No more doubting
One accepts to believe others when they no longer have the opportunity to undertake. taoscopy.com
Treading 10
Careful progress ensures safety; walk with awareness and integrity.
↓ Line 1
At the beginning, simplicity and straightforwardness lead to progress without fault.
↓ Line 2
Steady and consistent conduct brings good fortune, especially for those who are humble and patient.
↓ Line 6
Reflecting on one's actions and recognizing favorable signs leads to supreme good fortune.
↓ Gathering Together45
Coming together for a shared purpose; unity and collective effort lead to strength. It's time to rally support and focus on communal goals.
Original Readings
10 Treading
Other titles: Treading, Conduct, The Symbol of Stepping Carefully, Proper Conduct, Cautious Treading, Proceeding Cautiously, Watch Your Step, Proceed at Your Own Risk, Advancing With Care "Illustrates the difference between courage and foolhardiness." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Cautious Advance suggests the idea of one treading on the tail of a tiger, which does not bite him. There will be progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Treading . Treading upon the tail of the tiger. It does not bite the man. Success. [For the weak to take a stand against the strong is not dangerous here, because it happens in good humor and without presumption, so that the strong man is not irritated but takes it all in good part. Such simplicity and unpretentiousness is faith derived from reality -- neither from love of happiness nor fear of unhappiness, but free of fear and hope. The concern here is with the art of action by means of proper conduct, and presupposes being childlike in its highest sense.]
Blofeld: Though he treads upon the tiger's tail, it does not bite him. Success! [The general idea of this hexagram is that success can be won, but that the situation is dangerous enough to require extreme caution. The `tiger' MAY not bite, but on the other hand, as lines three and five demonstrate, we cannot be certain of this. To consort with rulers and people in high places may be most beneficial; but, should we fail to please, they may make us regret our temerity.]
Liu: Treading: Stepping on the tail of a tiger, but it does not bite one. Success. [You should act only after you have planned carefully, and then with resolution.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Treading a tiger tail. Not snapping-at people. Growing.
[This hexagram describes your situation in terms of finding and making your way. It emphasizes that doing this step by step is the adequate way to handle it.]
Shaughnessy: Treading on a tiger's tail; not a real man; receipt.
Cleary (1): Even when they tread on a tiger’s tail, it doesn’t bite people. This is developmental.
Cleary (2): Someone treads on a tiger’s tail without being bitten, thus getting through.
Wu:Treading after a tiger without being bitten indicates pervasion.
The Image
Legge: The image of the sky above, and below it the waters of a marsh, formCautious Advance. The superior man, in accordance with this, discriminates between high and low, and gives settlement to the aims of the people.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven above, the lake below: the image of Treading. Thus the superior man discriminates between high and low, and thereby fortifies the thinking of the people. (Thus the superior man creates in society the differences in rank that correspond with differences in natural endowment, and in this way fortifies the thinking of the people, who are reassured when these differences accord with nature ... We see a universe moved from within, without external manipulation. Since the universe is also within the human being, internal universal order leads to order without by the force of necessary differentiation.) [Cf. the ideal society in Plato’s Republic.]
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a body of water lying open to the sky. The Superior Man consults both high and low and thereby steadies the people's will.
Liu: The heaven above and the lake below symbolize Treading. The superior man differentiates between high and low, and thus fixes the minds of the people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven above, marsh below. Treading. A chun tzu uses differentiating Above and Below. A chun tzu uses setting-right the commoners, the purpose.
Cleary (1): Above is the sky, below is a lake: Treading. Thus do superior people distinguish above and below, and settle the will of the people.
Cleary (2): … Leaders stabilize the wills of the people by distinguishing positions.
Wu: Heaven above and marshes below, this is Treading. Thus the jun zi discriminates various levels of governmental services and sets the goals of the people.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Cautious Advance we have the symbol of Weakness treading on that of Strength. The lower trigram indicates Pleasure and Satisfaction, and responds to the upper indicating Strength. Hence it is said, "He treads on the tail of a tiger." The fifth line is dynamic, in the center, and in his correct place. He occupies the God-given position, and falls into no distress or failure -- his action will be brilliant.
Legge: Cautious Advance is made up of the lower trigram of Pleased Satisfaction or "Naiveté," and the upper trigram of Heaven, or Primal Power. Being situated below the great symbol of Strength, Naiveté is seen to be stepping on a tiger's tail. To emerge unscathed from such a danger depends entirely upon propriety and a strict observance of all the rules of correct behavior. On these, as so many stepping stones, one may tread safely amid scenes of disorder and peril.
The symbol of weakness, according to Wang Shen-tzu is the third line which is urged on by the two lines below it to encounter the three strong lines above. Other commentators say that the whole lower trigram, partaking of the yin nature, is the symbol of weakness, and the entire upper trigram is symbolic of strength. The Chen-Chung editors say that to get the full meaning, we must hold both views.
Ch'eng-tzu says of the Image: "The sky above and a marsh lying
below it is true in nature and reason, and so should be the rules of propriety
on which men tread."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: A cautious advance in the face of potentially volatile conditions will lead to safety.
The Superior Man orders his priorities realistically and gets a grip on himself.
Cautious Advance depicts the lower trigram of the joyful Youngest Daughter stepping on the heels of the upper trigram of Heaven -- the stern Pater Familias: Yahweh Saboath, or Zeus with his thunderbolt. In her innocence she doesn't realize the danger of her action. This is "treading on the tail of the tiger," and the hexagram teaches us how to do this without being bitten. The original Judgment suggests that superior powers realize the innocent intent of the action, and may be inclined to be lenient.
You should not resist fate,
nor need you escape it;
if you go to meet it,
it will guide you pleasantly.
Goethe
Wilhelm's notes on The Image illustrate the undemocratic truth that although all men are created equal in the eyes of God, every human being possesses clearly differentiated strengths, weaknesses, talents and incapacities. In Lectures on the I Ching, he says:
The secret of proper conduct is in inequality. Uniformity alone cannot give rise to proper conduct. To be sure, uniformity might produce rule and regulation or law and force. But tedious force and brutal law never led people to convictions that legitimately resulted in proper conduct (the term includes that which produces proper conduct and proper conduct achieved). Instead, as Confucius said: "Force produces only alienation and people transgress secretly that which is public regulation."
Cautious Advance often images a test situation, or it can be a warning that you are walking on the edge of a precipice. The image of The Fool in the tarot deck has similar associations. Without changing lines, this hexagram implies a need for extreme caution, or that your actions are tempting fate.
The passions, instead of having to be painfully exterminated, are yoked like snarling tigers to the adept’s carriage. The dangers of such a course are obvious. As one of my Lama teachers put it: "While you were traveling in that cart, a tumble would have done you little harm. Now I have given you an airplane. Don't crash in flames!" J. Blofeld -- The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows its subject treading his accustomed path. If he go forward, there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Simple conduct. Progress without blame.
Blofeld: Simple in his conduct, he goes forth -- no error!
Liu: Simplicity of conduct. Continue. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Sheer Treading going. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Counter treading; in going there is no trouble.
Cleary(1): Treading plainly, going without fault.
Cleary(2): Plain treading; to go is blameless.
Wu: Treading ahead in a blind manner will be blameless.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Singly and exclusively he carries out his long cherished wishes. Wilhelm/Baynes: The progress of simple conduct follows in solitude its own bent. Blofeld: Conducting ourselves with simplicity while advancing suggests the ability to realize our desires without aid from others. Ritsema/ Karcher: Solitarily moving desire indeed. Cleary (2): To go treading plainly means to carry out your vows alone. Wu: He is willing to go alone.
Legge: Line one is a dynamic line in a dynamic place, giving us the idea of activity, firmness and correctness. One so characterized will act rightly.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is in a subordinate position without social obligation. Progress will be attained without blame if he remains content with his simple accustomed path, making no demands upon others.
Wing: Use your most basic values of Conduct in advancing toward your aim. Do not try to use others beyond maintaining friendly relations. Do not become obligated to others in your endeavors. Your position is low. Simplicity in your behavior will prevent mistakes and allow you to progress.
Editor: Wilhelm's rendition of the Confucian commentary uses the word "solitude," and Blofeld emphasizes the idea of progress "without aid from others." The idea is that of walking one's path alone, heedless of the external opinions of others or of the autonomous clamor of our own inner complexes. It can sometimes take the meaning of: "Mind your own business."
Let your eyes be fixed ahead,
your gaze be straight before you.
Let the path you tread be level
and all your ways made firm.
Turn neither to right nor to left,
keep your feet clear of evil.
Proverbs 4:25
A. Stay on your accustomed path.
B. The situation is tricky, but if you proceed with business as usual, you can avoid trouble.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject treading a path that is level and easy -- a quiet and solitary man, to whom, if he be firm and correct, there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Treading a smooth, level course. The perseverance of a dark man brings good fortune.
Blofeld: The recluse treads his path peacefully. Righteous persistence will bring good fortune.
Liu: Treading in a safe and peaceful way. The man in seclusion carries on. Good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Treading the road so sincerely; the dark man's determination is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Treading the path evenly, the aloof person is upright and fortunate.
Cleary (2): Treading the road; it is level. The person in obscurity is fortunate if upright.
Wu: The trodden road is open and broad. A person in seclusion with perseverance will have good fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Holding the due mean, he will not allow himself to be thrown into disorder. Wilhelm/Baynes: He is central and does not get confused. Blofeld: The recluse is a fortunate man because he cleaves to the middle path and does not allow himself to be confused. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering, not originating-from disarray indeed. Cleary (2): In the sense of not becoming personally deranged within. Wu: His mind is not disturbed from within.
Legge: Line two occupies the middle of the trigram, which symbolizes a path cut straight and level along a hillside or over difficult terrain. Since the fifth line is not his proper correlate, he is portrayed as a quiet and solitary man.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The quiet and solitary man apprehends the inscrutable. He seeks nothing, holds to the mean, and remains free from entanglements.
Wing: Maintain an ambiance of modesty and moderation. Do not harbor expectations or demands. Do not get involved with the dreams of others or hold overly ambitious goals. In this way you will meet with good fortune.
Editor: There seems to be little essential difference between lines one and two, except that the second line's central position emphasizes the idea of moderation and balance. When two lines in a hexagram have nearly identical meanings it is often helpful to check the corresponding hexagrams and lines created if each were the only changing line -- these will often provide clues as to their differences. In this instance, line one suggests avoiding trouble by minding one's own business; line two avoids trouble by a certain innocent faith in his destined path: a recluse or hermit who ignores the preoccupations of the crowd. Ritsema/Karcher translate "shade" (Wilhelm/Shaughnessy: "dark"), as: "hidden from view, retired, solitary, secret; dark, obscure, occult, mysterious; ignorant."
If I were possessed of Austere Knowledge
Walking on the Main Path [of Tao],
I would avoid the by-paths.
The Main Path is easy to walk on,
Yet people love the small by-paths.
Lao-Tzu
A. Stay out of sight, keep a low profile, stick to your own affairs, ignore the crowd -- balanced perception prevents confusion.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, tells us to look at the whole course that is trodden, and examine the presage which that gives. If it be complete and without failure, there will be great good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Look to your conduct and weigh the favorable signs. When everything is fulfilled, supreme good fortune comes.
Blofeld: If they watch their step (or look to their conduct) and heed the omens, sublime good fortune will be theirs.
Liu: Observe your conduct and examine the signs carefully. There will be great good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Observing Treading, predecessor auspicious. One's recurring Spring significant.
Shaughnessy: Looking and treading crafty and soaring its revolving; prime auspiciousness.
Cleary (2): Observing the treading, considering what is felicitous, the return is auspicious.
Wu: Examination of the treading records gives a sense of completion. If errors in treading are avoided, there will be great fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: This is a matter for congratulation. Wilhelm/Baynes: The topmost place carries great blessing. Blofeld: The sublime good fortune presaged by this top line takes the form of immense felicity. Ritsema/ Karcher: The great possesses reward indeed. Cleary (2): There is much celebration. Wu: Great joy.
Legge: What is said of line six is good, but is only a truism. The whole course has been shown. If every step has been right and appropriate, the issue will be very good.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The work is ended and the past course is reviewed. If it has been appropriate and thorough, good fortune is assured.
Wing: Take a long look at what your Conduct in the situation has achieved thus far. If you are on the right path you will know by the good it has produced. It is time for a reevaluation of your goals. By examining the past you may now get a glimpse of the future.
Editor: There is an affinity here with the message in the Image of the superior man "discriminating between high and low," and essentially putting his house in order. If this is the only changing line, the hexagram becomes number fifty-eight, Joy, which intimates that one has successfully passed a test -- in which case the line is an injunction to review the situation and see what we did right.
God saw all that He had made,
and indeed it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
A. The Work is a dynamic process which requires continuous evaluation and adjustment. Review the Work, then review your options.
45 Gathering Together
Other titles: Gathering Together, Massing, The Symbol of Gathering into One, Assembling, Congregation, Gathering, Unity, Accord, Making Whole, Focusing, Marshalling One's Forces, Clustering, Finished
Judgment
Legge: When forces are gathering, the King goes to his ancestral temple. For successful progress, maintain firm correctness and see the great man. A large sacrifice brings good fortune -- proceed toward your destination.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Gathering Together . Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
Blofeld: Gathering Together -- success! The King approaches the temple. It is advisable to see a great man, which will ensure success. Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Great sacrifices are offered -- good fortune! [These were religious sacrifices, but they may be taken to mean that the time has come for us to make important sacrifices of another sort.] It is favorable to have in view a goal (or destination).
Liu:Gathering. Success. The king attends the temple. It is of benefit to see the great man; this leads to success. Continuance benefits. Offering a great sacrifice leads to good fortune. It benefits one to go somewhere.
Ritsema/Karcher:Clustering, Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing. Harvesting Trial. Availing-of the great: sacrificial-victims significant. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of collecting and assembling. It emphasizes that bringing people and things together through a common feeling or goal is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Finished: The king enters into the temple; beneficial to see the great man; receipt; beneficial to determine. Using the great animal offering is auspicious; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1): Gathering is developmental. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental. It is beneficial to be correct. It is good to make a great sacrifice. It is beneficial to go somewhere.
Cleary (2):Gathering is successful. The king goes to his shrine. It is beneficial to see a great person; this leads to success, etc.
Wu: Congregation indicates that the king comes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to see the great man. There will be pervasion, if persevering. It will be auspicious to use big sacrificial animals in the offerings. It will be good to have undertakings.
The Image
Legge: A marsh above the earth -- the image of Contraction. The superior man, in accordance with this, assembles his weapons in readiness for unseen contingencies.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Over the earth, the lake: the image of Gathering Together. Thus the superior man renews his weapons in order to meet the unforeseen.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake rising above the earth. The Superior Man gathers together his weapons in order to provide against the unforeseen. [This is a time when foresight is required of us, too.]
Liu: The lake on the earth symbolizes Gathering. The superior man keeps his weapons prepared to meet the unexpected.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to earth. Clustering. A chun tzu uses eliminating arms to implement. A chun tzu uses warning, not precautions.
Cleary (1): Moisture rises onto the earth, gathering. Thus do superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. [When practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained… “Weapons” means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influence of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore the work of guarding is indispensable.]
Wu: The marsh is above the earth; this is Congregation . Thus the jun zi causes the nation to be armed in preparation for contingencies.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Contraction shows massing for union through Cheerfulness and Obedience. The dynamic line is responded to in his ruling central place, hence the idea of union. With the utmost piety the king presents his offerings to the spirits in his ancestral temple. Union with the great man is effected through correctness. The law of heaven demands a sacrifice. Contemplation of the way forces are gathered shows us the way of heaven, earth and all of nature.
Legge:Contractionmeans collecting together, or things so collected. The hexagram deals with the union between the ruler and his ministers -- between high and low in the kingdom. This state is to be preserved through the influence of religion and the great man, who is a kind of philosopher king who meets the spirits of his ancestors in the temple. Whatever he does will succeed because he is correct and right, and his great sacrifices are in harmony with the times.
The two trigrams represent Docility and Cheerfulness. The dynamic fifth line has his proper magnetic correlate in line two -- which gives the idea of union. Ch'eng-tzu says that the ordinances of heaven are simply the natural and practical outcome of heavenly principle.
A marsh above the earth must be kept in by dykes -- so the Contraction must be preserved by precautionary measures, the chief of which is to be prepared to resist attack from without, and to quell internal rebellion.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Forces are assembling for integration -- focus inward, sacrifice your autonomy and allow the Self to guide the Work.
The Superior Man pulls himself together to face the unknown and preserve the Work. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
Psychologically, Contraction depicts a time when inner components of the psyche assemble for recombination into a new pattern. It is significant that this is the time when “the king goes to his ancestral temple.” That is, the governing intelligence turns toward the template or ideal image of the Work as it exists in its consummate state. (See commentary on hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, for further discussion of the symbolism of the ancestral temple.) If the gathering forces integrate in conformity with this archetype, the Work is thereby advanced.
He, therefore, who perceives himself to associate with God, will have himself the similitude of Him. And if he passes from himself as an image to the archetype, he will then have the end of his progression. Plotinus
In addition to being a gestalt of future perfection, the temple is the home of the ancestors: a karmic repository of all that has gone into the Work via the will and intent of former historical ego-personalities. This archetype of "the ancestors" is described by the Lakota shaman, Black Elk, in his Great Vision. Note that the "grandfathers and grandmothers" are present when the people are "walking in a sacred manner" -- i.e., conforming to the ideal archetypal pattern of the Work:
But I was not the last; for when I looked behind me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could see -- grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without number. And over these a great Voice -- the Voice that was the South -- lived, and I could feel it silent. And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking in a sacred manner in a good land!"
The Ancestral Temple then, symbolizes the Work in progress as it exists outside of temporal awareness. At death the karmic complexes of the psyche, released from their spacetime ego-body, assume new configurations in hyperspace in accordance with the accomplishments of the just completed lifetime. Ideally, the ancestors and their heirs (choices and their consequences) within the Ancestral Temple undergo purification: this is what Individuation (the Work) is all about.
At the end of the dying process consciousness divides into the consciousness of one's parents and one’s children, and then it moves through these modalities, and then divides again. It's moving forward into the future through the people who come after you, and backward into the past through your ancestors. Terence McKenna --The Archaic Revival
In the multidimensional realms "beyond" our material world, time does not exist. In some way unimaginable to us, past, present and future are consolidated into an eternal Here and Now. Thus our choices in spacetime can have consequences in hyperspace which are inconceivable to us in the current situation. So if the Self (as manifested in the oracle) often seems to be tyrannically unreasonable, it is arguably because of the ego's dimensional myopia.
The Spirit ... may know the most violent love and hatred possible, for it can see the remote consequences of the most trivial acts of the living, provided those consequences are part of its future life. In trying to prevent them it may become one of those frustrators dreaded by certain spirit mediums. It cannot, however, without ... assistance ... affect life in any way except to delay its own rebirth. With that assistance it can so shape circumstances as to make possible the rebirth of a unique nature. W. B. Yeats --A Vision
Such conceptions of cause and effect seem irrational to ordinary awareness, yet quantum physicists hypothesize future events which affect the present as well as the past. The idea is not a new one:
Indeed, the hero of Hebrew myth is not only profoundly influenced by the deeds, words and thoughts of his forebears, and aware of his own profound influence on the fate of his descendants; he is equally influenced by the behavior of his descendants and influences that of his ancestors. Thus King Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan, and this sinful act sapped the strength of Abraham when he pursued his enemies into the same district a thousand years previously. Graves and Patai --Hebrew Myths
Should the ego's choices and their consequences not conform to the Self's intent, a rather cancerous growth is implied in which dynamic and magnetic forces are improperly consolidated -- in I Chingterms, dynamic and magnetic are mismatched. Through this "infidelity" of correlates the Work is thus adulterated and falls short of the archetypal ideal.
That the greatest effects come from the smallest causes has become patently clear not only in physics but in the field of psychological research as well. How often in the critical moments of life everything hangs on what appears to be a mere nothing! Jung -- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales
Contraction is a compression inward toward a center. Psychologically, this can be regarded as an integration of complexes. Once the implosion completes itself, it is implied that the growth cycle reverses itself to expand away from the center. (Cf., hexagram number fifty-nine, Expansion, in which the ancestral temple is also mentioned.) The following hexagram, Pushing Upward,is the inverse of this one, and depicts a similar upward expansion of energy.
The archetypal themes displayed here are those of Solve et coagula, Implosion-Explosion, Contraction-Expansion, Black Hole-White Hole, Day and Night of Brahma, etc.