The Two-Stage Process Of Initiation And Completion

In the last post we discussed the theory of Ti and Yung. In brief, we understood that every entity or event in the phenomenal world is composed of two principles that were referred by the ancient Chinese as Ti and Yung. Chu Hsi, the neo-Confucian philosopher equated Ti with Substance and Yung with Function. In other words, Ti was basically static and Yung was continuously moving. When the two interacted, there were varying results according to other principles that were incorporated in the analyzing of the situation or event. The more learned one was of these principles the more sense one could make of the situation under consideration. Shao Yung, another neo-Confucian philosopher before Chu Hsi's time who had strong ties to Taoist ideas and methodologies used different terms in identifying Ti and Yung. The terms he used were Form for Ti and Activity for Yung (although these terms could be open to interpretation). Essentially, Chu Hsi's description fit quite well and agreed with Shao Yung's. In addition to Shao Yung's implementation of Ti and Yung, he also strongly utilized another idea in his thought and work. This idea consisted of a 2-stage process of Initiation and Completion.

Initiation And Completion

Everything has a beginning and an ending, and again as in Ti and Yung, from very large entities to very small ones, such as the evolution of ants to the evolution of galaxies. Modern day science says that for every action there is a reaction. Shao Yung didn't quite see it this way and his reasoning stated that for every beginning there must be an ending. In terms of the yearly cycle, the moment of the winter solstice to the moment of the summer solstice is the initiation process of the year, or the beginning. Then from the summer solstice to the winter solstice is the completion process, or the ending of the year in the 2-stage cycle. Then the dissipated energy of the particular year transforms into another year and another 2-stage cycle begins. The same can be said about the months, days, hours, minutes, or any other period of time segmentation. With a little contemplation you will see that the same 2-stage yearly cycle principle can be applied to any event or situation. A quick example would be a job interview for instance. If you were analyzing a job interview situation by divination such as Plum Blossom I Ching or astrologically through other means, you would see that the job interview would have its own 2-stage cycle of Initiation and Completion just as the yearly cycles we were just talking about. Shao Yung also extended his two-fold process into a 4-stage cycle of Birth - Growth - Maturity - Death (storing away). Then he went on to show that the 4-stage cycle could be extended to form a 16-stage cycle beginning with Birth-Birth...Birth-Growth...Birth-Maturity all the way down to Death-Maturity...Death-Death. The cycle did not have to stop at the 16-stage level and could be extended indefinitely if someone chose to get very detailed in their calculations. The principles in all the cycles were the same and could be used to analyze the Macrocosm just as effectively as the Microcosm.

There is so much more to be said about these ideas but to mention them all would require a book in itself. I hope that some of these ideas will inspire you to delve deeper into the subject. If you combine the Ti/Yung theories with the Initiation/Completion process you will begin to understand the true workings of nature. Your perceptions of reality will become much more acute I can promise you. There is more to Plum Blossom (Mei Hua), Wen Wang Ba Gua, or other methods than just looking at the lines, trigrams, hexagrams, and the interaction of the 5 elements/phases. If you don't understand Ti/Yung , Initiation/Completion , and other concepts, you will be limiting your understanding and potential for Chinese metaphysics. The fact that no master or teacher that I'm aware of are including these ideas in their classes doesn't help the situation at all. There isn't even much written about it in books, journals, essays, or other media forms. It is certain that very few individuals are aware of the deeper meanings of these subjects, so we have to find our own way so-to-speak. Fortunately there is a part of us that can access this information without the need for books, teachers, computers etc. The 'part of us' I am speaking of is our intuition. Our intuition can uncover, discover, or recover any information the ancients had access to. The beautiful part is that we don't need outside help or influence.