Website design By BotEap.comThe I Ching (pronounced E-Jing) is an ancient Chinese oracle popularized in the West by Carl Jung. It allows us to ask direct questions and read the printed answers. When I teach I Ching classes, I often tell students about the day he saved my life.

Website design By BotEap.comI was on a silent spiritual retreat in a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains (ca. 1985). After 9 days without human contact, I felt refreshed and ready to return to “civilization”. It is quite a transition and I wanted to ask the I Ching to guide me on the journey.

Website design By BotEap.comI tossed the coins and got an answer I’ll never forget: line 4 in the “Waiting” hexagram. It says “Waiting on blood, get out of the hole.” Wilhelm’s translation continues:

Website design By BotEap.com“The situation is extremely dangerous. It is of the utmost gravity now, a matter of life and death. Bloodshed seems imminent. There is no forward or backward. We are isolated as in a pit. Now we simply must stand our ground and let fate runs its course. This composure, preventing us from aggravating the problem with anything we can do, is the only way out of the dangerous pit.”

Website design By BotEap.comHe was less than thrilled with the forecast, but he knew he had better pay attention to it. So with no idea what to expect, I set off in my little yellow Toyota Starlet. An hour later, I was crossing the mountains up the Kenosha Pass when I found myself behind a VW Rabbit fuming with diesel.

Website design By BotEap.comFor some reason I was driving 15 mph. low the speed limit. In these Colorado mountains there was no place to pass, so I obediently followed him for miles and miles. Soon, dozens of cars were backed up behind me and this Rabbit… who would have lost to any turtle that day.

Website design By BotEap.comHaving raced cars for a decade, I was very frustrated after this slow climb up the mountain. After many miles I realized that we were approaching the short passing lane at the top of Kenosha Pass. Approaching that turn I thought “I’m finally I’m going to get rid of this slacker now!” Rounding the bend I can see the passing lane, my narrow window of opportunity.

Website design By BotEap.comI stepped on the accelerator and started to turn this car around, when the thought hit me: “Wait! This is the hole! I can’t go forward or back. It is as if it had fallen into a hole in the ground. This is the situation I was warned about!”

Website design By BotEap.comWith cars in front and behind I’m stuck in a moving pity. And what am I about to do? I am about to make an effort to resolve the situation through my own efforts: the only thing I was warned about No do!

Website design By BotEap.comOut of that awareness, I strayed back into line…just as the Rabbit driver “did his foot in it”! Why after all those miles, I don’t know: maybe her carb cleared, maybe she woke up from a trance. No matter what, she was suddenly accelerating right at the moment when I would have been right next to her! To my left was a granite wall from the Rocky Mountains. And turning around at 70 mph, heading right where I would have been… it was a 16-wheeler Mack truck.

Website design By BotEap.comIts front bumper would have been my the last view. There was nowhere to go on the left, the Volkswagen was on the right and he would surely have died on that turn. He was sure he knew enough about car racing and overtaking safely…but I did. No know all the relevant variables of the universe. My higher self, those coins I threw, the Sage of the I Ching, somehow knew what I didn’t. The I Ching ceased to be a theory that day.

Website design By BotEap.comAs I am still behind the Rabbit who is accelerating wildly, although not as fast as my beating heartI realize: “Oh, my God, almost dead. Without the guidance of the I Ching, I would do Being dead.” Within a mile or so, the Rabbit turned off onto a small dirt road. And, right in front of me, from that same road, a pickup truck with license plate: “SA-1144” pulled up. now I laughed, because 11:44 is the minute of my birth.

Website design By BotEap.comThis birth, this new life, I owe to the I Ching because my best cunning and life experience would have gotten me killed. I’ve paid a lot better attention to my daily I Ching readings ever since.