Reduction.
Behavior accords with being.
The Creative, significant.
Without fault, permitting what benefits all.
Harvesting: possessing directed going.
To what belongs availing?
Two platters permit availing of presenting.
Ideogram: Hand and ceremonial vessel, the offering of a sacrifice.
Structure:
· The lake 8 decreases it depths to increase the height of the mountain 4.
· What is above benefits from decreasing what is below.
All the suffering people cause comes from going too far
beyond what we need to the point of depriving others. We all need the resources
necessary for life, but the selfish reduce what others have so that they can
have more. We all want our way, but then
the powerful reduce the freedom of others to increase their control over them. This
selfish taking from others destabilizes the whole structure of society and
brings harm to everyone.
Sages curb their urges for more than sufficiency and stay
close to basic needs to align with natural limits. Through right reason, they set restrictions
upon themselves. By reducing the inequality of the insecure, the wise become
secure.
According to the changing demands
of the situation, the wise repeatedly reduce their faults and increase their
virtues[1]
to the point that nothing remains to reduce, nothing to increase: strength balances gentleness. Within a spiritual path, we willingly
decrease our self-cherishing, hostility for others, and attraction to worldly
concerns[2],
making them an offering to the sacred.
This cultivation of spiritual qualities leads to fulfillment. Decreasing harmful behavior through
discipline and renunciation benefits all.
We also need to guard against the dangers of excessive or
insufficient reduction. When we do not know to stop reducing, we create an
imbalance, which then reactivates our self-cherishing and aversion.
The wise experience within presence the wanting without following
it. Experiencing waves of ill will and
self-cherishing within presence dissolves them, and we can then resting within
the whole. We respond to situations in ways that benefit all, which gives enduring
joy. Our appreciation and contentment grow for the moment.
We use reduction and increase,
each according to the time, as the means to give a spiritual direction to our
lives. Daily we reduce our faults and
increase our virtues again and again until we have nothing more to increase or
decrease, becoming wholly integrated with the harmony the whole. This practice finds the middle way between
yielding and strength, gentleness and firmness. At first this path seems
difficult as we have yet to master our self-cherishing and hostility for
others, but then it becomes easier as we gain confidence in living the Way of humanity[3]. In this way, spiritual capacities increase within
reduction.
People who throw themselves away in order to do the bidding
of a superior or spinelessly comply with harmful conditions diminish their own
position without giving lasting benefit to the other. Those who blindly follow orders in the name
of loyalty do not know the meaning of loss and gain. To render true service of lasting value to
another, the wise serve others without relinquishing their aim to benefit all.
Reducing our faults manifests our devotion to the sacred in
an essential and meaningful way. Such an
offering increases our confidence that we can persist in undoing our
selfishness and ill will. Even in harsh
external conditions, we can still offer small acts of selflessness.
Continuous decrease finally leads to a change into its
opposite: increase. When decrease has
reached its goal, flowering begins.
Line 1: Once they have completed their own urgent
tasks, the selfless use their strength to serve others without taking credit or
making much of it. They help quickly
when and where needed and then leave.
They do not dwell on achievements nor seek credit for that diminishes those
served.
Before helping, consider the best way to help without going
too far or not far enough. To avoid excessive reduction, first consider the
consequences of a reduction to know how to proceed appropriately.
Line 2: In serving others, the line remains aware of its
purpose to benefit all to avoid forfeiting its dignity. Those who throw themselves away to do the
bidding of another diminish themselves without providing lasting service to
anyone. To render true service to
another, the line serves without relinquishing itself, increasing others
without decreasing itself.
Line 3: Reducing excess leads to loss. Adding to insufficiency leads to gain. When
loss and gain complement each other, they unify their aims. The wise know to expect loss in times of
excess when needed to restore balance.
Line 4: The line reduces its faults to follow what
benefits all, which strengthens the line.
Joy comes from reducing one’s faults and moving toward the good.
Line 5: If fate marks out someone for good fortune,
it comes without fail as all oracles concur.
The line needs not fear anything because fate has ordained it spiritual blessings.
Line 6: Sages dispense blessings to the whole world[4]. Every increase in power that comes to them
benefits all and does not decrease others.
Through perseverance and zealous work, the sage finds partners as
needed. Sages do not seek private
advantage for what they accomplish but offer it as a public good and available
to everyone.
[1] Virtues shape our behavior and align 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 a moral discipline that benefits all. The Tao transforms life so that each attains its true nature, a power that we call justice that ensures that all life has the means to achieve 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 these virtues to shape the world.
[2]
Worldly
concerns are the amoral ways in which
the selfish willingly harm others for self-benefit and then ignore the
suffering they cause. Selfish
individuals seek power and domination over others and willingly use violence to
do so. The selfish accumulate wealth
through the unlimited exploitation and ultimate destruction of people, other
life forms, and the Earth. The selfish
seek the attention of others. The
selfish consume as much as they can and seek constant distractions from facing
the harms they caused others, all life, and the Earth.
[3] 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 virtues of love, morality, justice, and wisdom. 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 our being and the other are the same and arise from the sacred mystery.
[4] World does not refer to the Earth but to how people live on Earth. The world – civilization, culture, history, society, science, economy, education, technology – is embedded as a subsystem within the natural system. People create their world through the choices they make.
