Posts

numbers and philosophy in antiquity (cont)

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While it’s tempting to look at the sequences of the bāguà, again the “eight trigrams” or “eight gua”, which as far as the tradition goes represent the earliest form of the Yĭ Jing from which the system of the 64 hexagrams was…

The Metaphysics of the I Ching: The Alignment of Heaven, Man and Earth

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While the translational difficulties from Traditional Chinese into English are fairly well documented, even with the introduction of the Pinyin Romanization system of Chinese words in the middle of the twentieth century which is now predominantly…

The Hetu and Luoshu Diagrams: Numerology in Chinese Antiquity

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One of the most fascinating texts from antiquity is the I Ching, i.e. Yijing, one of the oldest extant documents in Chinese history and certainly one of the oldest philosophical treatise that we have in existence today.  The document is famous…

Pythagoras: The Father of Greek Philosophy

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Pythagoras, Thales of Miletus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus all made contributions to Pre-Socratic philosophical thought and were referenced by later philosophers…

Beginner’s Mind

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The odd thing Is that every Westerner Approaches the practice of meditation With a goal in mind Without exception The even odder thing Is that from an Eastern point of view [Particularly Daoist/Zen Buddhist Which are very related and symbiotic…

Chinese Monotheism: Worship of Heaven (Shangdi)

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Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism (Daoism), all rich and prolific theo-philosophical traditions of the East which thrived in ancient times and still flourish today, were and are much more accepting of the worship of many different…

The Book of Changes: The Wisdom of the Far East

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One of the most unique, lasting and influential texts that has come down to us from the Far East that in antiquity is the Yijing (I Ching), also known as the Book of Changes.  The work has a long history, its roots dating back at least to Bronze…