Hexagram 17 - Following the Way

Following.

The Way of Tao.

Without harm.

 

 

Ideogram:  go and fall, unavoidable movement. 

Structure:  Movement 2 below 8.  Joyful movement.

Following the Way

People have a pervasive dissatisfaction with what they experience, which disrupts the natural loving union we have with the spirit. Our feelings become estranged from our awareness of the spirit and attach themselves to self-cherishing and worldly concerns.[1]  Once we objectify and project our negative feelings onto the world[2], we no longer feel the spirit but only the self and our reaction to the other.  When fixated on the external, arising experience agitates us, and we suffer.

While the spirit has no form and lies beyond our capacities to conceptualize or grasp, we can sense it through our feelings.  The spirit loves the virtuous direction of feelings.  Feelings love the goodness of the spirit.  Spirit and being merge.

To restore the union with the spirit, sages practice resting within the awareness of the spirit to develop their capacity to feel, to intuit, the spirit.  The path of following the spirit calls us to interbeing. Our growing capacities to overcome the attraction of self-cherishing strengthen our awareness of the spirit, which joyfully induces us to find ways to benefit all.  Being and inner spirit follow each other, spirit seeking being and being returning to spirit.

When the sage feels love for the sacred within arising experience, its being harmonizes with the spirit.  Sages experience whatever arises as the manifestation of the spirit and respond to experience in ways that demonstrates their devotion.  The unity of feelings and awareness of the spirit fulfills the Way of humanity.[3]

Following Others

We work together with others to transform the difficulties of the world.  Sages need the perspective of others to gain the necessary clarity to act wisely, not just listening to the like-minded.  However, sages and other partners must persistently seek and follow the good, sharing responsibility to benefit all. 

The wise give before they receive to attract others to benefit all and the Earth.  To nurture others to follow the good, sages first serve those with whom they would partner, submitting to them by adapting to the conditions of the time and by providing services.

The wise follow others with care in the beginning to learn their direction. If not centered on the spirit, joyous following can lead to great harm.  If the group seeks only self-benefit, people within the group will seek to manipulate and exploit each other.  Obtaining a following by force, cunning, or by creating factions arouse resistance which obstructs union.  Whatever sought will be gained.  The wise are careful in what they follow.

A danger also lies in someone’s eagerness to conform to the yet undeveloped ways of the followers to secure a following.  The wise do not immediately yield to every whim of those they serve but remain true to the way of following the good.  They follow the spirit, not the other, and do not let others follow them personally. 

By cooperating with others to bring to life the Ways of humanity within the world, the path offers to such a group a spiritual joy that comes from working together on ways to benefit all.  Followers of the path gladly join a movement that fulfills a purpose they could not achieve by themselves.  The group is in accord within the joy of mutual fellowship. 

Line 1:  This strong, ruling line has the authority to demand others to follow it.  Instead it changes and follows the second line, representing the wise. Because the line seeks the wisdom of others and adheres to the spiritual path, it achieves its purpose.   

Those who want to cooperate with others must remain accessible and responsive to their views, following and adapting to the other.  Once ready to listen to others’ opinions, the line does associate exclusively with those who share its views or with members of its own group.  Instead, it goes out and mingles freely with all sorts of people, friends and foes.  This is the only way to discern the path forward.

Line 2:  The line follows the weak and petty.  The line should hold to the strong and worthy, its true complement.  We cannot have both kinds of relationships at once:  we have to choose.  The sage decides wisely who and what to follow.

Line 3:  When the line makes the right connection with the inner spiritual path and worthy partners, a certain loss naturally ensues:  the line must part company with worldly concerns and its self-cherishing.  Yet the line feels content within its heart because it has found what it has sought and needs for spiritual development.  The line remains firm in knowing what it truly wants and resists indulging in desires that may arise.

Line 4:  The line has gained some influence and obtains a following by condescending to those beneath it.  Such followers seek personal advantage and make themselves indispensable to the line through flattery and servility.  If the line grows to depend upon such followers and cannot do without them, misfortune comes.  Only the selfless intent upon justice can see through this harmful influence and become free of blame.

Those in this position should develop their capacities and act in accord with the Way, clearly serving the spirit.  The strong line follows the spirit rather than worldly concerns.  When all its actions accord with the Way of humanity, the sage serves as a bright example for those who would follow the Way. 

Line 5:  The line has the position of honor.  It has attained excellence in fulfilling the spiritual path. The line remains correct in following what benefits all.  All of its actions are right.  It follows its heart desire, the Way of humanity.

Line 6: 

An exalted sage has put the turmoil of the world behind it.  A persistent follower appears who understands the sage.  So the sage comes back into the world and aids the other in its work.  Thus, an eternal bond develops between them.

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[1] Worldly concerns are the 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 believe themselves superior to others and express their self-cherishing through patriarchy, discrimination, and subjugation, willing to use violence to protect their rung within the hierarchy and to support the powerful.  The selfish consume as much as they can and seek constant distractions for the pleasures they derive from their addictions.  

[2]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

[3] The Way of humanity embodies the laws of Tao that govern the human beings, both in relationship to the spirit and with each other. It is 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, moral discipline, 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.