Sometimes, change happens, not as a result of a cycle that drives the change, but has a chance encounter.
Sometimes, change happens out of the chaos that is an integral part of the ordered cosmos. An event can materialize out of the blue, with no prior notice, blindsiding us and careening us out into the vastness of interstellar space.
These changes are not predictable. They are part and parcel of what I had touched upon in previous posts, regarding the duality requirement of all things.
Duality Requirement:
Wait…did I write something up about the duality requirement in a previous post? I must have, because this is a very important aspect of the Tao.
Hmm. I can’t remember. I have written about so many different ideas and thoughts on this website over the years that it would take some time to dig around to find it, if in deed, I had already written about it.
In any case, here it is in a nutshell.
Nothing escapes the Taobabe’s duality requirement, not even the Tao.
You must be raising your eyebrows and wondering why I am calling it the Taobabe’s duality requirement. Truth is, I stole this idea from the Ta Chuan (smirk).
[The I Ching]…has principles which contain the categories of all that is–literally, the molds and the scope of all transformations. These categories are in the mind of man; everything, all that happens and everything that undergoes transformation, must obey the laws prescribed by the mind of man. Not until these categories become operative do things become things. [1]
This means that if I have thought about it and it is in my mind, everything that undergoes transformation must obey the laws prescribed by my mind.
If I, the Taobabe, states with unequivocal steadfastness that nothing escapes the Taobabe’s duality requirement, not even the Tao, then it will be so (at least in my universe)–but hey…
I am the Universe
Wow. It feels great to be a goddess. Hehehe. 😀
Having said that, the Universe is a huge fractal that continues onward and inward indefinitely, but even though it moves forward and onward infinitely, it does not move backwards infinitely.
That is true because there is a beginning, whereby nothing can precede it. This is the finite. Nested within the finite is infinity. In other words, nothing can encompass the depth, breadth, and scope of the original finite Heaven, but everything else that follows this finite-ness is infinite.
One of my favorite physicists, Nassim Haramein, spoke of the duality requirement in an easy to understand way: Inside any finite boundary there is the possibility of infinite divisions of the space, each time creating another set of information. Therefore within any finite boundary there is the possibility of an infinite amount of information. Therefore… you are an infinite being… ~ Nassim Harramein
Remember, the Tao requires a balance of equal and opposing forces: Yin and Yang, black and white, 000000 and 111111, cyclic and sequent. With sequent change, the duality requirement of cyclic/sequent is fulfilled.
Sequent Change
Sequent Change, as defined by the Ta Chuan, Book 2:2, is the progressive [nonrecurrent] change of phenomena produced by causality.
OK. All this shuck and jive (sorry Mr. Wilhelm) basically means that the very first time the SEQUENT CHANGE occurred, it was a singular event.
It had never happened before, so therefore, it was a true beginning. A true Initial Sequent Change, which eventually fractalized into all subsequent sequent changes, but it never returns to its starting point.
Einstein stated that time is an illusion; it is what prevents everything from happening all at once. [2]
Looking at it through the lenses of the scientific community, it hardly makes sense. As far as we can tell, time is real.
The clock counts time in tick-tocking seconds, and the seconds march forward with disregard for the human condition. Time ravages all things (mostly), and it moves in only one direction (that we are currently aware of).
That’s because Sequent Change has always been misunderstood to be existing in the realm where causality operates mechanically, within a non-living entity made up of moving gears and cogs.
BUT
The Universe is ALIVE! I know the Universe is alive because I am the Universe, and I AM ALIVE. The I Ching also supports my assertion by stating that Sequent Change is the succession of the generations, something that is very organic.
The way of the Creative brings about the male.
The way of the Receptive brings about the female.
Therefore, the beginning of sequent change appears, manifested in the succession of the generations, an onward-moving process that never returns to its starting point. This shows the extent to which the Book of Changes confines itself to life.
This means, by using forces of gravity in a certain manner, we can scrub the timeline backwards and forwards as much and as often as we wish, and we can follow all the various future timelines to see where they may go. Remember, the curvature of space-time is mathematically defined by ten more curvature terms than are constrained by the portion that is controlled by matter (more on this in a future posting).
This is due to the fact that gravity and time are, essentially, the same entity. However, in scrubbing the timeline backwards, we can go no further than the Initial Sequent Change.
I wrote about that very first Sequent Change in my posting Round Heaven Square Earth, where Heaven decides to explore, thereby creating the initial change that was needed to begin the initial cycle of Changes which eventually fractalized down to our existence at this very moment.
Subsequent Sequent Changes will depend on an infinite number of occurrences which may or may not affect the Universe. This is true because the character of the I Ching lines, both yin and yang (firm/yielding), combine with the character of the place (superior/inferior), results in a great multiplicity of possible situations. [1]
And therein lies a very compelling question: WHY? Why does Cyclic and Sequent go together? Why does Cyclic Change even need Sequent Change?
I will explore that question in a future posting. For now, au ‘voir, and namaste.
(to be continued)
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[1] Ta Chuan: The Great Treatise
[2] Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Taobabe 