Simple lesson in meditation from the I Ching

[Xue Sheng]

Still your emotions through meditation

First, sit quietly in a self-supporting position with your back straight and your eyes closed.

Second, observe the flow of your bodily emotions. Do not judge or resist them; the simple practice of watching them come, linger, and go without acting on them allows you to gradually separate them from your thought process.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

From Robert Anton Wilson's classic "Illuminatus!" trilogy:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20917896/Illuminatus

Hagbard Celine's gigantic computer, ****UP-First Universal Cybernetic-Kinetic-Ultramicro-Programmer- was basically a rather sophisticated form of the standard self-programming algorithmic logic machine of the time; the name was one of his whimsies. ****UP's real claim to uniqueness was a programmed stochastic process whereby it could "throw" an I Ching hexagram, reading' a random open circuit as a broken(yin) line and a random closed circuit as a full(yang ) line until six such "lines" were round. Consulting its memory banks, where the whole tradition of IChing interpretation was stored, and then cross-checking its current scannings of that day's political, economic, meteorological, astrological, astronomical, and technological eccentricities, it would provide a reading of the hexagram which, to Hagbard's mind, combined the best of the scientific and occult methods for spotting oncoming trends. On March 13, the stochastic pattern spontaneously generated Hexagram 23, "Breaking Apart." ****UP then interpreted:

This traditionally unlucky sign was cast by Atlantean scientist-priests shortly before the destruction of their continent and is generally connected with death by water. Other vibrations link it to earthquakes, tornadoes and similar disasters, and to sickness, decay, and morbidity as well.

The first correlation is with the unbalance between technological acceleration and political retrogression, which has proceeded earth-wide at ever widening danger levels since 1914 and especially since 1964. The breaking apart is fundamentally the schizoid and schismatic mental fugue of lawyer-politicians attempting to administrate a worldwide technology whose mechanisms they lack the education to comprehend and whose gestalt trend they frustrate by breaking apart into obsolete Renaissance nation-states.

World War III is probably imminent and, considering the advances in chemical
biological warfare in conjunction with the sickness vibrations of Hexagram 23, the unleashing of plague or nerve gas or both is as probable as thermonuclear overkill.

General prognosis: many megadeaths.

There is some hope for avoidance of the emerging pattern with prompt action of correct nature. Probability of such avoidance is 0.17 ± 0.05.

No blame.

"My ***, no blame," Hagbard raged; and rapidly reprogrammed ****UP to read off to him its condensed psychobiographies of the key figures in world politics and the key scientists in chemobiological warfare.

For further illumination, consult your pineal gland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus

 

[Xue Sheng]

ummm.... ok

Actually 23 would be interpreted more like "do nothing or else"

23. Po/ Splitting apart

Do not attempt to intervene now

But then it would depend on which translation you read and how the translator interpreted it.

But this post is not so much about the I Ching as it is about Meditation

But thanks for stopping by


EDIT:

For the record the Hexagram pictures is 52.... Not 23...

 

[Indagator]

Oh, is that about meditation? Silly me, I always though the word meditation was derived from the Latin word meditare (which is also highly recognisable when declined as "meditatio") which means "to slowly mull over a thought, processing a deeper level of understanding of a given topic," and is a precursor to contemplative thought? A classic example in Western culture would be meditating on the five mysteries of the rosary by Catholics, or another modern example would be certain forms of memory-based expansive learning techniques.
Is that sort of what you're getting at as well, Xue Sheng?
I'm interested to see if the term is simply being used outside of it's original context, or if there is a similarity between the concepts...

PAX.

 

[Xue Sheng]

First, the definition of meditatoin was not part of original post nor was it implied so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a CMA person for the pirate's code...errr aaaa.... the Simple Rules in meditaion to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the post it is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual definitions. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl... eerr MT, Indagator

Sorry I just could not resist the chance at a Barbosa quote

But seriously....

Would you be more comfortable shàn chán (I think that is the pinyin for what would be translated as meditation? I will have to check or wait to be corrected by those who are better at mandarin than I on MT)

Meditation is the English translation of the Chinese word for meditation, or contemplation and it has been around longer than Catholicism but not Latin. But Latin has little to do with it beyond the closest representation in English to what was written since it is a translation from the original Chinese.

So if you are defining meditation based on Catholicism or the Latin the only connection is based on the translation from the original Chinese to English and the word origin for the word in English known as meditation.

However if you are defining it as the word translated from the Chinese it is simply meditation since posting it in a language other than English is not allowed on MT and would be of little use to most who come to MT since there are very few Chinese speaker here.

The part I posted is from an English translation of the I Ching, which was originally written it a different version of Chinese writing than we see today, and eventually made its way to English. And the I Ching has been dated to roughly 50 BC to10 AD


This will be a bad translation since I had to use Babel fish but that would have originally looked more like this


仍然您的情感通过凝思首先，平靜地坐在與您闭上的後面平直和您的眼睛的一個自承位置。其次，觀察您的身體情感流程。不要判斷也不要抵抗他們; 簡單的實踐觀看他們來，徘徊，並且去，无需行動在他們允許您從您的想法過程逐漸分離他們。

So based on that and how it was translated Latin and Catholicism have nothing really to do with the original word in the Latin and Catholic context any more than Meat bun being equated to Bowza.

or

和平 = hépíng = PAX = peace


EDIT

Also the original post is more to the practice of meditation, guidelines for practice if you will, than a definition of it.

.

 

[oaktree]

Oh, is that about meditation? Silly me, I always though the word meditation was derived from the Latin word meditare (which is also highly recognisable when declined as "meditatio") which means "to slowly mull over a thought, processing a deeper level of understanding of a given topic," and is a precursor to contemplative thought? A classic example in Western culture would be meditating on the five mysteries of the rosary by Catholics, or another modern example would be certain forms of memory-based expansive learning techniques.
Is that sort of what you're getting at as well, Xue Sheng?
I'm interested to see if the term is simply being used outside of it's original context, or if there is a similarity between the concepts...

I guess Xue Sheng should have used the term 冥想(ming xiang)
or 打坐 (Da zhuo).

 

[oaktree]

Shàn chán 禪 禪= my opinion is this is used in a Buddhist context. 檀=Tan shan. The term Tan shan means like Sandlewood which is used as incense.
So the term chan shan tan means Dhyana(type of meditation)

Ming xiang 冥想 = Ming meaning deep Xiang meaning think so it means
thinking deeply.
Da zhuo 打坐 = Da(to do) zhuo(sit)=meditation

I hope that helps.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I hope that helps.

Yes, very much, thanks

 

[Indagator]

Thanks for that, I think I understand a bit better now!

I have asked a few people if this was the case, but never got a proper answer. Now I know - cool.