An Approach to the 'I-CHING'

by Frank C. Fung - 1st published in December, 2004.

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Section 1 : Introduction, Observations & Summary

Topic I - Introduction for the paper :

The { I-CHING } , , is the ancient Chinese { Book Of Change } dating back to more than 4,000 years ago.

It generally refers to a collection of writings, of which the 'ZHOU-I', , represented the mainstream of the school of thoughts.

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Topic II - Key Observations :

The two (2) key observations on { CHANGE } are :

• CHANGE is the essence of TIME ,

• CHANGE is the essence of DISTANCE .

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Topic III - CHANGE is the essence of TIME :

The analogy here is this :

• SUPPOSE you went to see a movie and the movie projector got stuck and kept on showing the same frame.
  • What you see on the screen is the same scene over-and-over-again and nothing changes, ever.

• THEN what you see now is the same as what you will see tomorrow and what you will see the day-after.
  • Under such circumstances, [ Now ] is the same as the [ Future ] and is the same as [ Eternity ] .

• Only with [ CHANGE ] , can there be [ TIME ] .

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Topic IV - The marking of TIME :

Man first noticed that certain events seem to repeat themselves, such as [ Sunrise ] and [ Sunset ] , and these are used as events to mark [ TIME ] .

Thus, if only two (2) events , [ Sunrise ] and [ Sunset ] , are used to mark 'time', any other event may happen either :

• before [ Sunrise ] ,
• between [ Sunrise ] and [ Sunset ] , or
• after [ Sunset ] .

[ TIME ] is viewed, therefore, as the sequencing of [ changes / events ] .

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Topic V - CHANGE is the essence of DISTANCE :

The analogy here is this :

• IF you are always [ HERE ] and never [ THERE ] ,

• THEN there is no relevence as to how far is [ THERE ] away from [ HERE ] .

  Only when you go from [ HERE ] to [ THERE ] , can distance become a relevent issue.

Thus, distance, and consequently [ physical dimensions ] , can only be of relevence if there is [ CHANGE ] .

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Topic VI - Summary of Findings :

The main findings are :

• If there is no CHANGE , there is no TIME .

• If there is no CHANGE , physical dimensions are irrelevant.

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go to the next Section : Section 2 - 'I-CHING' Basics

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original dated 2004-12-18