Over the years, we, Carol and Hanna, have often received telephone calls and emails asking, “What is the difference between I Ching, The Oracle of the Cosmic Way, and other books on the I Ching?”

On this website page we want to share with you, our readers and potential readers, what makes our new version of the I Ching 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 Confucion 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 changes are 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 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. However, 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. The I Ching also describes 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 shall be posting on this page 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 #8. The Inner Truth in the Year 2012 by Hanna Moog
Mar. 28, 2012

 

In the more than three thousand years the I Ching has been around, the book has often erroneously been viewed as a fortunetelling device – as if the future were something prewritten. In Hexagram 25 called “Innocence/Not Projecting/Not Expecting,” the I Ching shows this assumption to be false. “Innocence” refers to our original innocent state of mind that brings us into harmony with the Cosmos and its harmonious order. 

 

The year 2012 is characterized by worldwide crises in almost every aspect of our lives. These crises manifest from the disharmonious consciousness created in the minds of people by disharmonious words, ideas, and beliefs. The I Ching helps us, by connecting us with our deepest inner truth to see that we are by nature part of a harmonious Cosmic order. Disharmonious words, ideas, and beliefs create the disorder we experience.

 

We possess, by nature, an inner truth that is in harmony with the Cosmos. Our inner truth is a feeling knowledge, that would light our path, and enable us to respond to its inspirations harmoniously. When we follow this inner light, the word “crisis” takes on the meaning of “opportunity” — the opportunity to find the Cosmic solutions to problems that benefit the whole.

 

How does our mind lose its innocence? It happens when it elevates itself over all other things in Nature by imagining that it is “special” due to its ability to think and express itself in verbal language. Looking down from its high place, our mind no longer listens to our inner truth, but plots and plans from a purely mental approach to life. It thus shuts the door to what is possible when we follow our inner truth and creates a self-made prison. The walls of that prison are made of the limitations given by the parameters of time and space, and by what we think we “should do.” The relevance of this fact becomes clear when we realize that our inner truth exists in a dimension beyond time and space, which we can call the dimension of eternity. In practical terms, it is the realm of possibility.

 

The salient point here is that the Cosmic reality of which we are an integral part comprises both the dimension that is subject to time and space (the world of all the forms in Nature), and the other dimensions that exist beyond time and space. The I Ching shows us that the forms in Nature are compressed Cosmic Consciousness. The act of being compressed into form and thereby becoming subjected to the parameters of time and space occurs through transformations in the atomic realm. We can picture the process in this way: something that first exists as a harmonious feeling in the Cosmic Consciousness takes on the form of an image in the Cosmic Consciousness. Transformations then compress this image into a form in Nature that corresponds to its original image. Thus, the process of “becoming form” begins in a dimension that is beyond time and space. Although the thing has become a form, it has duration in the sense that it always remains connected with the eternal dimension. Thanks to this connection, the thing participates in constant transformations. The name for this wonderful ability is LIFE.

 

By contrast, let us look at what happens when our mind projects an image that is caught in the limitations of time and space: while that image can take on form, its form lacks a connection with the unlimited Cosmic Consciousness, and is therefore lifeless.

 

The I Ching shows us the difference between these two kinds of reality: the first is the Cosmic reality; it is characterized by a way of life that is in accord with the Cosmic Principles of Harmony. The second is a fake, parallel reality created by the human mind from abstract ideas that are contrived; that reality is lifeless, and therefore cannot endure. This truth becomes evident in the fact that abstract ideas inevitably produce crises. However, what seems to be the possible “end of the world” is really the end of the false, parallel reality that has been established in the lap of the Cosmic reality. The collapse of false constructs reveals the underlying Cosmic reality that has duration. What the collective crises mean for the individual is something each of us, as individuals, needs to investigate. One way is through consulting the I Ching. What we learn from it is that we each have a Cosmic destiny to fulfill; first, however, we need to become aware of our unique Cosmic possessions.

 

The purpose of consulting the I Ching is to reconnect our mind with our inner truth and thereby with the Cosmic Consciousness. To make this possible our mind needs to be willing to come down from its high horse of delusionary thinking. This is neither done by incriminating ourselves nor by committing acts of repentance; the belief in fighting the crisis equally misses the point. Rather, returning to innocence is an act of freeing ourselves individually of the neurotic pride that is the cause of the world’s problems. When our mind thus takes its true place in the Cosmos, the result is “supreme success,” as it is put in Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure. Once reconnected with our inner truth, our mind then needs to tune into the images and inspirations it receives from this inner source, and follow them.

 

In this way, our mind, instead of functioning on self-created abstract ideas that have increasingly isolated it from its Cosmic source, joins the Cosmic evolution. This act of self-correcting can only be carried out by each of us individually. Self-correcting enables us to make our creative contribution to manifesting the harmonious Cosmic order on the Earth. The energy that is set free when our mind lets go of its arrogance is then transformed into the creative energy we need, in order to express our uniqueness as individuals.

 

What becomes clear from the above description is that true progress is made through returning to our original state of innocence, which is synonymous with returning to our true nature. Hexagram 24, Returning, describes this process in the following words:

 

“‘Returning’ indicates the direction in which the path of development leads: back to the person’s original nature. It does not lead forward, through cultivating virtues; nor does it mean trying to become something we are not; rather, it is a process of continuously subtracting, or weeding out what we have falsely added. Each step on this path leads to increasing light and relief. We take this path through ceasing to look outward for solutions to problems; we look inward instead. Each hexagram of the I Ching illuminates some hidden part of our psyche that, through giving the mind pre-eminence, we have left behind; thus, it helps us to discover and reclaim our true nature.”

A final note: What we have described above may sound abstract because we are not relating it to specific experiences, but everything we have written about the I Ching is based either on our own experiences in everyday life, or the experiences of people who have worked with our book “I Ching. The Oracle of the Cosmic Way,” and who have shared with us what they learned.

Article #7: Infections of the Mind by Carol Anthony
Mar. 26, 2012

It has always amazed me how the Sage teaches through the I Ching. At first, we only get a vague feeling that we are receiving a “new lesson.” Then some time goes by when the subject presents itself again, defining it just a bit more. Then some time later, the missing Rosetta stone is revealed, at which point the message becomes clear and defined. In the end, we suspect that this process has been necessary for us to understand it.

The following lesson began in the summer of 2011 when an I Ching friend sent us a link to a lecture by Dan Dennett on “memes.”

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html

 

For you who are unfamiliar with memes, the Meriam Dictionary describes them as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.”

Dennett’s lecture focuses at first on a scientist who observed a peculiar ant-behavior that was clearly contrary to the ant’s biological imperative to survive, and which, indeed, brought about the ant’s death. Afterwards, a scientist examined the ant’s brain and found it had been invaded and damaged by a certain kind of fluke causing it to self-destruct.

Dennett next compared this to the “memes” that influence the brains of humans, leading them to think in ways that are contrary to their biological imperative. He then showed a New Hampshire license place that has on it the revolutionary war slogan, “Live Free or Die.” Dennett then continued with a list of things that people have said are “worth dying for”: freedom, justice, truth, communism, capitalism, Catholicism, Islam, etc..

 His point gave a new angle to what we have learned from the I Ching, and have written about in our books: the deleterious effect that untrue words and ideas have on the human mind, psyche, and body.

A seemingly unrelated question that long had been in my mind came after watching this video: why does the I Ching consistently make the point that evil is not an intrinsic part of our human makeup, and likewise is not intrinsic to the Cosmos? Always, when I experienced what I called “evil behavior,” it made me aware that those words were not true. It urged me to come to a deeper understanding.

What “clicked” in me particularly while watching this video were the words “injection” and “infection.” I suddenly saw that all so-called evil behaviors are the result of infectious ideas that have been injected into the mind from an outside source. I had already learned that evil is the result of our being conditioned to think in ways that are in conflict with our true nature, but now these two new words made the matter clearer and simpler.

The concept of “infections of the mind” came more vividly alive later when I happened to listen to a live performance of the opera, Otello, by Guiseppi Verdi. I had seen it both as an opera and in its original form in the Shakespeare play. This time, I was struck by the realization that Othello’s mind has been infected by an outright lie, told to  him by one of his lieutenants, Iago. The general situation is one in which Othello has chosen another lieutenant to replace him when he will soon be leaving for Venice. Iago, jealous of that lieutenant and seeking to discredit him and get the position for himself, has injected into Othello’s mind that his rival lieutenant is having an affair with, Desdemona, Othello’s wife. Othello disbelieves Iago at first, but Iago contrives “evidences” to prove his assertion, thus fixing Othello’s suspicion. From that point on, the infection grows in Othello to the full mental state of feeling utterly betrayed. These feelings are such that Desdemona’s innocent denials only seem to him to further prove her disloyalty. No sooner than he kills her than her maid, who happens to be Iago’s wife, enters, and in horror at what Othello has done, reveals Iago’s evidences to be false. In horror and remorse at what he has done, Othello then kills himself.

A few more weeks passed by when the thought came that Shakespeare must have been fascinated with the way infectious ideas are being injected into the mind, because this theme occurs repeatedly in his tragedies. In King Lear, Hamlet, and MacBeth, a single negative idea, injected into the minds of the main characters, starts them on their totally self-destructive courses.

King Lear, for example, has become infected with the self-flattering idea that he will give his kingdom to the daughter who best proves her love for him. He has expected that Cordelia, his favorite daughter, will be the one who will best say how much she loves him. However, it is his two ambitious daughters who floridly declare how much they love him, while behind his back they mock him. Cordelia, who truly loves him, finds herself unable to make a demonstration of her love. Lear’s insistence on this idea leads to both Lear’s and Cordelia’s destruction.

In play after play, and even in the comedies, Shakespeare investigates the self-destructive nature of ideas that, coming from without, infect the minds of the characters around which his plots revolve. Measure For Measure is one such example in the comedies. The Duke, in this play, temporarily hands over his dukedom to a subordinate noted for his strict morality. This subordinate soon turns the place into a madhouse of morality as he seeks to make examples of immoral behavior, in order to “to clean up the dukedom.” His first example is a young gentleman who has got his bride-to-be pregnant; the penalty he proscribes is for the young man to be hanged at dawn. When the young gentleman’s sister comes to plead for her brother’s life, the subordinate, attracted by her in the extreme, tries to bargain her brother’s life in exchange for her acquiescing to his desire. Fortunately, the duke who has been studying the situation in the garb of a monk, reveals himself and puts all to rights.

It seems that the main difference between the tragedies and the comedies, is that someone in the comedies, usually an unlikely person, puts the runaway infection in a sensible light, thus exposing its totally absurd nature.

This is shown particularly well in The Merchant of Venice. The plot revolves around Antonio, who is about to lose a pound of his flesh to Shylock, because he is unable to pay back what Shylock has loaned him. Hearing of this, a woman friend of Antonio’s resolves the problem by disguising herself as a judge who intervenes in the case. She proposes to Shylock that while by law he is entitled to cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh, he is not entitled to “a scruple more” than a pound. If he so much as cuts off the weight of a hair more, he himself shall die. Commonsense draws Shylock back from the brink of turning the play into a tragedy. We see a similar pattern repeated in The Winter’s Tale, even though the threat is not always a death threat, in the The Merry Wives of Windsor, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tempest.

What is it, I asked myself, that makes these “fictions” so interesting, “classic,” and timeless as pieces of literature? Is it because they reinforce in us an inner truth we all possess: that what we call evil is neither indigenous in us, nor part of the Cosmic way, but rather comes from abstract and false words — ideas planted in our minds, usually during our youth, that hide our true nature, which is totally good from our conscious awareness.

I was also drawn to ask myself, what allowed that “bonfire” of vengeance to be lit in the mind of Othello, once he heard that his wife was unfaithful? Surely it was his pride, inflamed by the false words.

Then came the question: what was behind that pride? How did it come about? The Sage answered that question, as well, namely, that pride is an ego emotion that is created the moment when, as a child, our innate dignity is injured. Usually, this happens when we are told, “you know nothing!” If this injury is not healed, pride then develops into a “compensatory system” that makes us think that we are in some way important. The pride system acts like a splint on a broken bone; it enables us, in limited ways, to use that bone until it has healed. Unfortunately, that healing usually does not fully take place. It is prevented by the false, but widespread view, that we are born faulty and lacking, and “there’s nothing we can do about that.” Pride thus becomes a permanent fixture in our psyche — our main way of compensating for the injuries to our psyche that subsequently occur. It is permanent until we find the way to heal that wound.

Pride, being a makeshift system of compensations, is extremely vulnerable to ideas that either flatter the mind, or arouse it to a sudden defense. Hurt pride is the sickness behind all hate crimes. Pride makes us blind to the fact that everyone is born with dignity; that dignity is the Cosmic essence of our being. Dignity is also the sum-total of all our Cosmic possessions; it allows us to know innately what is harmonious and true, and what is not.

Ideas that have the potential to infect the mind are bound up with idealistic virtues propounded by the culture we live in. In the case of Hamlet, it is the “virtuous” duty put on him by his father’s ghost, to avenge his father’s murder — an idea that was quite common in the Middle Ages. In Measure for Measure, it is the virtue of blind obeisance to the letter of the law that is enforced by the threat: “either you obey it or you will be executed.” Today’s form of “execution” is not so literal; rather it occurs in the form of  condemning people for their mistakes.

We little realize that pride-based ideas have a strong hold on us until such time as that original deep wound to our dignity has been healed. For most of us who have grown up in the Western cultures, that idea is that “our original nature is faulty, and the source of evil in us.” We free ourselves from it by deprogramming (utterly rejecting) that idea with Cosmic help. In this way, our natural dignity is released from its prison. From that new place of full self-possession we can then discover and dispense with ideas that have been driving us to self-destruct.

Article #6: The Meaning of True Understanding by Hanna Moog
Mar. 16, 2012

Several things happened in the last few days that helped me gain a new perspective on the meaning of true understanding:

 

The Snowbell (being lifted up through transformations)

The first thing that happened was that I caught five minutes on a radio program in which a woman who loves her profession in the field of botany explained how snowbells manage to come out of the ground while it is still covered with snow: The answer is that this is possible due to the natural intelligence of the metabolism in their bulbs. Just before the beginning of spring, their metabolism produces a temperature of up to 46 degrees F. The heat melts the snow so that the sprout can easily grow. It even drinks from the water that is set free by the melting of the snow!!

 

How can we gain a true understanding of the nature of the Cosmos and its way of functioning

As I went for a walk in the fields the next day, the Sage added another piece to the mosaic to answer my question of how we can gain a "true understanding."

 I need to mention that I had noticed to my chagrin that my mind had been overly busy. I was longing for my thinking to come to a rest. As I was walking along, the Sage drew my attention to my feet, my ankles, and my Achilles tendon. I was helped to see the connection between the habit of constantly thinking about more things to deprogram - a habit that comes from the ego - and the true meaning of under-standing. I realized that at the root of this problem is the false image of the Cosmos as a "huge mind," i.e., a thinking consciousness. This image, in turn, has given rise to the mistaken belief that "we need to understand the Cosmos from our mind." The truth is that the Cosmos is first and foremost a feeling consciousness (although it can also think) that is directly connected with our heart. When our mind seeks to understand things while it is separated from the true feelings of our heart, it is unable to understand the true nature of the Cosmos.

 

I was reminded of the fact that when a question put to the Sage  “misses the point,” i.e., falls too far out of the way of the Cosmos, we are led around in circles without ever finding an answer. What leads us around in circles is the logic of the ego, from which the question originated. This is typical for a situation in which the ego is in charge of our search for understanding, our search for the truth. To use the example of the snowbell, we miss the point when we ask, “How does the snowbell manage to push up through the snow?” The idea of “pushing up” implies effort. The use of this expression reflects a way of thinking that contradicts even the laws of physics. The example of the snowbell illustrates that Nature functions through transformations. Consider, for example, photosynthesis, which is another well-known example of transformation. Transformation is another name for “the easy way.” This is also the meaning of the word “I” in “I Ching”: the I Ching is the book that shows us the easy way through initiating transformations that occur when we begin to see things in Cosmic terms. Whenever we are caught in ‘pushing up with effort’ (in this case, the effort of thinking), it helps to remember the example of the snowbell.

 

When we are in that strenuous mode and put questions to the Sage that reflect the ego’s way of thinking, the Sage has to retreat. The Sage does this knowing with certitude that we will get to the point of burnout in our efforts. That burnout brings our mind automatically back in touch with our true feelings: we feel regret over the separation that has occurred through unfortunate circumstances when we were young. Our deeply felt regret reconnects us with the Cosmos, and, if not intercepted by the ego, is the first step in freeing our mind from its prison. (This is one of the meanings of Line 1 in Hexagram 40, Freeing.) If, however, our feeling of regret is intercepted by the ego, it gets turned into self-blame, which only perpetuates the vicious circle.

 

As I am writing this down, my understanding of the true nature of the Cosmos and how it functions has become expanded: I was helped to understand that our regret reconnects us with the Cosmos without any need to make a mental effort, just as the snowbell manages to come out of the ground while it is still covered with snow.