LECTURES ON THE I CHING: CONSTANCY AND CHANGE
Richard Wilhelm
|
|
| 1 |
"Myth unites humanity within the symbol, it embraces humanity."
|
|
| 2 |
"We must be conscious because our era, the anticipated new era, will not take the form of earlier cultures, when unconscious elements pressed from below instinctively and animalistically. Humankind has reached the point where, by taking the future in its own hands, it must recognize clearly what to do next. Thus we will find the way to that which is divine within us."
|
|
| 3 |
"Our responsibility is that…we must be thorough and absolutely truthful. We must penetrate that which is apparently only so and be satisfied with nothing less – may it loom ever so large – than with the actual source of life."
|
|
| 4 |
"There is a saying in China that the nature of man is found there, in the center, where emotions are not yet manifest. In this center is the potentiality of everything to come."
|
|
| 5 |
"All mankind is harnessed into a coordinated system."
|
|
| 6 |
"We must become accustomed to cultivate fearlessness; a fearlessness that prepares us to face everything we encounter, and to come to terms with whatever the future might bring."
|
|
| 7 |
"Indeed, the true meaning of the world is that generation after generation emerges from a great and mysterious depth, and each generation is entrusted by the preceding one with the sacred heritage. Each generation must enrich it and pass it on. And only by passing on the enriched heritage, creative energies keep flowing."
|
|
| 8 |
"How, indeed, can anyone escape the creative force that is within ourselves and by means of which we exist? Destiny is unavoidably operative."
|
|
| 9 |
"From a spiritual point of view, man is the mysterious being in whom the Creative of the world ascends into consciousness."
|
|
| 10 |
"The entelechy of the individual can reflect eternity within, and each individual life, inseparable from eternity, acquires shape and meaning within eternity."
|
|
| 11 |
"The forces of the world are always interdependent, and by acting together produce something new and essential."
|
|
| 12 |
"In fact, at the time of greatest distress, in times of isolation, when one no longer knows how to move, then joy sets in, this 'nevertheless' that is invincible."
|
|
| 13 |
"Faith, derived from reality and always applicable to reality – this kind of faith is love of destiny….This faith is victory, for it knows how to guide creative energy toward the result of progress."
|
|
| 14 |
"We know the energy that causes water to circulate: it is the sun and her unlimited and divine energy. Perhaps we ought to assume the existence of a similar energy for spiritual realms – a sort of central sun."
|
|
| 15 |
"Whenever this One arrives from out of creative depths, contact between man and the universe is established. Such contact in turn unfolds the magical forces, though it is not magic that unfolds them, but Truth. And, according to Confucius, their effects will be felt even in far-away places."
|
|
| 16 |
"We now should be able to see cosmos and individual joined in a relationship. We should see that macrocosm and microcosm are, as it were, only far-flung parts of one unified energy center."
|
|
| 17 |
"Just as an instrument vibrates in conjunction with an equally tuned instrument, the human being too, vibrates in accordance with that which transcends individual separation. This is something primordial, and when touched by the expressive vibrations of a similarly attuned being, it is at once the mainspring and the rallying point of actual life energies."
|
|
| 18 |
"Confucius had a penetrating recognition of the will of mankind – the will of mankind which is the voice of the Divinity."
|
|
| 19 |
"Man comes in contact with God through the spirit of music."
|
|
| 20 |
"We can accept ourselves as we are. We can accept the Heavenly primary aspect with which we have arrived in this world. We can accept and love our virtues, and we can enjoy them as well; and we may also love the animal within us, if such a daring word be permitted."
|
|
| 21 |
"Life penetrates everywhere; there is no place without life. Remembering this force, life comes. Thus a human being is one with life, has life and is effective in life whenever he wants."
|
|
| 22 |
"All of Chinese thinking – Confucianism, Taoism, as well as Buddhism – contains the idea that in the course of life, man will shape harmoniously those psychic and physical predispositions that he received as capital assets by unifying them and giving them form from within a center."
|
|
| 23 |
"All of us are living now in a period of opposition; it is important that we may hope for the transformation of opposition into fellowship. In fact, this is precisely the importance of the world-view described in the 'Book of Changes': there is no situation without a way out. All situations are stages of change. Therefore, even when things are most difficult we can plant the seed for a new situation."
|
|
|
|
Randomize this reference |
New random category
Add a comment
Reference and bibliography |
All quotes, by category
We are gathering together the primary insights of spirituality and bringing them together into one place.
This archive contains 11,750 quotes, taken from 635 references,
organized in terms of 39 primary categories. Quotes are randomized and appear in a different way at every click.
Explore the navigation options to review these insights.
We include
- All major spiritual and religious traditions, from all cultures, and all historical epochs
- Major psychologists, philosophers, writers, scholars and leading religious personalities
- Sources in classical religion as well as voices from new consciousness, esotericism and mysticism
- Choices are guided by the spirit of oneness, love, kindness, inclusion and community
|
|
|
