I Ching book of changes

  • Thread starter Thread starter John121
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
John121 said:
Reading a divination book seems to be a occasion of sin do ?
Click to expand...
It isn’t meaningless if it is read without using it as a means of divination. It reads like wisdom literature.
Honestly, I had a friend who used it for divination, and it was hardly a Magic 8 ball. You might as well say, “Lord, give me an answer,” open the Bible, and put your finger down on a verse for your answer. OK, maybe not quite that bad, but not far from it. If you read it, you don’t get the idea that it is meant as a Magic 8 ball (which really does deliver non-sequitors if no question has been posed, things like “Yes, definitely,” “Ask again later” or “Very doubtful”)
 
Last edited:
it is used by a lot of people in higher circles so to say its a divine book that does not divine is misleading
 
John121 said:
it is used by a lot of people in higher circles so to say its a divine book that does not divine is misleading
Click to expand...
As I said, people use the Bible for divination, in the manner of, “Lord, give me a sign” and then trying to “randomly” point at a passage for enlightenment.
The method of using the I Ching is slightly more complicated than that, but only slightly. Really. It is randomized selection of passages from a book of wisdom poetry…maybe like randomly choosing two passages from Proverbs and then deciding what to do in a certain case from what those two passages say.
 
Last edited:
there a difference one is trying to ones own power the other is a gift from God !
 
John121 said:
there a difference one is trying to ones own power the other is a gift from God !
Click to expand...
There is a difference, but no, it really is not a good idea to randomly select Bible quotes as a way of getting an answer out of God, as if God provided the Bible to be used as some kind of ouija board.

We wait on God, not the other way around.
 
Last edited:
I don’t use the bible as some divination book and im very confused about my relationship with God at the moment as most of my younger years I was thought God is supposed to look out for you well I thought that but then I actually started reading and unless you ask beg plead for help and are under grace you luck is out most of the time
 
the I Ching is fortune telling, of the occult and thus of the devil.

we are allowed to do whatever we want.

What do we choose to do? Follow God or evil, in whatever sweet innocent form evil presents itself.
 
Last edited:
John again, you are seeking these alternate forms. Where is your vocation to the Monastery in all this? Have you occasion to be guided by the potential superiors in a religious order you wish to join.
 
Right. If you ask a question and it answers something like “Lake over wood”. BIG Help. 'Great Exceeding. The Ridge pole sags". “For a mat use white Cowan grasses”.

Forget divination. It ain’t gonna happen. But the book is a Chinese cultural heirloom, one of the oldest in the world. It is a treasure for those who can appreciate it.
 
LateranBasilica said:
Is that a question or a rhetorical statement?
Click to expand...
Do not get me wrong. I don’t think there is any reason a Christian should read the I Ching, except to gain an insight into a way of thinking that is quite different than European philosophical thinking from the Enlightenment. The question was: are you allowed to read the book of changes as a Catholic?

I’m saying it can be read without using it as a means of divination, even though that is unquestionably how it came about. It is also a book of philosophy that inspired the most important Chinese philosophers, including Lao-tse and Confucius. The book has been seen in China in some eras as a book of magic and in others as a book of wisdom and statecraft.

I would suggest that a Catholic reader look at available translations and to prefer one that intends to provide insight into Chinese philosophy, rather than one that touts itself as a book of divination. Having said that, “understanding” the I Ching is a tall order. That’s not going to happen, because it is not that kind of a book. There isn’t a “definitive” way to understand it.

In other words, I’d think it more likely that a Catholic would read it and not know what on earth to make of it than that a Catholic would read it and think, “Gee! Let me find six coins so this can magically give me the answers to all my questions!!” Yeah. No.
 
Last edited:
One commentator wrote, “…taking a familiar Western example, he [translator Arthur Waley] wrote that the omen ‘red sky in the morning, shepherds take warning’ would become the divination ‘red sky in the morning: inauspicious; do not cross the river.’”

The I Ching isn’t a ouija board, not even for those who try to use it as a means of divination: that is, it doesn’t give direct answers. If it ever did, that was millenia ago.
 
Last edited:
A good book which was recommended to me, " Christ the Eternal Tao," by Hieromonk Damascene

Although from a Eastern Orthodox Priest, he is an expert on the I Ching and shows how Christ’s teachings parallelle the Tao

Remember that Taoism predates Christianity by 600 years

The author shows how those who never heard of Jesus Christ, when they sought truth, were given it by the Holy Spirit.

Aristotle and other’s are no different

Don’t presume that the 10,000 years before Christ, everyone was doomed to eternal damnation.

Jim
 
I read that a lot of these great philosophers did not make it to heaven so I’m not sure what to think !
 
I keep getting sidetracked from my path I’m trying to understand the deeper meaning of change from a philosophy point of view because I’m struggling to implement change in my life if I understand it well enough I can implement a action plan I know some of the eastern philosophies work but every time I look into the deeper meaning of things it leads me into occult esoteric teachings ! Which I know the church is against !

It’s not that knowing the future is a sin it’s the process in which one obtains it is a sin or a blessing the blessing comes from God the curse comes from man/demons it’s really hard to separate what is deeper meaning from saints and philosophers and which is evil I don’t think knowledge in itself is evil but the way it is used is!
 
You can read it as an historical text to better understand Chinese culture.
 
Yes, in fact, to begin to make any sense of it one needs to know the history, Fu Xi, King Wen and Zhou dynasty and all that.
 
Last edited:
I think that is how I became interested in it. I dislike change and felt I needed to understand it and appreciate it. It didn’t help much. The Tao te Ching was a little more helpful. For me it came down to knowing when to go with the flow of life and when to try ro alter or resist the flow. And that takes us to discerning God’s will and surrendering to it.

In fact, as I write this I begin to see a connection with I Ching. I Ching is really all about virtues. And even in our own tradition the practice of virtues enables us to better recognize God’s will and thus, know when to flow and when to resist.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top