Notes on 42.6: It presupposes conditions of scarcity

[ginnie]

I recently was thinking about 42.6.

42 sounds wonderful, receiving profits, gains, benefits and blessings. So why does it all go sour at the end? Does it have to go sour at the end?

I used to think this line was calling us to return the favor. I thought it was a call to sacrifice in the same way that others had sacrificed to produce the benefits that I had enjoyed.

Then I read this quote in Thomas Cleary's I Ching:

'like continuing to eat until the food is taken away' -- Mencius

Now I think the gist of the line is simply to get up and leave so that someone else can enjoy the same benefits.

People don't feel like giving this person in line 6 any more. They feel he has already had enough. Maybe he talks in such a way that he puts off those aware of true neediness. The background situation of this line seems to imply conditions where there is no longer enough to go around.

This may be the beginning of the times of belt tightening, the times of hexagram 41, times of scarcity, or times of less energy. Best to realize this before someone strikes one on the head for thoughtlessly consuming too much of what everybody else needs or wants.

I don't think hexagram 42 must inevitably end this way, especially if one did not get the top line moving. There are many situations that are Well-like in nature, as in hexagram 48, in which the replenishment comes from below. Wells can run dry and so forth, but usually they are not subject to cycles of increase and decrease. In hex 27, the nourishment comes from the source, and the source is inexhaustible.

 

[Trojina]

just a quickie...will read properly later but I've found again its one of those lines you need to tailor/scale to the situation......it can sound like some terrible crime...but i find its generally referring to selfishness around someone following whims...hmmm all about 'what I'd like best to do now' and others become merely instrumental to that.

One has plenty, has become used to it perhaps andnow looks for ways for more advantage. Perhaps one has plenty of friends and has a choice of offers on what to do on a sunny day and one is thinking 'hmmmm shall i go out with this friend or shall I go out with that friend today...which will I enjoy more' totally losing track of the idea of serving the friendship, thinking of the friends in question etc but looking only for ones own satisfaction

Its not the worst crime in the world...I bet we all did it especially as kids...heh 'shall I play in his pool or her pool today ?' but at some point this selfishness will rebound if we were inconsiderate of one friends particular needs that day...perhaps they felt lonley that day....we forgot the point of having the gift of friends because at that time we were rich in them. But one day maybe that friendship will cool off through little inconsiderations (?) like that


So I think its a bit of a warning to watch ones attitude...be aware of how one might be becoming a little dilettanteish in some area...losing ones proper sense of values in some area ?


Could even like you have one good job but you keep on messing your employer about by taking time off for other interviews etc and one day he gets sick of you and you lose what you did have

So i think this is not destined 'sourness' but a result of a losing of sense of values in favour of selfishness...and selfishness does creep up very easily when we have plenty I find

If 42 is blessings then 42.6 is definately forgetting to count them

 

[russell]

This is a perfect example of lines that go “over the top” and descend at line six. Some people see lines in general as reaching a crescendo at line five, then going bad, or becoming dangerous in some way, at six. I don’t think every hexagram is like this, but 42 sure is.

—Russell

 

[ginnie]

has plenty, has become used to it perhaps and now looks for ways for more advantage.... at some point this selfishness will rebound if we were inconsiderate of one friend's particular needs that day...So I think its a bit of a warning to watch ones attitude...losing ones proper sense of values in some area?

If 42 is blessings then 42.6 is definitely forgetting to count them

Like you said, Trojan, "has become used to it ... "

Instead of feeling grateful for having been benefited, perhaps thinking instead that we have been cheated or deprived -- or had the worst possible helpers and incompetent assistance.

Any helper at all is certainly someone to appreciate, not to denigrate, condescend to, or to alienate.

 

[ginnie]

I don’t think every hexagram is like this, but 42 sure is.

Yes, absolutely!!!

Seems to me that sometimes the top line is a warning line that over-arches the whole hexagram ... something to keep in mind for one's own good. We always need to be correcting ourselves. We human beings tend to go off the beam almost at every bend in the road. Or should I just speak for myself about that? It's not so easy to practice what one preaches.