Wu Wei - I Ching Life: Becoming Your Authentic Self

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the inspired and dedicated publishing team who helped me shape and produce this work:

Nigel Yorwerth for his guiding hand and heart on all my books and for his unwavering efforts in promoting my work, helping me to get excellent distribution, and presenting my work to foreign publishers.

Patricia Spadaro for her enlightened editing and suggestions that helped me express the concepts in this work more clearly and accurately, allowing the I Ching wisdom to shine more brightly.

Roger Gefvert for his beautiful cover designs for all the books in my I Ching series, which reflect so well the timeless quality of the I Ching itself.

Kathy Lange and Martha Lonner for their patience and skill in layout and production, and Janet Chaikin for her expert proofing and editorial work.

I sincerely apologize for using he, his, him when speaking generally. Using he/she throughout becomes cumbersome for the reader and disturbs the flow of thought. I chose to use the masculine form because it is what we are accustomed to seeing in print and because the goal is to make the reading easy.

I humbly apologize to you for my presumption that I know something that you do not and for my egotistical assumption that I know anything at all. All information comes from one source, the Universe, and since we are all part of it, its information belongs to us all and is available to each of us. On the small chance that I have spent more time seeking out information about the I Ching and ways to use it than you have and therefore may have received information which you may not have yet received, and because I want you to have as much information as possible about the I Ching, I risk this great presumption. Please overlook and forgive my immodesty. That I undertake this work at all is only because of my love for the great wisdom and my sincere desire to impart it to you.

Your humble and insignificant servant,

T he concept upon which this book is based is that the Universe is alive, conscious, and aware. By using the I Ching, we can communicate with the Universal Intelligence of which we are a part and which will guide us to better, fuller lives, filled with abundance and well-being. That we can control our destinies and that we can, by taking the appropriate action, enjoy a lifetime of great good fortune and supreme success are the basic assumptions upon which this book is written.

I strongly recommend the use of yarrow stalks in conjunction with I Ching divination. All other methods of divination using the I Ching are, at best, poor substitutes for the use of yarrow stalks, the original method. I have given complete instructions on how to use yarrow stalks in my books The I Ching: The Book of Answers and The I Ching Workbook, published by Power Press. Yarrow stalks are also available through the publisher (see copyright page or the products page at the end of the book for more information).

In this book, the word Universe is capitalized to acknowledge its greatness, its uniqueness, and its complete originality, but other words used to refer to the Universe, such as it, are not capitalized because that practice seems to detract from the flow of thought.

Available from your favorite neighborhood and online bookstores:

Be Who You Want, Have What You Want: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
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Meditation on the Perfect You
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The Little Book of Secrets: Gentle Wisdom for Joyful Living
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Zen and the Art of Happiness
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The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery
By Chris Prentiss, Trade Paperback, $15.95; Audio, 10 CDs, $39.95

The I Ching: The Book of Answers, New Revised Edition
The Profound and Timeless Classic of Universal Wisdom By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $15.95

A Tale of the I Ching: How the Book of Changes Began
An Enchanted Journey into the Origins and Inner Workings of the I Ching
By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $10.95

I Ching Wisdom: Guidance from the Book of Answers, Vol. I New Revised Edition
Practical Insights for Creating a Life of Success and Good Fortune By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $12.95

I Ching Wisdom: More Guidance from the Book of Answers, Vol. II, New Revised Edition
Universal Keys for Creating Peace, Prosperity, Love, and Happiness By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $12.95

I Ching Readings: Interpreting the Answers, New Revised Edition
Getting Clear Direction from the Ancient Book of Wisdom By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $14.95

I Ching Life: Becoming Your Authentic Self, New Revised Edition
By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $12.95

I Ching Workbook: New Revised Edition
The entire text of The I Ching: The Book of Answers and 100 workbook pages to record your answers.
By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $19.95

I Ching Gift Set
The entire text of The I Ching: The Book of Answers + 7 yarrow stalks By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $39.95

I Ching Workbook Deluxe Gift Set
The entire text of The I Ching: The Book of Answers and 100 workbook pages to record your answers + 10 yarrow stalks, sandalwood incense, Auroshikha incense holder, and silk I Ching cloth.
By Wu Wei, Trade Paperback, $49.95

50 Yarrow Stalks from China
Handpicked by farmers in northeast China specifically for use with the I Ching
(50) 7 yarrow stalks, $19.95
(50) 10 yarrow stalks, $22.95

Published by Power Press
www.PowerPressPublishing.com

Bookstores, please contact SCB Distributors toll free at 800-729-6423.
Tel: 310-532-9400. Fax: 310-532-7001.
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Website: www.scbdistributors.com

For foreign and translation rights, contact Nigel J. Yorwerth. E-mail:

A Brief History
of the I Ching

T housands of years ago, before the dawn of written history, legend has it that there lived a great Chinese sage known as Fu Hsi (pronounced foo shee). He is credited with leading the Chinese people from the age of hunting and fishing into the age of agriculture. As you can imagine, that was a long, long time agosix thousand years at the earliest, and, more likely, ten thousand.

A man of enormous intellect whose psychic channels were obviously open, Fu Hsi drew forth from the Universe, over a period of time, a perfect mathematical model of itself, complete with all its conditions and stages of changethe sixty-four six-line symbols that the Chinese call the kua and that make up the I Ching. The complete story of how I believe Fu Hsi formulated his model can be found in my book