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

Limit—Save—Regulate
|or| Discipline

Today is the day to keep to familiar surroundings. Do not spend capriciously or exhaust yourself physically or emotionally. In all area, observe restraint. Now is the time for adopting a new set of rules and regulations. (Bright-Fey 149)

Discipline is successful. Painful discipline should not be persevered in.

Yang 1: Not going out of the yard, one is blameless.

Yang 2: Not going out of the yard bodes ill.

Yin 3: If not disciplined, one will lament, but there is no one to blame.

Yin 4: Stable discipline is successful.

Yang 5: Fine discipline is auspicious; go on, and there will be esteem.

Yin 6: Persistence in painful discipline brings ill fortune, but repentance eliminates it. (Cleary 378-382)

When in isolation, within is the only direction worth turning—for bereft of the pressures of family, friends, society, and institutions of governance and culture, one is likely to lose perspective of himself. Like an overflowing lake, his ego is in danger of inflating beyond the confines of its nature. He may begin to think of himself as greater and grander and more deserving than he is. Joy within, then, becomes danger without. This is the bifurcated path of pride born of arrogance and fueled by fear and indulgence; and in this canto, the sages explain how discipline is the narrow road between them.

Discipline, however, should not be misunderstood. When applied in excess such that the regulations impede the very processes they are meant to facilitate, this “painful discipline” is fear butting its ugly head. When applied in deficit, a lack of discipline becomes indulgence in vice or else an absence of restraint. One gives in to his impulses and falls prey to the dangers of temptation.

Between these two errors is the mean. It is discipline applied in a balanced way which brings on success. But what is the right balance? Continue the metaphor:—to be balanced is to not easily be knocked over or changed; so a balanced application of discipline is that which sustains the game over many sequential iterations. Too loose discipline dissolves, and too tight of discipline is too difficult for one to maintain. Like ill-tempered glass, it shatters when struck by a stray stone.

But what is painful depends on the cultivation of one’s individual character. The first Yang, for instance, rests at the very beginning of discipline. He is just getting started, and so he ought not exert himself too hard. It is good enough for him to stay within the confines of what is familiar to him, “not going out of the yard,” and to conform to the standards set by the notable in society—his correspondents in the fourth Yin, who are close and loyal to the fifth Yang, exemplar of proper and balanced discipline.

The second Yang finds himself in the opposite circumstances. He is balanced, meaning unchanging, and furthermore, he is firm with Yang strength. The problem is that he rests in a Yin position and without a proper correspondent. He is stubborn and rigid when the situation calls for docility and flexibility. He is unwilling to acknowledge that his old modes of being are now inhibiting his ability to progress and only further estranging him from others. This is excess discipline resulting in “not going out of the yard,” preventing one from learning from others.

Contrast that with this, the third Yin. She stands at the extreme of joy and pleasure and does not regulate her indulgence in these aspects of life. She is, in other words, utterly without discipline or even anyone to help her. She has no proper correspondent, only herself to blame for her lamentations.

The fourth Yin is as previously described, in accordance with the strong fifth Yang, which rests in the position of leadership. The fourth Yin is described as “stable” and “successful.” Her conformity to the demands of the situation, and her humbleness and yielding when exposed to a superior example, allow her to adopt virtues which sustain her as well as those beneath her, represented by the first Yang. Again it is demonstrated that disciplines are to be measured by how they benefit both one and many, both now and across time.

The fifth Yang is balanced and in his proper position. Despite resting at the heart of danger, he comes to success because he does not bend toward temptation. He stays on the Path which accords with all things.

And the sixth Yin? She is weak in a position demanding strength at the extreme of danger. Holding fast to her ways is a doomed mistake. Her only pathway forward is to change. “Repentance” in this case is to be understood in its religious context, as metanoia, a changing of the mind. That which eliminates disaster at the extreme end of danger is the redemption of rebirth. One must let go of former virtues and vices in order to cultivate a new, more proper discipline.

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.