Hexagram 4 - The Seeker

The seeker.

Spiritual influence benefiting all.

In-no-way I seek the undeveloped seeker.

The undeveloped seeker seeks me

The initial oracle-consulting notifies me.

                                Twice, thrice:  obscuring.

                                Obscuring, by consequence not notifying.

         Benefit from asking the oracle and accepting the results.

Ideogram:  A covered plant, hidden growth.

Structure: 

·          Danger within 3 and keeping still outside 4. 

·          Mountain above water.  Keeping still above danger. 

Image:  A mountain gives rise to a spring.  When water rises out of the ground, at first it does not know its way, but the water steadily fills up the deep places blocking its progress and then necessarily flows on.

Stopping in perplexity at the brink of a dangerous abyss describes the confusion of those at the beginning of the path.  Because they do not know which way to proceed, beginners experience whatever arises through the lens of their self-cherishing and ill-will.  They rely upon their deeply conditioned reactions to get them through the struggles of life and often stumble into ever greater dangers. 

Many live within such a confused state of being their whole lives.  They do not even know that they live apart from the spirit.  Those without a spiritual path remain undeveloped as they never seek the needed wisdom to live a spiritual life. Those filled with self-importance and a deluded sense of their specialness will find it difficult to accept the teachings of others.  An overflowing cup cannot hold more water. 

Confusion at the beginning of the path does not cause harm if the seeker finds a wise teacher to help us develop the understanding and skills needed to have a meaningful and purposeful life.  Only when students understand their ignorance and seek wisdom can they open to instruction in the way that leads to spiritual development.  The gift of having someone we trust penetrate our inner darkness with understanding inspires a profound gratitude for the teacher. The I Ching is such a teacher.

Students show their readiness to learn from the I Ching by their interest, respect for their teacher, and openness to the instruction.  The I Ching does not offer itself to teach or seek out the confused but rather waits for the confused to ask for instruction.  This is the correct relationship between a student and teacher, which ensures the readiness of the student.

Before we can open ourselves to the teachings of the I Ching, we need to trust its wisdom and guidance, a trust that blossoms into faith over the years.  We may never fully fathom the I Ching, but its wisdom is knowable for those seek it.

For those who approach it with a sincere desire to learn how nurture a spiritual path, the I Ching makes itself available as a guide.  It teaches us to investigate our life lessons, the struggles that present themselves and that we must master before furthering our spiritual path.  The Book of Changes instructs on how to move from self-cherishing to selflessness, from hostility for others to sameness with all, from wanting to possess to learning how to live on Earth in ways that benefit all.

Those who play with life never amount to anything.  The undeveloped must learn the seriousness of life and submit to a moral discipline to stop harming and to form firm principles and good habits.  The I Ching applies discipline at the path’s beginning.  The teacher sets behavior limits to help the confused know to be careful and develop a sense of morality.  The I Ching first nurtures the student’s virtue[1], of moral discipline.  We learn how to keep within natural and moral limits. 

Using our own lived experiences, the I Ching teaches how to live within natural and moral limits by investigating the consequences of what happens when we exceed limits or do not follow them. The student and teacher persevere in the instruction until the student masters the points one by one.  Those who follow the I Ching demonstrate what they have learned by applying it to their lives.

As the student’s moral discipline matures, the I Ching builds upon those lessons to develop the other virtues.  Yet once the seeker has mastered a lesson, the I Ching admonishes the student not focus on the discipline that was used to learn the lesson.  When discipline degenerates into a drill or ritual, it has a humiliating effect and cripples our power. 

In teaching others, everything depends upon consistency.  Only through repetition does the pupil master the teachings.  Just as water flows on and on, the I Ching makes use of practice and repetition in teaching.  Thus, it leads seekers further until the they penetrate reality deeply and have no doubts.

Questions naturally arise when confused or learning a new skill.  Asking the teacher questions helps to penetrate confusion.  Someone without questions or curiosity is really not a student.  The seeker asks the I Ching its questions with complete seriousness and total attention and gets a response that cuts through its ignorance.  The seeker then accepts the instruction as a key for resolution of doubt and an insight into the way forward. 

However, we need to limit our questioning.  If we overstep bounds with thoughtless or mistrustful questions, the oracle gives one answer only and refuses to respond to questions implying doubt. Repetitive questions reflect a lazy attitude that annoys the teacher, who ignores such foolish questions and refuses to entangle itself in the student doubt and self-cherishing. 

The I Ching admonishes those who have mastered their willingness to harm others for self-benefit to help those still on the Path.  Rather than escape from the struggles of the world[2], accomplished sages have the holy duty to bring forth the spirit within the world and create opportunities for others to follow what benefits all. 

The wise see life as a learning experience and seek the sacred within the teaching moment, opening and responding to experience in beneficial ways.  The spiritual path perfects action, and action tests our spiritual path. We learn that every step of the path contains the whole path, that the journey is the goal.  What we learn from each lesson applies to our current struggle and to our whole life as well.  Moving through the immediate challenge in a loving way has the same movement as the cosmos.

The I Ching transforms us.  We begin the path as self-cherishing individuals with hostility for others and indifference to the suffering of others.  We become people who find joy and purpose in serving those harmed and create opportunities for others to do the same.  Living in the way that benefits all becomes an established attribute of our being rather than an isolated occurrence.

A stream begins to flow down a mountainside.  It moves through every challenge in its path until at last the stream becomes the ocean.

 

Line 1:  When the self arises, the wise immediately resist and manage it strictly.  If the line indulges the self and lets it have its way, this opens the line to regret. 

Seekers at the beginning of the spiritual path often take things carelessly, but the teacher shows them the seriousness of life.  Those who have yet to follow a settled path must subject themselves to disciplines to develop firm principles and good habits. 

Line 2:  This strong line represents the teacher.   The sage has inner strength and outward adaptability, the necessary qualifications to guide seekers and leaders, tolerating with kindness their shortcomings.

Line 3:  The weak line struggles to rise and slavishly imitates a leader, thus losing itself.  Such a servile approach harms both those who behave this way and those they seek to emulate. The line makes itself contemptible by such an approach.  The wise do not benefit from accepting such support. 

The strong line yields excessively.  It cannot stop itself from throwing itself away to do the bidding of others, and thus loses the spiritual path.  The wise do not become entangled with such people.

Line 4:  The yielding line is in a weak place and is surrounded by weak lines.  The line, entangled in empty imaginings and ignorance, is surrounded by others who are as lost in their delusions.  The line does not know it needs to seek out spiritual wisdom to break through its ignorance.

Line 5:  The line seeks instruction and yields to wise counsel.  The seeker, devoid of arrogance, submits itself devotedly to the teacher (2^nd line.)

Line 6:  Those who cling to their selfishness and attraction to worldly concerns must be made to feel the harm their behavior causes.  Such penalties are restricted to guarding against exceeding natural limits.  Penalties are never an end in themselves but serve to restore order.  Those who impose the penalty should act only defensively and not exceed moral and natural limits.

We attack our own inner darkness by controlling our willingness to harm others for self-benefit and ignore the suffering we caused.  The line powerfully repels its conditioning that motivated self-cherishing and ill-will by ruthlessly restricting the conditioned behavior. 

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[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] 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.