Customer Reviews

I Ching Wisdom: Guidance from the Book of Changes

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This is a superb collection of insights taken from the I Ching. I have enjoyed all of Wu Wei's works on The Book of Changes, but this is my favorite. Many times, I have randomly turned to a passage and found that it helped me with my current predicament. I highly recommend this book.

In the tradition of great Chinese philosophies such as Taoism and Confucianism, this little book is profound in its simplicity. The author has selected passages from the I Ching and then added his comments and insights on each saying. He has accompanied these with delightful Chinese ink drawings done in the Zen style.

This book is full of inspiring wisdom to live by! This tiny book is the perfect back pocket companion. I use this book daily!

Wu-Wei provides a neat text on living principles from the I Ching. I did like how he made it very accessable and light hearted. I don't like it when other authors take Oriental philosophy too seriously. Wu-Wei makes the I Ching principles easy to digest and easy to live by in the modern world.

The guidance of whoever it is that styles him (or her) self as "wu wei" (the well-known Chinese ideogram for unforced action in living, most famous in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, and which never, by the way, appears in the I Ching itself) has become popular for reasons that still escape me. Perhaps he has something to say to Westerners who are new to the Tao and to the I Ching, with his rather simplistic voice and direction, or perhaps he strikes a resonant chord with his practical examples and earthy language, which are indeed admirable in his approach. However, the point is that there are far more insightful and engaging translations, commentaries, and expositions on the I Ching available. So if you wish to use the oracle as a guide to living a successful human life by learning to work from the inner plane of being so that no effort or struggle is required on the outer plane (which is, after all, the essence of "wu wei"), I would recommend Carol Anthony's work in particular (her "Guide to the I Ching" is best for those new to the I Ching, and her newer "I Ching: The Oracle of the Cosmic Way", written with Hanna Moog, for those with past experience with the I Ching). Wu wei's work, however, is simplistic and derivative, and can only really serve the curious and the superficial, for this writer's approach to the I Ching is rather on the scale of a tabloid newspaper's daily horoscope is to astrology.