How is an oracle received?
This is the explanation given within Takashima Ekidan and by Takashima Donshō for how an oracle occurs. It is not an objective mechanism established by modern science. GD64 does not manufacture an oracle, and the program does not randomly generate one.
Takashima Donshō did not regard an oracle as something obtained from numbers randomly produced by a website.
The essential point, in his account, is that the person asks one definite matter, concentrates fully on it, and personally divides the yarrow stalks at the brief natural transition of breathing.
Takashima called this instant “the brief interval between breaths.”
In the preface to Takashima Ekidan, he wrote that during divination one should stop inhaling and exhaling and focus on the matter being asked. At the instant when another breath can no longer be postponed, the stalks are divided into two. He described a sense of “receiving the divine” when applying the line text to the matter and concluded: “The way of utmost sincerity lies in the interval between breaths.”
GD64 therefore does not randomly produce formal numbers or manufacture an oracle.
The user asks the question and personally obtains the numbers. GD64 confirms the primary hexagram and changing line, then provides human interpretation based on Takashima Ekidan textual evidence.
Breathing safety
The “brief interval between breaths” does not require prolonged breath-holding and is not a pursuit of oxygen deprivation or physical limits.
Understand it only as the short transition after a natural exhalation, just before the body naturally takes the next breath, when the numbers are taken.
Stop immediately if you feel dizzy, tightness in the chest, or any discomfort.
Primary original passage
Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), Upper Canon: Origin, preface by Takashima Donshō
Printed book p. 8 / NDL scanned PDF p. 10 / NDL 760552
默禱之餘。幸思至誠無息之語。感悟無息二字。非單無止息之義。則無發氣息之謂也。方操筮之時。全止息吸呼。而捧蓍於額上。以專念其將占之事。不得不發氣息之際。分蓍而為二。此間不容髮。自是之後。百占百中。以爻辭擬之。瞭如指掌。有恍然而接神之想。於是始知易之為用。全精神氣力上之術。而至誠之道。一在無息之間。
Continuation on divine-human communication
Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), Upper Canon: Origin, preface by Takashima Donshō
Printed book p. 9 / NDL scanned PDF p. 11 / NDL 760552
余亦當易占之適中。而又同其感。確信聖人曰神者。與余之曰神者。亦無分毫之異也。神字從示從申。示者蓋神雖視而不見。聽而不聞。人能以蓍筮問之。則無不示申也。亦可以證余神人交通之説焉。
