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

Trust—Centered—Truth
|or| Sincerity in the Center

Now is the time for heartfelt sincerity. Have the courage and fortitude to be yourself. Living up to the image others have of you will not be advantageous at this time. Be true to yourself. (Bright-Fey 151)

Sincerity in the center is auspicious for pigs and fish. It is beneficial to cross great rivers. It is beneficial to be steadfast and correct.

Yang 1: Consideration bodes well. If there is another, one is not at rest.

Yang 2: The calling crane is in the shade; its fledgling joins it. I have a good goblet—I will share it with you.

Yin 3: Gaining a counterpart, one sometimes drums, sometimes stops, sometimes weeps, sometimes sings.

Yin 4: The moon is almost full. The pair of horses is gone. No blame.

Yang 5: When there is sincerity that is binding, there is no blame.

Yang 6: The sound of wings climbs to the sky. Persistence bodes ill. (Cleary 382-387)

Only through self-discipline is one capable of speaking and acting with sincerity. Without practiced self-restraint, social pressures as well as internal temptations push and pull one off the Path. One lies, to others and to himself, in order to obtain undeserved reputation and esteem for himself. But if one instead practices steadfastness and moral fortitude, his morale shall become more and more unshakeable. He will become courageous, capable of complete sincerity in spite of the slings and arrows which will come his way as a consequence.

That is the meaning of the wind trigram resting above the lake in the hexagram of Sincerity at the Center. The joy and pleasure of being oneself is achieved through obedience in accord with that which penetrates obstacles and flies along the Great Course.

Alongside Sincerity, “accordance” is the salient concept for this hexagram. When one aims in the right direction, even if one is as insensitive as a pig or as dimwitted as a fish, he can find his place among the harmonization of a society while retaining and expressing is true, honest self.

The first Yang describes such simples types. They are firm and energetic in their personalities, perhaps too much so for their lowly position, but if they practice just a bit of mindfulness as to direct that energy toward their proper correspondent in the fourth Yin, then they can stay on the Road and stay true to themselves. Failing this, they will find themselves unable to rest easy, always worried about the opinions of others, constantly having to change, never being able to fully express themselves with sparking conflict.

The second Yang is more balanced and stronger, capable of standing on his own. Though he does not have a proper correspondent in the fifth Yang, nonetheless they get along. This is because of the fifth Yang’s corresponding desire for sincerity and authenticity. When the leadership embodies the virtues it wants for its subjects, and when those subjects are of a like mind, sharing the same values, then those above become bonded with those below. This is the fledgling crane joining its parent, and it is the sharing of a good goblet between a superior and inferior. While there can be no guarantee of success in their endeavors, no one will feel the need to blame another. They can accept their fates so long as they remain true to themselves.

The third Yin rests at the extreme, excessive end of the trigram of joy and pleasure. She is yielding and weak and thereby reliant on the sixth Yang flying beyond the end of obedience and sincerity. Neither the third Yin nor the sixth Yang are really sincere, though they imagine themselves to be so. The truth is that the third Yin has an uncultivated character. She cannot stand steadfast to a singular set of values, and so her “sincerity” is an expression of this faithlessness. Her heart is fickle, following wherever flies the sixth Yang, who spends his strength in pursuit of desires beyond obedience and sincerity—he takes these virtues too far, obeying indulgent impulses and bending himself to fit the shape of others as an over-stretched extension of authentic sincerity. It is the marrying of a truth to a lie, which is itself a lie. No amount of honesty stirred into deception can produce the truth.

In contrast stand the fourth Yin and fifth Yang. The fourth Yin is docile and in a subservient position with a proper correspondent in the first Yang. Together the fourth and first form a “pair of horses” which pull—keeping with the metaphor—pull a carriage forward, engendering forward progress along the Course. This cooperation between correspondents is further facilitated by the fifth Yang. “The moon is almost full” indicates a development toward fullness (where fullness would forewarn stagnation and decline), which aims at the fifth Yang as a model of emulation. The fifth exemplifies sincerity which brings a whole people together, inspiring and incorporating the fourth Yin, who in turn models for and incorporates the first Yang.

Thus, sincerity, when embodied in a virtuous person—that is to say, a character neither in deficit nor excess—is blameless. There is no guarantee of success. Disasters and catastrophes can still happen, but if the disciplined and sincere man takes a risk on an adventure and fails, he may suffer, but he will not regret.

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.