Splitting apart.
No benefit from moving toward a goal.
Structure:
· The Receptive moves downward 5, and the mountain stays motionless 4, loosening the hexagram’s structure.
· The weak lines cause the downfall of the strong line at the top by sinking downward, taking the ground away from it.
· Mountain over Earth. Stillness and resting within the strength of the Earth.
Image: The top line pictures the roof of a
house. The house collapses when the roof
shatters.
The hexagram marks the 9th month in the Chinese
calendar (October – November.) The dark of the year overtakes the light ever
more powerfully, threatening to supplant it completely. The fundamental laws of
Tao cause this natural alteration of increase and decrease, fullness and emptiness. As the yielding lines increase they gradually
and imperceptibly changes the strong lines until the point of collapse is
reached. However, this hexagram expresses the fundamental and universal trend
of life: as life sinks, it creates new life. Fruit must decay before new seed
can begin a new cycle of growth.
Within the human realm, we experience this time when
oppressive forces actively strip away what benefits all within the world[1]
and even cause the loss of faith in the spiritual path. It is a time when the
selfish tear down what the wise have achieved and care not about the harm they
cause in their rush for ever more wealth and power, the extreme result of differentiating
between self and other, valuing the part and turning away from the whole.
Inwardly, we may experience this stripping away of the good when
in despair we yield to self-cherishing and compromise our spiritual path. The
forces of self-cherishing threaten to collapse the efficacy of the remaining
good. Oppressive energies do not work
directly but subtly, undermining the good until it finally collapses. In such times, those who harm for
self-benefit act without restraint and overcome the virtuous.
Great harm, however, does not just destroy the good alone
but inevitably itself as well, for that which lives solely by harming others
and the Earth cannot continue to exist on its own strength. In the end, destructive forces can no longer
sustain themselves, and they collapse.
Sages know the futility of struggling against universal laws
and the conditions they force upon life.
The time causes these conditions, not human actions; thus, the wise do
not resist but submit to the time. When the harmful time threatens to engulf
life-enhancing conditions, the wise do not presume upon their strength, now at
its weakest.
The hexagram’s structure, Mountain over Earth depicts how to
respond to this difficult time: be as still and quiet as the mountain but gain
strength from the Earth by resting firmly within the foundation of the
spiritual path. Natural forces cause our
loss of influence: we cannot resist natural forces, but we can keep our faith
in the transformative power of the good. We know the times will change and can prepare
for it. The wise do not undertake a great effort or a new beginning because they
cannot act in this time. Instead, they submit to the course of the cosmos which
alternates between increase and decrease. The full decreases, and the empty
increases.
The wise remain friendly to all, but protect themselves by concealing
their doings, acting in accord with the time to escape the contagions of
self-cherishing. They remain in the
background during the season when the wrong overpowers what benefits all. While lacking the power to influence in this
time, the wise remain faithful to what they know benefits all. They achieve their purpose by remaining adaptable
to the time and devoted to the spirit.
Even when the disintegrating forces are their strongest and
the wise have scant opportunity to manifest good within the world, the wise reverse
the effects of the time by further undoing their self-cherishing and then using
this released energy to nurture their spiritual path. Within
the world, the wise strengthen their partnerships with the oppressed and share resources
with them as much as possible. To the
degree we can place ourselves under the spirit’s guidance in such times, our
spiritual potential grows.
Although the dark forces splinter the light, the light principle
always survives. Due to the fundamental
principle of the invincibility of what benefits all, the seed of good always
remains. In nature, the fruit must decay
before the new seed falls to the ground and renews growth. The splitting apart reaches its end, and
better times return. The seed of good
survives, and the sage regains influence and effectiveness. When the forces of selfishness and hostility peak,
the heart turns to transforming the abuses of human freedom and remedying the
harm they caused.
Line 1: The yielding disintegrating force advances
and surreptitiously dissolves the foundation of the resting place of the
strong. Destroying what benefits all begins here. The capable and worthy line
loses it resting place and must stand on its own.
Line 2: The disintegrating forces grow stronger
and devalue the ways of the spirit. The world increases its disregard for
virtue[2]. Within this dangerous situation, the line has
no help from above or below. The isolated line needs to exercise extreme
caution and adapt to the time to avoid losing the path.
Line 3: The weak line corresponds with the top line,
the surviving strong line. This isolated
line has dangerous external ties.
However, it has an inner relation with the spirit; thus, it attains
stability and frees itself from what harms.
Unlike the other surrounding weak lines, it aims to follow what benefits
all. It remains blameless while in the
midst of wrongdoings. This brings the
line into opposition with the selfish, but that is not wrong.
Line 4: Here the disaster affects not only the line’s
resting place but even its body. The danger has reached its peak, and nothing
stops it. Self-cherishing and worldly concerns dominate the world and
completely eclipse the spirit path. Misfortune arrives.
Line 5: The line voluntarily changes and submits
itself to the spirit and leads the other weak lines to the strong light-giving
principle at the top, transforming destructive energies. All goes well.
Line 6: The splitting apart reaches its end. The strong line at the top embodies the seed
of the future. When the strong line
changes into a weak line, it collapses into the Earth and the good sprouts anew
without any cessation.
The sage again attains influence and effectiveness. It receives common support to carry forward
what benefits all. When disaster comes
to a peak, people naturally think of ways to remedy it. The people’s desire for healing leads to living
the ways of the spirit.
The selfish suffer the effects of their harming others. The willingness to harm others and the Earth
for self-benefit destroys not the good alone but destroys itself as well. The line demonstrates a law of nature: what survives solely by harming others cannot
continue on its own strength alone as it feeds off the good.
[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] 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.
