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

Natural—Heartmind—Constant
|or| Constancy

Look for the opportunity to expand the breadth of your activity and not the depth. Focusing on one thing will bring confusion. Specialization is not the useful way for you to realize the best of the present situation. Do not be hasty or indecisive. Instead, wait for the precise moment to be enduring. (Bright-Fey 93)

Constancy gets through, without blame. It is beneficial when correct. It is beneficial to go somewhere.

Yin 1: Deep constancy bodes ill when steadfast. Nothing is gained.

Yang 2: Regret disappears.

Yang 3: If you are not constant in virtue, you may experience disgrace. Even if you are steadfast you will regret it.

Yang 4: Hunting, but no game.

Yin 5: Constancy in this virtue is right, auspicious for a wife, inauspicious for a husband.

Yin 6: It bodes ill for rapid movements to be constant. (Cleary 189-194)

 The prior hexagram, Sensing, spoke of bonds of sentiment such as that of a marriage; and a marriage, like any relationship nurtured and maintained in the proper way, is a bond which perpetuates itself across time, constantly adapting to the ever changing situation.

That is the meaning of this hexagram, Constancy. To be constant is not to be dogmatic, blind, rigid, and stultified. It is instead to act in a way which affirms that which is to be held constant. In the context of a marriage, it is to presume that the bond is good and that the harmony between a husband and wife justifies whatever means are necessary to keep it in accord with the twisting and turning Way.

The two trigrams, or wind below and thunder above, join together to represent both the aforementioned example of marriage and the broader abstract category to which it belongs. Wind is feminine obedience, and thunder is masculine activity. Together, they form a proper balance with one another, which in turn allows them to persist in harmony with each other and the Way.

When the Taoist interpretation reads, “expand the breadth of your activity and not the depth,” the meaning is as just described. Deep is narrow and singular, and it does not consider the needs or perspectives of others different than oneself. To be broad in this sense means not to be overly committed or convinced of one’s particular views, beliefs, and principles. To live in harmony with one’s wife, he must be able to listen to her and incorporate her thoughts and desires into the family’s course of action. If a husband augers in instead, though he may get his way in the moment, when things get tough, bitterness and resentment will dissolve what ought to be a constant relationship.

That is what is forewarned against by the first Yin. Constancy applied in the wrong way—as a form of permanence and resistance to change, as opposed to a state of constant change and adaptation—is a form of senile rebellion. It is the Satanism of the ego attempting to deny the nature of the objective and transcendental. It is the yielding to the impulse to take refuge in predetermined principles prior to the development of discernment as to when those principles apply and how. It is the easy and erroneous worship of one’s own interpretation of proper Way and not the Way itself.

The second Yang represents a more mature manifestation of obedience. It is in a balanced position, and it has its proper correspondence with the fifth Yin above. As Yang, it contains the masculine will to self-determination which the first Yin does not. This is what facilitates the cultivation of discernment, the ability to attend to reality as it presents itself and to accord with it and not to an axiom which imparts false status, security, and wisdom.

The third Yang is unbalanced toward excess and follows the sixth Yin, which herself goes too far. This is the opposite error as represented by the first Yin. Where the first Yin is stultification and blind obedience to a set of unconsciously self-defined principles, the third Yang is an excessive willingness to change. The sixth Yin is inconstant, following a path which cannot sustain itself because it is out of accord with the Way of things. Following this, the third Yang falls prey to moral relativism and subjectivism. He is confused and unable to tell good from evil—constancy from inconstancy—and therefore is doomed to run himself steadfastly into ruin.

The fourth Yang resides at the bottom of the body of movement. It is strength in a weak position, and in the context of constancy, it is perseverance in that which is out of accord with the Way. Hunting where there is no game will result in frustration, failure, hunger, and starvation. This is taking action in correspondence with the internal impulses of the firth Yin. One follows the principle and goes hunting for food, but that same one cannot tell the difference where he should or should not hunt. Thus he and his family go hungry, negating the proper constancy which the family, formed out of a marriage, is meant to perpetuate.

The fifth Yin speaks to acting in accordance with one’s proper role and in the right way. As Yin, the yielding is like the balanced wife who knows when and how to obey her husband. That is proper for her: rather than taking the reigns of leadership for herself, she cultivates virtues that allow the relationship to function harmoniously. She yields to her husband not totally but in the right way such that she does not become resentful or imbittered by her position in the relationship. That is proper for Yin. For Yang, that would be improper, which is why the text describes it as “inauspicious for a husband.” He should, like the second Yang below, lead in accordance to his principles—those principles being understood in accordance with the balanced fifth Yin: therein is properly balanced obedience through which constancy is achieved.

Lastly, there is the “rapid movement” of the sixth Yin. She if the flighty impulse which adheres to no constant principles. While the nature of the Way is formless and ever-changing, that does not mean that there is no Way. In a given moment and situation, the Way curves at a certain angle, though human beings have no way of being certain what that angle is. It is this uncertainty which tempts many to yield to their impulses and to abandon propriety—even to deny that propriety exists. To be constant in this—that is to say, to hold as axiomatic that nothing, no one thing, can serve as a standard or measure for morality and justice—is not different than to accept that nothing really is or matters. This is nihilism, and the natural result of acting in this way is the dissolution of bonds of sentiment, and then bonds in general, and then even life itself. That which is constant adapts and accords with the Way as to perpetuate itself. That which refuses the very concept of constancy cannot believe in adaptation or harmony, only discord, denial, and degeneration.

If one values his bonds of sentiment and wants to keep them constant, then he must be willing to change his heart and mind as to allow him to endure and even love the tough aspects of life and of relating to others.

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.