The Book of Changes
"The Book of Changes"
Thoughts arrived before words,
1000s of years before
the crossing of curves
always seen to be
swimming upstream
against the current
thoughts … and feelings,
in the flow, always arrive
before words, they are cast
in the lines, like some divination,
hexagrams etched, embedded
in the yin and yang
of strangely falling
scattered wisdom - thought,
then written, then read, then spoken
mystically spelled,
felt in the soul, like poetry,
strange and tercet
clearly
the simple
now understood,
marked over multiple choice
under and around,
all calling the heard,
within,
the living
synchronicity
rising like breath
rising like stars
in a dark long night
undressing the veiled
unveiling the myst,
heavenly bodies,
work as 1,
the fiery sun, the missed
caressing the cool luminescent
lake swimming moon
kissed in eclipse,
pearls form, in dimensions
above, so below
6 wings oscillating like lines
burning transparency like seraphim
following homeless infants to no home
broken lines,
faces upturned, all
lost in the desert of woe,
their cherubic thoughts
transmitting prayers,
like hungry war cries
the ways, many, like words
chartered numbers, all, forever
are known by the unknown,
that 1 number, the manifest known,
that luck dragon, fathomless source,
like a Lion walking a forgotten ocean
opening minds
like cavern doors
labyrinthine leviathan reaching
halls of shadow
and winding around
cloak worn devotion,
a universe unfolding in the origami folds
of a paladin sweeping the floor
with metanoia and royal redamancy
penetrate through the skin
beyond mind ticking like a bomb,
the thick and the thin,
where inner truth
like a bull
takes its stand
to something foreign
universal within, eyed as
something, more,
slightly off-kilter
new and peculiar,
something,
untouchable,
3 lines, unbroken,
doubled within 6,
outright, the lines
boldly drawn,
The Creative, the source
words and thoughts
like a game of knuckles
before styx thrown up in the air
fall and held captive, become
something else transformed, feelings,
to be transcribed, as if in odd cuneiform
something, much higher
in translation, ataraxia an odyssey
to be further explored
like words
and thoughts
in a Book of Changes
The Creative,
the force,
older, much ancient
than all
those other books
bandied as better informed
I Ching
unusual clarity
relevance pinned and unpinned
in the irrelevant
forever changing
relevant flow of all things
10 Wings
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
“Thus, in all his transactions the superior man
Carefully considers the beginning.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“Sheng/Pushing Upward, Ascension.
Within the earth, wood grows:
The image of PUSHING UPWARD.
Thus, the superior man of devoted character
Heaps up small things
In order to achieve something high and great.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“The dark force possesses beauty but veils it.
So must a man be when entering the service of a king.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“The superior man is on his guard against what is not yet in sight
And on the alert for what is not yet within hearing …”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“Through resoluteness one is certain to encounter something.
Hence there follows the hexagram of COMING TO MEET.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“K’uei/Opposition
Above, fire; below, the lake:
The image of OPPOSITION.
Thus amid all fellowship
The superior man retains his individuality.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“K’an means something deeply mysterious …”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire,
Yet it is different from fire …”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“The fate of fire depends on wood; as long as there is wood
below, the fire burns above …”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“… flowing water, which is not afraid of any dangerous place,
plunges over cliffs and fills up the pits that lie in its course …”(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“As water pours down from heaven, so fire flames up from the earth.”(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“Water flows on uninterruptedly and reaches its goal: The image
Of the Abysmal repeated.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“T’ai /Peace
No plain not followed by a slope.
No going not followed by a return.
He who remains persevering in danger
Is without blame.
Do not complain about this truth;
Enjoy the good fortune you still possess.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“… if one is intent on retaining his clarity of mind,
good fortune will come from this grief. For here we are dealing
not with a passing mood, as in the nine in the third place
but with a real change of heart.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
“Confucius says … Life leads the thoughtful man on a path
of many windings.
Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again.
Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words,
There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away
In silence.
But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts,
They shatter even the strength of iron and bronze.”
(The I Ching or Book of Changes)
(1) 1 Qián: The Creative (Force, Strong Action, The Key, God)
(2) 61 Zhong Fú: Inner Truth (Inner Trust, Center Returning)
(3) 51 Zhèn: The Shaking (The Arousing, Shock, Thunder)
(4) 46 Sheng: Pushing Upwards (Ascending)
(5) 2 Kun: The Receptive (Field, Acquiescence, The Flow)
(6) 44 Gòu: Coming to Meet (Meeting, Coupling)
(7) 11 Tài: Peace (Greatness, Pervading, Smooth Going)
(8) 58 Tui/Dui: The Joyous (Open, Exchange, the Joyous Lake)
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