I Ching

[Guest]

How does Zen view the use of the I Ching?

Gassho
John
SatTodayLAH

[Kokuu]

Hi John

I don't think that Zen has a definitive view on the I Ching. For those unfamiliar with it, the I Ching (often translated as the Book of Changes) is a book written in the early first millennia BCE, so before the birth of the Buddha. It consists of 64 hexagrams (six line characters (or two three line 'trigrams', one upper, one lower) of which each line may be either solid or broken: see here) which depict possible cosmological forces and outcomes. Several methods such as coin tossing and picking yarrow stalks can be used to generate a random hexagram for the purposes of divination. Later additions to the text also rendered it into a work of philosophy.

In terms of using it for divination, I don't think that is incompatible with Zen, and apparently it has been used in Chinese Buddhism to give answers to philosophical questions. However, our general approach is not to look for certainty or cling to practices such as this which give an illusion of having control over our life and what will happen in the future.

As a work of philosophy and cosmology, it is interesting, especially as it has been important in Taoism, which is not unrelated to Ch'an and Zen. Also the system of Five Ranks produced by our Soto ancestor, Dongshang Liangjie, which talks about the interaction between the absolute (emptiness) and relative (form) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ranks), was related to I Ching hexagrams by his successor Caoshan (https://terebess.hu/zen/dogen/dogenandthefiveranks.pdf).

As someone who has been reading the I Ching on and off since I was in my teens, I would say that it is a very interesting piece of East Asian philosophy and divination. It is, however, worth mentioning that the Buddha himself explicitly speaks out against making money from the practice of divination in the Samaññaphala Sutta:

"Whereas some contemplatives & brahmans, living off food given in faith, maintain themselves by wrong livelihood, by such "animal" arts as: reading marks on the limbs [e.g., palmistry]; reading omens and signs; interpreting celestial events [falling stars, comets]; interpreting dreams; reading features of the body [e.g., phrenology]... giving protective charms; casting horoscopes — he abstains from wrong livelihood, from "animal" arts such as these."

Apologies for running long. It's an interesting question!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Shinshi]

I will be interested to see what Jundo has to say but I like Kokuu's response very much.

If you are interested in the topic there is a publication on the history of the I Ching in Medieval Japan that talks about the interplay between I Ching and Zen Buddhism during that time period.

https://www.biroco.com/yijing/Ng_Medieval_Japan.pdf

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Jundo]

Kokuu says it very well.

Yes, it was influential at various times in Japanese Zen in ancient days, but during an age when most people had a rather primitive, pre-scientific understanding of the actual forces and causes of events in the world, so turned to fortune telling and various hidden, mysterious forces that lack actual foundation or any scientific basis. That does not mean that we yet understand, today, all there is to know about the world (we do not) ... but we do not need to turn to a system which is basically a complicated version of the horoscope in the newspaper or reading Tarot cards.

As Kokuu said, the symbolism, and certain parallels to ideas of the interplay of "relative / absolute" did mean that Zen monks borrowed the symbols and attempted to make philosophical connections. It seems like a waste of their time, and just some monks of old, without modern education, trying to make connections to an imaginary system.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Onkai]

Means of divination are disordered thinking, and can take one out of touch with reality, but the images used in methods of divination are powerful to the mind and can be used to spark the imagination. That is outside of the practice of Zen, though.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

[Ryumon]

In a previous life, I was really into the Yi Jing (I Ching). When I lived in Paris in the late 1980s, I met someone who teaches the Yi Jing, and who has been one of my closest friends. Together, we published the journal about the Yi Jing for several years, and I have translated as a number of books on the topic.

Calling it divination is simplifying it. My friend calls it “an aid to decision-making,” because formulating questions to ask the Yi Jing already manifests the answer you desire. Interpreting the texts of the hexagrams can be seen as a psychological process that helps you clarify your desires. When used like this, it is far more than just some random platitude generator. Also, when you’ve had several years of experience with the Yi Jing, you start to learn the message of that sort of Chinese thought.

This book that I translated it back in the 1990s has been long out of print, but used copies are easily available. It is a concise explanation of how to use the Yi Jing as a useful tool.

https://amzn.to/3KDSRjD

Gassho,
Ryūmon (Kirk)
Sat

[Mrcpt11]

I just picked up a copy of the I Ching in a library book sale; I assumed it was related to Taoism but knew nothing otherwise. Glad to find some background here as it relates to Zen (sort of anyway).

Gassho,
William
Sattoday