MEDITATIONS: I CHING; THE BOOK OF CHANGES, CANTO SIXTEEN

Pleasure—Deep—Satisfaction
|or| Delight

Look for opportunities to be optimistic and confident. Take the initiative in all affairs but do not boast or brag about past or future successes. Curb your current passions and identify with past experiences of personal significance. (Bright-Fey 61)

Delight makes it advantageous to set up overseers and mobilize the army.

Yin 1: Crowing delight bodes ill.

Yin 2: Firm as a rock, not taking all day, uprightness bodes well.

Yin 3: Delight looking up is regretted; if sluggish, there is regret.

Yang 4: Being the source of delight, there is great gain. Let there be no doubt, and companions will gather.

Yin 5: Persistent through suffering, never dying.

Yin 6: Ignorant delight has taken place; if there is a change, there will be no fault. (Cleary 86-93)

Conditions of great possession can only be sustained through an attitude of humility. So long as humility persists, there can be delight in the great fortune accrued. That is the thesis of thunder above the earth—action and initiative over yielding and receptivity. Described more concisely, the sixteenth hexagram can be said to be docile activity: one conforms via discipline, a will yielding to the Way, and is able to begin many ventures and carry them out to success. Thus does the delegation of responsibility and the deployment of the army bode well. Morale is high, as is humility among the leadership, so responsibility can rest on the shoulders of those most capable.

However, there are many under circumstances of delight who are unable to maintain a proper attitude of humility. They are those who inevitably drown in delight, such as those described by the first Yin in its place of deficiency. Positioned at the bottom of its trigram, this Yin corresponds to the bottom Yang of thunder. It therefore represents those who attribute to themselves the bringing about of their delightful condition, which in reality is provided by those humble and responsible others. Such low-lives can’t help but to brag and boast about their greatness instead of bringing good fortune about. Disaster is sure to follow their lack of discipline and humility.

In contrast, the second Yin stands in a balanced position but without a corresponding Yang in the trigram above. This means it is on its own yet is balanced in its docility. The second Yin is thus “firm as a rock,” meaning well disciplined. Such a person does not linger too long in delight, but enjoys it and then moves on to initiate more good works and fruitful labors.

The third Yin degenerates again. It is in the top-most position, yet is yielding and feminine. This represents giving in to excess and indulgence, and in this context, it is an over-indulgence in delight. Those who become addicted to pleasures look up to those who achieve them, but they linger too long in comfort and miss their opportunities to achieve for themselves. Thus are they sluggish, and thus do they continually face up against regret.

Shifting now from internal subjectivity to external modes of action, the top trigram of thunder begins with a Yang. Because this is the sole Yang in the whole hexagram, it is also the source of action even though it is in an inferior position to that balanced place of leadership. That makes sense given the nature of thunder is initiation. During a time of delight, it is that cohort of hardworking beginners, upstarts, and entrepreneurs which carry the weight of responsibility. They might be deficient in power and wisdom, but because they are the only ones genuinely and sincerely engaging with the world according to the Way, they are able to gain a following from above as well as below. In that way, they lead from a subservient position, like great ministers under an indulgent king.

The aforementioned indulgent king is represented by the fifth Yin. It occupies the position of leadership, but is weak and incapable and therefore suffers and self-medicates with delights. However, if such a leader is humble and knows he is inept, he can persist “never dying” by delegating authority to those who are capable. Doing so facilitates harmony above and below, as the indulgences of the leadership do not bring negative consequences to the people below. The forth Yang acts as a buffer and tends to their needs with the sanctioning of the king. At an individual level, this is to “curb your current passions.” Though one may be incapable of resisting certain delights, one is still able to identify with the disciplines of the past and to aim toward reattaining former uprightness.

Finally, the sixth Yin represents excessive indulgence in delights by those ignorant of the excess. This is an ominous circumstance, as the many who indulge do not realize there is a problem at hand. These people are incapable of delegating properly because they don’t realize they are in no position to manage their own affairs, let alone others. At this point, change is necessary and progress is warranted; for straying this direction from the Path aims a peoples downward toward their own decadent destruction. The best that can be hoped for is that, as delight disappears and is placed by pain, that the wise are harkened to that some of the fallout can be avoided.

I Ching; The Book of Changes, with commentaries by Cheng Yi, translated by Thomas Cleary, Shambala Library, 2003.

I Ching: The Book of Changes; An authentic Taoist translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2006.