Making I-Ching Come Alive!

Learning is best done when we see a need for it. So here is a regrouping of I-Ching 64 Hexagrams into a broader categories for ease of application. Each category is a real life situation with which we can easily identify. We can pick the category that best suit our need and then dig into the Hexagram to find the jewels of wisdom needed. Hope you can enjoy the wisdom of I-Ching better this way.

After writing two posts on the applications of I-Ching, namely for Relationship Building in Relationship Building According to I-Ching and for Leadership in 4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching, I find it may be more useful present the wisdom of I-Ching in a more organized way for ease of applications.

The General Principles of I-Ching

Let me first recap the main principles of I-Ching wisdom.

1. Principle of Continued Cyclic Change and through 6-Stages within the Cycles.
1. Life is about growth and growth is change. Yet the change is predictable. 
2. Change follows a cyclical pattern and it follows certain unchanging principles. If we can predict well, it means our predictive model is working well. Hence we can take steps recommended in our model to influence the predicted outcomes. We are therefore responsible for the outcomes and the well being of our life. 
3. If you follow EW Deming's definition of the job of a manager, which is to predict the outcome accurately (and thereby take steps to influence it), then you must master I-Ching. 
2. Principles are derived from the working of Heavens of Earth.
1. If you believe in a God, then the principles are the ways of God as taught in the Bible or other religious books. They are also the natural order of nature as God has created. If you don't believe in a God, then the principles are the ways of working of nature including the cosmos, living things and the eco-systems.
2. The thinking of man has changed from the 20th century thinking of man conquering nature to the 21st century thinking of man following and using the working of nature. It is back to the 5000 years old thinking of I-Ching.
3. Principle of Righteousness
1. Righteousness is about obeying the principles of Heaven and Earth, i.e. the Laws of Nature and of God.
2. It includes virtues like love, justice, integrity, faithfulness, purity, fairness and balance between extremes.
4. Principle of Integrative Dynamic Balance of Bipolar Forces
1. Between polar attribute pairs of Yang and Yin.
2. Yang – Yin pairs include:  Action – Response, Male – Female, Day – Night, Hot-Cold, Hard – Soft, Push – Pull, Move – Stop, Forward – Reversed, Open-Close, Future – Past, Truth – Love, Justice – Compassion etc.
3. There is always Yin in Yang and Yang in Yin and never only one extreme. It is the interaction of Yin and Yang that produces the abundant of varieties of life.
4. Bipolar is just a simplification in our thinking. In reality, it may have more than 2 factors. Our job is then holding the multiple factors in tension to fit the situation we are in.
5. Principle of Abundance from Harmony, Flow and Sharing.
1. Fortune is not just an accumulation of things. Fortune is not just about abundance, but about harmony of interactions, smooth flow and sharing of abundance.
2. It is about harmony between men and heave(God) and Earth(nature).
3. Harmony is unity of diversities and not uniformity.
4. Synergy is of diversities with each contributing its strength to the growth of the whole.

The mind-set of I-Ching master is 

1. Base on the foundation of the Righteousness Principles
2. Decision should depends on the situation and more specifically on the timing(trend) and positioning(terrain) in relation to the situation.
3. And holding in balance among the multiple demands and views of the stakeholders.
4. The balance is dynamic and not static as the implementation of any change program triggers further changes.
5. It is like driving a car. Even when we plan the destination and the routes, we need to watch for the traffic, the behaviors of the car in front, at the back and around us. We may meet up with traffic jams, road blocks, bad weathers, flooding, earthquakes, and even faults in our own car. 

In short, read - apply - watch - adjust over time, space and multiple agents.

The Re-Grouped Applications Based I-Ching Mind-map.

Here is the my latest ( I improve it over time) mind-map:

Let's start with the first, "Leadership", in 

4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching



The complete list is:

1. Making I-Ching Come Alive! The Key Principles & Applications
2. 4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching
3. Control & Management Principles according to I-Ching
4. Relationship Building According to I-Ching
5. Stage 1 Start-Up and The Guidelines from I-Ching
6. Stage 2 Developing Your Business - Some Jewels from I-Ching
7. Stage 3 Waiting for the Next Big Thing - Insights from I-Ching
8. Stage 4 Overcome Obstacles - Some Nuggets from I-Ching
9. Stage 5 Growth - 8 Keys for Scaling Up
10. Stage 6 Success that Lasts - 5 Keys for Staying at the Top
11. Stage 7 Joy of the Truly Rich - 5 Gems from I-Ching
12. Stage 8 Preventing the Inevitable Decline - 3 Guides from I-Ching
13. Stage 9 How to Get Out of the Pit - 5 Transformational Wisdom from I-Ching

Lim Liat(C) 30 May 2012