An excerpt from I Ching: The Tao of Drumming by Michael Drake
In the beginning, there was only the Tao or mysterious void. From Tao came forth t'ai chi, the unmanifest essence of being. Yin and yang, the feminine and masculine aspects of the universe were an inseparable whole. They rested in a state of absolute stillness in the oneness of t'ai chi. Through the act of creation, yin and yang became aware of their polarity. They began to vibrate and spiral in a sacred dance, giving birth to the sonic pulse of the cosmos. Radiating outward in ever-widening circles, the resonating energy of pulsation collected around inertia to form vibrational patterns and matter. Waves of rhythmic pulses reverberated throughout the universe, weaving the web of existence.
This cosmology that describes the universe in terms of only two polar but co-creative aspects is beautiful in its simplicity and forms the basis on which the I Ching was structured over 4000 years ago. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text and divination system which counsels appropriate action in the moment for a given set of circumstances. Each moment has a pattern to it and everything that happens in that moment is interconnected. Based on the synchronicity of the universe and the laws of probability, the I Ching responds to an inquiry in the form of a hexagram. By evaluating the hexagram that describes your current pattern of relationship, you can divine the outcome and act accordingly.
The I Ching is the culmination of Chinese thought regarding the nature of reality. It is a philosophical system of primal insights into the workings and destiny of the universe. Philosophically, the I Ching describes the universe as a single, flowing, rhythmic being, and all things in it in constant cyclical change. Everything is t'ai chi, "one universal energy," which expresses itself as two polarized yet complementary aspects, yin and yang. Yin and yang ebb and flow, creating the cycles and rhythms of life. By observing nature, the sages perceived all of the rhythms and energy patterns that arise from the interaction of yin and yang. They then coded these rhythmic patterns into a "book of life." The I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams represent a code or program of the operating principle of life itself.
The hexagrams of the I Ching represent the sequence of development for everything that evolves from the void into a three-dimensional reality. The I Ching functions much like a computer. It is a binary mathematical program of all events, processes, and developments of nature, as well as a program of the fate of every living thing.
The Binary Code
At a fundamental level, the laws of the universe are written in a binary code. The binary mathematical system forms the basis of computer languages and applies to nearly everything from crystalline structures to the genetic code. Systems of binary progression underlie the structure of reality. Binary systems develop from two numbers or polar elements. The DNA code, for example, represents a binary progression of two to the sixth power, producing the sixty-four codons, or six-part structures that constitute the genetic code. The bilateral symmetry of DNA consists of a double helix with plus and minus strands, which contain the genetic script. Each strand is the inverse of the opposite in terms of polarity and direction of rotation, and each strand is capable of replicating the other. Both strands interconnect at regular intervals, forming binary pairs of molecular building blocks.
The sixty-four hexagrams, each with its six variants (lines), illustrate a pattern of development that mirrors DNA. Each odd numbered hexagram and its subsequent opposite or inverse represent binary pairs. Each stage of change or development is the result of interaction between conjugate pairs. A given situation would remain forever unchanging were it not for this dynamic interplay that spurs the static hexagram into motion.
This cosmology that describes the universe in terms of only two polar but co-creative aspects is beautiful in its simplicity and forms the basis on which the I Ching was structured over 4000 years ago. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text and divination system which counsels appropriate action in the moment for a given set of circumstances. Each moment has a pattern to it and everything that happens in that moment is interconnected. Based on the synchronicity of the universe and the laws of probability, the I Ching responds to an inquiry in the form of a hexagram. By evaluating the hexagram that describes your current pattern of relationship, you can divine the outcome and act accordingly.
The I Ching is the culmination of Chinese thought regarding the nature of reality. It is a philosophical system of primal insights into the workings and destiny of the universe. Philosophically, the I Ching describes the universe as a single, flowing, rhythmic being, and all things in it in constant cyclical change. Everything is t'ai chi, "one universal energy," which expresses itself as two polarized yet complementary aspects, yin and yang. Yin and yang ebb and flow, creating the cycles and rhythms of life. By observing nature, the sages perceived all of the rhythms and energy patterns that arise from the interaction of yin and yang. They then coded these rhythmic patterns into a "book of life." The I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams represent a code or program of the operating principle of life itself.
The hexagrams of the I Ching represent the sequence of development for everything that evolves from the void into a three-dimensional reality. The I Ching functions much like a computer. It is a binary mathematical program of all events, processes, and developments of nature, as well as a program of the fate of every living thing.
The Binary Code
At a fundamental level, the laws of the universe are written in a binary code. The binary mathematical system forms the basis of computer languages and applies to nearly everything from crystalline structures to the genetic code. Systems of binary progression underlie the structure of reality. Binary systems develop from two numbers or polar elements. The DNA code, for example, represents a binary progression of two to the sixth power, producing the sixty-four codons, or six-part structures that constitute the genetic code. The bilateral symmetry of DNA consists of a double helix with plus and minus strands, which contain the genetic script. Each strand is the inverse of the opposite in terms of polarity and direction of rotation, and each strand is capable of replicating the other. Both strands interconnect at regular intervals, forming binary pairs of molecular building blocks.
The sixty-four hexagrams, each with its six variants (lines), illustrate a pattern of development that mirrors DNA. Each odd numbered hexagram and its subsequent opposite or inverse represent binary pairs. Each stage of change or development is the result of interaction between conjugate pairs. A given situation would remain forever unchanging were it not for this dynamic interplay that spurs the static hexagram into motion.
The I Ching may contain the genetic code. Martin Schönberger, in The I Ching & the Genetic Code: The Hidden Key to Life, established numerous parallels that verify a congruency between the two codes. As Schönberger puts it, "The principle of polarity inherent in both systems, the world pole yang-yin on the one hand, the precisely symmetrical plus and minus strand of the DNA on the other, and the very marked congruence of the 64 signs when the two systems are combined, makes tenable the hypothesis that here we have one code..."
