A Daily Practice

 道德經 = Dao De Jing / Tao Te Jing (the primary text of Daoism/Taoism)

易經 = Yi Jing / I Ching (an ancient Chinese text prescribing claromancy to guide its use)

::: A DAILY PRACTICE :::

The 道德經 is a diagram of existence and the 易經 is a survival guide.

To calibrate my thoughts at the start of each day I first consult the 易經. The specific interpretation I use is titled “The I Ching or Book of Changes — A Guide to Life’s Turning Points”, by Brian Browne Walker (St Martin’s Press, 1992). Based on the hexagram(s) I receive from the consultation, I then read a verse from the 道德經 (translation published by Derek Lin). Into a notebook I transcribe portions of my readings from each.

At present, this has been my daily practice for roughly half a year and my experience thus far has been that it helps me improve my emotional balance, which helps improve clarity of thought, which helps improve acceptance, which helps improve understanding, which helps me feel at peace with myself and my presence in the universe.

What most inspires awe in me about this practice is that it continues to prove to be anything but zero sum — by which I mean: as my balance, clarity, acceptance and understanding improve, I know they will continue to do so indefinitely and my sense of peace will never cease to endure.

The 易經 is comprised of 64 hexagrams, which are the permutative result of 16 trigrams, 8 of which are unique and represent basic elements of nature. These 64 combinations of trigrams each represent a facet of our individual condition, and the text devoted to these conditions are instructions for properly tending to them.

The 道德經 is comprised of 81 chapters/verses (I usually prefer chapters but often say verses anyway) and, while I do find it interesting that 81 is the fourth exponent of 3, I do not yet see any significance resembling that of the 64 hexagrams. Each of the 81 verses are self-contained, however they all relate to each other — in widely varying degrees, but related nonetheless.

In that way, the 道德經 and 易經 are very much alike — each of their parts are unique, but by way of all the parts being unique they are therefore not unique just enough so that they can be collectively described as a whole. This is one of the most crucial concepts to consider when contemplating 道 and 德 and thus is a recurring theme in these lessons.

The 易經 is traditionally consulted by way of claromancy, a process to randomly generate results which are then translated into a hexagram — the process I use involves coins and is outlined in the interpretation I reference (I suspect any interpretation would suggest a method for doing this). Via nuance in the process, a second hexagram is often yielded in addition to the first. The passage for each hexagram describes the facet it represents and provides instructions for maintaining it.

Each hexagram is also assigned a number, and this numbering is standard across all interpretations; i.e., the hexagram 渙 is always number 59. My practice takes the sum of these numbers and uses that sum to determine which chapter of the 道德經 I am going to read and transcribe. If the sum happens to be greater than 81, I simply subtract 81 from that sum and use that result to determine the chapter.

For example, my last 易經 consult yielded hexagrams 59 (渙) and 29 (坎), therefore I read and transcribed chapter 7 of the 道德經 (59 + 29 = 88–81 = 7).

This process does lend itself to significant amounts of repetition. Apart from the simple act of performing the same act each day, there are often occasions wherein a hexagram or chapter recurs either on consecutive days or multiple days within the same week. This is a feature of the practice, and it is much like going to the gym: the activities are the same, but continual progress and growth are made — and also like the gym, as long as you use the equipment correctly, you won’t get injured.

As it is with 道 and 德, the relationship between the 易經 and 道德經 is symbiotic — to follow the instructions provided by the 易經 is to hone 德, to hone 德 is to understand 道, to understand 道 is to extend 德. Through this reciprocity our understanding grows without end as we experience an ever broadening peace and harmony.