I Ching and the Human Body
Class One, Parts 1-3
MARCH 2014
 

 

You are warmly invited to participate in this first class in Vertical Time Yoga. The class is a month-to-month workshop that will continue throughout 2014 (see sidebar for details), and will include weekly web-pages, audio talks and a discussion page for posting comments, stories and insights. You may listen to this week's entire audio at no charge. Simple click below and follow along on this web page.
 

 

March 2014 Class One - The Receptive: Please study this page with Audio Lecture - ICHB1.MP3

 

 

 

 

All situations express complete openness, natural perfection
and complete spontaneity. The Receptive is the key,
in this sense, to reality (photograph Istanbul, Turkey).

 

 

#2 K’UN. The Receptive
Earth – receptivity, submission, humility, obedience, yielding, flexibility, stillness, essence, innate capacity. Field. Primal structuring power confronted with many forces and obstacles. In order to serve and gain results, you are told to yield. Field: surface of the world; concrete extension; basis of all existence, where Force or heaven exerts its power; all involving service; earth, moon, wife, mother, courtier, servants. Ideogram: terrestrial globe and stretch out, stability and extension.

 

From the Gene Keys: The Receptive grounds energy and light into the world of form. It teaches that every situation has a purpose. It is the great motherly embrace that pulls all into a single unity. The shadow frequency is dislocation, being lost in time and space, and dismemberment. Evolution moved us to become thinkers but now awareness is moving to the solar plexus. Where we are going is an awareness of the unity and oneness of all being. The shadow of dislocation makes us feel cut off from nature and we feel are going in the wrong direction.

Physiology: The Sternum

Shadow: dislocation
Gift: Orientation
Siddhi: Unity

 

THE WHEEL OF VERTICAL TIME:

 

 

The Wheel of Vertical Time symbolizes the experience of alignment with vertical or eternal time within the relative or conditioned experience of daily life, the horizontal axis. The Wheel is the mandala in which all aspects of this class can be understood. The Receptive is, of course, in the position of ground.

 

 

March 2014 Class One - Part 2 - Earth Breathing: Please study this page with Audio Lecture - ICHB1P1body1.MP3

 

 

Please listen to this audio when you have forty-five minutes to not be interrupted. Wear loose-fitting closes suitable for yoga and meditation and have a warm area with carpet or yoga mat to lie down.
 

CHARACTER OF THE SIX LINES: GIFT VS. SHADOW/WOUND STATE

 

 

 

 

 

This illustration shows the second of the two yoga postures described in the guided meditation section of the audio.

 

 

March 2014 Class One - Part 3 - The Creative: Please study this page with Audio Lecture - ICHB1Part3.MP3

 

 

 

Stupa, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
 

Please utilize this resource for our class: the page Hexagram Titles Etymology, which gives a variety of translations for each of the sixty-four hexagrams.

 

 

#1 CH’IEN. The Creative
Heaven – Strength, firmness, life, innate knowledge, primal unified energy. Force. Dynamic, unwearied persisting, the action of force. Spirit power, creative and destructive, unceasing forward motion; dynamic, untiring; firm, stable; heaven, sovereign, father. Also: dry up, parched, exhausted, cleared away. Ideogram: sprouts or vapors rising from the ground and sunlight, both fecund moisture and scorching drought. (Three title translations are shown, all in boldface: the first is from the Wilhelm-Baynes; the second if from the Taoist I Ching translation by Thomas Cleary; the third is from the I Ching: The First Complete Translation with Concordance, by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher.)
 

"Hexagrams grow like plants from the roots up."
- Clarity, on-line I Ching site.
 

YIN / YANG
Water - Fire
Moon - Sun
Lower - Upper
Interior - Exterior
Dark - Bright
Moist - Dry
Soft - Hard
Obscure - Manifest
Contracting - Expanding
Reaction - Stimulus
Incoming - Outgoing
Completing - Beginning
Response - Move
Receptive - Initiating
To Be - To do

__________________
 

The chart above (courtesy of I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, translated by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher) is based on observation of the "fundamental principles" or natural elements and includes establishing categories of natural hierarchy.

 

 

Yang, Action: The light, active aspect of all phenomena. Movement, dynamic development, thrust, stimulus, drive. By creating the future, yang destroys the present, negating anything that exists in a positive or consolidated sense. The yang aspect of phenomena is their dynamic mode of becoming: arousal, transformation and dissolution. It is united, continuous, unidirectional.

Yin, Struction: The shadowy, structive aspect of phenomena. Build, make concrete, establish; limited, bound, given specific being; consolidating, conserving, structuring something. By consolidating the present, yin stops forward motion, drive or purpose. The yin aspect of phenomena is the result of contraction and concentration. It is diverse, adaptable extension in space. (Courtesy of I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, translated by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher.)

 

"Homework" ideas:

1. Consider in your daily practice how the I Ching helps you recognize and work through the "fickle" aspect of life.

2. Notice when your energy reflects strong, correct yang, when you are feeling focused, unified and strongly at ease.

3. Develop your yogic-warrior life by performing the yogas and meditation practices introduced in this class, and/or by doing the ones already part of your life.

 

 

Return to Top.

VTY Class Materials and
Other Resources:

 

1. I Ching and the Human Body: Introduction

2. TRIBE (Class Roster)
3. Hexagram Titles Etymology

4. The Hexagram
5. Table of Contents of all classes

 

 

The classic "Wilhelm/Baynes" I Ching, the foundational text of our course.

 

 

This class is based primarily on the I Ching, as both an ancient and contemporary system of wisdom that is found within the human body. (See last year's class, I Ching and the Human Body, for more illustrations and information.)

 

 

 

Use of the I Ching and practices of yoga and meditation are all ways of "invoking drala" or the spirit of guidance. Cultivating both courage and sensitivity to life attracts the drala or blessing that is universally available.
 

 

Texts

 

Over the course of the year, along with the Wilhelm/Baynes I Ching, these texts and others will be introduced. Purchasing them is optional, based on the degree of study you wish to pursue and your own predilection for translations you are drawn to.

 

 

The Taoist I Ching, translated by Thomas Cleary.

 

 

Tiger and Dragon I Ching, by Rowena Patee Kryder.
 

 

 

I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change. Translated by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher.
 

 

 

Gene Keys by Richard Rudd.