Most Helpful Customer Reviews
98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, Authentic, Literate, Clear, Simple, Easy To Use, July 17, 2001
This review is from: The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life's Turning Points (Paperback)
The I Ching, an oracle that has guided many Chinese for the last three thousand years, is a challenge to the Western mind. We understand things through causes, but the I Ching operates apparently in an acausal or synchronistic way causing Westerners who consult it to be frankly often astonished at the uncanny coincidence between the question asked and the answer received. C G Jung was himself vastly impressed with it and wrote the foreword to Princeton's Bollingen Series edition of the work. But that edition, like so many others, is so complex, confusing and unintelligible that I have often thought the oracle worked by means of the very confusion, by the presentation of an amorphous surface upon which our subconscious mind projects the intuited answer - much like divination through tea leaves, wax droppings, clouds, swirled wine, smoke, mirrors, crystal balls or the innards of slaughtered sheep. Walker's translation or paraphrase or simplification, call it what you will, belies that. Gone is the obscurity and illiteracy; and still one may find the same uncanny results. The Western mind will have to ponder on to solve the secret. In Walker's work the essential meaning of the 64 hexagrams and of each of their 6 possible "changing lines" is clearly presented in less than two short pages per hexagram. A three-page introduction, a page and a half of instructions, and a chart of the hexagrams (conveniently repeated at the end) complete the book in the simplest fashion possible. There are no complex explanations or theorizing, no history, no multiplication of commentaries, and no cheapening adaptations. Production values are high; the color and quality of the cover and the paper stock are excellent. There may be hundreds of versions of this book, but of the several dozen I have seen, this is the best text for a combination of beauty, fluency, clarity, fidelity to the original, and facility of use.
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE book to begin with!, April 11, 2002
This review is from: The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life's Turning Points (Paperback)
I'm sad I had to find this book at [a local store] before I saw it here! (This book didn't come up in my Amazon searches for "I Ching" when I searched the first time.) In any case, I first encountered this book at my local library while doing some general browsing. For someone who had not previously studied the I Ching before, it was easy, accessible, and devoid of any difficult esoteric philosophies to comb through while utilizing this absolutely valuable tool. If you are looking for a great, simple book to begin your education in the I Ching, I absolutely recommend this book. With this book and three cents, you have the keys to the wisdom of the universe! (An exageration, perhaps, but the book is THAT easy to grasp and use. At the same time, it's THAT profound. Use the I Ching's wisdom, or ignore it--at your peril.)
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly wise, accessible volume, September 5, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life's Turning Points (Paperback)
Okay, I'll admit it. I've tried several times over the years to understand the traditional translations of the I Ching, like the Wilhelm/Baynes. Frankly, they're much too steeped in ancient Chinese cultural thinking for me to understand. And I think I'm a pretty smart fellow. Brian Browne Walker's translation is amazing. I find it to be a tremendously helpful oracle. The wisdom contained in this translation is a great testament to Walker, and of course to the ancient Chinese authors. This book has helped me countless times. It never ceases to be an aid to me in times of confusion. I'm not sure *how* it works--but it does! This is one of the most helpful books I own.
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