Hexagram 49 - The Great Transformation

Transformation.

Before the peak of sun,

Only then harmony between the spiritual path and the world.

What is true for a part is true for the whole.

                All cause for regret are corrected.

Structure: 

·          Lake 8 above fire 7.  Joyousness above clarity.  Joy comes from clarity.  Clarity bounds joy. 

·          The two trigrams, water above (lake) and fire below, depict the primal two forces combating each other, each trying to destroy the other.

Image:  The Chinese character for this hexagram refers to how some animals molt, shedding their skin, feathers, or fur the course of the year.  This meaning also applies to great social changes that cause governments and institutions to molt.

Times change along with their demands.  Just as the year has seasons, life has seasons, each with different qualities and purposes.  We understand the nature of change from observing the seasonal cycles of increase and decrease, light and dark, full and empty. 

We see similar patterns of change within our being.  Once we empty ourselves of the willingness to harm others for self-benefit, we can open to the other with loving care.  Decreasing self-cherishing increases the understanding of our sameness with others people and all life.  When we reduce the darkness of ignorance, we understand how things actually are.

The wise do not compromise with self-cherishing and hostility for others.  They always openly discredit this fault within themselves and in the world.[1]  Commonly, we find it easier to see the problems caused by others than our own faults, so the wise persist in the search and uprooting of their self-cherishing before they imagine they can transform others and the world. 

As it is inside, so it is outside.  The inward and outward align with the way of the spirit. What justice we can bring to the world depends upon true practice in overcoming our entanglement with self-cherishing and worldly concerns.[2]

Our choices reflect our path.  If we want beneficial cooperation in the world, then we cooperate.  If we want to get out of a dangerous situation, then we move toward what benefits all.  When we know our sameness with everyone, then love and care for all naturally arises as a response to suffering.  We do even a little good and reduce even a little harm to shape our actions.  We recognize the difficulties of our path but know that we can succeed if we patiently and persistently act to benefit all.   

Resolve to Uproot Injustice:  The root cause of suffering lies not in nature but in the abuse of human freedom, the choice between selfishness and benefiting all.  The selfish willingly inflict pain and distress upon the less powerful, other life, and the Earth to have their way and then ignore the pain and suffering they cause, a definition of injustice.  In an unequal society, injustices abound. 

Knowing the root cause, the sage firmly resolves to remove the source of injustice in the world, a commitment based on the union of strength and friendliness. Rather than treat the symptoms of injustice, the wise go for its root in ways that benefit all.

Develop Supports:  Before acting in the world, the wise seek the council and cooperation of trusted and worthy partners, people upon whom they can rely in determining how to best manifest what benefits all.  Just social change requires the cooperation of many. 

Spiritual friends and fellow practitioners help us overcome our own willingness to harm.  A community of justice workers practice together and test their understanding of what they have learned through supportive discussion and action.

We also can cooperate with allies in responsible positions who want to benefit the community.  They can lend their position of authority and power to support the transformation.  By supporting them, we magnify their efforts to influence others.  The servant leader serves by following.  The wise celebrate the good works of others.

Act:  The sage transforms selfishness, the root causes of injustice and suffering, by manifesting the spirit within the world in a selfless and beneficial way.  Sages do not act upon every demand for change, but they do not ignore repeated calls to address a great injustice.  When reforms cannot solve a problem, it requires a new beginning.  Then sages act as warriors to change the world.  Once prepared to act, we must act.  If we do not, then we demonstrate our ignorance.

Righteous anger motivates us to correct injustices done to us and others.  However, such anger can turn into self-righteousness, causing us to indulge a willingness to harm those who get in our way of grasping what we want.  When provoked, angry people become contentious and aggressive, acting willfully and without restraint.  The means never justify the ends.  Sages overcome and quiet their dangerous anger by seeing through the emptiness of self-cherishing so that they can respond to situations in an agreeable manner. 

The sage does not try to change those who refuse to change, those who reject the path of caring for others and the Earth.  If we brand those who cause suffering as evil, then they will think of weapons to defend themselves.  Sages avoid excessive haste and ruthlessness when carrying out needed change.  Instead, sages inwardly guard against their own self-cherishing and hostility for others.  Without an opponent, the weapons of selfishness dull. 

If they find they do not have the capacity and skill to respond well to a dangerous situation, the wise retreat before they lose themselves.  Within this withdrawal, they regain a sense of inner stillness.  When calm, we return to the love in which we rest and discern the way forward.

Although, we may not have the capacity to uproot causes of suffering completely, the wise do what they can within the situation.  Our capacities, position, and forces within the world limit what we can transform; thus, we aim for the doable.  We build upon what others have accomplished and trust others to complete the ultimate task. 

Change government:  Governing structures have the responsibility to provide the necessary incentives and penalties to protect the well-being of the people and community from those willing to harm others for self-benefit.  Social change becomes necessary when those willing to harm for self-benefit gain control of government, oppressing the people and destroying the Earth for profit.

Changes in government should only be undertaken when there is no other option. We know that violent revolutions do not have a good end.  Thus, social change that benefits all must follow definite law, just as nature adheres to enduring laws. The wise wait for the right moment to act, when it is clear that there is no other option. They adhere to the ways of the spirit and remain free from selfish aims. To have the support of the people and to avoid excesses, wise leadership gladden the people while limiting them to humane limits. The actual changes made must actually relieve the needs of people.

Live the Transformation:  We change the world by changing the way we live in it. No transformation is possible in the world without a prior inward transformation of being. The wise use inner awareness to reach gently out into the world, always testing their understanding of the spiritual path by their virtuous actions.  They devote themselves to the caring for the Earth and all life, knowing that love must prevail in the beginning and through the end.

By going out to meet the new way by living it, we serve as an example for others.  We influence others through our actions so that they also can adapt to the new way.  We gain people’s trust through restoring our collective sense of purpose and responsibility. 

Throughout the whole process of transformation, the sage always has the support of a glad mind to stay present and to have the confidence needed to act.  This joy comes from living the spiritual path.  A clear presence keeps the joy within bounds and frees us from delusion. 

The Creative calls on life to follow the path that benefits all.  Only by following this path can life answer the sacred call. We make the highest offering possible by living our lives in ways that benefit the Earth and all life.  Those on the path find the ways of the spirit easy to know but hard to carry out.  It simply depends upon our will to live it.

 

Line 1:  The line binds and subordinates itself to the dominant power.  It is not possible for it to act on its own.

Line 2:  Before the peak of sun, then and only then do sages transform.  They correct abuses wisely and without fault. Those who act in this way have joy. 

Line 3:  We experience two common mistakes when the need for change arises:  ruthless haste or excessive hesitation.  Sages do not heed every demand for change of the existing order but act only upon widely known injustices.  When the need for change has wide agreement, people can believe in the need for a great transformation. For fire to act effectively against water, it must act with absolute determination.  All of the firm lines must form a single unit.

Line 4:  The sage no longer causes harm to itself and others.  The sage’s inner spiritual being accords with its actions in the world. The sage has successfully subdued it self-cherishing and hostility for others, thus transforming its fate.  The virtuous and trustworthy sage persists in the ways of the spirit.

Line 5:  The line has no need for divination for all to know that a great transformation has taken place.  Sages powerfully act to bring to life the spiritual path within the world, fiercely opposing the forces of selfishness and aversion and protecting those that have suffered harm.    When sages bring about a transformation, large clear guiding lines become visible and understandable to everyone, and all spontaneously support it.

Line 6:  The inferior change externally in response to the transforming forces of the time, but their hearts have not changed.  They appear to change because they fear the authority of others and so minimize their harmful behavior.  However once conditions stabilize, the wise keep steadfast watch over such influences so that they do not act up and endanger the new era. 

Even sages cannot influence the base and foolish, those who destroy themselves and others and whose hearts reject the good.  Some may have great abilities, but they still are fools. To try to change their behavior goes to an extreme.  The false and the true bear different fruits.

---

[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] 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.