Memorizing the I Ching 26. Ta Ch'u / The Taming Power of the Great

[lightofreason]

More IC+

Five-Phase Relationships: The trigram of Heaven reflects competitive/oppositional Exchange. The trigram of Mountain reflects Filtration (through discernment). Competitive Exchange through Filtration is expressed in holding firm to traditions etc.


Goal of 26 - hexagram 18 (or 'how do I 18? - 26')

26 is the goal of 35 (or 'how do I 26? - 35' How do I hold firm (to traditions etc)? By bringing things into the light)

 

[frank_r]

Funny that you should mention the bow and arrow, as I almost posted this analogy to 26 yesterday. The bow stores energy, and the arrow is released outwardly.

This together with the Kundalini energy did me think of the first acupuncture point of the most Yang meridian there is in the body, the Du Mai. It's one of the 8 Wonder meridians. This point is at the basis of the spine, and has the name: chang qiang. Qiang 強is a image of a very solid bow, and its meaning is the ability to ensure power and vigour to allow strain and effort. The idea of a firm basis. When the energy of this point is strong then the bow is strong and firm, and there is power to send the arrow a long way.

When flexible, trigram heaven can be expressed outwardly as trigram mountain.

 

[rosada]

Chris, can you elaborate on your ideas? I mean, when you post things like,
Goal of 26 - hexagram 18 (or how do I 18/ - 26?')
I don't know what you're driving at. I can GUESS and come up with translations like,

"The purpose of The Taming Power of The Great is to Work on What has been spoiled (or how do I work on what has been spoiled? By restraining random activity, slowing down and focusing.)"

But is that what you mean? I dunno. If you could be less crytic I think I might understand you better.

 

[rosada]

THE IMAGE

Heaven within the mountain:
The image of THE TAMING POWER OF THE GREAT.
Thus the superior man acquaints himself with
many sayings of antiquity
And many deeds of the past,
In order to strengthen his character thereby.

Heaven within the mountain points to hidden treasures. In the words and deeds of the past there lies hidden a treasure that men may use to strengthen and elevate their own characters. The way to study the past is not to confine oneself to mere knowledge of history but, through application of this knowledge, to give actuality to the past.

Heaven (Chien) points to character, virtue. Strengthening is suggested by the mountain (Ken). The means to this strengthening of character are hidden in the nuclear trigrams: the lower, Tui, mouth, suggests words, the upper, Chen, movement, suggests deeds.

 

[rosada]

The weather has turned to spring up here in Lyle and it's absolutely beautiful. So beautiful that it seems a crime to keep my little friends indoors, but they aren't infants anymore. They have chores and responcibilities. 26 suggests to me that if I make a list of what we do each morning before running outside - get dressed, make the bed - this may help keep them focused. That is, a chore list - the words of antiquity will be a way of keeping track of what needs to be done and hopefully this will translate into "deeds". And thus completing the lessons of the past, we will be able to move up to more interesting random activity!

 

[dobro p]

Maybe the core meaning of Hex 26 for me is the accumulation of energy, and you do it two ways: first, by greatly restraining what's coming to expression in you, and second, by getting new and unfamiliar input ('not eating at home').

This parallels the situation in Hex 9 (Small Restraint). In Hex 9 there is a similar restraint (but less powerful...more along the lines of persuasion) and you see energy accumulating on the fringes of the situation ('heavy cloud not raining on the western outskirts').

In both cases, I think the element of 'away from home or away from the center' is a counterbalance to the energy that's accumulating at the center. Balanced accumulation is reliable accumulation.

 

[rosada]

frank,
I hope you will continue to post what you know about the acupuncture and the meridians.
Is each hexagram connected with a meridian, do you know? Or even if it's not officially connected, it's interesting to hear about the connections you see.

Getojack,
thanks for posting the Thomas Cleary translation. Now if everyone were to post some favorite autor's translation, or just their own, what a library we would build. Or is that legal? How much can one post of a copywritten work without it being too much?

Trojan,
It occurs to me that the rest of the world could look at our whole group here as being Off Topic. LOL.

 

[rosada]

dobro,
Yeah, like you don't know what it means to be an American until you go to a foreign country. You find out more about what you have inside you when you get outside your familiar zone. But ya gotta keep still or even in a foreign country you wont hear any words other than your own!

 

[Trojina]

Trojan,
It occurs to me that the reat of the world could look at our whole group here as being Off Topic. LOL.

You're right there

 

[rosada]

Thinking more about what you've said, dobro, about getting away from center, counter balancing. Coming up we have 27. Corners of the Mouth, leading to 28. Collapse, and then 29. Going it alone. Like we're being forwarned here to integrate with a larger reality now, control ourselves, don't shoot off our mouths 27 or we'll be on our own in 28 and 29 and not in a good way.

 

[frank_r]

frank,
I hope you will continue to post what you know about the acupuncture and the meridians.
Is each hexagram connected with a meridian, do you know? Or even if it's not officially connected, it's interesting to hear about the connections you see.

Nice to hear that you are interested in the connections between the meridians and the hexagrams.
There are several conections between the meridians and the hexagrams and also trigrams. The most known one is the connection between the Chinese clock and the meridians. There are two versions of this connection. The fist one is a physical connection between the meridians and the hexagrams.

 

[frank_r]

This one is more a mental connection between the meridians and the hexagrams.
I use the first one more in physical sense and the other one more in mental sense.

When you use the Xor technique you can get the different connections between the meridians.

Then there are also several connections between the 12 normal meridians and the trigrams and between the 8 Extra ordinary meridians and the trigrams. So you can use the Yi in different ways when you look for a connection.

 

[toganm]

This one is more a mental connection between the meridians and the hexagrams.
I use the first one more in physical sense and the other one more in mental sense.

Just a thought why not use the sovereign hexagrams, the first one, for all. As my understanding, for the Chinese there is no difference to the body, mind, sprit (shen). They are united and they are what makes a person authentic and manifest what he/she is destined to.

Togan

 

[dobro p]

Thinking more about what you've said, dobro, about getting away from center, counter balancing. Coming up we have 27. Corners of the Mouth, leading to 28. Collapse, and then 29. Going it alone. Like we're being forwarned here to integrate with a larger reality now, control ourselves, don't shoot off our mouths 27 or we'll be on our own in 28 and 29 and not in a good way.

Not so much 'getting away from the center' as 'counterbalancing what's happening at the center with something else which is not at the center'. What's happening at the center is the accumulation of energy. S0 how do you deal with the inevitable stress associated with that build-up of energy? Not by spending the energy, cuz the whole point is to accumulate right now, but by attending to something else at the same time which is happening away from the center.

As for 27 and 28: I see little if any connection between the meaning of those two and the meaning of 26. I see much more of a connection between 26 and 25 - 25 has to do with a sort of spontaneous expression of the energy, by contrast to 26's calculated restraint of the energy. They're polar modalities on a continuum of dealing with energy - to express it, or to restrain it.

 

[lightofreason]

Chris, can you elaborate on your ideas? ......
But is that what you mean? I dunno. If you could be less crytic I think I might understand you better.

already elaborated - many moons ago (2002):

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/binhex.html

Look carefully at this matrix - even though a focus on temporal and right-to-left it is linked to XOR and so there is more here than originally presented.

you should visit the website sometime and read the essays - in the right frame of:

http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/newindex.html (old but some useful) and
http://members.iimetro.com.au/~lofting/myweb/newindex2.html

Chris.

 

[rosada]

Thinking about dobro's comments...
We hear alot today about flowing energy, conciously creating, by carefully noting what we give our attention to, that whatever we give our attention to we create more of. It would follow then that when energies are building up and creating stress, as dobro points out, the IChing advises here the way to deal with a built up energy situation that is going to burn itself out prematurly, is to take attention off it.
In my own backyard, my girlfriend and I had determined we were going to get organized with lists and chore charts. But just as we were about to launch our plan, her husband difused the tension by announcing he was taking the kids across the river to pick up a pizza - not eating at home bringing good fortune, and it furthering to cross the great water!
Famous saying for antiquity:
"When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping."

 

[rosada]

THE LINES

Nine at the beginning means:

Danger is at hand. It furthers one to desist.

A man wishes to make vigorous advance, but circumstances present an obstacle. HE SEES HIMSELF HELD BACK FIRMLY. If he should attempt to force an advance, it would lead him into misfortune. Therefore it is better for him to compose himself and to wait until an outlet is offered for release of his stored up energies.

This strong line, which is in its proper place, would like to advance. But it is in the relationship of correspondence to the sixth in the fourth place, which is one of the two obstructing lines. This indicates danger that would hold it back if it should try to advance, but since the line is still just at the beginning, it ALLOWS itself to be held back and so escapes the danger.

 

[lightofreason]

Line 1
"Studying the past can be threatening unless one takes things a step at a time. Absorb some. Stop. Absorb some more."

Line position 1 characteristics are sourced in hex 24 and so the focus on beginning/re-beginning (keep coming back to). Here the suggestion is that when beginning take things slowly, dont hurry to absorb 'all there is' since there is a LOT to absorb.

The influence on 'stop' is the influence of mountain in the hexagram and so covers the focus on discernment (self-restraint doubled); there is an emphasis on quality control in 26 overall (trigram reading : with/from perseverence (heaven base) comes discernment (mountain top).)

The 'change' aspect is to hex 18 and its focus on correcting errors, avoiding corruption where that is indicated in the line comments in the context of going too fast can 'corrupt' what is absorbed. So from the hexagram reading level we have:

with/from holding firm (26) comes correcting corruptions (18).

Overall we have the 24-ness of 26 is described by analogy to 18 - the beginning or what 26 keeps coming back to is issues of correcting corruptions and that is achieved through sticking to 'good' history, holding firm, but not letting it take over, just guide.

Chris.

 

[getojack]

There's somethin' happenin' here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Tellin' me I got to beware

I think it's time we
Stop, children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's goin' down?

There's battle lines bein' drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speakin' their minds
Gettin' so much resistance from behind

It's time we
Stop, hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's goin' down?

 

[getojack]

* Some bears will bluff their way out of a threatening situation by charging, then veering off or stopping abruptly at the last second. Bear experts generally recommend standing still until the bear stops and then slowly backing away.

* Never run from a bear. Running may elicit a chase from an otherwise non-aggressive bear, and since they can run faster than 30 mph, you have no chance of outrunning them.

(Brought to you by: http://usparks.about.com/cs/natlparkbasics/a/beartips.htm)

 

[bruce_g]

Buffalo Springfield/Steven Stills.

Nice bear encounter analogy, Jack.

 

[getojack]

Buffalo Springfield/Steven Stills.

Nice bear encounter analogy, Jack.

Thanks. You know, legend has is that there once was a bear by the name of Fuzzi Wuzzi. Now, this particular bear had no hair... none at all. The question everyone was asking was, "Was or wasn't Fuzzi Wuzzi fuzzy?" What they didn't notice was that Fuzzi Wuzzi was running towards them at 30mph. So the question they really should have been asking was "What do I do in case of a bear attack?"

 

[bruce_g]

My French granny used to sing the fuzzy wuzzy poem to me all the time. She still does, I think.

An aggressive bear is hard to tame, but it can be submitted to, i.e. curling into a ball on the ground. I really doubt they'd think the human is dead, but neither is he a threat. Aggression in humans is also hard to tame, but if what looks like a threat can be brought to realistic proportions, everything inside relaxes. I think relaxing is the mission of 26.1.

 

[getojack]

Very true. I see that motif repeated throughout the Yi Jing... Line 1: Relax, stay calm, don't act right now. Line 6: You've gone too far. For example, in 1: The Creative and 21: Biting Through. Here in 26, it seems a little different. Line 6 isn't going too far, but reaching the pinnacle of attainment.

 

[dobro p]

I think relaxing is the mission of 26.1.

Relaxing doesn't end the danger, it just ends the danger of panic. So maybe relaxing helps you deal with the danger, but it doesn't end the danger. 26.1 is about ending the danger. "If the bear doesn't notice you, leave the vicinity immediately."

If the bear notices you, then deal with it intelligently. By the way, I like that term 'bear expert'. It says that a bear may charge you and then veer off at the last moment. Yeah, right. I'd like to see a so-called 'bear expert' stand his ground with a bear charging at them. How expert do you feel now, sunshine? lol Don't panic; relax. lol

 

[getojack]

You could always castrate the bear (boar) and remove his claws (tusks) like in line 5. Problem solved.

But first, you have to get his attention... like this...

* If spotted by a bear, try to get its attention while it is a good distance away. Help the bear to recognize that you are human, by talking to it in a normal voice or waving your arms. If a bear cannot tell what you are, it may come closer or stand on its hind legs to get a better look or smell. A standing bear is usually curious, not threatening.

 

[bruce_g]

Relaxing doesn't end the danger, it just ends the danger of panic. So maybe relaxing helps you deal with the danger, but it doesn't end the danger. 26.1 is about ending the danger. "If the bear doesn't notice you, leave the vicinity immediately."

You've never approached a growling, barking dog calmly? Or full of fear and apprehension? They sense it, and react accordingly.

 

[Trojina]

But first, you have to get his attention... like this...

* If spotted by a bear, try to get its attention while it is a good distance away. Help the bear to recognize that you are human, by talking to it in a normal voice or waving your arms. If a bear cannot tell what you are, it may come closer or stand on its hind legs to get a better look or smell. A standing bear is usually curious, not threatening.

Thanks I'll bear that in mind (sorry couldn't resist)

 

[dobro p]

You've never approached a growling, barking dog calmly? Or full of fear and apprehension? They sense it, and react accordingly.

Sure, but my point's the same: 26.1 is about ending danger, not about relaxing. If you can end the danger by relaxing, then that's one way to skin the cat. I usually walk around growling, barking dogs though. Or go the other way. Or pick up a rock, and sometimes even throw it. Different ways to end danger.

 

[bruce_g]

Sure, but my point's the same: 26.1 is about ending danger, not about relaxing. If you can end the danger by relaxing, then that's one way to skin the cat. I usually walk around growling, barking dogs though. Or go the other way. Or pick up a rock, and sometimes even throw it. Different ways to end danger.

Yep, a way skin a cat, or tame a large beast.