Hugh Gallagher in the Sanctuary.

Hugh Gallagher explains the Yo Ching....Ancient knowledge for the streets today....

THE Sanctuary.

The smell of essential oils and the soft murmur of meditation music, nose-flutes recorded in the San Juan upper basin, hummingbirds hover and butterflies quiver. A water feature trickles a gentle stream, somewhere a jewel-eyed gecko barks as the sounds of the sea lapping onto the beach installs a steady, calming sound.

Experimental pulp writer James Newman sits in the lotus position beside crime writer and Moth to a Flame John Daysh. They are trying their hardest to mediate blissfully unaware that the trying is that which they should avoid most. A tall dark-haired figure walks through the beaded curtain and into the Spa. Hugh Gallagher is not normal. Author, Musician, Humorist, ex Rolling Stone Journalist and writer of the first Viral Essay - a college entrance letter, he is also the author of TEETH, LIFTED and the creator of the YO CHING. Newman stands, shaking himself from the sedative trance and takes the author’s hand. The two men met in a Bangkok jazz bar two years back where they became fast friends finding common interests in literature, art, eight ball pool, and spent many evenings discussing the possibility of a reptilian conspiracy. Gallagher spent a number of years in the city writing pulp fiction and developing the YO CHING concept. He returned to the States to fine tune the project and now he's back with the book and soon the mobile telephone APP. Yo Ching looks set to become the next, or maybe the first, life enhancing cell phone experience.     

JN: Great to see you back in the tropics Hugh, and at the Spa. Can you break down this YO CHING concept? I'm familiar with the I CHING and understand the YO is putting the I into the city, or something. But I still don't get it fully. Is it something a flip flopping Proust reading beach bungalowing first world drop out such as myself and Daysh here could dig?  



James and Hugh in Bangkok

HG:  Yo Ching is more than a book. Think of Yo Ching as a highly interactive decision making tool. Yo Ching uses powerful ancient symbols and timeless strategies to hack through all the conscious clutter in a person’s mind, and help them communicate directly with their own subconscious. Yo Ching readers tap higher knowledge for better decisions. Yo Ching does this through symbols and strategies that are thousands of years old, and originated in China. This ancient Chinese wisdom has been rebooted for the modern reader, making it more understandable, more relevant, and more fun for a player in today's reality.  Yo Ching is like having a personal guru to guide you through life. It answers questions as big as “What should I do with my life?” and as small as “What should I do tonight?” Plus its fun to read. I believe Yo Ching is the first highly moral, deeply ethical self-improvement tool to use the word “motherfucker”. There's an art to the language of Yo Ching which stands alone, beyond whatever wisdom it conveys. That's the genius of my collaborator, True Player. Whom I met in Bangkok years back, at the Cosmos Bar in Patpong.

JD: Tell us more and how it relates to the scene here in The Sanctuary...

HG:  Regarding whether you would hip with this flow, I have to say yes. Flip flopping around a beach bungalow toting some Proust makes you perfect audience for Yo Ching. There's an element of Asian mysticism involved in Yo Ching. But it's also stylish, smart, and sharp. It sees through The Game, like lots of people who leave highly rational and organized First World living to enter the more fluid chaos of Thailand. The Yo Ching's source material, the I Ching, emerged from that part of the planet, in China. And there's also an element of remove to Yo Ching. It's about stepping outside the stream of high velocity, speed based culture for a moment, and meditating about a particular issue. Most people like to do stuff and be busy. But unplugging for a few minutes or a few days to get your head around a particular problem in life is invaluable. Yo Ching helps that process. Picking it up is like going to a bungalow on the beach. Like that bungalow is overlooking the ocean-- a fathomless depth of untold variable and motion, which our mind cannot fully comprehend-- Yo Ching overlooks the fathomless depth of temporal reality and the subconscious mind, and retrieves wisdom and answers which then help a motherfucker pop off in the game.



Yo Ching.

John Daysh: Johnnie Black and Green Tea, which was China's greatest gift to me back in my Shanghai clubbing days. So the Full Moon party is above us tonight. What does destiny have in store for me on this auspicious occasion?

HG: The Yo Ching says “Destiny is like a video game. Fate is how a brother play it.”  Black and green ice tea sounds nice. Is it better if the tea is steeped deep or with the light touch?  

JN: Define Crab Ass.

HG:  They are the primary foe in the  Yo Ching "yo-niverse". Ill Brothers also step up and Slim Things can be trouble, but crab asses are everywhere. Strategies for handling them are numerous and depend on the situation. First, know your enemy. The Yo Ching glossary defines Crab Ass thusly:  

Crab Ass: (n) reprehensible human possessing deplorable character. Sloth, greed, ineptitude, theft, dishonesty, delusions of grandeur, cowardice, manipulation and selfishness prevail in the lamentable crab ass. Crab ass individuals ruin organizations, efforts, and relationships through mere participation. Many crab asses develop particular Machiavellian skill sets which enable them to achieve position, status, and merit in the eyes of others. This is rarely earned, and very seldom benefits their organization or area.

JD: So who does need the Yo Ching?

Anybody who wants help in life. Yo Ching is a decision making tool. It uses ancient knowledge that goes back thousands of years to help people make the best decision in every situation. There's lots of very practical advice and wisdom in Yo Ching. Yo Ching is an interpretation and translation of the I Ching. That is the oldest book on the planet. The material has been passed down through generations and civilizations. It has survived because the knowledge remains relevant. Yo Ching helps people perceive reality at both higher and deeper levels, and then put that knowledge to practical use for optimum living. But it doesn't do that with Holy or Preachy styles. Yo Ching is much more real and human. Which makes it fun. Knowledge and learning should be fun. That's a central theme of Yo Ching, as you can see from this excerpt in Wrexagram 58:

What other projects do you have on the go, Hugh?

HG: Just the hustle on Yo. I made this promise to True Player that I would do whatever I could to pop Yo Ching off in the market. We shook hands on that deal. I'm doing my part now. That's a tremendous amount of promotion, which I don't particularly relish. In my mind, self publishing is like self-surgery-- messy, painful, and only done when absolutely necessary.  I recently read this quote from Pablo Picasso: 

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Fine sentiment, and perhaps true in his day. Now it's more like: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to build a self-promotion marketing engine with identified target audience nodes, delivering modified content to attract throughout multiple distribution channels, with clearly identified metrics to gauge penetration. ”

Who wants to do all that shit? I'd rather deliver pizzas. However, Yo Ching must be known. I really believe in the value it has, for whoever picks it up. I feel people need this book. My partner feels the same. True Player has been generous in funding the effort. We put together a great book and site. The cover design and Wrexagram artwork-- by a Portland designer named Brendan Miller-- is top shelf. The package is gleaming. What's inside is a jewel of multifaceted, highly polished, deeply enjoyable and fantastically practical knowledge.

How much that will or can be known in America remains to be seen. Yo Ching is about harmony and reality. That's really what it does: shows people how to discern and then harmonize with reality. But reality is not a popular concept in America. We have this bright media frosting over a pile of smashed cinder and dismay which is the average life for people here. We escape reality relentlessly. Nobody wants to face it. Those who do have a tough road. I just read about an emerging plague of heroin use amidst middle class suburban kids. The problem is serious enough that it's on the radar of presidential candidates and gets talking points on their campaign. Teenage suburban junkies? I can understand the pressures of urban living turning young ones the wrong way. But kids with yards and bicycles and puppies shooting up? What the fuck?

I hated highschool. I understand that despair. You have the meat-grinder of school pounding you one way. The bullshit of your parents and their trip the other. And time moves slow so it's real hell. But I had dreams for a much cooler future-- like living some life where I was chatting in a Thai bungalow with erudite international writers-- and I didn't have access to heroin when I was 15. That shit was exotic and unthinkable. Getting strung out on junk just wasn't on the map of my reality. That it's a viable, appealing option for these children is really horrifying. That's the grim reality that's bubbling or more probably oozing under the barrage of selfies and celebrity bikini shots here. 

The US is a relentless place. Yo Ching is a book about harmonizing with your environment. I wonder if the chord being struck in the US will allow for the note of the Yo Ching to resonate. I don't know if it's possible to be harmonious within America. It's like you have to be a motherfucking power chord, ripping and shredding just to live. People are plugged in and hammering the amp at 11 all the time. Rising through the babble is a battle. Plus what's at the top? Some famous chick's ass on instagram.

True Player and I discussed this aspect of the project before I left Thailand. He told me not to trip out on it. My job was finishing Yo Ching, and angling into the current of the culture. Whether it hits rapids and pops off, or drifts into some obscure slip stream, we don't know. What we do know is that the Yo Ching source material has been floating through the world for 3000 years. That's the conservative estimate. Other people say 5000 years. American culture is just a little island in that river. Whether Yo Ching will land there it is debatable, and in the long run, it really doesn't matter. American culture will fall away, along with European, modern Asian culture, and the entire diaspora we exist within. Yo Ching knowledge will remain. Just as it has through the rising and falling of every other culture for thousands upon thousands of years. True Player realized that. Probably that's why the success or failure of Yo Ching didn't bother him. The last night we at The Cosmos bar, he told me something that I think about a lot.

At the time, I didn't know it would be the last night I saw True Player. I was pulled back to the US on business rather abruptly. So the fact that it's the last story he told me really makes it all the more meaningful. We had finished the rough transcription of all the 64 Wrexagrams that make up Yo Ching. I knew what was next-- the business side of pimping it through the internets. I got kinda down. I'm really just a writer. I'm wired for that. Leave me in a room with an idea, I'll meet you in a year with a book. The hard knuckle promotion is not my strong suit. I told True Player this when we started. It didn't phase him. But when we finished, I brought it up again. I became slightly abject regarding Yo Ching promotion in the States, and whether anybody would read it. True Player listened to me a minute, just sort of nodding his head then he said: “Here's a story about that.”

That's a line in Yo Ching a lot. True Player speaks in stories often. My favorite story in Yo Ching he tells is about this baby tiger in Harlem. It's profound. You have to read Yo Ching just for that story. I miss True Player. I wish I was back in Bangkok kicking it with him right now. But I digress. Anyway, what True Player told me on that last night in the Cosmos Bar was about the wandering scholars in ancient China. These learned men had exceptional intelligence. They were a combination of philosopher, teacher, psychologist, physician, diplomat, story teller, strategist, and saint. A tremendous asset to any ruler. These scholars would travel throughout the land. They'd pass through all the different kingdoms and realms. When they found a realm that was being ruled harmoniously, they would stop there. It didn't matter if it was some bullshit little fiefdom in the hills. If the people were happy, living in peace, and the place was running right, the wandering scholar would present himself to the ruler and say “I offer my services and wisdom to you.” And the exact opposite held true. If these scholars passed through the greatest, most illustrious province of China, dripping with riches and glory, but people were beat down and unhappy, they just kept walking. Didn't bother trying to teach, because they saw the place wasn't running right. Wisdom and knowledge didn't have a chance there.

That was the last story True Player told me. Although his version ended with the line “fuck them motherfuckers.” I have thought of this story often. I have also remembered that the challenges of promoting Yo Ching wisdom didn't trouble True Player. I have tried to maintain his level of detachment. I use Yo Ching to help me. When I get down on things, True Player's voice is right there for me, all through the book. Just this morning, I found this quote:

“When a Player lets go of what he wants from life, he becomes real powerful. A brother like that is free. He sees shit straight, since he ain’t looking for nothing. That lets him roll on real large moves for his people.” – Wrexagram 59, Break It Up.

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