I can’t remember when I started to believe in Iching and depended on it. Maybe 5 years ago. Maybe just last year. That’s the thing with Iching. It changes the way you perceive time. Every time you cast a diagram, it’s a different universe. Hence a different space-time.
Even though I’m Vietnamese, I’ve always been alien to Oriental values and beliefs. I don’t try to ‘keep face’ or ‘save face’ for example. I learned English and then marketing and tried to push my way up the career ladder, prefering the Western method of pioneering to the traditional Asian networking path. But being a brand manager means I have to be sociable. What brand could I build if I don’t have a decent Facebook page, or Youtube channel, or Tiktok account? I think it was one of those Google ads that brought me to fortune telling and then Iching. 
As old as 1000 BC, the Iching’s both vague and explicit, both grey and affirmative. It would suggest you to go some direction or nowhere, to meet a great man or cross a river, to proceed or just wait. I never thought one day I would remember all the 64 diagrams, their lines and descriptions, but that’s exactly what happened. And when Covid came and hit me as a freelancer, I soon found myself having to adjust my business. Because fortune telling isn’t legal in Vietnam, I had to advertise my service in those dating apps, like Blued and Grindr.
Oh and that means I’m gay, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your view.
Today I have an appoihtment with Richard, an expat creative director from the UK, in his rented villa in An Phú, the new metropole of Sài Gòn. He used to be my senior when I still worked for Leo Burnet as an account manager. He liked me because I was almost the only bloke in town who understood his quiet and dry humor. We still chatted now and then and when I told him about my Iching service, he said I should come and cast him one.
Richard lived alone in a beautiful villa with a Japanese Zen garden and a swimming pool —of course he could afford that being one of the most successful ad men in Asia. I knew he was also a songwriter, so I wasn’t surprised to see a polished piano in the living room. And there sat Richard in the armchair, his grin as generous as ever, his body a bit tense and his eyes quite pale though. He got me a glass of mango juice because he knew I liked it.
“How’re you doing?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as I could.
“You do your Iching first, or I tell it first?”
“It? Something’s happening?”
“Yeah. Some things actually”.
“Well, perfect reason for an Iching consultation”.

In the old days a diagram was reached by throwing three coins six times. The internet’s helpful in many ways though and I could just use a site to work on these days. I asked Richard to tap the Cast button 6 times and his diagram was reached. Fire over water. Contradiction.
“Well, one of the toughest of all 64 situations. But I don’t know what you conflict with. Maybe... yourself?” I said in a flat tone.
“I’m not surprised at all. Does it say what I should do or could do?”
“Yeah, small and personal things. Because the opposition’s too strong”.
“Now I will tell It. But don’t stop me and don’t ask questions, OK?”
I finished my juice and prompted the lanky Englishman to pour his heart. And the following’s his story.

》》》

You know what it’s like to be in the creative department. Creative’s an euphemism. You know the right word should be generative, or reproductive, or something like that. And art director’s a propaganda. There’s no arts at all. No emotions, or inspirations, or imaginations. Just options. And at the end of the long day, depression.
And you know I started to write rap songs, about a year ago, right? Remember that first verse I shared with you:
You’ve got no idea how good this idea could turn out to be
All you want to hear your brand name’s cheered so everyone’s pleased
It started with my junior copywriter insisting every headline should rhyme. And that’s enough. No pun or word play. No juxtaposition. No alliteration. Why, I asked him. And he said because modern audience’s very lazy. They don’t want to think. I could’nt quite refute him, so I said, “That being the case, could you rhyme like a rapper? I want triple or even quadruple rhyme, OK?”
And they say you’ve got to lead by example, so that night I couldn’t quite sleep. I tried to come up with the line myself. The brand was an American cigarette. Let’s see what I could say:
It isn’t just enjoying the taste
It’s about belonging to a caste
Of course I was cheating because ‘caste’ only rhymed with ‘taste’ visually rather than aurally. But our client loved it. And my copywriter said I should start a second career rapping.
My first song was about how your brilliant idea finally turned rubbish. Too many changes. Too much fear and too little faith. It’s like a bad surgery. And only you knew how badly you were dying within. I didn’t have to go to a studio to record and mix it. My 15 years in the ad production endowed me with all the knowledge, and I set up a home studio quite easily. I posted the song to my youtube channel and some facebook groups. They said good start even though I was struggling to stay on beat, I wasn’t rapping naturally yet. But my lyrics were as strong as they could get. Wow. How refreshing away from the advertising world. No irony. No sacarsm. No clever no.
I think things only started to happen after my seventh song ‘The Unchosen One’:
Just because you trashed me in the bin
Doesn’t mean I was faulty and gave in
First my black kitten, there he’s sleeping on the couch. But you never know when his turquoise eyes suddenly turns red he starts to speak. In human voice of course. Then my white parrot would repeat a whole verse, even on beat. But that couldn’t compare to the Jizo stone statue in the garden. He would walk in and sit there where you are now, and tell me how I could improve. At first I was delighted. My rap was magical, I said to myself. I got real fans in the house; I didn’t have to rely on those plastic internet fans for likes or share.
But last week we had to repitch for our biggest client; they were reviewing the beer account. I said to myself to stop rapping for a while and focus on work. And you know what. Those creatures started to pester me.
“Feed me. Your last song was 6 days ago”, said my kitten.
“You fuckin’ lazy rapper. Where’s my catchy popper?” the parrot meant she was addicted to my words.
And Jizo said nothing but his look was full of comtempt, as if I owed him something.
So I did a quick verse to the famous Gangsta’s paradise beat:
Power and the money, money and the power
Minute after minute, hour after hour
Everyone has a job to keep and salary to earn
Please children go get a sleep or a lesson to learn
And you know what they said?
“Where’s the passion?”
“Where’s the emotion?”
“Where’s the devotion?”
And they have been saying the same things again and again. That was too much to bear and I fled to the office and locked myself there. We did our presentation yesterday so I came home. They have been quiet but I think you’re gonna see something now. My question to you is, could they harm me if I keep ‘starving’ them?

》》》

I looked at Richard and was trying to find my words when, to my astonishment, Jizo the stone statue came in and held Richard’s hand. He was no taller than a four years old boy but his manners were of a very old man. He pointed to the swimming pool just to the left and said in a childish voice, “Look. Fire over water. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Richard and I followed his finger and lol, there were some flames leaping over the calm water, as if some oil had been spilt around. Now the parrot and the kitten woke up and they said in unison, “Lazy rapper. Tell me the story about fire over water!”
Richard gave me that surrender look and shrugged, “As if my clients in the office weren’t enough”. And I said immediately, “Yeah. They could just be mirrors of your clients. You hate them deeply. Or maybe you just hate the fact that you depend on them for a good life”.
“Am I in danger?”
“I don’t think they can harm you, but they can frustrate you and it then affects your work”.
“What can I do?”
“I need some time and some research. Don’t think I should stay any longer because they don’t seem to like me”.
So I said goodbye and took the bus home. Actually I already had a plan in mind but I didn’t tell him because his ‘children’ were there. So I started to text him:
“I don’t think starving them’s the right thing to do”.
“What else then?”
“If your words brought them to life, then they could also put them to rest!”
“That makes sense. But how?”
“Please log in this site www.accesstoinsight.org Could you see the Buddha symbol? Tap that button and you’ll get a random Buddhist sutta”.
“OK. Done that”.
“What sutta did you get?”
“Loka sutta: the world”.
“Great. From the cessation of this very craving... could you see that paragraph? Use it in your rap. Remember, cessation is your key word!”
“Cool. I’ll try that. Thanks for the great help”.
A couple of days later Richard called me. He said it worked perfectly. His kitten’s eyes no longer turned red. His parrot stopped rapping. And Jizo stayed where he was meant to be in the Japanese garden. I found it suspicious because it was a bit too easy. But I didn’t tell Richard. Instead I said he could sleep well now, the Buddha’s words are truly powerful.
When Richard ended his call I felt a wet nose against my leg. It was my dog Tommy. His eyes had turned red and he said to me, in a broken voice, “Cast me an Iching, will you?”
I was shocked but I do cast an Iching every morning, to know what my day will be like. So I logged into my fortune site and tapped a few buttons. The diagram popped up and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
My dog said still in that broken voice, “Fire over water. I can feel your depression. But there’s hope in every Iching diagram, right?”