Here's the fun thing about I Ching hexagrams -- you can apply them to *anything*, just about. We're currently in the month ruled by hexagram 20, guan (or kuan). Yin is steadily increasing, heading towards the yin-est month of all, November.

So, this being the month o' guan, it'd behoove me to actually look it up and jot down a few notes here.

Wilhelm says the name of this hexagram is based on a pun -- the word can mean "contemplation" or "being looked," and the hexagram itself resembles a watchtower which could also serve as a landmark. You look out at the countryside, the people look up at you. But he's German.

Our Chinese-born pal, Master Huang, says the character for guan means "watching" and is made of a picture of a big-eyed bird (also called a "guan") and a picture of an eye over a human being. Watching from above. He also points out that a Taoist temple is called Tao Guan -- a place to watch the Tao. Meditation, he says, consists of watching the breath and keeping tabs on your awareness. Meditators actually tap wooden fish, he says, as a reminder not to be distracted -- because fish never close their eyes. It's also the same guan in Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion, who watches over all of us and hears all our cries for help.

So, guan has to do with watching and mindfulness.


This hexagram consists of wind over earth:

woooosh!...

over

...thud!

In the Image verse, Wilhelm describes the wind as being like a king, traveling across the earth and spreading wisdom (or, I suppose, like a sage at the top of a tall tower, shouting wise messages to anyone within earshot).

(Which might not be that different from the Internet on some days.)


But he makes a really interesting observation in the Judgement verse, which describes a specific moment in religious rituals, after the self-purification, but before the sacrifice.

He says:

The sacrificial ritual in China began with an ablution and a libation by which the Deity was invoked, after which the sacrifice was offered. The moment of time between these two ceremonies is the most sacred of all, the moment of deepest inner concentration.

As a (one-time) good Catholic boy, this strikes a deep chord. It's the central act of the Mass. The priest pours water over his hands and prays, "Wash away my iniquities, and cleanse me of my sins," then turns to face the tabernacle. That's the fancy box off to one side of the altar where the host is kept, waiting to be miraculously transformed into the Body of Christ -- the sacrifice of the Mass. You'll find a similar pause in nearly every religious ritual there is, I think. Now I am clean, I'm finally prepared to do this sacred thing.

Standing, I suppose, like a tower. In the eyes of the Great Beyond.



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_{I'm using the Wilhelm/Baynes translation from the comprehensive Wengu collection or the user-friendly Eclectic Energies site. Feel like going deeper? Check out Hong Kong's Taoist Culture & Information Centre's I Ching page, and the essays & reviews on Ma Xia's Yijing Page}