If Adam knows I-Ching, he would not have sinned

As I continued in my deeper study and interpretation of the Classic Chinese Classic, I-Ching, I continued to be amazed by its teachings. See also Chinese Classics and the Bible.

Today I just finished the 40th Hexagram 40解 Freed – Get with Decisive Actions.
Here is a short summary of what it teaches.


Summary of the Teaching of 40 Freed:

I. Freedom is obtained by

1. quick decisive actions, not impulsive actions, of breaking free from dangers
2. staying away from danger
3. seeking the interests of the masses, and
4. forgiving others.

Freedom is about being freed to do good and righteous things and bringing blessings to all. see From "Freedom From" to "Freedom For" & In

II. The additional teaching from the 6 Stage-Lines are: (This is really studying by precept by precept and line upon line ....!)

  1. Differences are harmonized. No Issue.
  2. Straight wins against the crooked. Righteousness brings good fortune.
  3. Show-off brings regrets.
  4. Stay away from bad companies and have trustworthy true friends.
  5. Wise and objective(prejudices free) thinking keeps the office-politics away.
  6. Get rid of the bad and rebellious influences to stay free. Fire the bad leader.

Of course, Adam could not have benefited from the study of I-Ching for I-Ching was compiled after him. Here are a few teachings that impressed me (It is exactly the same as the teachings of the Bible).

Freedom is not about doing anything that you like. Freedom is about keeping away from dangers and temptations! Adam and Eve should stay away from temptations.

Freedom is also about forgiveness. In the original Chinese text, the pictorial commentary states that "Wise men forgive wrongdoing and pardon sins". If we want to be truly free, we must forgive others who have wronged us. Otherwise, we will be in bondage of bitterness and hatred. We could not be free then.

Freedom requires us to rid our minds of prejudices and biases so that we can be objective and think clearly. We will not be fooled by the bad companies, the people who play political games, and the rebellious people.

Freedom is also about taking decisive actions as early as possible to rid the community of such bad influences.


Compare with the Bible:

I.1-2 1Pet 2:16  Live like free people and do not use your freedom as an excuse for doing evil. Instead, be God's servants.

I.1-2 Gal 5:13  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

I.3 1Co 9:19  For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

For more, see Chinese Classics and the Bible

Building Successful Family & Organization according to I-Ching

As I continue my work in interpreting the Top Classics of Chinese Wisdom, the "I-Ching", I am constantly amazed by the teaching.

Let's take the common topic of family. There is a hexagram in I-Ching that is called exactly by the name "Family" or more precisely "Members of Family". It is hexagram 37 家人.

Hexagram 37 of I-Ching is about “Family“. (See the complete list.)
The teaching is summarized as follows:

• Ladies are in charge of family or home affairs. Men are responsible for external affairs, the career and business.
• Each member of the family must know and play their roles well so that the whole family can prosper in wholeness. Subsequently, the society will be at peace.
• Disciplines are the responsibilities of parents. They can get help but can not outsource to grand parents, maids or teachers completely.

Wisdom from the Stage Lines:

1. Orderliness brings leisure.
2. Play your role well.
3. Discipline must be exercised strictly.
4. Shared Goals and Harmonious Family brings great blessings
5. Extend your concept of family to organization and to society.
6. Trust is the glue that brings continued blessing.

The steps for building successful family and of organization are clearly layout. Trust begins with order, execution of the right roles, monitoring for conformance, ensuring shared goals, extending the family boundary into workplace and succeeds with propagation of trust.

Journey of Life - Victory or Defeat?

Let's begin with the mind-map below:

The life we are living now is the sum result of the past decisions we made. The decisions we made were based on our thinking and values that we experienced and acquired. Our beliefs influence our thoughts, then our words, then our actions. Continued and repeated actions bring forth a habit. A set of habits make our character. Our character determines our destiny of our life be it a glorious one or a defeated and troubled one.

We cannot change the past, but we can make wise decision now to influence the outcomes of our future.

Working Backwards
So, if our desired destination of life is success and victorious, then we must work backward all the way to the basic beliefs we have. What do we belief actually determines the our becoming. If we learned the truth then we have freedom and success. If we believe in lies, then we end up in bondage and suffering.

Re-examine Our Beliefs
What are our beliefs? What are our world views? On what basis do we know we have the truth and not the lies? For Christians, our answers must be the Bible as written words of God and of Truth. We also need the Holy Spirit to be our guide and to make the Words come alive so that we can be lead and know the right things to to do for the situations of life that we meet.

Practice makes Perfect
Knowing without putting in practice results in nothing. Practice begin with meditating on the Words and revelation by the Holy Spirit. This is follow by verbalizing of our understanding by writing or speaking out. Then we must have a plan of actions for execution. Actions need to be repeated often to form a habit that we do without needing the reminder and the effort. However, we must put in the effort first before it becomes an effortless and automatic thing. In the process of execution, we discover our lack of understanding, or we make errors so that we can go back to the drawing board again to learn from the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

Unintentional Learning
In our daily contact with others, internet, TV programs and commercials, we are constantly bombarded with all kinds of concepts that we acquire almost without effort. The subtle messages get in into our mind. Hence we need frequently to re-examine our beliefs, biases, assumptions, prejudices etc against the Bible and Holy Spirit. We need to prune our thoughts in our mind and throw out the lies accumulated. Read John 15 about pruning by the Father so that we can produce more fruits.

It is not Lack of Blessings but Plain Disobedience
We often blame God for our failures or lack of blessings. But the truth is actually either our lack of knowledge of the Word of God or our failure to put them into practice. We give excuses instead of simple obedience by faith. God give promises to us. But God promises are realized in our lives through our obedience. Some are easy. Some takes time to develop. Getting things are easy. Building Godly character and producing the fruit of the Spirit take time. Patience can only be seen in meeting up with difficult and nasty people. Boldness is shown in meeting threatening circumstances.

See also

1. Know Your Season of Life and  
2. Christian Transformation & Growth -The Unified Model
3. Where is Our Confidence? 
4. Five Habits for Effective Christian Living
5. Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey

Freedom and Responsibility

In last week Bible Study Group meeting, we discussed Galatians 5 Freedom & Fruit. Some of the key learning are:

1. By faith, we received Jesus Christ who freed us from the bondage of sin to enable us to love and glorify God.
2. Freedom comes with responsibility - we have to be responsible for the outcomes of the choices we made.
3. "Faith working through love" - Faith in Jesus and working out the Christ in us through love.
4. Be Spirit centered and focus on the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace etc rather than focus on not sinning. Focus on self and trying not to sin will lead to defeat. Focus on the Spirit and the fruit instead.

We tend to fight for Freedom and at the same time we don't want to be held accountable for the outcomes. Freedom without accountability only leads to negligence and destruction. We are so quick to blame others, the society and the government, for the errors we made or for not stopping or helping us to fix our errors! We consider all forms of rules as restriction to our freedom but in truth, the rules are there to help us take better care of ourselves.


True freedom is not without responsibilities and rules. 

True freedom has two aspects:

1. Ability to act for Good: is the ability and rights to do the right things. 
2. Freedom from Bondage: not be in bondage by bad things such as drugs or lusts. 

We are freed to do good and be truly alive in health and strength. We don't waste time in thinking about how not to sin but go after the fruit of the Spirit, things that are beautiful and build others up.