The Flame on Mt. Everest and Wisdom of 易 (Yi)
Posted on May 9, 2008 by xiaoyao2
Dear Friends,
- Qomolangma ?
image from pictures.traveladventures.org
That is Mount Everest in Tibetan Language. 珠穆郎玛峰(zhu mu lang ma) is a direct translation in Chinese.
- Qomo means “Goddess” and “langma” means “the Third”. This is because there are 4 peaks in the neighbourhood, Qomolangma is the third peak. It is the most sacred mountain to Tibetans.
Qomolangma is at the border of China and Nepal, the Northern slope is in China while the Southern slope is in Nepal. In 1953, on May 29 at 11.30 am, climbing from the Southern slope, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men ever to reach the top of the world, at 8,848 meters above sea-level.
On May 8, 2008, 19 torch-bearers reached the top of Qomolangma. Yes 19 of them !. Actually about 100 made it there, to carry all equipments for direct TV transmission of the Torch relay.
Here are the two videos showing the feat at that historic moment :
If you think about the challenges confronting all climbers in conquering Qomolangma, then such a feat involving so many climbers all at the same time is all the more incredible.
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Every host country will bring the Olympic Flame to spots where she is most proud of. Australia brought the Flame down to the Great Coral Reef.
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So China wanted to bring the Flame to the top of Qomolangma. It is madness. But then again greatness comes from many “mad” ideas. To the careful eyes, the feat tells us the rise of a super-power. It involves technology, skilled human resources, complex organizational skill, will power and of course, money.
There are a lot of subtle messages in the Torch Relay to Qomolangma. We can understand this via the wisdom of “易” (yi). 易 is the wisdom contained within the Book of Change (”易经”, Yi Jing) . Pls refer to postings Pre-Conditions (先天八卦) (1) ,Pre-Conditions (先天八卦) (2) and Post-Conditions (後天八卦) for some basic concept of Gua systems.
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1. Mountain is represented by Gen Gua (艮卦) and Fire is represented by Li Gua (離卦). Bringing a Flame to the top of a mountain creates a 旅卦 (Lü Gua), i.e. Lü Gua is formed by Li Gua on top of Gen Gua under the 64 Gua System.
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離卦 
艮卦- “旅” (Lü) means “journey/travel”. Wisdom of “traveling” is to take the proper roads, no short cuts, back alleys etc. That will prevent the traveler from trouble. So China is on the rise, it wants to take the proper and legitimate routes to achieve this., no matter how challenging the journey is.
- 離 (Li) is Fire, representing light, means understanding right from wrong. 艮 (Gen) is Mountain, representing solidness/impartiality, means decisions/actions are taken after careful and fair judgement. Therefore, with “Light” guiding the “decision making” process, Chinese wants to tell the world about “旅” nature of its mind and actions.
- In a situation where the enemy has to travel over long distances, 旅卦 suggests that the defender should sit tight while the enemy exhausts its supplies. China is telling foreigners and Tibetans that Tibet is part of China within its embrace, “don’t waste your time” trying to achieve otherwise.
The combination of various elements of the feat also illustrated the wisdom of 泰卦 (Tai Gua), which has 坤卦 (Kun Gua) above 乾卦(Qian Gua).
乾卦 
坤卦 
- Kun Gua is “All Yin” and Qian Gua is “All Yang”. Now one of the characteristics of “all Yin” is “descending” and that of “all Yang” is “ascending”. Therefore when Kun is above Qian, then there is maximum interaction as Yin Qi descends and Yang Qi ascends. The result is harmony.
- The exact opposite is a 否卦(Bi Gua), which has 乾卦(Qian Gua) above 坤卦 (Kun Gua). In this case Yang Qi moves upwards and Yin Qi moves downwards, each moves separate ways without engagement and therefore a bad combination. The result is disaster.
- Cering Wangmo (次仁旺姆, a distinguished Tibetan Woman climber) was the last torch bearer, standing at the peak. She received the Flame from below, from Huang Chingui, a male climber. This is 泰卦 (Tai gua) formation.
- Also, with team coordinator Li Zhixin at Base Camp and Cering Wangmo at the summit, this is another 泰卦 (Tai gua) formation.
- Of course Cering Wangmo being the last torch bearer has other significance, it achieves the “3 sacredness” : “圣山，圣火，圣女”, i.e. “Sacred Mountain, Sacred Flame, Sacred Lady”. Cering Wangmo is the youngest woman to ever conquered Qomolangma when she was 21 two years ago. She is also the youngest in the team.
With the 旅卦 of The Sacred Flame on Qomolangma and the 泰卦 of its people consideration, the recent noises surrounding the Olympic Flame is likely to go away.
- Separately on 旅 (”journey”), a journey becomes a journey when one is too aware of it all the time, and it becomes a chore. A Journey becomes enjoyable when it is not viewed/felt as a journey, but rather home as it is. That’s another thing to take away from the wisdom of 旅卦.
- A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step (Laozi <道德经> Chapter 63/64 “…图难于其易，为大于其细；天下难事，必作于易；天下大事，必作于细…..千里之行，始于足下”.
Have fun appreciating your 旅卦 and in all things you engage in, try to organise it to fit 泰卦.
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image from Baidu.com
Cering Wangmo surrounded by teamates at the summit of Qomolangma om May 8,2008.
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Filed under: All, Cosmic Forces, Environment
That’s an interesting illustration of this leg of the Olympic Torch relay and indeed an amazing feat for the torch bearers/support crew, a feat befitting the glory of the earth greatest sports event ever. I wonder if China really calculated and considered all these GUA in planning this year’s Olympic journey.
Is this the first time the Olympic Flame reached the highest peak of the world ? Here, don’t get much coverage of this historical moment .. sad.
PS Too bad, dunno why could not see the video though.
mf :
I tried and the video website still works.
Try clicking on the “black screen” even if nothing appears. Drag the “video running” indicator button to the beginning if screen appears.
In 2006 alone, almost 20 world class climbers died on the Everest. One of the most famous, Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber, awakened alive after he was “dead” over night at about 8,700m above sea level, just about 150m from the peak. His Serpa guides tried rescuing him for hours but eventually were asked to abandon him for their own safety after he failed to show signs of life, no pulse, no response on the eyes when pricked, no nothing. An American team saw him sitting crossed legs the next morning, at the spot where he was left overnight. He greeted them :”I imagine you must be surprised to find me here! They brought him to safety, though he lost all his fingers. That’s still an incredible human feat.
And you bet China has considered far more things than those simple things I mentioned in the post.
Imagine what would happen if it was a Han Chinese holding the Torch at the Summit, or a Tibetan male at the summit? What are they going to say when it is a young and great Tibetan woman climber who stands at the peak holding up the Torch?
“泰卦” is a key consideration of current China Leadership as the country rises, both within and without the country.
Have fun.
Still no good. The website was accessible but the video only showed a cartoon guy dashing up the snowy peaks in 4 secs!
Anyway, saw in Youtube a 7min CCTV coverage of the relay, very smooth streaming access in Mandarin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YF2hRZI4hQ&feature=related
Looking at the tough weather conditions, this speaks a lot for the team who brought the torch up.
But reading some comments by other viewers, there are people who choose to believe that it was fake and even provide explanations why it couldn’t be true ! Some mentality .. and having no better things to do!
mf:
it is the same video. they made it seems so easy.
But remember, all the 19 torch-bearers in the team are very established climbers, each of them has scaled Qomolangma before, some a few times!
One of the member, Wang Yungfeng, is the only man on Earth who has scaled 7 tallest peaks around the world.
Wow, this Olympic games is getting very exciting! Anyone of you going to Beijing to see?