I Ching, as Ballard must have as a child in Shanghai. Like it or not, we live in one of Ballard's futures; a little apocalyptic, bent by technology. ~ William Ball

We must go down to the very fundamentals of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. ~ I-Ching

The ceaseless interplay of heaven and earth gives form to all things. The sexual union of male and female gives life to all things. This interaction of yin and yang is called the Way [Tao], and the resulting creative process is called change. ~ I-Ching

All of life is one action following another, interspersed by periods of rest. If we are in doubt about the outcome of our actions, if our thoughts are concerned with, "What if I should fail?" we will be filled with hesitancy, uncertainty, and our actions will lack the conviction needed to obtain a decisive, favorable outcome. Even the worst outcome we can imagine will ultimately benefit us. It is because of that law of favorability that the Universe is able to continue and we are able to bring about the fruition of our plans. ~ Wu Wei

It is no accident that, of the early Jesuit scholars who were pioneers in making China's culture known in Europe, those who concerned themselves with the Book of Changes were all later declared to be insane or heretic. Indeed, to the Chinese themselves the study of the I Ching is not to be taken lightly. By an unwritten law, only those advanced in years regard themselves as ready to learn from it. Confucius is said to have been seventy years old when he first took up the Book of Changes. ~ Hellmut Wilhelm

And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,
Their words are sweet and strong like the fragrance of orchids. ~ I Ching

Therefore, it is believed that the ancestors return after a lapse of tiem as if to a general and spiritual reservoir from which they will sooner or later unite once more with human bodies and human souls as their stimuli and impulses to life. ... Such is more or less the idea of Confucianism. And the only exception is that all human beings are not viewed as equally immortal. Whoever has harmonized his nature and caused his existence to be so effective as to emanate magical powers because they can transform and act creatively, such a person will not return after death. He will not be a Kuei, but a Shen. Shen means someone divinely effective -- man as hero, who is connected with the entire cultural complex. The duration of the culture is also his duration, because his life endures in the pantheon of this culture. ~ Hellmut And Richard Wilhelm

THREE LEVELS OF LAW

America's Declaration of Independence names three kinds of law: the laws of man, of nature and nature's God.

The Book of Change is based on the laws of natural change. They emanate from and depend on divine law and serve as the rightful foundation of civil law. Clearly, laws legislated in ignorance of or in opposition to natural and divine law are not likely to work out well. Policy makers at all levels would do well to give this point careful thought.

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote about the relationship of divine, natural and human law in a way that inspired readers at the time of the American Revolution to fight for freedom from tyranny.

Approaching natural law from the deeper understanding of the ancients could inspire a reinvention of democracy now.

Sages say that freedom from tyranny begins with dispelling ignorance and overcoming toxic, negative emotions. Inalienable freedom starts with the self-awareness and self-mastery which can be gained by diligent use of the I Ching. pp. 3-4. ~ Patricia E. West

To have anything we want, we need only raise our level of consciousness to the level of consciousness where what we want exists. ~ Wu Wei

To attract people naturally, effortlessly, we need only follow the true prompting of our hearts. ~ Wu Wei

My generation of Americans was the first to really care about racism and sexism, not to mention the I Ching, plus, of course, the Earth. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

If we don't love ourselves, we would not love others. When someone tell you to love others first, and to love others more than ourselves; it is impossible. If you can't love yourselves, you can't love anybody else. Therefore we must gather up our great power so that we know in what ways we are good, what special abilities we have, what wisdom, what kind of talent we have, and how big our love is. When we can recognize our virtues, we can learn how to love others. ~ Ching Hai

The more you talk of it, the less you understand. ~ Laozi

The more you know the less you talk. ~ A.R. Rahman

A tree that is unbending, is easily broken. ~ Laozi

In architecture volume can be seen to be either a portion of space contained and defined by wall, floor and ceiling or roof planes or a quantity of space displaced by the mass of the building. ~ Francis D.K. Ching

And don't trouble yourself too much if you don't laugh at what you are about to read, for if you perk up your pink little ear, you may hear the silvery tinkling of merriment in the air, far, far away ... It's us, buster. Ching! ~ The Harvard Lampoon

The Kindle is just the razor. The books are the blades - ka-ching! ~ David Pogue

There are three layers to the universe. In the lower, Tai Ching, and the middle, Shan Ching, the hindrance of a physical bodily existence is required. Those who fail to live consistently in accord with the Tao reside here. In the upper, Yu Ching, there is only Tao: the bondage of form is broken, and the only thing existing is the exquisite energy dance of the immortal divine beings. ~ Laozi

When you loved someone, it was impossible to believe they were hopeless. ~ G.P. Ching

The most direct and practical method of self-development is to achieve yourself by your own effort. ~ Hua Ching Ni

The Master's power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old. ~ Laozi

Fuck you, Jack Ching," David Emerson swore. He found the keys were still in the ignition, and turned them. "Yeah. It's jackalope season, motherfucker. ~ Chad Huskins

Why does everyone need a label? ~ G.P. Ching

To think, or not to think...This is the true question. ~ Bert McCoy

Fame of self: Which matters more? Self or wealth: Which is more precious? Gain or loss: Which is more painful? ~ Laozi

A being must carry the shadow to embrace the light, and blend these vital breaths to make harmony. ~ Tao Te Ching

So wise souls, leaving self behind
move forward,
and setting self aside
stay centered.
Why let the self go?
To keep what the soul needs. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

There is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment. ~ Lao-Tzu

When you didn't have the ocean or mountain to keep you busy, he supposed you hurled pumpkins. ~ G.P. Ching

Shape clay into a vessel; it is the space within that makes it useful. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

The best runner leaves no tracks. - Tao Te Ching ~ Christopher McDougall

The critics often invent authors; they select two dissimilar works - the Tao Te Ching and the 1001 Nights, say - attribute them to the same writer and then determine most scrupulously the psychology of this interesting homme de lettres ... ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. ~ Laozi

Earth is a divine organism
it cannot be successfully manipulated
Who attempts manipulation will encounter defeat ~ Lao-Tzu

Perfect tranquillity is the way of heaven and earth. ~ Lao-Tzu

Great talents ripen late; the highest notes are hard to hear. ~ Laozi

When you are one with loss, the loss is experienced willingly. ~ Laozi

Our bodies, speeches and minds need to be trained so that they will do anything we want. We can cry or laugh at once when we want to. Then it will be a natural response; we will cry when it is time to cry, and laugh when we should laugh. Do you understand? We can get angry when necessary; we can be gentle if we have to. We will completely become our own master. Then, no matter what we want to do, it will benefit the world. It is not difficult to attain this stage; all we need to do is to mediate. ~ Ching Hai

A guy who cooked, cleaned and looked good while doing it? Cha-ching. ~ Hailey Edwards

In caring for others and serving heaven,
There is nothing like using restraint. ~ Laozi

The insignificant man makes demands of others, the significant man makes demands of himself. ~ Tao Te Ching

To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. To let go of that belief is to find safety. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil. ~ Lao-Tzu

The important correction needed by worldly religions is the transformation from external religious teaching to truthful internal spiritual reality. ~ Hua Ching Ni

It is fitting for a great nation to yield. ~ Laozi

The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. ~ Lao-Tzu

What is a good man? A teacher of a bad man. What is a bad man? A good man's charge? ~ Laozi

You can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong hugong, ching chong kong, Danny Devito. Ching chong chong chong chong. The View. Ching chong! ~ Rosie O'Donnell

Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain.
Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well.
Insight, however, is a function of the spirit.
Because your spirit follows you through cycle after cycle of life, death, and rebirth, you have the opportunity of cultivating insight in an ongoing fashion.
Refined over time, insight becomes pure, constant, and unwavering.
This is the beginning of immortality. ~ Lao-Tzu