Wisdom in a Time of Revolution

          "When talk of revolution has gone the rounds

                    three times, 

                    One may commit to it."

                                  --  I Ching, Hexagram 49

The wise and ancient I Ching, one of several Chinese wisdom treatises (such as the Art of War), does not discount religious books like The Bible, Torah, or Koran. Instead, it is philosophical, a meditation on cycles of government and life.
      Hexagram 49 describes the stages a government must go through before there is a moment of action when Revolution can bring "supreme success." (So, too, in our personal lives.)  For change to be successful, conditions must be right.  If change isn't carefully pondered and wisely approached only when the time is right, it can lead to chaos -- like "a bull in a china shop." 

     The Revolution in Cairo's Tahrir Square exactly four years ago when hundreds of thousands of protesters clashed with police as they had been since 2011, resulted in Egypt now being a police state that has imprisoned not only protesters and politicians, but also reporters from other countries.  Similarly, an attempted coup in Turkey resulted in a fierce crackdown, with officials and intellectuals still being arrested.

      As the I Ching advises, there is always conflict in human life, just as in natural seasonal
changes. The I Ching explains how to let our superior self (the best self in each of us) guide our actions. We need this "leader of character" (not the autocrat) within us, as well as in government, for order and clarity to prevail. 

       Masters of meditation, sages and philosophers spent their lives contemplating these principles. It may take years to grasp, but the I Ching (like other ancient Chinese texts) is a source of wisdom for navigating life's challenges, and understanding global events.

       In this time of Revolution, it is critical to have leaders who consider concerns of all people, not autocrats who rigidly clamp down as happened in Egypt and Turkey. And it is crucial that government backlash and indifference to protests does not make us apathetic, as was the case in 2003 when, in spite of protests and the advice of countless scholars and historians, the United States initiated a war that has resulted in innumerable repercussions.