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

Withdraw—Secluded—Stop
|or| Withdrawal

Now is the time to be patient and calm. Mindfully observe all that is occurring around you and carefully gather all of your resources and thoughts. Do not become self-indulgent or weak in the face of opposition or tragedy. Instead show courage and resoluteness. Now is not the time to play the victim. (Bright-Fey 95)

Withdrawal gets you through. It is beneficial to be correct in small things.

Yin 1: Withdrawing the tail is dangerous. Do not go anywhere.

Yin 2: Bind this with the hide of a yellow ox. It cannot be completely explained.

Yang 3: Involved withdrawal is afflicted, dangerous. Supporting servants and concubines is auspicious.

Yang 4: Withdrawal from likes is auspicious for leaders, not for small people.

Yang 5: Graceful withdrawal is correct and auspicious.

Yang 6: Serene withdrawal is beneficial to all. (Cleary 194-199)

Constancy, though enduring, must eventually come to an end. The recession of the prior hexagram constitutes the nature of its sequel: Withdrawal, or a retreat into solitude away from vice and corruption. This is development is symbolized by the heavens rising up into infinity, leaving even the high reaching mountain behind. The wise are like this. When it is necessary to preserve their harmony with the Way, they remove themselves from the dregs of society, the small-minded and short-sighted people who once again threaten to drown their own cultures and institutions in wanton indulgence.

As is always the case when the mean man debases notions of nobility, men of will be punished for their virtues. The withdrawal of the wise is meant to prevent this punishment from breaking their spirits and turning them into bitter, vengeful, moral slaves like the small folk they avoid. Hence the warning about staying strong and resolute and not playing the victim. Sure enough, the virtuous will be victimized by the braying herd; however, sons of heaven remain firm even in the face of adversity. Harmony with the Way demands cultivation of character, the gathering of strength to survive on one’s own.

The exercise of such internal strength and courage looks like attention and devotion to the small things in life. Personal habits and hygiene and how one treats other people on a day to day basis make up the majority of one’s life. Discipline and morality in regard to these myriad small aspects of human existence are what make one the kind of man capable of standing up to the pack, the mob, the herd, the legion of demons who will sell his soul first chance they get.

Failure to cultivate virtue in the small things puts one in the position of the first Yin. This is internal weakness in a position of deficit. This is also the small folk. They cannot successfully withdraw themselves from the spreading poison because they do not possess the strength of character to pursue the Way on their own. These are the ignorant masses who get by via tradition despite their ignorance of the reasons for there traditions. When moral decay infects the culture, they can only stay and be corrupted slowly or else try to leave and become utterly lost.

The second Yin is much more balanced and corresponds to the Yang in the fifth position. This Yin represents internal conformity to one’s higher principles—that is like having one’s morals armored by the tough hide of a yellow ox. Yellow is the color of nobility in China, and an ox is docile but thick skinned. With these cultural contexts, the metaphor is obvious: remain steadfast inside while orienting oneself as to be in accord with the Great Course.

The third Yang represents firmness in stillness without a proper correspondent. This means that the third Yang is attracted downward, toward the second Yin. He wants to be personally involved, but personal attachments prevent one from properly removing himself from the poisoned culture and its institutions. The right way for this Yang to conduct himself is to use the temptation for personal involvement of those below while not engaging in it himself. This may seem cold, calculating, and manipulative—it is—but it is also necessary for him to preserve himself. The herd’s morality is inevitably antithetical to the Way, despite what they may say—they are deceivers, self-deceivers, and abusers of language. They support those who indulge their feelings, and so the wise man, in order to remove himself from the crosshairs of envy and fear, should appeal to the small folks baser natures. It is the only nature they possess to which to appeal.

The third Yang is reinforced by the fourth. Self-overcoming and denial of vices is the beginning of the heavenly Path upward. But one must remember, as Friedrich Nietzsche described in The Genealogy of Morals, that which is salvation to the higher man is poison to the slave, and vice versa.

The subsequent Yangs develop along this course. Corresponding the second Yin, the fifth is steadfast within and can therefore act out his virtue in solitude without. And at the very height of withdraw, with no correspondence to the third Yang, which is tempted to be involved with others, the sixth Yang’s withdraw allows him to pursue such noble ends that the positive consequences become beneficial to all. These are the geniuses and prophets of a culture. In solitude they can pursue their Course, making the greatest of music in harmony with the Great Course.

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.