Hexagram 26 - Accumulating the Great

Accumulating the great.

Harvesting: the proven core.

Not staying within.  Significant.

Harvesting:  enter the stream of life with a purpose

 

Structure 

·          Above is the mountain 4.  Below is the Creative power 1. Creative within the mountain.

·          Mountain presses down the rising Creative.

The trigram 4 images a mountain.  Ancient Chinese saw mountains enshrouded with mystery, the place where life and death pass into the other.  An electric charge seems to emanate from these sacred places.  Mountains accumulate, strengthen, and nourish life.

The trigram 1 represents the nameless, which we might call the Tao, the Creative, the spirit. The creative energy constantly surges outward in time, a perpetual flux of possibilities. In this hexagram, these energies rest and accumulate within the mountain and are shaped by it.

The Creative within the Mountain represents the process that tames the flux of the creative potential within our being by the strength of our virtues. Sages in meditation keep still like a mountain and remains aware of the spirit. By persistently turning inward toward the spirit, we develop the strength to stay with the sacred and not have our presence swept away by distractions. In this way we develop an ever stronger container in which to cultivate our spiritual path.  Keeping still, the wise hold fast to the spirit and accumulate the energies of the cosmos. 

The spiritual path is the refuge of those who follow it, providing them shelter and nourishment. The mountain collects and gathers about it the forces of life. By keeping still and collecting oneself, the wise develop their virtues.  Holding together with the ways of the spiritual path so strengthens our virtues that a daily renewal takes place. Coming to rest within the sacred presence opens us to our limitless spiritual being. When we can simply and openly rest within the spirit, we find our center, our home.

Everything depends upon overcoming our self-cherishing and hostility for others, the belief that we have dominion over all and willingly harm others to benefit from our entitlement.  When we let our harmful feelings shape our lives, we become an object among objects and subject ourselves to the chaos of external forces.   

Sages know that the sacred is within the moment, and they choose to bring the ways of the spirit into the world[1] to benefit all. We can live mindlessly, or we can exercise the slim claim we have to free will, the power to choose how to respond to what arises.  Only those who develop a stable awareness of the sacred moment can unfold their destiny and shape their lives by their persistent choice to follow the ways of the spirit and to live as a spiritual being. We test the strength and stability of our meditation vessel when we can remain centered with the spirit and act in the world without losing spiritual awareness. 

By developing the virtues of love, moral discipline, justice and wisdom, we root ourselves in interbeing and benefit all.  Shaping begins with the virtue of moral discipline, living within natural and moral limits and interacting lovingly with others.  Through the discipline of practice, we learn how transform our self-cherishing and hostility for others into what benefits all.

The virtue of love is the most important and inclusive aspect of the Creative and which inheres in all life.  Love links all the other virtues.  The human virtue of caring for all and the Earth reflects the Creative’s love.  Because we are led by love for the spirit, it becomes a pleasure to freely yield to the ways of the spirit. Such is the secret of the spiritual path that tames our spiritual and natural being.

The virtue of justice creates conditions through which each receives what accords to its being, what is its due and constitutes its happiness.  Sages further all beings to bring them into a just harmony with the path in ways that benefit all and the Earth. Thus, everything attains its proper place.

The virtue of wisdom actualizes interbeing, the harmony of all beings living on Earth in the ways of the spirit. Sages create the conditions for all life to attain their appropriate place and brings about all benefitting the sacred whole. The wise discern the Tao’s immutable laws of all that happens to bring about enduring conditions. 

It furthers us to take this path.  Spiritual beings enter the raging turbulence of creative possibilities and shape them into offerings. They acquire constancy in change. We care for all life as our well-being depends upon the well-being of the interdependent whole, the interbeing.

The end of suffering comes when we release the energies trapped by self-cherishing, hostility for others, and worldly concerns and harness their released energies to live as a spiritual being.  When we identify with the spiritual path and shape our lives accordingly, we move closer to the spirit. Sages respond persistently in ways that benefit all, clearly understanding their sameness with all and bridging the gap between self and other.

 Rather than shaping nature to fit our wants, the wise shape themselves to fit what nature needs. Sages obey the spirit freely and joyfully. Sages harmonize their feelings, thoughts, and actions with the spirit.  As they reduce their self-cherishing and hostility for others, they grow ever deeper into interbeing and lose their sense of self.  Interbeing loves and cares for well-being of all and the Earth, and all spiritual beings have that aim.

Sages stand firmly on the ground of reality and are bounded by its fierce laws.  Yet their being reaches deeply within and absorb the energy of the spirit.  Through the chaos comes the cosmos.

Line 1:  The situation prevents advancing.  The strong want to advance, but the situation holds them firmly back.  The line would make a mistake if it forged ahead as that only would cause more danger. The line willingly stops and escapes calamity. 

Line 2:  The line keeps its balance in the midst of its growing strength and does not advance its strength further lest it lose its place of resting within the highest good.  It contents itself with waiting for its spiritual energy to accumulate for a vigorous advance later on.

The 5^th line restrains the line firmly, and its momentum cannot carry the line forward.  The line does not challenge the absolute superior strength of the 5^th line, and so no struggle takes place. 

Line 3:  The line confidently follows the spiritual path. Although keen to advance, the line does not presume on its talents or relations with the great sage (top line), but remains careful, prudent, and prepared. The line recognizes the difficulties in achieving its great purpose, but it resolves problems in ways that benefit all. In difficult times, it benefits to have a worthy goal for which to strive. 

Line 4:  The line easily controls and tames its wayward behavior when it first appears, the easiest time to do so and hence the joy.  The line nurtures its spiritual being by stabilizing its creative energy so it does not scatter.

Line 5:  The line has the responsibility to stop wrong doing.  It tames self-cherishing within itself and in the world by pulling outs its roots rather than combating them directly.  Firmness that yields to the nurturing of flexibility does no harm.

The troubles of the world cannot be overcome by force.  The wise watch for opportunities to grasp the root of the problem and transform it.  In this way the harmful forces stop by themselves without a struggle.

Line 6:  The time of obstruction changes into the time of dispersal.  The creative energy stored by shaping forces finds its way out into the world and achieves great success.  The principles of the spirit now prevail and shape the world.  With an open and unobstructed path ahead, the line changes and disperses what it has accumulated. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] World does not refer to nature but to how people live within nature.  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.