比
GUA 08 · BI
BELONGING
Overall Image (大象)
Across the earth there is water
Belonging
The early sovereigns, accordingly,
established the numerous realms
to make kinsmen of all of the leaders▼
Overall Image (大象)
Across the earth there is water
Belonging
The early sovereigns, accordingly,
established the numerous realms
to make kinsmen of all of the leaders
Across the commonest ground, the waters collect, drawn on by the least resistance to gather. The myriad streams pay a tribute to ocean, holder of all the deep regions. To make the water come your way, move to the lowest place. To know where this is just follow the pull, sense the undercurrents, the interconnectedness, the tidal forces. The rivers and rains take the low path to ocean. The high achievements and the lofty ideals become islands. This is far more humble than that. Troubles are fewest when families stand united, related and familiar. Where the family is in fragments, grant it some common ground. One rarely hears of factions, fragments and pieces of water.
Main Judgment (Belonging) (卦辞)
Promising
For a first consultation, supreme and enduring commitment
Not a mistake
Wanting peace, approach directly
The late are the unfortunate ones▼
Main Judgment (Belonging) (卦辞)
Promising
For a first consultation, supreme and enduring commitment
Not a mistake
Wanting peace, approach directly
The late are the unfortunate ones
Belonging is drawn by attraction; it’s not a thing to be pushed. Holding the people together is not a thing that you think of, plan, then jump up and do. It is something you make yourself ready for, or worthy of, or appropriate to. The spontaneous ones arrive first, feeling their way in, finding their place, the preliminaries done in accord with their natures, not in accordance with judgment and logic. Life has had long ages to figure family out. The older parts of a primate’s brain are filled with little scripts and devices to hold the band together, the subtlest signals and signs, rewards, alarms, taboos and incentives, or even tricks like love to keep you from eating your children. The family goes way back. If you are in the right place then right things will come. But do not ask the water to climb. Why are you not where you say that you wanted to be? Ask first if you are fit to this place. Is this the right place at all? So what is it holding you back? Reassess yourself and start over. If you find you must belong, it is easier to remake yourself than something larger than you. The late seek effects and not causes, or they have too little in common with what they would belong to.
Key Words (关键词)
Affiliation, association, alliance, confluence, congress, concourse, convergence,▼
Key Words (关键词)
Affiliation, association, alliance, confluence, congress, concourse, convergence,
Assimilation, coherence, cohesion, concord, commonality; bonding, joining, unity Affinity, accord, mutuality, merging, sharing, union, nearness, welcome, kinship Similarity, relatedness; to be drawn together; group by type and family, compare Identification with; organic leadership, forces of attraction; kind-ness, like-ness Common ground, origin, interest or cause; mitakuye oyasin (all of my relations)
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
No Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Neptune in Water
planet:Neptune
element:Water
Tarot
card:Three of Cups
suit:Cups
Qabalah
note:Binah in Briah
sphere:Binah
The Lines
11st • YangBe true in joining with them
Make no mistake:
Being true more than fills this plain clay vessel
The end will come to hold even more promise▼
1
1st • YangBe true in joining with them
Make no mistake:
Being true more than fills this plain clay vessel
The end will come to hold even more promise
08.1x Joining with them (at) first six
Holds even more promise
The lowliest and emptiest things will be the first to fill up, but this is not the same as the most abased or the neediest things. A valley will fill first with water, then life. Water does not struggle up hills. It proceeds by feeling its way, not with visions of some distant sea, not by longing for ocean. There are places for struggle, vision and longing, just not here and now. Being true and sincere already exceeds this vessel’s capacity. It is ready to fill up, not hungry to consume, and it can hold no more sky. Being not more than yourself, or wanting no more than what you are given, is a solid place to begin. For genuine humility, the beyond and unexpected might almost seem to delight in planning pleasant surprises, but unexpected good fortune comes simply from not expecting. You know when and where you belong, only maybe not why.
22nd • YangJoining with them comes from within
Commitment is promising▼
2
2nd • YangJoining with them comes from within
Commitment is promising
08.2x Joining with them comes from within:
Nothing of one’s own (is) given up
To join with them feels like the right thing to do. The heart says to go now, and what seems like a resonance echoes. Of course the heart has no sense and no brains, and none have not learned the hard way that belonging the wrong way can injure original nature. The timely question to ask of this joining may be: can you be yourself here? This does not mean all of yourself. Nor does it mean that you could be here forever. It does not mean being supported, or encouraged in all your more private endeavors. Nothing will be guaranteed here. All the affairs of the heart are risks, of pain soon, and later, resentment. But often the pain will be in perfect proportion to what is not asked with modesty. If all that you ask is to not lose the core of yourself, this much is easy to watch. Then, if or when a bond fails to form, you can always move away.
33rd • YangJoining with such inferior people▼
3
3rd • YangJoining with such inferior people
08.3x Joining with such inferior people:
Is this not sufficiently painful?
Belonging is done without effort, like going the watercourse way, and yet the need to belong is a powerful force: just look at any great river, roaring towards the sea. The needs for this are a basic part of the being. Bonds of common blood, or even of simple circumstance, like being born in one kingdom instead of another, will wrap much of human existence up in one package. Then we want anything but the silence or vacuum , anything but the lonely and dark. But must the need to belong outweigh almost everything else? Does unconditional love mean having no standard at all? Does a fear to pass judgment mean life is an exercise in bad judgment? If equality is assumed, is this being equal to everything average and mean? Inferior peers apply pressure. Passive members can join the wrong flow, right down sewers and drains.
44th • YangOutwardly joining with them
Commitment is promising▼
4
4th • YangOutwardly joining with them
Commitment is promising
08.4x Outwardly belonging among the worthy:
In order to follow the superior
He joins the outer order, learns the secret handshake and passwords, and dons the costume of custom. He is offered the mysteries one at a time. The king’s servant pledges allegiance in words that are not his own, the priest leads a prayer that might not ring true to his doubts. Or a family might be adopted, not blood. The externals are not called trappings for nothing, but sometimes one really wants to be trapped, to be known, to be fooled into feeling secure and spend some time in safe harbor. This might not be an inferior thing, and it’s not the same as falseness. Forms do not matter as long as they serve. Any group that has boundaries will be a little parochial, with an us that wants to look down on a them. Just don’t renounce the group next door. Keep friends across the great water, and only accept what doctrine you need.
55th • YangBelonging exemplified:
The sovereign employs only three game flushers
Letting go of the forward game
His district’s inhabitants will not be coerced
Promising▼
5
5th • YangBelonging exemplified:
The sovereign employs only three game flushers
Letting go of the forward game
His district’s inhabitants will not be coerced
Promising
08.5x Belonging exemplified holds promise:
The position (is) correct (and) central
* To abandon the unwilling (and) seek the accepting
(Is) letting go of the forward game
* (His) district’s inhabitants will not be coerced:
The superior commands the middle
The game is surrounded on only three sides. This grants any beast its birthright to freedom who chances to find the way out. Then one hunts the volunteers, the unfit and the unluckier ones. The sovereign has set a noble example here, showing how to rule without fraud, and the only force or compulsion being a force of compelling example. He makes his people aware that they too are free to choose the way out, if only across the great stream. A tyrant might believe that he holds a people with fences and chains, collecting power with coercion, and conscripting a loyal army. Of course it’s an ancient question: Pat on the back or a ruling fist? Carrot or stick? Vinegar or honey? Attraction or promotion? So what kind of heaven do you go to under a threat? Grip with the open hand and bind them with ties of their choosing.
6Top • YangJoining with them without leadership
Unfortunate▼
6
Top • YangJoining with them without leadership
Unfortunate
08.6x Joining with them with no priorities:
Without a purpose (or) outcome
What sort of odd contradiction is this? Belonging and union work best when they follow like water, feeling their way with the currents, with no big expectation or plan, only living and learning en route. And yet now it is said that belonging and union, without head or leader, no priorities, nor mind up in front, nor purpose or outcome in view, nor knowledge of north, up or east, is the way to misfortune and trouble? It is known to be smart for the leader to follow, for the head to learn, for the mind to track, for a plan to adapt and improvise, for priorities to agree with a natural law. It is known that succeed means also to follow. Spontaneity is not like chaos. The block of uncarved wood still has its natural grain to guide the woodcarver’s vision. Anarchy follows the natural order and alphas emerge to lead. Unity has a direction.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 8 begins on Page 108-116.
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