Self-cherishing
Powerful attraction.
No benefit from grasping the self.
Structure: One weak line enters from the bottom
but the five top lines restrain it.
Time: June-July.
At summer solstice, the force of darkness gradually ascends, which ultimately
will overcome the force of light.
This hexagram describes the dangerous situation when feelings of self-cherishing
and hostility for others first arise, eclipsing our awareness of the spirit. It gives instruction on how to meet and
dissolve these harmful feelings. This
practice assumes that the seeker has developed a stable breath meditation.
Preliminaries
Those on a spiritual path or who seek the wisdom of the I Ching
have freely made the conscious decision to benefit all. Prior to the choosing this path, the seeker
understood the other choice.
The seeker is
aware of the spirit that is greater than its being, that the whole
is greater than the part. The seeker has
awe for the mystery of life and all of creation, a mystery unknowable yet
known.
The seeker is
aware of the suffering caused by self-cherishing and hostility for
others. The seeker regrets having caused
suffering to oneself, others, and the Earth.
Self-cherishing is the willingness to harm others for self-benefit
and then ignore the suffering caused.
When we self-cherish, we view others as a threat and experience fear and
uncertainty, which gives rise to hostility for others. Self-cherishing results from our separation
from the spirit. We no longer experience
wholeness nor rest within the spirit’s love.
Instead we view ourselves as an independent observer and a world filled
with independent objects.
The seeker is
aware of the freedom to choose between the path of the willingness to harm
others for self-benefit or the path of the spirit which benefits all life and
the Earth. The seeker freely makes the
choice to follow the spiritual path and resolves to benefit all. This choice is
our only freedom, and all else follows from it.
The I Ching speaks to those who have chosen the spiritual path that
benefits all.
The Practice
Recognize the danger and respond immediately
Self-cherishing and hostility for others first arise in reaction
to us not getting our way in the world.
We may feel frustrated and angry or anxious and fearful, wanting to
become or unbecome, or some other form of dissatisfaction. We feel highly motivated to do something in
reaction to what the other did or did not do.
By no means are our feelings harmful by and in themselves, but they
become dangerous when we attach to them our willingness to harm others for
self-benefit, which happens when the feelings separate us from the spirit.
Harming for self-benefit always depends upon an unguarded moment and our willingness to indulge it.
At first, these disturbances may seem insignificant, perhaps even
normal, but the wise understand their danger. If negative energies are allowed
to take root, harm follows. Once
negative feelings absorb our attention and a narrative develops around them, their
true harm comes out. When threatened with danger, the ignorant blindly persist
in advancing, which only results in greater danger. We need to clearly identify
these feelings and thoughts quickly before we rashly act upon them.
Retreat
As soon as they recognize that hostile and self-cherishing
feelings and threaten to overwhelm them, the wise pause in view of the danger
and retreat inward, a retreat that requires us to take a step back and away
from our urgent feelings to act upon our distress. However, the priority at this point is to
regain presence and discern a safe and beneficial way forward. To retreat and turn
to the practice of transforming self-cherishing disturbances requires
perseverance and an unswerving inner purpose.
Turn toward the spirit
Rest within the spirit’s love
This primary meditation practice begins with simply resting within
the spirit’s love. If our feelings are
so disturbed and tumultuous that we cannot feel the spirit’s love, then we first
need to restore our awareness of it before we move further into the practice by
returning to the breath meditation to calm ourselves. Once we have recovered our awareness of the
spirit’s love, then we can proceed.
Drop the story
By attaching a story to explain our harmful feelings, we give them
meaning. In most of our stories, we are
the victim, and someone else harms us, whom we blame for all of our difficult
feelings. Ultimately, if we do not intervene in this narrative, we objectify our
negative feelings and project them into the world, the realm of the other, or
turn them against our own being. Then we
struggle to have our way against these projected feelings, causing suffering
for ourselves, others, and the Earth.
Our activated self-cherishing and hostility grows stronger with
the attention we give it. We may imagine that we can study and explore them
without coming to any harm. The wise do not investigate the stories about their
harmful feelings and thoughts because they know that will only entangle them
deeper into self-cherishing and hostility for others, which will cripple
resolve and increase the danger.
Feel the harmful feelings
Once we drop the story, only the feelings remain. Within a meditative presence, we feel these feelings
as deeply as possible. These uncomfortable feelings seem to emanate or lodge in
different parts of the body: our heart,
throat, abdomen, head. We do not condemn
them, try to get rid of them, or seek to fix them but simply and gently feel
them within presence.
When we meet our negative feelings with harshness, we cannot
penetrate them with loving understanding, increasing their danger. Using force
against our feelings produces a reaction to a reaction.
If the feelings should overpower our capacity to hold them in a
gentle presence and they carry us away from awareness of the spirit, we need to
retreat from the feelings and do whatever we can to restore our inner calm and
presence. Once we have regained an inner
stability, then we can again hold the feelings within a meditative
presence.
Gently rest with the feelings in a spiritual presence.
With much gentle care we rest even deeper with the feelings and
open to the loving presence of the spirit. We let this loving spiritual
presence wash over us and our harmful feelings, holding the feelings within a
transformative presence. We continue to
rest like this, breath after breath, until all we feel is the sacred within the
moment. The harmful feelings have
dissolved in the ocean, and our being has recovered the sacred moment.
If while resting with the feeling, we become aware of another
story in the background, then we drop that story and rest with that feeling as
well. We rest with everything.
When we continue to rest with these uncomfortable feelings within a
spiritual presence, we gain insights into what they truly are: empty
distractions that separate us from the spirit. Understanding their true nature
gives us a taste of freedom from them. We
drop even this story and rest even more deeply within the spirit. This balance of firm determination and loving
care allows the transformation of what harms into what benefits all.
Self-cherishing rides upon our life energies, which have within
them the regulative laws upon which the wholeness of life depends. When we hold our stress and negative feelings
within presence, we trust that the natural release from the emotional knot
caused by alienation from the spirit will occur entirely on its own.
Radiate love to all
Eventually, we surround our difficult feelings with so much love
that the love becomes more than our presence can hold. The difficult feelings have dissolved, and we
experience the great unobstructed love of the spirit. At this point, we naturally want to radiate
that love toward all beings and feel the joy of interbeing with all and the
Earth.
This experience concludes this practice of dissolving
self-cherishing and hostility for others.
We simply return to the breath and rest.
If other unresolved challenging feelings emerge, we repeat using the
practice on them. We end with a grateful
heart and the resolve to benefit all in our daily activities.
Retreat when
necessary: If at any point
during the practice negative feelings overpower the capacity to hold them in a
gentle presence, the wise immediately withdraw from them and return to the
breath. We need to retreat until we can recover our presence and a loving
heart.
Sometimes we feel completely overwhelmed by our emotions and
cannot even stay with our breath. The
wise do not force themselves to meditate in that situation but find other gentle
ways to recover their presence. When challenged
in this way, we can turn to the I Ching and reflect upon its insightful
wisdom.
Keep a glad mind
Throughout this practice, the sage keeps a glad mind as it has no
doubt in the outcome of the practice. Those entering the path have faith in the
transformative power of love. With a
glad mind, we can respond to negative feelings with much gentle care without
becoming entangled in the feelings which we seek to transform. Because we trust in the process, we have no
doubt about the outcome.
We can measure the effectiveness of our practice
by looking at our mood. A glad mind is
the sign of a mature practitioner. When
we delight in the spiritual path, then we can practice and deepen our devotion
to it. Throughout the whole process of
transformation, a glad mind supports both presence and confidence in the
path. We grow a more positive attitude
by cultivating loving-kindness and compassion for others, which diminishes
self-cherishing and generates more appreciation for life.
Post-Meditation
Discern the path through the danger
During or after the practice, we may have an insight into how we
can respond to a challenging situation.
Now that we have reduced what had obstructed our awareness of the
spirit, we have greater clarity of the challenging situation. The path through the challenge will appear.
Frequent reflections during daily life
Throughout our daily lives, the wise occasionally take a few
breaths to feel their feelings and awareness of the loving spirit. If feelings block our access to the loving spirit,
then the moment’s priority becomes recovery of presence.
Gratitude for practice
By looking at how we struggle with the moment, we can better
assess our feelings and thoughts. This
puts a space between mindfulness and the challenging anxiety. Every time we come back to presence and
return to resting within the spirit with our feelings, we make it known to
ourselves that we will persist in stabilizing our presence. Gradually our capacity grows and it becomes
easier to respond early to what would harm. Success in one instance grows our
confidence that we can overcome other obstacles in other situations.
Repeat Persistently
We have lived with the feelings self-cherishing and hostility for
others for a long time and cannot reasonably imagine that we can end the
suffering they cause within a few meditation sessions. Increasing awareness of harmful feelings guards
against yielding to them. We have
learned that even a single arising impulse to willingly harm others and
ourselves can obscure the spirit. The wise disrupt this patterned behavior as
soon as they can sense disturbing feelings. Cutting the pattern again and again
gradually weakens its influence over us
Short, frequent practice sessions build our capacities to easily
move through these meditation steps. We
want to make this practice a habit so we can apply it as soon as we experience
dangerous feelings emerge.
Overtime, this capacity to stay present with our disturbing feelings
grows to the point that we can quickly spot the limits of our capacities to
manage challenging situations. We simply
return to holding the difficult feelings within presence to gently release
them. In this way, we develop the
spiritual path that releases and transforms the energies of self-cherishing
into a beneficial response that will benefit all.
Line 1: When self-cherishing and hostility for
others first emerge, the wise energetically check them at once to avoid harmful
consequences. Once these dangerous
tendencies have absorbed energy and take root, their true nature comes out. We know the harm that self-cherishing and
hostility for others can do and that we must undo them as soon as they arise.
Line 2: The sage feels the emerging self-cherishing and
hostile feelings and the urge to indulge them.
Wisely, the sage gently holds these feelings in presence as soon as they
appear, firmly restraining them before they grow stronger and weaken the
resolve to adhere to the spirit. Once
these feelings fully engage us, we would act upon them and allow their harms to
unfold unchecked in our interactions with others and the Earth. The wise remain aware of these feelings as if
they were guarding a dangerous prisoner yet treat them in a perfectly friendly
way.
Line 3: The feelings of self-cherishing and hostility
tempt the line to indulge itself, a very dangerous situation. Yet the line knows it should not. This leads to discomfort and indecisive
behavior. If we gain a clear insight
into the danger of the situation, we can avoid more serious consequences even
though the desire to yield to these feelings remains unsatisfied.
Line 4: The wise tolerates feelings even though they cause difficulties. If we reject or distance ourselves from our feelings and not meet them half-way, we cut ourselves off from them. In a time of actual danger, these protective feelings no longer can function to support us in a time of need. The wise discriminate between feelings that harm and those that support life and the Earth.
Line 5: The wise surround their self-cherishing and
hostility for others within much loving care, not condemning or trying to fix them. They know that these harmful feelings ride
upon our life energies, which have within them the regulative laws upon which
the healing of life depend.
The wise align their beings with the spirit and trust in the
transforming power of love to dissolve self-cherishing and hostility for
others. We hold in presence these
challenging feelings and rest with them in the spirit, trusting the natural
release of the harmful energies will occur entirely on its own according to the
fundamental laws of life. We then can
use these released energies to further support our spiritual path.
Line 6: Rather than rest with its self-cherishing and hostility for others within the spirit’s love, the line turns away from the spiritual path and directly struggles with these dangerous feelings and becomes deeply entangled with them. Because the line did not adhere to the transformative spiritual path, it only has itself to blame for the harm its self-cherishing and hostility for others cause within the world.
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