Ta Chuan / The Great Treatise

[pocossin]

Welcome back, Rosada. You have returned with RETURN.

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Fu, RETURN (24). This hexagram is characterized by the fact that a light line returns from below and moves upward.

It means the root and stem of character.

Note how the hexagram looks like sprouts rising up from the earth.

 

[Trojina]

doesn't look like a sprout rising from the earth to me

 

[pocossin]

doesn't look like a sprout rising from the earth to me

"Sprouts" -- one on the left and one on the right, and note the trigrams. Sprouts move the earth.

 

[rosada]

pg 347

4. Heng, DURATION (32).

This hexagram brings firmness of character in the frame of time.

It shows wind and thunder constantly together; hence there are manifold movements and experiences, from which fixed rules are derived, so that a unified character results.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.347

5. Sun, Decrease (41).
This hexagram shows a decrease in influence of the lower faculties, the untamed instincts, in favor of the higher life of the mind.

Here we have the essence of charcter training.

The hexagrm shows first the difficult thing - the taming of the instincts - then the easy phase, when character is under control, thus harm is kept away.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.347

6. I, INCREASE (42).

This hexagram gives needed fullness to character.

More asceticism is not enough to make a good character: greatness is also needed.

Thus INCREASE shows an organic growth of personality that is not artificial and hence furthers what is useful.

-Wilhelm

 

[sooo]

5. Sun, Decrease (41).
This hexagram shows a decrease in influence of the lower faculties, the untamed instincts, in favor of the higher life of the mind.

-Wilhelm

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

grrrrrrrr

grrr...

 

[sooo]

If I had to trust either my mind or my instincts, I'd go with instincts every time. My mind is capable of all sorts of trickery and deception. It finds ways to hear what I want to or what I fear most, instead of just hearing. Instincts hear especially well: sooner, clearer, truer. It's in processing of instincts that things get convoluted. That's where we add all the background, color, special effects and drama. It's where our fears and wishes intermingle, in our mind. Our instincts come before all that, like spring water running from within a mountain.

It isn't taming so much as understanding what instincts try to inform the mind - which is so busy thinking, it can't hear its own instincts.

 

[sooo]

5. Sun, Decrease (41).
This hexagram shows a decrease in influence of the lower faculties, the untamed instincts, in favor of the higher life of the mind.

-Wilhelm

So, if original instinct isn't what 41 decreases, what is? I think it's humanized instincts. Meaning, natural instincts which have already run through our mental digestive process, pretty much perverting or at least embellishing the original instinct to suit our own mind, our own desires and fears. Decreasing this is, I think, well within the bounds of 41's intent, but this amounts to nothing more than washing the dishes before serving the rice.

 

[rosada]

Certainly one's instincts need to be honored, but isn't hexagram 41talking about those times when instincts need to be recognized without letting them over power the higher mind? My initial gut level reaction upon hearing my grandson is on the phone is to drop everything, let the dinner burn, the bath tub over flow and rush to answer him. I hope I never stop feeling this way, but I also am glad I know how to restrain that instinct and do what needs to be done in an orderly manner.
-rosada

 

[sooo]

Those aren't pure instincts, they're involuntary emotional reactions. Avoid burning your food is common sense, but if your enthusiasm for speaking with your grandson is so overwhelming that you lose control of time and space, then, yes, decreasing that is probably a good idea.

I don't buy into much of the higher mind stuff. By the time the mind reaches it's highest point, it's already circled back into itself, collapsed upon itself like a wave. I do buy into developing a more disciplined mind, and more refined instincts.

I also included this disclaimer: "If I had to trust either my mind or my instincts.." An either/or scenario to make a point. If we put a glossier finish on instincts, we have the more affectionately used term: intuition.

In reality, it is cognition of both, thinking and sensing.

But this exaltation of mind over instinct, as a Wilhelm's 41 example, is very poor, imo. If the mind is so smart, it would have figured out consciousness by now. Yet, from the Upanishads to modern physicists, together, still have not figured it out. So I choose to trust where consciousness comes from, and call that instinct. I also include what remains from billions of years of earth wisdom, which is in the body. That is instinct.

It's fine though. I accept it within Wilhelm's framework, but may make a little noise when it's presented and accepted too generally. Mind is not better than instinct. What a crazy thing to say. Boo Hiss, Richard! But within Wilhelm's entirely dualistic context, it makes sense, that the mind would claim itself to be the winner.

 

[rosada]

Pg. 347

6. I, INCREASE (42).

This hexagrm gives needed fullness to character.

Mere asceticism is not enough to make a good character: greatness is also needed.

Thus INCREASE shows an organic growth of personality that is not artificial and hence furthers what is useful.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.347

7. K'un, Oppression (47).

This hexagram leads the individual of developed character finally into the field where he must prove himself.

Difficulties and obstacles arise; these must be overcome, yet they often prove insuperable.

He sees himself confronted by bounds that he cannot set aside and that can be surmounted only by recognizing them for what they are.

In thus recognizing as fate the things that must be so taken, one ceases to hate adversity - of what use would it be to storm against fate - and through this lessening of resentment, character is purified and advances to a higher level.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg 348

8. Ching, THE WELL (48).

This hexgram represents a wellspring, which, though fixed in one spot, dispenses blessing far and wide and so makes its influence far-reaching.

This shows the field in which character can take effect.

We perceive the profound influence emanating from a richly endowed and generous personality, an influence that is not any the less because the person exerting it keeps in the background.

The hexagram shows what is right, and thus makes it possible for the right to take effect.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.348

9. Sun, THE GENTLE, THE PENETRATING (57). This hexagram gives the proper flexibility of character.

What is needed is not rigidity that holds fast to established principles and is in reality mere pedantry, but mobility; thus one weighs things and penetrates to the needs of the time without exposing oneself to attack, so learning to take circumstances into account and to preserve a strong unity of character along with intelligent versatility.

-Wilhelm

 

[sooo]

Mobility so often seems an emphasis of the Yi. Not knowing but transporting, not just possessing the arrow but releasing it, rather than it rotting in a quiver. Even releasing it to a bail of hay. Keeping the mind connected with the arrow and bulls-eye.

I am a tree, and the bow are my finest branches. Nice, but a mere pedantry statue, unless my artist's arrow has hit the mark.

 

[rosada]

pg 348

CHAPTER VIII, On the Use of the Book of Changes:
The Lines

1. The changes is a book
From which one may not hold aloof.

Its tao is forever changing -
Alteration, movement without rest,
Flowing through the six empty places;
Rising and sinking without fixed law,
Firm and yielding transform each other.

They cannot be confined within a rule;
It is only change that is at work here.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

2. They move inward and outward according to fixed rhythms.

Without and within, they teach caution.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg. 349

3. They also show care and sorrow and their causes.
Though you have no teacher,
Approach them as you would your parents.

4. First take up the words,
Ponder their meaning,
Then the fixed rules reveal themselves.
But if you are not the right man,
The meaning will not manifest itself to you.

In half rhythmic and half rhymed prose, ;;we are here admonished to study the Book of Changes diligently. It is pointed out with praise that continuous change is the rule of the book.

In conclusion, attention is called to the fact that an innate capacity is essential to an understanding of the book, otherwise it will remain locked as if with seven seals.

If the person consulting the oracle is not in contact with tao, he does not receive an intelligible answer, since it would be of no avail.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER IX. The Lines (continued) pg. 349

1. The changes is a book whose hexagrams begin with the first line and are summed up in the last.

The lines are the essential material.

The six lines are interspersed according to the meaning belonging to them at the time.
--

This section discusses the relation of the lines to the hexagram as a whole. With the individual lines as the material, the hexagram is built from the bottom upward.

The individual lines have within this sequence the meaning imparted to them by force of the particular situation.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.349

2. The beginning line is difficult to understand.

The top line is easy to understand.

For they stand in relationship of cause and effect.

The judgement on the first line is tentative, but at the last line everything has obtained completion.
--

Here in the first instance the reciprocal relationship between the first and the top line is stated.

Both stand, as it were, outside the essential hexagram and the nuclear trigrams.

At the first line the action is only just beginning to develop, and at the last it is concluded.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg. 350

3. But if one wishes to explore things in their manifold graduation, and their qualities as
well, and is discriminate between right and wrong, it cannot be done completely without the middle lines.

The '"things in their manifold gradation" result from the manifold gradation of the places.

Their qualities inhere in their firm or their yielding character.

Right and wrong are distinguishable according to whether or not the lines occupy the places appropriate to them in view of the meaning of the time.

- Wilhellm

 

[rosada]

pg. 350

4. Yes, even that which is most important in regard to surviving or perishing, in regard to good fortune or misfortune, can be known in the course of time.

The man of knowledge contemplates the judgement on the decision, and thus he can think out for himself the greater part.

In the Commentary on the Decision the rulers of the hexagrams are always indicated.

By pondering the relationships of the other lines to these rulers, one can gain an approximate idea of their position and meaning in the hexagram as a whole.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.350

5. The second and the fourth place correspond in their work but are differentiated by their positions.

They do not correspond as regards the degree to which they are good.

the second is usually praised, the fourth is usually warned, because it stands near the ruler.

The meaning of the yielding is that it is not favorable for it to be far away.

The important thing, however, is to remain without blame, its expression consists in being yielding and central.

The fifth place is that of the ruler.

The second and the fourth place are those of officials.

The second, which stands in the relationship of correspondence to the fifth (each being centrally placed, the former in the inner, the later in the outer trigram), is the official who, far from the court, is attending to his work in the country.

The fourth place is that of the minister.

Therefore, the two places, both dark - that is, dependent - are not equally good, despite their correspondence with respect to their work.

The second usually carries a favorable judgement, the fourth a warning one: because it is too close to the prince, it must be doubly cautious.

Now it is not in the nature of the yielding to prosper when it is far from the firm, hence one would expect the second place to be less favorable than the fourth.

However, an important factor is that it is centrally place, and so remains without blame.
-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

pg.351

6. The third and the fifth place correspond in their work but are differentiated by their positions.

The third usually has misfortune, the fifth usually has merit, because they are graded according to rank.

The weaker is endangered, the stronger has victory.
--

The fifth place is that of the ruler.

The third, as the top of the inner [lower] trigram, has at least a limited power.

But it is not central; it is in an insecure position on the boundary between two trigrams.

Therein, as well as in its lower rank, lie elements of weakness that in most situations show the pace to be endangered.

The fifth place is central and strong, the ruler of the hexagram; these are all elements of strength, promising victory.

Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

I feel like re-writing these ideas about the line positions in their numerical order:

1. The beginning line is difficult to understand.
The beginning line is cause.
The judgement on the first line is tentative.
It stands outside the essential hexagram and the nuclear trigrams.
The action is only just beginning to develop.

2. The second line is usually praised.
The second place is that of an official.
The second is the official who, though far from court, is attending to his work in the country.
The second place carries a favorable judgement.
Although it is not the nature of the yielding to prosper when far from home, it is centrally placed and so remains without blame.

3. The third line usually has misfortune.
The weaker is endangered.
The third line has at least a limited amount of power.
It is in an insecure position on the boundary between two trigrams.
Therein, as well as in its lower rank, lie elements of weakness that in most situations show the place to be endangered.

4. The fourth line is usually warned, because it stands near the ruler.
The fourth place is that of an official.
The fourth place is that of the minister.
The fourth place usually carries a warning judgement: because it is too close to the prince, it must be doubly cautious.

5. The fifth place usually has merit.
It is strong and the stronger usually has victory.
The fifth place is that of the ruler.
It is central and strong, the ruler of the hexagram; these are all elements of strength, promising victory.

6. The sixth line is easy to understand.
The last line is effect.
At the last line everything has attained completion.
It stands outside the essential hexagram and the nuclear trigrams.
At the last line the action is concluded.

rosada

 

[rosada]

CHAPTER X. The Lines (continued) pg. 351

1. The Changes is a book vast and great, in which everything is completely contained.

The tao of heaven is in it, the tao of earth is in it, and the tao of man is in it.

It combines these three primal powers and doubles them; that is why there are six lines.

The six lines are nothing other than the ways (tao) of the three primal powers.

-Wilhelm

 

[rosada]

Going back to an earlier post for a minute, I just wanted to comment on this idea that the third line position often indicates misfortune because it is in an insecure position at the boundary between two trigrams. I've always wondered why being at the boundary would necessarily create insecurity. These last couple of weeks I've been traveling cross country and crossed several state lines including the border between the United States and Canada. Borders are very confusing places! The signs change, the laws change, sometimes even the language, the money and the time change! No wonder line three is such a dangerous spot to be in!

-rosada

 

[pocossin]

1. The Changes is a book vast and great, in which everything is completely contained.

The tao of heaven is in it, the tao of earth is in it, and the tao of man is in it.

It combines these three primal powers and doubles them; that is why there are six lines.

The six lines are nothing other than the ways (tao) of the three primal powers.

-Wilhelm

Does this mean that the three powers correspond to the lines like this?

1. heaven
2. earth
3. man
4. heaven
5. earth
6. man

Maybe that's one of the reasons there is so much trouble in lines 3 and 6.

 

[rosada]

Hi Tom,

Wilhelm has something to say about that on page 352 in the middle of the page. I'm going to write it out next so skip past the "2. The Way has changes..." paragraph and go down to the next one.

Rosada