Dude Ching or I Dude?

[meekon5]

From another thread:

If we're co-opting Taoist literature how about a Dudeist I Ching?

I use to do modern interpretations of the Wilhelm translation calling it "Tea With Mr Ching".

I've got a few translations of the I Ching. If I leave the Confusious comentaries out for the moment.

Unfortunatly I can't do it from the original Chinese.

Damn I think I've made a rod for my own back here. 

OK, I've already started. I've done a simple conversion of the coin method of pattern creation using oat soda tops.

Is this the point when I should perhaps begin another thread?

So here it is.

I have a long history of studying and using the I Ching and in discussion last week suggested a Dudest version.

Not thinking about it I was of course inadvertently volunteering myself to have a go.

As I said I have contemplated (in the bath) and have already achieved a simple conversion of the coin method of casting.

An important question though is that of the title.

The Dude Ching (properly pronounced Dude Jing , or King)

Or

The I Dude (again properly pronounced Ye Dude)?

[greatspiritmonk]

Tao Te Ching = Tao Dude Ching

I Ching = Dude Ching

[meekon5]

greatspiritmonk it could be just you and me in this, but thanks for the support.

I'm working on some of the graphics at the moment.

I finished the oat soda top pictures this morning on the train.

Example:



Explaination will be in the text.

And am looking at lines and hexagrams this week.

then will bend my powers to the text.

[meekon5]

Can i count this as my dissertation for my Ph.Dude?

[greatspiritmonk]

I'm sure we are not the only ones. The I Ching is an interesting matter, only that as a lot of Eastern things has become too complicated. Everyone needs answers sometime and this would be a good way.

What do you think of I Dude Ching? 

[meekon5]

I think I've more or less settled with "The Dude Ching", the book usually has the subtitle “The book of changes”.

I've studied and used the text for many years now.

I have copies of the Legge, Wilhelm, and Wing translations amongst others that I have owned for years.

At the moment I have three versions in my bag and I don't know how many variants in digital on an usb stick.

One of my favourite tricks is to re-work a spreadsheet to do the casting for me.

As a young twenty year old my chief accountant was always very amused by one passage from the text something about there being no fish in the bag. He thought that was very funny.

I see what you’re saying about complication. I'm tempted to strip it all down to the lines and hexagrams and see if I can get a meaningful Dudeist text from that. I was tempted to have parallel columns with the Dudeist and Wilhelm translation in them.

This is turning out to be a big task. It was easy producing sixty four pictures for the Hexegrams, it’s looking at the text that is giving me a headache.

Example:

[greatspiritmonk]

Well, it seems that you have the frame of reference to do the job. What always prevented me from learning I Ching was their complexity, which is right as life is a little complicated. What I love instead of Tao Te Ching is that it is only 81/84 chapters, depending on the version.

You could stick to a maximum of three sentences for every hexegram, both for Dudeist and regular explanation. At the end we are the ones with a single approach to life, taking 'er easy, so it fits perfectly that we simplify I Ching. And I'm sure that 2000 years ago it was simpler.

[meekon5]

I thought attempt to reduce each hexagram to a Dudeist Haiku then expand a bit.

[greatspiritmonk]

Right, I reviewed my copy and it's too complicated from a Dudeist point of view. I think you are on the right way. 

[meekon5]

Did quiet a bit of work on the trigrams last week, looking at equivalents and trying to translate into Dudeism.

I'm looking at trying to re-work the trigrams to then pass that back into the main hexagram texts.

[greatspiritmonk]

I'm sure at the end it will be worth all your efforts. Go on Dude.

[meekon5]

Right I have an entire week off, so will be putting some real effort into this instead of just trying to do bits on the trian on the way  into work and back.

[meekon5]

OK I was going to do a side by side style (Dude vs Original) but I have constructed lots of bits I'll put in appendices for those that can give a toss, but am nearly there with trigrams (attributing Dudeist symbols) and line placings in Dudeist parlance so I can begin reinterpreting the actual hexagrams.

[greatspiritmonk]

Seems a lot of job, are you sur you want to do it?

[meekon5]

Too late Dude I'm on the way.

Actually it's really good as a spiritual practice because I am having to think about the text and elements in ways I rarely do. Ususally I take the easy way out and just look at the main body of the text, but this way I am stripping it back to it's essential elements and really looking at how the text is built up.

It's giving me new levels of insight into the book I haven't had before.

I've finished the trigrams more or less and am working on the lines. I have already got some work on this bit:

See it's taken me quite a bit of time to compile this data from my many sources to begin a proper adaptation.

I will include a lot of these notes as appendices just because they are interesting to me.

You see I am essentially re-building the whole thing from scratch. Oh and I am doing all the illustrations and diagrams myself as well.

(yes i do spend a lot of time on trains with very little to do  )