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

Similar—Harmony—Brotherhood
|OR| Association with Others

Look for opportunities to engender trust in others and reaffirm your own moral sense. Do not work on your own. Be wary of unethical people and seek to avoid them. Associate with people of upright character that conduct themselves accordingly. (Bright-Fey 55)

Association with others in the wilderness is successful. It is beneficial to cross great rivers. The correctness of developed people is beneficial.

Yang 1: Association with others at the gate is blameless.

Yin 2: Association with people in the clan is regrettable.

Yang 3: Hiding fighters in the bush, climbing up the high hills for three years he does not rise up.

Yang 4: Climbing the wall but not actually attacking is auspicious.

Yang 5: Associating with people, first there is wailing, afterward laughter. The general prevails, then has a meeting.

Yang 6: Association with others in the countryside is free from regret. (Cleary 69-75)

As a society transitions from an age of obstruction to one of tranquility again, it enters into a phase of association with others. During this stage, fire resides within and heaven without. Fire represents intellect, attention, and awareness—in short, consciousness attending toward its focus. Heaven is firmness and creativity. Together, they are the fires of consciousness aiming upward toward the masculine, objective, and creative principle.

To associate with others, therefore, is to orient toward the universal.

Obstruction was just the opposite. During such a time, virtue—accordance with the Way—was punished by those in high positions within the institutions, and personal—subjective—indulgences were rewarded. This created fractionation and partisanship. Each pursued his own desires, abandoning the Way, the transcendent, the objective, and the universal. This is the wilderness, when people are alienated from one another and even from their own natures.

As the situation reverses, virtue is once again rewarded. Great challenges can once again be successfully undertaken by the many, because the many can once again commune with one another. Those who have cultivated their characters during the time of obstruction will spring forth and work together to overcome what were before impossible obstacles. This is why the I Ching advises us not to work alone. Together, we can build new boats—new business, institutions, and fellowships—capable of crossing impassible rivers.

But not just any association is sufficient. We must relate to what is common among all of us. That is fire looking up toward heaven. That is why the first Yang is a meeting at the gate. The gate is on the border of a domain, and it is a place where ideas can enter and exit. Stepping in front of the gate to meet means being willing to discuss things outside of one’s personal beliefs, biases, and assumptions. This is the first step toward associating in accord with what is universal—as opposed to succumbing as does the second Yin.

The second Yin represents yielding to the temptation to turn one’s aim inward toward personal desires and ambitions. That is why “associating with people in the clan is regrettable,” but doing so outside the gate is “blameless.” Within the clan is within one’s own camp—within one’s echo chamber, to use modern parlance.

The third Yang, being in a position of excess and being desirous of the second Yin, describes the internal state of temptation toward worshiping one’s own subjective desires in place of the universal and objective. Though the rebellious force does not come out of hiding, seeing as this Yang resides within the internal state, still he burns inside with frustrated passion. This is a warning not to mistake one’s wants for the Way. Such will only result in the very discord which we just overcame.

The forth Yang, at the bottom of heaven, also desires the second Yin. However, because he rests in a position of weakness, he does not go all the way through with his desires. That is to say that though we will be tempted to stray from the Way, ultimately, if we do not stray too far, we can redeem ourselves, earn our own and other’s forgiveness, and return to the Path.

The fifth Yang, the sole Yin’s true correspondent, describes the evolution of conflict becoming cooperation and even camaraderie. As we aim toward the universal, and as we struggle against our individual temptations, associating may be difficult at first. After all, though we may have a human nature in common, we each have differences as well. We are not all of one time or one place, and these conflicts will need to be overcome. Likely, there is to be some “wailing” before we can laugh together in the end. However, it will all be well worth it. For the new associations will give birth to new or revitalized institutions which will be attuned to the harmony between men and between man and the objective universe.

That is why “association with others in the countryside is free from regret.” When we can take association in accord with the universal to such an extent that even those far away from us can understand or meanings and values, we know we are moving toward an auspicious end. We can be free from regret only if we are able to engage with one another in this voluntary way—not without strife, but with an attitude toward letting our prejudices fall away in accord with a principle higher than ourselves. Call it God; call it the Way; call it the objective reality. The name is not important. What matters is that we direct the fires of our ambitions upward together.

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.