9. "Then what is wrong with seeking the truths to be found in all lands, as the followers of an eclectic path would do?"
   
   
   
   
   

   Nothing, except that the eclectic approach is often a shallow one which imitates the outward forms without understanding the spirit in which those forms are made. If you would use the I Ching as the Chinese do, you must see it through Chinese, and not Western eyes. You must study their customs, literature, history, religion, and other aspects of their culture in enough detail so that you can understand their point of view as it appears from within.
   
   If the gods contacted the people of China through the I Ching, I won't be stunned by this revelation. But when did they do so, and why? What was the deeper significance of the contact?
   
   Let us consider another example, by way of illustration.
   
   Some who have heard of them, say that they wish that they had copies of the Sybelline books. But to use them to predict this week's Lotto numbers would go past sacrilege straight into hubris, and I hope that the one who did so, would understand why I wouldn't want to stand next to him during thunderstorms. Those books were allegedly present to help the gods guide the people through times of crisis, not to make life easier for the lazy. To simply use 'magic', as some would call the many forms of prayer, as a technology, without understanding its meaning, is to trivialise it, and to seek to make slaves of the gods themselves.
   
   I doubt that they will prove obliging.
   
   To return to the example of the I Ching, has one taken the time to understand the philosophy behind it well enough to understand why it is supposed to work, to have a feel for why it might work now, and to make sure that one's purposes are worthy ones, in the eyes of those whose aid one seeks?







10. "But isn't that going to take more time than most people have?"
    
    
    
    
    

    If you make a habit of appropriating the customs of every culture that you come across, yes. That is one reason why we choose a path rooted in a culture related to that we grew up in. It is far easier for us to connect to it. When one seeks to borrow from other cultures, one can easily be tripped up by the assumptions that one doesn't know about, and there will be many.
    
    

    For example, as we see in one article on this site, a shift in a few cultural assumptions leaves us unable to understand the significance of even a simple narrative.
    
    Imagine the confusion if you should blindly leap into a complex aspect of Chinese culture. Or worse - native American, which developed so independently of the West, that when the Vikings arrived, there had been no connection to that of those who settled the Western world, since prior to the last Ice Age.
    
    Still feel so comfortable with the casual use of the I Ching or with your understanding of what it may represent? Or with the non-native use of sweat lodges? If you're not going to take the time to understand the meaning of what you're doing, please don't do it. Show those other cultures a little respect.
    
    Every culture has a thousand small assumptions which those from others won't know to take for granted. Imitate those outward forms without immersing yourself in the culture you borrow from, and your own very different assumptions will twist their meanings into ones different from those intended.

We continue ...