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

Action—Fulfill—Walking
|or| Treading

Look for opportunities to approach situations with clarity and simplicity. Move naturally without hurry and without worry and be on the lookout for the best times to take action. Do not act impulsively. (Bright-Fey 49)

Treading on a tiger’s tail: it does not bite the person, who thus gets through.

Yang 1: Behaving simply, you go without fault.

Yang 2: Walking the road, it is even; the hidden person is steadfast and fortunate.

Yin 3: Able to see like one with impaired vision, able to walk like one who is lame, a person walks on a tiger’s tail and gets bitten. Misfortune. A soldier becomes a ruler.

Yang 4: Treading on a tiger’s tail, if you are wary, it will end up well.

Yang 5: Decisive treading is dangerous even if one is correct.

Yang 6: Watch the behavior, consider whether it bodes well. If it is thoroughgoing it is very auspicious. (Cleary 48-53)

The action which fulfills one’s end is exemplified by walking, that is, treading—the step-by-step accumulation of small developments over long stretches of time. “Even a journey of a thousand miles begins at your feet” (Lao Tzu 158). This is yet another means of describing the Great Course, the Road, the Path, and the Way; and when contemplated in light of the symbolism of the tenth hexagram, another piece of Taoist wisdom reveals itself: Heaven over Lake, meaning firmness and creativity outward with pleasure and joy inward, represents the proper attitude and conduct one should cultivate while treading his path—that is the taking joy in one’s daily actions and duties, the enjoyment of the journey over the destination.

Thus one should act without hurry, worry, or contrivance. The matters of the day are what they are, and they cannot be another way. If one accepts this and attends to them directly—as opposed to trying to avoid them or to do away with them by clever ploy—he will “tread the tiger’s tail” without injury or fault. That is to say, he who “will just think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able to do anything. If it is a single day’s work, one should be able to put up with it. Tomorrow, too, is but a single day” (Yamamoto). That is the spirit of the first Yang.

The second Yang is a continuation of this proper process of small developments. The Way is even, without undue or unnecessary holes or hills when one is inwardly grateful and taking pleasure in his work. Such a person is “hidden” in the sense that his ambition is present but not obvious to others. He continues at a steady pace, each day seeming to make hardly any progress at all, but over time he is actually finding good fortune even on the Road toward his ultimate destination. By the time he arrives, it may even seem as though he was always there. His striving in imperceivable, sometimes even to himself.

Why is it important to be “simple” “hidden” and “steadfast?”

The desperately-striving man is represented by the third Yin. He is both weak and in an overextended position. Because he fears he may not attain his end, he tries to sprint and leave the Way behind him. He is blinded by his desire, and because he has not taken the time to accumulate many small developments, he is made lame by his lack of cultivation of virtuous character. This is akin to a blind old man trying to outrun a tiger. He is not equal to the task, nor does he possess the clarity of vision bestowed by honesty to see either in which direction his destination is or from where danger threatens. The result is like an up-jumped ruler, someone put in a position for which he is not fit. He will invariably reduce himself to using force, and when that doesn’t work, he will only apply more. He is the blind tyrant utterly out of accord with reality. His actions, therefore, must bring misfortune.

Outwardly, when one is treading he is taking action in the world. That means he is trying to impose his will on the environment and others. Each individual possesses some capacity to accomplish this, just as each has his limitations. The fourth Yang represents initiation of one’s pursuits. If one is cautious and conscious, he will see where his ability ends and where his limitations begin. He will know when to stop:

“What is not the way is to be stopped early” means that ways of doing things that are not the Way should be stopped earlier rather than later. Stop them immediately, this very day, right now! (Lao Tzu 74)

However, even if one is in possession of the power to actualize his will, he is still in danger. Any action opens one to attack by others or mishaps of chance. This is vital for all to remember. While treading along the Way, it is inevitable that some amount of troubles will cross one’s path. Righteousness might protect one from unnecessary conflict, but disaster is as much a part of life as are waves a part of the ocean. Rivers wind and bend, and sometimes one scrapes the bank or hits a sandbar. When this occurs, one should keep in mind that, if his eyes have been open, he has been sincere, and he has cultivated his conduct in himself and in his relationships with others, then these troubles are not his fault. The tiger which has bitten him is a different tiger on whose tail he has tread. Therefore, he should not be frightened away from pursuing his course.

If one is uncertain whether he has made the proper sacrifices and conducted himself virtuously, then he should “listen to (him)self talk, as if a stranger was talking” (Peterson). Just as virtue is habituated through small developments, so too is it evaluated over iterated observations. Anything can happen within an instant, but human beings don’t exist in single moments. Humans exist and live across multitudinous instances, and so only be waiting and watching oneself can one determine if his life course is in accord with the Great Course itself. And though this may be uncomfortable, one never knows: as the sixth Yang suggests, one may find himself pleasantly satisfied with his  auspicious conduct.

Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching; Zen Teachings on the Taoist Classic, with commentaries by Takuan Soho, translated by Thomas Cleary, Shambala Library, 2010.

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.

Peterson, Jordan B. “Authentic Speech,” JordanPeterson.com, Books, Philosophy, Psychology, Q & A, Nov 3, 2016.
https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/books/authentic-speech-2/

Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure.