MEDITATIONS: I CHING; THE BOOK OF CHANGES, CANTO THIRTY-NINE

Falter—Difficulty—Personal Burden
|or| Halting

Be alert and mindful in everything that you do. At this time, any action that is both slow and measured, and that follows a simple plan, is the most favorable kind of action. Stay close to home and family. Selflessly give them whatever assistance they require. Now is a good time to learn a new skill and receive instruction from a teacher or mentor. (Bright-Fey 107)

When halted, the southwest is advantageous, not the northeast. It is beneficial to see great people. It bodes well to be steadfast.

Yin 1: Going is halted, coming is praised.

Yin 2: The royal minister is halted in difficulty, not for personal reasons.

Yang 3: Going is halted, coming is return.

Yin 4: Going is halted, coming is accompanied.

Yang 5: In great difficulty a friend comes.

Yin 6: Going is halted, coming expands. Auspicious. It is beneficial to see great people. (Cleary 234-239)

 Water elevated high on a mountain peak freezes. Water is passion and desire, and it is also danger. Mountains represent stopping, stillness, and stabilization. Together, they form the hexagram for Halting—for when desires are unachievable, such as during times of disharmony when family and thereby society has broken down, to pursue a goal is dangerous and likely to end in disaster. In such a situation of frozen passions, the right course of action is to stop as to not backslide down the mountain one has climbed. Personal virtue becomes paramount, because the only progress which can be made is internal while the world presents an impasse.

The I Ching discusses this situation by way of the dichotomies of going and coming. Going is the outward pursuit of desires. Coming is the retraction away from those personal passions. When going is halted, it should not be forced, nor should one try to bring owns desires into being by way of conniving. Instead, all objectives ought to turn inward toward the self, the family, and the immediate community. The previous disharmony must first be rectified before any progress can be made.

That is why moral rectitude is vital. People should both seek to become more like idols of virtue in their community or even in their stories. Cultivation of character ought to be the aim, and in so doing, people will become the very idols and mentors by which others can elevate themselves.

Coming in the aforementioned sense is thereby praiseworthy. At the beginning of stillness should be a strong moral foundation. The first Yin is this, the yielding to the circumstances and the active servitude toward others. This is how one begins to improve the situation.

The second Yin is a continuation of the first. She represents the balanced person who, though weak of power to affect change, is encouraging to those around her. She is a good friend, a good influence, and a good teacher. She remains morally upright despite the corruption and disfunction resultant from disharmony.

The third Yang is strength at the extreme end of stillness. “Coming is return” means the return of harmony from a state of disharmony. By being strong of virtue all the way until the time of stillness’ end, wise and moral people can be of assistance to those weaker folk around them.

The fourth Yin is one such of weak will and ability. The fourth line represents those in positions of minor power and authority within the institutions. After disharmony, they, like the first and second Yins below, won’t be able to fulfilled their purposes on their own. They, too, will need to be accompanied by the moral fortitude of the third Yang. They return to a harmonious state through his rectitude.

In the position of leadership is the fifth Yang. After disharmony, a strong leader is likely to come into power. In such a situation, in which progress cannot yet be made and in which society cannot return to the former iteration of itself, the strong leader is likely to be more competent and wiser than his advisors and ministers. His relationship with the second Yin, therefore, is one of a morale-nature. The moral steadfastness of the second Yin is like having encouraging friends. The ministers and people want the best and are willing to do what is right, but they neither have the power or wisdom to really know what that means. They are good to be led, and a good leader can be proud of them, but he will struggle largely on his own to solve the disharmony.

The expansion of coming described by the sixth Yin is the slow and steady reharmonization of family and society. Good moral models are the lynchpins around which the people form the spokes that ultimately make up the wheel—an object of motion and progression. That is why, at the end of frozen desires, it is auspicious for there to be great models of character.

So pay attention. Recognize when you are standing on the throat of a mountain, staring up at snow-capped peaks. Do not go boldly alone into the cold. That will only spell your death. Instead, gather firewood and build a camp. Build a family in your camp, and a tribe from your family. Then build up a community around that. Be models for one another, and only once you’ve reformed a harmonious union should you deign to resume your northward expedition.

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.