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

Earth—Receive—Respond
|or| The Receptive

Look for the opportunity to express humility when dealing with others. Be authentic, spontaneous, and natural in all that you think, do or say. Seek to be a follower instead of a leader and watch for an opportunity to rest in solitude. (Bright-Fey 33)

Creation and development through receptivity is beneficial if correct in the manner of a mare.
Straying at first, later you get the benefit of direction.
In the southwest you find companionship; in the northeast you lose companionship. It bodes well to live correctly.

Yin 1: Treading on frost, you come to where it solidifies into ice.

Yin 2: When honest, correct, and great, even without practice there is benefit.

Yin 3: Keeping your development concealed, be faithful. If you work for the government, you will have no accomplishment, but will have an end.

Yin 4: Wrap up the bag, and there is neither blame nor praise.

Yin 5: A yellow lower garment is very auspicious.

Yin 6: Dragons battle in the field; the blood is dark yellow.

Using yin, it is beneficial to always be constant. (Cleary 4-8)

The second Canto opens with yet another cyclical pattern, but one of the earth as opposed to that of heaven. The difference between the two is in their assumed initiating positions, not in direction of progression.

Where The Creative hexagram symbolized the self-directive process of the cultivation of masculine virtue, The Receptive hexagram, composed entirely of Yin, describes a reconstitution of self in accord with external influences.

In short: heaven is representative of order, culture, the will, and the ego; earth is representative of chaos, nature, nature’s impositions on the will, and the unconscious instincts.

This is what makes the receptive also responsive and comparable to a mare: a wild female horse is at first entirely spontaneous, undisciplined and undirected. It is from this wild, natural state which a mare can be made into something useful and beneficial. That is to say, it is the mare’s potential docility, her willingness to be directed, from which she derives her greatest value and virtue. This is also true of people, both men and women, albeit to different degrees, at different times, and in different contexts.

When one is at the stage of his or her life during which cultivation of discipline is most proper, then he or she should venture toward the southwest, toward yin. Yin is yielding and dependence on others through one’s relationships with them. When one has yet to cultivate his or her skills or self-direction, or when one must learn new patterns of being, he or she should find inspiring figures to follow after. Certainly, by following and not leading, one will not attain his or her own aims or accomplishments, but one will become capable of fulfilling an end—and being capable of fulfilling an end is a prerequisite to being able to fulfill one’s own ends.

This is what is meant by voluntarily expressing humility and being authentic. One seeks to follow, not to one day lead—though that may indeed come to pass—but to truly and honestly fulfill the functions of a subservient role. One becomes a student in order to learn; one becomes an apprentice to serve, a wife to support her husband and children, or a husband to support his children and wife, etc. In so doing, one needs not even to know where he or she is going, for the tendency will bring him or her from frost to ice. Without practice—that is, without intention—he or she will arrive at the ends of his or her superior so long as he or she is both loyal and humble.

As the hexagram transitions from the internal bottom external top, the I Ching warns about taking these principles too far. An excess of submissiveness is resignation and sycophancy. Fulfilling the supporting role will serve a purpose, but he or she who does so will never receive the true burden of being seen as responsible for the outcome. He or she will not be praised nor blamed. He or she must be happy with the yellow—royal, in the Chinese context—garment being worn underneath, that is, hidden from view at the bottom. The supporting role will not get credit for his or her virtues.

Lastly, one ought to be wary of the conflicts which spill noble blood: they are those of the cunning cut-throat reputation destroyers and social manipulators which emerge from the bitter and resentful receivers. An excess of femininity leads to this kind of back-biting conflict, treachery, and sabotage. One ought to seek refuge in solitude and self-direction before allowing the yin principle to be taken too far.

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.