Chapter 1: a general map

BACK to drawing board! The info below (in the blockquote) makes me think I need to do a lot more reading, research on I-ching before i can even write the first paragraph. I will be scrapping para 2 and do this research. But I can write down my general map. SKip to below the quoted part to read about the events of the first chapter.

Reading the I Ching involves casting coins or yarrow stalks to build a series of 6 lines called a "hexagram". Each line is either Yin (the passive or feminine force) or Yang (the active or masculine force). The resulting hexagram is then looked up in the I Ching itself, to yield a passage describing what each of the 6 lines means. There are 64 possible hexagrams, each of which can be further broken down into groups of 3 lines called "trigrams". One of the most fascinating aspects of I Ching readings is that each line in the present hexagram may be old, indicating that it is about to change from Yin to Yang or vice versa - by inverting each of these changing lines, we can generate a hexagram depicting the immediate future. Key: Lines are numbered from 1 at the bottom to 6 at the top. Divided lines are Yin and undivided lines are Yang. Black lines are new (unchanging) and gray lines are old (changing). Interpretation: I Ching readings can be challenging to interpret, precisely because they paint a very complete picture of the situation. Notably, each of the 6 lines of the reading describes a specific individual, and the outcome of their endeavor. This is what makes the I Ching so unique and powerful - where Tarot or Runes may give you an understanding of your circumstances, the I Ching actually gives you an understanding of your OPTIONS. You will find the I Ching easier to interpret if you consider that it was written in ancient China, and think of the more peculiar expressions in that context. For example, our favorite anachronistic term is "efficacious tortoise" - a reference to the food of a wealthy man, similar to the meaning of "live Maine lobster" to many modern Americans. Translation: The most commonly used English translation of the I Ching (also known as the Yi Jing) was by Cary Baynes in 1951, from a German translation by Richard Wilhelm in 1923 - though very poetic and beautiful to read, it suffers not only from being a translation of a translation, but from Wilhelm's infusion of Christian values into the Confuscian text. To avoid these problems, the version of the I Ching we use is based on the oldest scholarly English translation, by James Legge in 1882 (and yes, our version IS protected by copyright). The grammar and spelling has been modernized slightly, but the words and meaning are very true to the original Chinese text. For example, you will note many references to a "superior man", "proper conduct", "looking above", or "looking below" - the ageless Chinese concepts of formal role within society and of the specific behavior appropriate to that role.

Chapter 1 PARAPHRASED:

Instead of talking about Taipei and Barbados (the club), we are going to go to talk about the history behind Javed's tattoo... the one that is itching and tingling after his 12 minute suntan. It happened in Victoria BC during a late afternoon/early evening. Javed meets a cute waitress in a restaurant (sushi?) where he is having a late lunch (which is basically dinner) and convinces her to sit with him. She is foreign student working illegally at her distance relative's friend's restaurant. Javed is too young for her, but he is cute, so she tells his fortune as a way to hold his hand. She has no idea what she is doing, so she makes up a lot of gibberish based on the fact that his hands are cold: He should move to a hot country... or go into business making chocolates - all stuff that would be better suited to his best friend Bruce. He accuses her of being a fraud and she decided to take him to a real fotune teller... not ready to let him go yet, but regretting she started all this fortune telling nonsense.

They go to place behind a Chinese medicine shop.... past dried deer antlers, powdered tiger testicles, bear gall bladders, snake bile and all sorts of bitter smelling powders and potions. Little old bespectacled man in white T-shirt. On the table in front of him are volumes of books with characters and charts that look kind of like dictionaries, a student's study lamp and a magnifying glass. He is sipping fragrant tea from thimble sized cup. The place is littered with such cups, little teapots, jars of dry rice, etc etc. He asks about preferred method of prophesy... (Wonder if being able to tell future and using more than one method makes you master of none? I know some tellers in TAiwan use a method of counting grains of rice). Javed opts for the I-ching reading.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM... it would seem that I need to do more research on fortune telling and the I-ching. When I go to Vancouver, I will have to visit Chinatown to find out what methods are available, how I-ching is done (have a reading done to see what it is like). I also would need a teller to tell me what could be derived from the 26th hexagram... Need to fill in the past (the upside down hexagram?) too. I would hate it if some reader who knows about the I-ching were to say the details were completely ridiculous and unauthentic. Unfortunately all my fortune telling experiences were not using I-ching.

Anyway, Javed gets the reading... the teller fills in some wierd details of his past: some parts are bizarrely accurate and some parts are too wierd to be true... about people who know him, but he doesn't know, plotting and deception at home. Things about his sibling (he doesn't have any) and other stuff. Still skeptical, he laughs... and then something happens (I will tell you what after I have researched the I-ching and the significance of the first line more carefully). It is a little creepy that the first prophesy has already come true... and only within minutes of leaving the shop.

He dumps the girl and goes to tattoo parlor to have the charachter printed into his flesh. Actually, he has trouble remembering numbers. He now wants to remember the prophesy, but is afraid of confusing the 26th with the 62nd or some such thing. He decides to tattoo the characters though instead of the number 26. . (Incidentatlly, to those from countries other than mainland China, the characters have little meaning as the second character is not commonly in use. It rather looks like the meaningless characters that Westerners tattoo to themselves because it looks cool... or the weird English slogan's young Japanese girls wear emblazoned across their T-shirts).

Then he drops by his best friend's resturant/bar to have a drink and recount his bizarre story. At this point Lan Cho walks into the bar... but we don't recognize her yet. Bruce follows her and Javed is left to his own devices. He slips behind the bar to help Bruce and chats with a visiting South African residing in Barbados... before the night is over, he has received a business proposal that will change his future.

Flash back to the present where Javed has completed his workout and is leaving the gym... He stops for breakfast as Lan Cho is herding a group of Japanese tourists into a hotel... There is a flash of ??? (not quite recognistion, but something)....

NEXT SCENE: Azeeza... She is receiving a prophesy of a different sort from her insipid lover... They are having lazy morning drinking coffee in hotel room. "And after I get out of her, I'm gonna... and you can... And we will.... etc"