Signposts.

How often is it that you come across this ?

HEXAGRAMS are not really destinations, but more like signposts - to an answer, a different state, condition, or aquisition, or potential. The hexagram won't actually give you everything you ask for, but it might 'literally' do so. You see, hexagrams only show you your present position, or the present moment. The hexagram is a sort of destination that you have already arrived at - the present moment. You may not like this, seek to overlook it, or look instead to the future, or the past, but here you are !

Within the six-lined hexagram symbol are three line combinations, called TRIGRAMS. The top half, or top three lines, of the hexagram is a trigram, and so is the bottom half (and there are two more in the centre of the hexagram if you care to look). It is these trigrams that help, or hinder, you on your way to your destination. The trigrams show your strength, speed, and direction, and you could be going in the wrong direction, or at the wrong speed, hence the idea of 'hinder'. Actually it's all there to give you information. The hexagram will show you where you are starting from, and some of the potential.

The next time you come across a signpost, it's not so much the places that you could go to, but the choice you have. That choice, determined by your circumstances and where you think you want to go, is represented by a hexagram. All the time you are making decisions, and some of the time not quite sure which way to go, so using the TAO I CHING is like using signposts to get you where you want to be. Now, if that signpost had no place names on it, what would you do ? See where you actually are, look around you, and make a choice. Welcome to the TAO I CHING.