Hexagram 11 - The Spiritual Path

Living the spiritual path.

The unimportant going, the important coming.

Wisdom:  Spiritual influencing and nourishing all.

 

Ideogram:  The image of a person in water, signifying the connection to the cosmos, the sacred universe.

Structure: 

·          The energy of the Creative rises from below 1, and the yielding Receptive descends 5. 

·          Inside is the spirit and outside, the form.  Form submits to substance.

·          Persisting strength is inside, and devoted yielding outside.

·        The light principle intrinsically ascends and has a powerful influence.  The weak forces submit and withdraw.

Time:  March – April is the second month of the Chinese calendar, the month of the spring equinox.  The timing of the hexagram is not random but necessarily arises through the laws of change.  It is the season of spring both in the year and in the world[1], the time when the forces of nature prepare for new growth.  This union occurs because the powers have one will to fulfill their responsibilities to each other:  to create and sustain life and to bring about a time of flowering and greatness.

In this time, the spirit and all life unite in deep harmony, and new life and growth comes forth.  The Creative and the living Earth have one purpose, unobstructed and complete union.  The Receptive moves down toward the Creative, which moves upward. Their influences meet and harmonize, causing all life to bloom and prosper.  Strong lines entering from the bottom ascend while the weak lines withdraw from the hexagram.  The small departs and the great approaches.  In the world, it is a time of social harmony and a lack of division among people, who have the common purpose to benefit all.

Within the human realm and in this time, the way of the sage waxes, and the way of the selfish wanes.  When the spirit rules, beings come under its influence and take their proper place.  The way of the sage endures; the way of the selfish is brief.

In this time, wise people advance and bring their worthy peers with them, cooperating to achieve their common purpose to benefit all.  They cooperate in achieving the great by balancing their practices and harmonizing with the spiritual path.

In a world that benefits all, the wise have power and influence and use their position to reform decadence and align with interbeing.  The wise create the conditions for the undeveloped to learn how to live on Earth with others in ways that benefit all so that everyone may embark on their own path of transformation.  

This time of flourishing time does not last as all remain subject to the fundamental law of change: increase turns into decrease.  However, sages adaptively make this time endure by remaining selfless and devoted to the sacred, daily extending the blessings of the spirit to an ever widening sphere.

Sages shape experience with love, wisdom, moral discipline and justice. Because they remain selfless and devoted to the path, their lives have purpose and meaning.  By balancing inner firmness with acting in the world with devotion and gentleness, sages stay on the path and fulfill their duties.  They complete their purpose successfully within the space between being of the world but not in it.  They live the ways of the spirit.

 

Line 1:  The three lower lines belong with one another and advance together.  The wise draw others of like-mind along with them, like pulling up grass with connected roots.  When sages can extend their influence widely, they go into the world with worthy partners to overcome selfishness and to benefit all. 

Line 2:  The sage brings to life the ways of the spirit by:    

·          Enfolding the neglected.  Sages possess enough greatness to bear undeveloped people and imperfect people, accepting the sameness of all with tolerance and flexibility.  The wise know that all beings have a part to play in the great interbeing, and everyone can help if given the right task. 

·          Being resolute:  Sages cooperate with others to solve the world’s profound crisis within the midst of danger and hardship.  They avoid indecisiveness, timidity, fear of change, inertia, and rigidity.  They know the transformative power of the path and keep a glad mind.

·          Overcoming obstacles.  Sages calmly examine the energies in play, including their own feelings and thoughts, to discern the path through the dangers.  They consider both the near and far, not taking anything for granted or becoming complacent.  Sages attend to details, the subtle and hidden.  They avoid carelessness and indifference by remaining diligent and wary of their feelings and thoughts. 

·          Putting an end to bias and partisanship.  The line avoids the partisanship of those who only hold together for the advantages of self-benefit.  They see all as one by avoiding favoritism, subjectivity, and sentiment. 

Line 3:  We can hold selfishness in check but can never abolish it.  It always returns.  This should not make us despair nor doubt the path but rather keep us vigilant.  This natural inevitability keeps the wise wary of yielding to worldly concerns and diligent in remaining firm so that they can respond well to whatever arises.  They thrive by continually finding ways to benefit all.  As long as we value the spiritual path more than worldly rewards, we can persist in manifesting the spirit and its love.

Line 4:  In times of mutual confidence, the spiritually developed come in close contact with the undeveloped quite simply and without boasting of their inner wealth.  The line does not keep its blessings for itself but shares it with others.  Sages do this naturally and openly as they live the spiritual path.

The line has passed the halfway mark of this time of blessings.  Sages extend this time by nurturing others.

Line 5:  Because of its persistence in following the spiritual path, the sage achieves fulfillment.  It follows it heart’s desires and brings to fruition all the beneficial changes it wants to see in the world.  It fills the world with spiritual blessings.

Line 6:  The times change as foretold by line 3.  The world collapses from within.  Resistance is futile as the conditions caused by the abuse of human freedom make this outcome inevitable.  Those responsible for harming others and the Earth for self-benefit feel shame, but nothing can be done.

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[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.