Path of Life Hexagram 56

Journey of life. 

The small growing.

Journey of life:  Trial, significant

 

Structure:

·          Fire 7 over mountain 4.

·          The mountain does not move.  Fire quickly moves and does not remain stationary.  Image of going different ways. 

·          Apply knowing with stillness.  Keep still within and adhere to knowing. 

Ideogram:  banner and people around it.

We know not from where we come, where we go, nor even where we are.  Life remains a mystery within which vivid experiences continuously arise.  As strangers in a strange land, we wander through life without a fixed abode or place to rest. Everything constantly changes as we can never linger but always move on to the next passing experience. Sages understand life as impermanent and unfathomable, yet they never lose their awe for the mystery of it all.

Life challenges us to pass through it without entangling ourselves in the realms through which we pass.  We have the innate moral capacity to discern what benefits all and then to act on that understanding, yet those distracted by externals forget the spirit. The wise remain aware, calm, and focused on the one important thing:  their devotion to the sacred.

The ineffable experience of life truly mystifies whoever takes a moment to reflect upon it.  Generations come and go, yet life seems as abundant for everyone.  Life has a vast complex design within an incredible universe which extends into dimensions far beyond human comprehension.  Even though we cannot fathom the mystery of life and all of Creation, yet astonishingly we find it knowable. 

Sages see life as a journey and themselves as travelers on its path.  At birth, we enter life and then eventually grow old and die.  Yet new life always reemerges, like the seeds of a fruit that has rotted away.  Life always triumphs over the forces that would destroy it. 

As strangers within this life of change, we cannot easily find our proper place to be.  Knowing the meaning of life and our creative purpose provides a much needed sense of direction through the ever changing landscape.  The resolve of the wise to do the work of the spirit by benefiting all serves as the moral compass throughout their life’s path.

Self-cherishing and ill will make us stupid as we believe ourselves all-knowing and special, which makes us willing to take careless risks to get what we want.  We fall into the traps of worldly concerns and become enslaved to seek what we have been conditioned to want.  On the path of self-benefit, we willingly harm others and the Earth for our benefit and remain indifferent to the suffering of others.

Sages do not injure the real by delighting in the false, disturb the inward because of the outward.  With knowing based on stillness, they rest in the good, that which benefits all.  When sages have a duty, they fulfill it with clarity.  When there is nothing to do, they use clarity to remain still.  The wanderer keeps still within and adheres to clarity while achieving the Way of  humanity[1] within the world through virtuous actions.[2]

As wanderers in life, we have no fixed abode.  We make the life journey itself our home.  Sages go on their way without harm by remaining upright and steadfast, cautious and reserved. They travel only in the proper places and find companions only with people who share the path.  By adapting to external conditions, sages fulfill themselves without harming others. 

Because of the difficulties in finding one’s place in life, the wise develop capacities to grasp the meaning of the situation and then respond well.  Sages remain centered and devoted to the Path and find success in small ways.  They learn from the patterns of nature how to live, fulfilling their life’s purpose by persistently holding fast to the Way of humanity.  The wise first deeply understand experience to discern the path through dangers.  Once they understand what to do, then they act.  Knowledge without its application is ignorance.

Those without the aspiration to achieve the highest good within their lives and who do not develop their spiritual path waste their lives on the meaningless.  In their pursuit of pleasure, they become careless and neglect their duties.  They play with life and accomplish nothing.  Even injury does not deter their constant impulsiveness. 

Travelers soon find themselves in difficulties when they behave in an unfriendly manner toward those they consider beneath them or if they try to prove their importance to those they want to impress.  People do not like the gruff and overbearing nor those who demand attention and recognition.  Because they have made selfishness their life’s project, they create trouble for themselves and the world.

Just knowing the difference between the two paths and choosing the life journey that will benefit others gives a direction to life.  Sages remain reserved and unpretentious to avoid humiliation within the strange landscape of life.  They keep still within the good and adhere to clarity for success in small things.  As long as we remain grounded in the good, doing what benefits all, we will travel well, finding companions to share the work of achieving the great purpose.  When we stay with the spirit, we will always have a resting place. 

Line 1:  The weak line at the bottom has no breadth of vision and consumes its power on the unimportant.  The line represents the weak who are worn out by life’s journey.  They have meaningless and selfish lives.  They constantly complain and accomplish nothing worthwhile.

The wise do not demean or busy themselves with trivial things that they encounter along the way.  The weaker and more defenseless we are, the more we need to preserve our inner dignity.  Strangers err if they hope that by demeaning themselves they will cause others to accept them. Instead, others respond with contempt and insulting treatment for such ingratiating behavior.

Line 2:  A traveler comes to rest and enfolds its treasures to its breast.  The selfless and reserved stranger does not lose touch with the spirit; thus, it finds a resting place.  It wins the support of faithful and trustworthy partners with whom it can achieve its great purpose.

The traveler lives without exceeding natural and moral limits and does not get entangled with what it should avoid.

Line 3:    A truculent stranger does not know how to behave properly.  It meddles in affairs and controversies that do not concern it, thus losing its resting place.  The line, hard in a strong place, does not show devotion to the wise, and so they do not lend their support.  It treats those below with aloofness and arrogance, thus losing their loyalty.  When a stranger in a strange land has no one left on whom it can rely, the situation becomes very dangerous.

Line 4:  The line, always conscious of being a stranger in a strange land, does not feel secure in what it has and is uneasy where it stays.  It is always on guard to defend itself.  While the line knows how to limit its desires outwardly, inwardly it has strong ambitions.

The self-disciplined line manages itself well and travels the spiritual path.  It forms relationships with the wise, builds up its virtue, and accumulates good deeds without difficulty.  However, the line does not have glad heart as no one understands it.  It cannot fulfill its path because it finds itself in the wrong place and time.  It has a temporary shelter, but it has not reached its true place and must defend what it has. 

Line 5: A stranger in a strange land knows how to meet the situation and others in the right way.  The devoted, central line succeeds in gaining friends below and above, thus finding a sphere of activity and rising through the support it receives.  It has the qualities of culture and adaptability and manages traveling through life by the Way of humanity, an enlightened and civilized path.

Line 6:  The line forgets it is a wanderer and loses its resting place and path.  The line harms others and itself harm by its carelessness, immodesty, and adamancy.  It misuses clarity and its intelligence.  The line seeks pleasure and neglects its duty.  Even injury does not make it wiser.

This line has no hope as it never comes to its senses and persistently strives for more worldly pleasures, giving no thought to the path and its duties. It first experiences a thrill of its strength, but then it loses its inner peace.  Others distance themselves from its willingness to harm others for self-benefit. 

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[1] The Way of humanity:  the path of love that creatively responds to the experiences of life in ways that benefit all.  Sages shape the energies of Creation through the human virtues of caring for all, morality, justice, and wisdom, harnessing the creative energies of the spirit so that they manifest the spirit within the world, materializing the invisible.  The sage finds happiness by obeying the command of heaven to reduce inner faults and manifest the sacred within the world.  Suffering ends when we have the lived experience that the self and other are the same and arise from the sacred mystery.

[2] Virtues shape our behavior, aligning us with the spirit.  The Tao brings forth the good and great, which we experience as love. The Tao causes all life to develop and flow within natural limits, regulating and organizing love, which we call beneficial conduct or morality.  The Tao transforms life so that each attains its true nature, the power of justice ensures that all life achieves its potential according to its being.  The Tao harmonizes all life within interbeing, which we call wisdom, and separates what endures from what perishes.  The completed sage uses the virtues to shape the world.