Hexagram 10 Treading

Treading on the forces of the cosmos.

Not coming to harm.

Spiritual influence nourishing all.

Ideogram:  body and repeating steps.

Structure: 

·          Above heaven 1.  Below joy 8. 

·          Firmness rejoicing in flexibility.  The yielding follows the firm, treading upon it. 

·          Joyfulness follows the Creative.

The hexagram tells the story of a young girl treading on a fierce tiger’s tail, but she comes to no harm.  The Creative, the upper trigram, acts on the lower weak trigram, which represents the youngest daughter.  It is the way of the world that the strong act upon the weak.  Yet here the roles reverse, and the weak acts on the strong, the weak interacts with the strong and worries it but comes to no harm because the stronger takes it in good humor.

People take for granted that the forces of cause and effect shape their lives. We enter life over which we have vanishingly little control.  We do not determine what each day brings but remain subject to all of the forces of cause and effect in play within the world.[1] The wise bend to fate, the forces over which they have no control, just as a tree growing on a windswept crag survives by adapting to its situation. 

However, even though we do not control what arises in our experience, we do have total responsibility for how we respond to it.  Sages have developed the capacity to manifest the Tao within the world in ways that benefit all.  Following the Way of humanity[2] introduces new waves of energy into the realm of cause and effect, like the ripples caused by throwing a pebble into a pond.  Our destiny exceeds fate when we creatively manifest the sacred within the world. 

Destiny 

The spirit has only one command for us:  to care for the Earth and all life in ways that benefit all.  How we choose to manifest this spiritual obligation within our lives and in the world is our destiny.  We experience this calling as an inward pressing aspect of the sacred powerful presence, an experience that inspires a fearful awe as the sacred confronts us with the power of the cosmos.  The seeker feels powerless in the presence of this overwhelming power and must yield to it.  The sacred gives us no chance but to obey, to align our lives with our duty, which gives purpose and meaning to our lives.

Such a spiritual crisis requires a far-reaching decision as the danger of the shock can only be overcome by moving in the creative direction of our duty.  We need to have the proper attitude and make the right decision when confronted by the sacred.

People try to evade their sacred duty by not opening to the spirit or even denying the spirit, explaining it away in order to resist it.  But we can no more escape our responsibilities than we can avoid the forces of gravity.  We can only justify our being by how we fulfill the sacred command.

We should not resist, ignore, nor flee our destiny, that which the spirit calls us to do.  In denying our destiny, we deny ourselves.  When we go to meet our destiny, it guides us.  While we always remain subject to fate, the realm of cause and effect, we have the freedom to embrace and move beyond these mechanistic forces by responding to what arises in experience through the ways of the spirit, transforming the fate into destiny.

The sage knows the danger of acting upon the forces of life, both those of fate and the creativity of the cosmos, represented by the tiger.  Yet the weak comes to no harm.  What does it take to learn how to play with a wild tiger and not get bitten? The path leads us to realize the illusory nature of the self and the other and understand our sameness.   Devotion to the Way appears as a joyful dance in which the sage loses this sense of self and other.  In this way the young girl can play with the wild tiger and come to no harm: what acts and what is acted upon merge. 

Even when the path leads through great danger, the sage follows its destined path cheerfully and obediently. Such willing obedience is faith. Faith in the path is victory for we know how to guide our creative energies to achieve our purpose of benefiting all and the Earth.

By responding to the other with boundless love, the sage treads upon the mystery of experience without getting bitten. The wise manage wild and difficult situations by living a life worthy of humanity and flexibly bearing life’s firmness.  Virtues and other enlightened qualities are the vocabulary of love’s language.  When we respond in these gentle ways to creatively interact with others, we fulfill our destiny of caring for the other and the Earth.    When sages act, they learn how well they danced by observing the effects of their actions upon others.

When we cannot bear what arises in experience, presence collapses into fear, anger, and greed.  Once our experience separates into the self and other, fear of the other transforms us alternately into an oppressor and a victim.  We no longer dance but struggle with arising experience.  The great harms caused by increasing disharmony leads to the inexorable fate of those forces biting us. Those with sincere intentions to care for the Earth and all life may stumble and make mistakes, inadvertently causing harm.  Yet the spirit passes over these inadvertent misdeeds, knowing that those seeking a spiritual path will learn from their mistakes. 

Arising experience does not bite those who tread upon the path of life gently and trustingly. Sages strike a balance between obsessiveness and indifference.  They stay with the spirit because of their powerful unrelenting resolve, forestalling dangers through their awareness of perils and taking care to not let their self-cherishing regain control.  Sages find that by manifesting the spirit’s love, which exceeds understanding, they can tread upon the mystery of experience without it biting them. Suffering ends when we have the lived experience that we are not the wave but the ocean, that the self and the other are the same and arise from the sacred mystery of experience.

Sages go to meet their destiny cheerfully and obediently, even when dangerous to do so.  They have faith in the Tao and love their destiny, free of fear and hope.  Love guides their creative energy to manifest the ways of love within in the world.  Sages use every moment to advance their destiny.  In so doing, they open to a helpless joy that comes from doing the good and surrendering to the spirit. 

 Line 1:  The line advances on the spiritual path with the purpose to benefit all in a natural and simple manner.  The solitary line achieves its purpose.  As it has no relationship with the other lines, it goes its way independently and gains the solitude it wants.  It follows its heart desire as it makes no demands upon others. 

The line has the positive strength to rise.  Wise people calmly act according to their circumstances.  They live simply and move ahead when they can accomplish something.  Such people keep to the basics in their actions. They want to advance to benefit all.  Once they have prepared the necessary conditions to accomplish their goal, they act and to benefit all. 

Line 2:  The line conducts its life according to the Way of humanity to benefit all.  The cause of the harm within the world is external to this line

With a quiet inner being, the sage does not disturb itself with wanting to gain something and does not aspire to advance higher.  No external things attract it, and so the solitary sage treads the path evenly and with joy.  Neither confusion nor wrong relationships lead it astray.  When balanced, a joy naturally arises in following the path, a joy that transcends the attraction of external pleasures.  Treading the path of life without self-cherishing develops a tranquil spirit.

Line 3:  The weak, incorrect line lacks clarity and advances into the very mouth of the tiger.  The foolish tread on the tiger’s tail and get bitten. 

The line does not have sufficient capacities to clearly understand the dangerous situation, like a blind person walking an unfamiliar path.  It does not retreat, imagining itself heroic and capable, but disaster overwhelms the exposed line.  Only a warrior battling for its prince has the justification to undertake an effort that exceeds it strength. Even then, the line does not advance far.

Line 4:  This line actually treads on the tiger’s tail with great trepidation but does not get bitten.  Success comes from the coupling of inner strength with outward caution.  The sage achieves its purpose to benefit all by moving ahead.

Line 5:  The ruling line takes its own destined path to benefit all, the correct and appropriate course of action.

Line 6:  At the end, the sage looks back over it actions to determine its effects of acting upon others.  As the sage devotedly revolves about the Creative, the sage has the blessings of the sacred.

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[1] World does not refer to nature but to how people live within nature.  The world –  civilization, culture, history, society, beliefs, worldly influences – is embedded as a subsystem within the natural system.

[2] 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.