43. Kuai / Break-through (Resoluteness)

[maremaria]

wondering … if the skin protects the body, then “buttocks without skin” are unprotected against infections . The body is in a dangerous situation

I wonder if that line has to do with the expression “cover your butt”


This phrase is also found in line 44.3.

 

[meng]

I wonder if that line has to do with the expression “cover your butt”

I learned that expression in the Navy showers, and that was more like line 2!

 

[charly]

Charly
I have in my own translation http://www.yijing.nl/i_ching/hex_33-48/hex_e_43.htm
The buttocks without skin. One moves poorly now, leading a goat. Regret goes away. Hearing the words, no belief.
So I agree with most of what you suggest. Some very interesting meanings among the ones you found. Thanks!...

I know LiSe:

I liked your translation and commentaries from the times of «The Book of the Moon». You and Brad introduced me yeas ago in the study of the chinese characters and text.

In this case I always wandered about «buttocks without skin» and «leading a goat» or a lamb, a sheep, a ram. What did it mean?

Now you say not «leading a goat» but «led by a goat», maybe nicely led by the animal, maybe dragged without consideration, compelled to follow the bloody beast in the worse conditions.

Buttocks, among gregarious animals, are biological signals for recognizing among herd members.

I think, maybe Skinless-Bottom is somebody badly dressed, ragged like a beggar, obliged to follow his sheeps from one country to another, a sheferd regretting when he meets cowherd forces, but always fullfilling his ancestral destiny.

Or maybe is a naked guy or girl, following the own instinctive nature, cautiously moving, forgetting regrets, hearing dirty words ...

But, of course, there are much more.

Yours,

Charly

 

[charly]

...
And Charly, i did't want to say something about your wonderfull reply to Lise because it was adressed to Lise. But very fine and inspiring remarks, fun to consider.

Jilt:

Thanks very much for all your concepts. I should like very much to know your feeback.

Yours,

Charly

 

[charly]

wondering … if the skin protects the body, then “buttocks without skin” are unprotected against infections . The body is in a dangerous situation...

María:

The skin is an effective protection for the body. Here the subject is exposed indeed. But skins have also symbolic values.

To wear the skin of an animal is symbol of strenght and power, not only material, but also magic. Shamans used to wear skins of animals with attached head and claws. It's the attibute of the special powers received from the animal.

If we haven't that skin, we aren't shamans, we haven't special powers, we are limited to our own resources, we are common people.

We move with difficulty, we follow our own instinct, we seldom remember our bad experiences, too often we listen behind the doors, too often we don't believe prudent words of advice.

But that is what we are. If we have not a magic skin, of course.

Sometimes our own skin is magic, and then we can allow ourselves some weaknesses.

Yours,

Charly

 

[heylise]

From HERE
An illness following his successful efforts crippled him, and for the rest of his life Yu walked with a limp that history records as the gait of yu, ...

(Shoveling wet earth without sparing your back, then you're bound to get either a hernia or a sciatica)

And from HERE
Since as far back as the Chinese records show, an instant injection of
super-natural energy was the reward of the adept who danced the step of
Yu, the divine king, sometimes called the "shaman's step." ("Yu pu" and
"wu pu"), this halting but patient pace is thought by some to have
originated in the shambling of a bear, impersonated in an archaic animal
cult, and by others to represent the hemiplegic gait of Yu himself: the
demigod had sacrificed part of his physical powers to gain heavenly
ones. It is still performed by female shamans in south China.

LiSe

 

[jilt]

still wrestling with that skinless bottom.

I did my fair share of desmond morris. Listening and looking at us, primates, and comparing our display of packed buttocks with baboon- behaviour... the cummunication-sounds we make to tune our group-behaviour, our territorial behaviour including smells (co2, cars, cigarettes, joints, sewers, agriculture) makes us very noisy, stinking, colonizing and sexual obessed creatures. At the other hand, somehow the herd is also able to sychronize the rhytm of the hearts, but someone has to initiate it, drop the shaman skin, put that overly used cummunicative buttock aside and listen to the heart, or the flow of chi. That makes us much more interesting. Don't forget, originally shamanism was intertwined with political power and doing a lot with a big display of power. Think about the Maya's, Aztecs, Shang. Very shamanistic and oppresive cultures.
Suppose it is indeed that shaman's skin, then things are here without the shaman's powers.
On anther thread I am involved in an discussion about McKenna. Arguments are leaning strongly on the idea that the shamans need drugs to do their thing and that the I is a shaman's thing, so to understand the I you need at least some magic mushrooms.
But strange thing is that as far as I came to know the I, she never was in for drugs, on the contrary. Much more for a clear mind and some good concentration, some good sex.
I even supposed the the I had come into being as a reaction on the complicated behaviour of the shamans, the politicians and their drugs and all the manipulation around it (think of our double dutch courage society, the relations between Heineken, royalty and "shamanistic" drinking behaviour of whole crowds in orange).
So suppose we have someone stripped from shamanistic powers, clean so to say, standing sheepishly naked, buttocks red because sitting without a loincloth gives red buttocks, somewhat trembling, folowing heart and listening to the hearts of the flock and doing the right thing: listening to the heart and try to follow it, try to let all the hearts beat as one. Would you do that, believe that? Also consider that the heart is generating an electro magnetic field that can be sensed from quite a distance, that the fields immediately interact. Also, having "faith" ain't always easy, there is no butt-tuning (new word for ratio, but only in this context) for it. Also consider that our response to this field is "legitimitized" away in favor of the "normal" behaviours in society: we cover our butts. Perhaps to much covering gives beaten butts. :bows:

Much more to be said about this, but that needs another thread.

 

[maremaria]

Hi Charly,

Thanks for the extra information.

Maria

 

[rosada]

Interesting to read Wilhelm's comments on the last line of 43 and then immediately the intro to 44:

43.6, "There remains merely a remnant of the evil resolutely to be eradicated as the time demands. Everything looks easy. Just there, however, lies the danger. If we are not on guard, evil will succeed in escaping by means of concealment, and when it has eluded us new misfortunes will develop from the remaining seeds, for evil does not die easily."

44., "The principle of darkness, after having been eliminated, furtively and unexpectedly obtrudes again."

 

[heylise]

Bert, great post!
"I even supposed the the I had come into being as a reaction on the complicated behaviour of the shamans, the politicians and their drugs and all the manipulation around it"
I never thought of that. It is interesting, and might very well have been that way.


LiSe

 

[jilt]

I think it is difficult to prove. But also, think about line 36-5 from prince chi. It was about everything to avoid the Shang with their cruel ritual.
Also, line 2 of 42 and line 5 of 41 is about tortoises, but it is actually saying that even, how many you make and try, it doesn't matter.
And in the spirit of the I, I think killing turtles is nothing for the I, it is cherishing life.