Coaching
Teaching is my passion, as it probably is the passion of some of us who feel a profound admiration for Confucius. It is said that Confucius, who studied the I Ching throughout his entire life, tried to educate the Princes of China on ethics as well as on the proper use of the of the I Ching as an Oracle (no doubt scholars would disagree with me, but I believe the I Ching to be both, an Oracle as well as a book of ethics and that one cannot be separated from the other). Some skeptics would say that Confucius failed because the bickering and the fighting amongst the princes as they tried to dominate one another did not allow him to complete his goal. However; whether he was successful or not, is not the point. The point is he gave his entire life to the teaching of ethics so that men might transcend. And that is all we can ever aspire to do.
There are three things I love to teach: 1) to invest with the use of technical analysis where the Ying Yang relation is easy to visualize (Stochastics, Moving Averages Convergence Divergence, Parabolic SAR, etc); 2) to invest with the I Ching and search for CEOs who have the Mandate of Heaven (in particular Modesty); and 3) to practice the Guarding of the Mind-Heart with the Philokalia (the most difficult and the one I feel the least qualified to teach and yet the one that is of the utmost importance in today’s world).
In the last 46 years that I have been studying the I Ching, I have spent countless hours helping people (ad honorem) make the right choice with the help of the Oracle. My greatest happiness comes from helping people make the right choice and benefit from the I Ching’s guidance. Not only in the choosing of the positive but also in the avoiding of the negative. To set up a business that the Oracle has recommend as “Good Fortune” and seeing how the investor is rewarded by carrying out his project, is of itself a great reward. But just as important, seeing an investor keep away from an investment which the Oracle warns will bring “Misfortune” is also a great reward. Nothing saddens me more than to see an investor execute a project that the Oracle has advised him against. To see a person lose his capital as well as his time makes me feel I have failed in teaching him properly – even though I do recognize that some investors are so in love with their own opinions that they would rather suffer terrible pains than listen to the wise advice of such an ancient Oracle. To see an engineer build the building of his dreams and then lose his wealth as his project runs into a deep recession and the bank takes it away from him, to see a restaurateur set up a restaurant and lose his investment because he set it up in the wrong place and at the wrong time, to see an industrialist expand his plant when the Oracle advised him he could not handle a larger project and fail miserably, or to see hundreds of arrogant people who felt they were above the need to have the mandate of Heaven try to go against the Judgment of Heaven and see their dreams crush against their own fate, is very sad indeed.
Perhaps the first thing to learn is that nothing happens on Earth if it is not first decreed in Heaven. And the second is that there is a different fate if you change your Feng Shui (Wind Water). Why build the building of your dreams in Miami when the Oracle tells you Heaven decreed there will be Misfortune? Why not build it in San Francisco where the Oracle tells you Heaven decreed there will be Good Fortune – where your fate will encounter the proper Wind Water? Why set up your restaurant on Brickell Avenue when the Oracle tells you Heaven decreed to set it up on Collins Avenue? Why live in Paris when Heaven decreed your Good Fortune is in London? Everyone can change his fortune for the better if he changes his Wind Water.
In my 36 years of a Financial Advisor, I have worn two hats – the hat of the classic financial advisor who has followed the guidance of the research departments of the financial institutions I have worked for, and the hat of interpreter of the Oracle’s Judgments as to what to invest in. I must say I have found the “Heavenly” I Ching’s advise to be much superior to any “Earthly” research I have known. And more importantly, I have found that those who invest with the help of the Oracle always end up asking about the ethics of the oracle so that they may apply it in their lives.
There is a wonderful story about a monk who was walking down a road. He found a beggar, stopped, handed him over a diamond, all the wealth the monk possessed, and continued on his journey. After a while, the monk heard the voice of someone calling him. As he turned, he discovered it was the beggar who was asking him to exchange the diamond for something the monk possessed. The surprised monk told the beggar he had nothing else to give him. But the beggar insisted saying he wanted from the monk “whatever it was” that made him hand out the only possession he had. The I Ching as an oracle can make us rich if we ask of it to give us information about the future of the best growth and value stocks. But the I Ching as a book of ethics can make us wiser and set us on our WAY to become better ( or Superior Men as the I Ching calls them) if we ask the Oracle it to give us “whatever it is” that made it hand over the only possession it had.
That is why, as the years go by, I have lost interest in meeting investors who are only interested in investing. In the last few years, I have been looking for investors who would like to both learn how to invest with the I Ching (as the ultimate Financial Advisor) as well as to study it as a book of ethics. That is, to study it as a book of self improvement and apply it to their lives so that they might become better persons. I am looking for investors who would like to contribute with the I Ching Investment Community (ICIC) by sharing their experiences with the Oracle.
I must say that one of the Hexagrams we must closely study is No. 60 Limitations. Persons, corporations and nations must set limitations. Without limitations, we would overspend and overreach, both of which are the main causes for the demise of arrogant and ignorant CEO’s careers and the destruction of their corporations. And because I believe in limitations, I have been forced to accept that I cannot teach so many as I used to. I have been forced to limit my teaching efforts to the many investors I have known for many years. However, be not discouraged. Every once in a while, there are some who write to me with an urgent need to make a key decision and then I have no choice but to help. So if you are humble, patient, understand and respect my limitations, and feel you need my help, please do write to me.
