Joyful Interaction - Hexagram 58

Dui.

Growing.  Harvesting. Trial.

Dui:  an open surface; promoting interaction and interpenetration; pleasant, easy; responsive, free; unhindered opening, passage; the mouth; exchange, barter; straight, direct; meet, gather; place where water accumulates.

Action:  (Shou) – stimulate, rouse to action and good feelings; stir-up, urge on; exhort, persuade; say, tell, relate; cheer, delight; joyous, peaceful, restful.

Ideogram:  mouth and vapor - words and exchange.

Structure: 

·          Doubling of trigram 8, Dui, openly interact with others to share good feelings.

·          Two strong line with one open line above.  Empty without.  Fulfilled within.

Image: A lake which give joy and refreshes all life. 

True joy depends upon inner firmness and strength, which expresses itself with gentleness. A quiet, wordless, self-contained joy, desiring nothing from without and resting content with everything, remains free of all preferences.  This freedom harbors the quiet security of a heart fortified within itself.  Inner steadfastness and gentleness within the world[1] give rise to the Way of humanity[2].

The sage joyfully interacts with others while inwardly holding fast to the good, submitting to heaven while harmonizing with others.   Truth and strength dwell in the heart while gentleness reveals itself in relation with others, the right attitude toward the sacred and life, which makes it possible to achieve something within the world.  Intimidation without gentleness may achieve something momentarily, but the effect quickly fades. 

Those who harmoniously interact bring each other joy.  Rousing good feelings encourages others to follow and to accomplish the great as doubts and fears do not diminish the resolve to act.  Hearts won by friendliness willingly take all hardships upon themselves.  When the wise face difficulties with a glad mind and gentleness, others lose their fears.

True joy springs from within.  Those without an inner life look to the world for diversions, the idle pleasures that stream in from without.  They lose themselves more and more, overwhelmed by the pleasures they have attracted.  Sages surround themselves with conditions that support the Way.  They avoid temptations and the situations in which they tend to arise.  They have learned that to participate in such pleasures brings remorse and so do not permit their will to swerve off the path.

Practitioners of the Tao do not delight in indulging the senses nor worldly concerns:  gain, fame, pride, or victory.  They delight in benevolence, justice, and other enlightened qualities of the Tao and thus have real joy.  With a glad mind and joy in living the path, the wise fulfill their purpose.  True joy always develops from benefitting others and following the Way.

When we find delight in the Tao, then we can practice it. Joyfulness in following the path reaches into the world. The joy of realizing the way endures.  When inwardly we find such joy, we understand true joy and do not seek what the world offers, knowing worldly pleasures pass quickly.  Sages have joy when they manifest the spirit within the world. 

The world can never harm those who master inner dangers, embrace their fate, and joyfully dance with the living Tao. This helpless joy is the greatest power on Earth, the art of manifesting the good through action.

Line 1:  A quiet, wordless, self-contained joy desires nothing from without and rests content with everything.  The line remains free of all egotistic likes and dislikes.  In this freedom lies good fortune because the inner being rests within the quiet security of a heart fortified within itself. 

The line’s firmness and selflessness lead to harmonious joy.  The line uses these qualities to bring joy to others without preference or prejudice. 

With strength under control, joy comes forth naturally without effort.  When fulfilled, the sage’s flexibility does not damage its strength and naturally produces good results. 

Line 2:   The line has a close relationship with inappropriate pleasure, making it vulnerable to doubt and remorse.  However, the line’s strength, the sincerity of its nature, and its central position proves stronger than the relationship.  If trusts itself, remains sincere toward others, and meets with beliefs.

We often associate with the undeveloped who tempt us with inappropriate pleasures.  Such pleasure would bring remorse and no real satisfaction.  Pleasing such people would lead to regret.  The line recognizes this and does not allow its will to serve.  Because the line does not find such pleasure agreeable, other companions do not offer them to the line, removing all cause for request.

When their strength attains balance, sages harmonize but they do not imitate.  They please others without losing their firmness and balance and regret disappears.  Self-control causes regret to vanish as the line remains true to the mean and attains inner autonomy. 

Line 3:  True joy springs from within.  However, those who turn to the world for fulfillment will easily find themselves immersed within a stream of worldly pleasures. Most welcome this as diversions.  Those lacking an inner stability need amusement and will always find opportunities to indulge themselves.  They attract external pleasures by the emptiness of their nature, losing themselves more and more.

This line, at the high point of joyousness, lacks control.  The line allows attracted pleasures to overwhelm it.  It loses the way and descends as it gives up the real and delights in delusions. 

Line 4:  The line has no joy as it weighs its choices between different kinds of pleasures, undecided about whether to choose between indulging the self or cultivating the spirit.  The line recognizes that indulging the self brings suffering and turns away from such lower pleasures to strive for higher pleasures.  Once the line makes the decision and overcomes its inner conflict, it finds true joy and peace.

The line first carefully deliberates what to follow and then moves away from what harms towards what benefits all.  Then the line can partner with the 5^th line to carry out the Way of humanity and extend the blessings to others.  This is joy.

Line 5:  Line consummates the Way of humanity and experiences true joy.  The line holds the honored position, balanced and upright, achieving the way of humanity.

The line knows that its socially conditioned.  Its willingness to harm and the selfish is always near and easily entangles the unaware.  The sage fears such dangers and persists in undoing its social conditioning and strengthening its and others’ humanity. 

Dangerous elements always approach.  The line recognizes them for what they are and protects itself from them.  Disintegrating influences act slowly and bring danger.  Believing what the self says about arising experience disintegrates the firmness of the will.

The 6^th line, the plunderer, tries to dissolve the virtues of the 5^th line.  This line knows the danger of trusting a plunderer.  The line fears such seductive pleasure as it leads easily to confusion. However, those who remain self-satisfied, finding joy in strength but not in yielding, will lose in the end. 

Intelligent people can only receive benefit if they open their minds to the Tao.  If they presume upon their talents, if they like to be obeyed but hate to hear honest words, they then associate with the petty and avoid other intelligent people.  Their faults of the self-cherishing increase daily and their virtues decrease daily.  Others will not consider the haughty and jealous even if they have great talents. 

Line 6:  A vain nature invites diverting pleasure and suffers accordingly.  The pleasures of the world have such a powerful influence over those who lack stability that they sweep the unresisting along.  Such people have given up setting the direction of their lives.  What happens to them depends upon chance and external influences.

The line tempts others to pleasure – seductive joyousness.  Line does not apply to the person consulting the oracle but shows a situation confronting it.  We have the choice whether to indulge temptations.  Stay on guard against such dubious situations.

In other hexagrams at the climax, a change occurs.  This hexagram climaxes with even more pleasure.  The line does not know when to stop seeking pleasure and wants to prolong it. 

Line represents the joy of the weak who concern themselves with externals through outward appearance, clever words, pretending to be what they are not.  They seduce others and care not for their behavior’s consequences. 

---

[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] 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 human virtues of caring for all, morality, 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.