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Keeping Still52
Stay still and composed. Focus inward, find tranquility amidst chaos. Embrace calmness to understand your inner self.
↓ Line 3
Excessive stillness can lead to stagnation and emotional distress. Balance is needed.
↓ Line 5
Control over speech and thoughts leads to clarity and resolution of past mistakes.
↓ Line 6
Achieving a noble and virtuous state of stillness brings good fortune and success.
↓ Union8
Collaboration and uniting with others bring strength. Commit to shared goals and build alliances.
Original Readings
52 Keeping Still
Other titles: Mountain, Keeping Still, The Symbol of Checking and Stopping, Desisting, Stilling, Stillness, Stoppage, Bound, Reposing, Resting, Meditation, Non-action, Stopping, Arresting Movement, "Refers to meditation and yoga." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: When his repose is like the back, and he loses all consciousness of self; when he walks in his courtyard and does not see the people, there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping Still. Keeping his back still so that he no longer feels his body. He goes into his courtyard and does not see his people. No blame.
Blofeld: Keeping the back so still as to seem virtually bodiless, or walking in the courtyard without noticing the people there involves no error!
Liu: Stillness. Keeping the back still -- one feels that the body no longer exists. Even when one walks in the courtyard, one sees no people. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's back. Not catching one's individuality. Moving one's chambers. Not visualizing one's people. Without fault. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting a boundary or obstacle. It emphasizes that stopping and acknowledging the limit, the action of Bound, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to stop!]
Shaughnessy: Stilling his back , but not stilling his body: Walking into his courtyard, but not seeing his person; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1):Stopping at the back, one does not have a body; walking in the garden, one does not see a person. No fault.
Cleary (2):Stilling the back, one does not find the body, etc.
Wu:Stoppage indicates that, resting on his back, he does not find his body and walking in his courtyard, he does not see any person. Faultless.
The Image
Legge: The image of one mountain atop another formsKeeping Still. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not allow his thoughts to go beyond the duties of his immediate circumstances.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Mountains standing close together: the image of Keeping Still.. Thus the superior man does not permit his thoughts to go beyond his situation.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes two mountains conjoined. The Superior Man takes thought in order to avoid having to move from his position.
Liu: Mountain next to mountain symbolizes stillness. The superior man's thoughts do not go beyond his position.
Ritsema/Karcher: Joined mountains. Bound. A chun tzu uses pondering not to issue-forth-from one's situation.
Cleary (1):Joining mountains. Thus do superior people think without leaving their place.
Cleary (2):The mountains are still. Thus the thoughts of developed people are not out of place.
Wu: One mountain overlapping another makes Stoppage. Thus the jun zi does not contemplate things beyond his position. [Confucius said: “If you do not hold an office, do not give counsels on its administration.” What he meant is: not to volunteer counsels freely. On the other hand, if you are requested, then give the best you can.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Keeping Stillmeans stopping: One rests when it is time to rest, and acts when it is time to act. When action and rest occur at the proper times, one's behavior is enlightened. Keeping his back still, he rests in his proper place. The upper and lower lines of the hexagram all mirror each other, but are without any interaction: Hence it is said that he has no consciousness of [ego]. He does not see the persons in his courtyard, and there will be no error.
Legge: Two trigrams symbolizing Mountain make up the hexagram ofKeeping Still. Mountains rise up grandly from the surface of the earth, their huge masses resting on it in quiet and solemn majesty. They are barriers to the onward progress of the traveler. The attributes of this hexagram are both resting and arresting. It denotes the characteristic of resting in what is right in principle, right on the widest possible scale -- in the absolute conception of the mind and in every possible position in which a man can be placed. As in hexagram number thirty-one, Initiative, the symbolism is taken from the different parts of the human body.
According to the K'ang-hsi editors, the second sentence in the Image should be translated: "The superior man, in consequence with this, thinks anxiously how he shall not go beyond the duties of his position."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:"Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.” -- Marcus Aurelius
The Superior Man eliminates all distraction and concentrates on the matter at hand.
A large portion of the Work consists of nothing more than the will to keep still. Anyone who has ever tried it can attest that Keeping Still, or doing “nothing,” is probably the most difficult thing that a human can be asked to do. We are an ever-flowing fountain of restless desire -- the senses are mindlessly programmed to encounter their objects, and when we prevent them from doing this, a great commotion occurs in the psyche. We are so accustomed to feeling our desires, drives, instincts and appetites as integral to our awareness, that we are seldom conscious of the fact that they are actually autonomous forces -- as separate from the ego, or choice-making complex, as we are from other people, creatures or objects in the physical world. Try controlling an ingrained habit, such as smoking, and observe how difficult it is to impose your will upon it. Who controls whom?
The power of sight does not come from the eye, the power to hear does not come from the ear, nor the power to feel from the nerves; but it is the spirit of man that sees through the eye, and hears with the ear, and feels by means of the nerves. Wisdom and reason and thought are not contained in the brain, but they belong to the invisible and universal spirit which feels through the heart and thinks by means of the brain. All these powers are contained in the invisible universe, and become manifest through material organs, and the material organs are their representatives, and modify their mode of manifestation according to their material construction, because a perfect manifestation of power can only take place in a perfectly constructed organ, and if the organ is faulty, the manifestation will be imperfect, but not the original power defective. Paracelsus -- De Viribus Membrorum
The ego has only one legitimate function -- to make choices: it is the switchboard in the psyche which directs where the energy of the instinctual powers shall go. If these autonomous forces are stronger than the will of the ego, they soon learn to get their way as often as possible. The main difference between an inferior and a superior man is that the latter has learned to control and direct his energies for a higher purpose. One of the best ways to acquire this ability is to learn the lessons inherent within Keeping Still.
Psychoanalysis has demonstrated that the power of these images and complexes lies chiefly in the fact that we are unconscious of them, that we do not recognize them as such. When they are unmasked, understood, and resolved into their elements, they often cease to obsess us; in any case we are then much better able to defend ourselves against them. Roberto Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis
The lines of the upper and lower trigrams are mirror images of each other, yet not one of them has a proper correlate: they don't connect with each other. This suggests the separation of the senses from their objects. For example, eyeballs are sensory-receptors designed for the perception of light and form -- close your eyes, and they are prevented from contacting the phenomena they were created to perceive. That the psychic entities attached to this desire to perceive phenomena might resist restriction is a foregone conclusion, but the ego has control over the eyelids -- or should have. “Not seeing the people in one's own courtyard” means that one ignores one's autonomous impulses.
Regulation of the psyche’s autonomous manifestations in accordance with the will of the Self is for the purpose of gaining a controlling influence over one’s karma. As stated herein many times, you, as ego, are nothing more than a tool created by the Self for the direction of its own destiny.
Both karma theory and quantum mechanics refuse to accept that observers can exist independent of the systems they observe. Spiritual science goes so far as to take the observer’s own internal universe and its states as its experimental field. For it is within that field that karma is produced and stored …The “matter” from which we and our obstructions are created includes both the dense physical material from which our bodies are built and the thoughts, attitudes and emotions that make up our minds. Tantric practice is karmic engineering within this field of name and form, orchestration of substance and action into result. First you direct new causes against previous effects to nullify adverse influences on your awareness, then you unleash yet further actions to negate the influence of the nullifying actions. Robert Svoboda –Aghora III, The Law of Karma
How any ego could tackle such responsibilities with any hope of progress is impossible to imagine without the direction of the Self. Keeping Still certainly has its own karmic consequences, but when the “not choosing” implied in this hexagram is done in accordance with the Self’s will and intent, the results slowly lead to ever higher levels of awareness – eventually into realms beyond the physical. That is what the Work is all about: any other choice is to lock ourselves into a continuous round of birth and death in physical manifestation.
The Kabbalists teach that everything we do stirs up a corresponding energy in other realms of reality. Actions, words, or thoughts set up reverberations in the universe. The universe unfolds from moment to moment as a function of all the variables leading up to that moment. When we remain cognizant of this mystical system, we are careful about what we do, say, or even think, for we know that everything is interdependent; we know that a seemingly insignificant gesture could have weighty consequences. Rabbi David Cooper – God is a Verb
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Notice that every line of this hexagram except the last deals with an inherent challenge involved in the discipline required to keep still. Compare the lines in Keeping Still with similar lines in hexagram 31, Initiative.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject keeping his loins at rest, and separating the ribs from the body below. The situation is perilous, and the heart glows with suppressed excitement.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Blofeld: Stilling the loins and stiffening the spine – his heart is suffocated by trouble. [Elsewhere in the Book of Change, it is made clear that the loins sometimes symbolize sexual desire. To force oneself to continence when the mind is not ready for it is exceedingly dangerous and may lead to mental and emotional disarrangement. What is required is stilling the WHOLE self, a cessation of desire itself.]
Liu: Keeping the loins and the middle of the spine still. Danger. His heart is like an anxious flame.
Shaughnessy: Stilling his midsection: scratching his spine; danger; smoke the heart.
Cleary (1): Stopping at the waist breaks the backbone; danger inflames the heart.
Wu: He rests his waist and tightens it with a waistband. He is deeply worried.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The danger of keeping the loins at rest produces a glowing heat in the heart. Wilhelm/Baynes: There is danger that the heart may suffocate. Blofeld: If the loins are stilled, there is a danger that the heart will suffocate. Ritsema/ Karcher: Exposure smothers the heart indeed. Cleary (2): Danger affects the heart. Wu: He is deeply worried.
Legge: When the calves are kept at rest, advance is stopped, but no other harm ensues. Not so when the loins are kept at rest, and unable to bend, for the connection between the upper and lower parts of the body is then broken. The dissatisfaction increases to an angry heat. Canon McClatchie suggests the idea of "stopping at a limit, and separating what is in continued succession (i.e., the backbone); thus the mind, etc."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Danger results from the smoldering resentment against forced inaction on the part of the man. The proper frame of mind for meditation and concentration can arise naturally only out of inner composure and not through artificial rigidity.
Wing: If you attempt to force stillness upon restless desires you will only create deep inner conflict and resentment. This can be dangerous. Attempt internal composure through relaxation and Meditation.
Editor: If the heart is the point of balance between the dry speculations of the brain and the robust libido of the genitals ("loins"), then the will to keep the loins at rest is certain to create a conflict within the psyche which will test our "heart" to serve the higher ideals of the Work. As the top line of the lower trigram, this is a place of transition between a lower and higher condition, and the imagery describes the conflict which ensues whenever one undertakes such a separation. Blofeld's note about sexuality is very apt here: the Self is capable of testing one's will to the very limits of endurance on this issue; indeed, control of sexual libido is one of the cornerstones of the Work and cannot be evaded. The concept of the "cessation of desire itself" is easily understood, yet all but impossible to achieve. If this is the only changing line, the new hexagram becomes number 23, Disintegration(Splitting Apart), the corresponding line of which offers a strong hint about how to handle the situation at hand.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Galatians 5: 17
A. Make a distinction between your will and your desire, and at least be conscious about which one you choose.
B. Enforced inaction is suffocating to a free spirit.
C. Calm down -- get back on center. Disassociate yourself from an inferior force.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows its subject keeping her jawbones at rest, so that her words are all orderly. Occasion for repentance will disappear.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.
Blofeld: Stilling the jaws. Since his words are well ordered, he ceases to have cause for regret.
Liu: Keeping the jaws still. His speech has order. Remorse vanishes.
Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's jawbones. Words possessing sequence. Repenting extinguished.
Shaughnessy: Stilling his cheeks: words have sequence; regret is gone.
Cleary (2): Stopping the jaws, there is order in speech, and regret vanishes.
Wu: He rests his lower jaw. He speaks with orderliness. Regret vanishes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She acts correctly in harmony with her central position. Wilhelm/ Baynes: As a result of central and correct behavior. Blofeld: This is indicated by the suitable position of this line, which is central to the upper trigram. Ritsema/Karcher: Using centering correcting indeed. Cleary (2): Stopping the jaws is done with balance and uprightness. Wu: Because of his central position.
Legge: The place of the magnetic fifth line is not proper for it, hence the mention of her repenting. Yu Pen (Ming dynasty) says on line five: "Words should not be uttered rashly. Then, when uttered, they will accord with principle. But it is only the master of the virtue of the due mean who can attain to this."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is judicious in his choice of words. He thereby eliminates occasions for regret.
Wing: Once you have centered yourself, your words will be chosen more carefully, and outspoken or unthinking comments will be avoided. In this way you will no longer suffer shame or regret.
Editor: At its most obvious level, to keep the jawbones at rest is to refrain from ill-considered remarks. But what if one receives this line in a context where speech, per se, is not a factor? Speech is the utterance of words, and words express ideas. As artifacts of the mental realm, words are the components of conceptualization. All of the translations emphasize the idea of bringing order to one's words, hence the line in its larger context is an injunction to sort out the facts of the matter at hand and arrange them in a meaningful pattern. It can refer to re-thinking a situation, or sometimes just to the need to shut off your constant inner chatter. Ritsema/Karcher's Confucian commentary uses the term "Centering correcting," which they translate as: "Make rectifying one-sidedness and error your central concern; reaching a stable center in yourself can correct the situation."
It is very difficult for a man to keep silent about things that interest him. He would like to speak about them to everyone with whom he is accustomed to share his thoughts ... This is the most mechanical of all desires and in this case silence is the most difficult abstinence of all. But if a man understands this or, at least, if he follows this rule, it will constitute for him the best exercise possible for self-remembering and for the development of will. Only a man who can be silent when it is necessary can be master of himself. Gurdjieff
A. Bring order to your thinking. Thought structures can become barriers to correct perception -- don't jump to simplistic conclusions.
B. "Make sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear."
C. When you don't understand what's happening, refrain from useless speculation.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows its subject devotedly maintaining his restfulness. There will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Noble hearted keeping still. Good fortune.
Blofeld: The highest form of stillness -- good fortune!
Liu: Keeping still with benevolence. Good fortune.
Confucius/Legge: To the end he shows himself generous and good. Wilhelm/ Baynes: The good fortune of noble hearted keeping still comes from the fact that there is an ample end. Blofeld: He achieves this in order to win greater benefit in the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Using munificence to complete indeed. Cleary (2): A rich conclusion. Wu: It ends with honor.
Legge: The third line of the trigrams, and the sixth line of the hexagram, is what makes Keeping Still what it is -- the symbol of a mountain. The subject of it therefore will carry out the resting required by the whole figure in the highest style.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man attains tranquility in relation to life in its entirety.
Wing: When your inner composure can reach even beyond the situation into all aspects of your life, you can penetrate the true meaning of things. From this perspective comes great good fortune.
Editor: The sixth line suggests the very top of the mountain -- the peak which is nearest to heaven and hence most in conformance with the ideals of the hexagram of Keeping Still.
If meditation is controlled thinking, it implies that the individual has the entire thought process under control, including input from the subconscious. The experienced meditator learns how to think what he wants to think, when he wants to think it. He can always be in control of the situation, resisting psychological pressures that work on the subconscious. He is also in control of himself, never doing something that he knows he really does not want to do. In many schools, this self-mastery is one of the most important goals of meditation. Aryeh Kaplan --Jewish Meditation
A. An image of tranquil non-action.
B. Present inaction creates future advantage.
8 Union
Other titles: The Symbol of Subaltern Assistance, Union, Unity, Grouping, Alliance, Co-ordination, Leadership, Merging (as with tributaries of a river), Seeking Union, Unification, Accord, Subservience, Individuation, Integration
Judgment
Legge:Holding Together indicates good fortune, but let the querent re-examine himself by divination whether his virtue is great, un-intermitting and firm. If so, there will be no error. Those who are ready will then join him, but those who delay will meet with misfortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Holding Together brings good fortune. Inquire of the oracle once again whether you possess sublimity, constancy, and perseverance; then there is no blame. Those who are uncertain gradually join. Whoever comes too late meets with misfortune.
Blofeld:Unity (or co-ordination). Good fortune! Further consultation of the oracle will provide an omen of great and lasting value. No error! Those whose hearts are troubled assemble. The laggards suffer disaster. [Just as the last hexagram deals ostensibly with military affairs, so does this one largely concern administration. For divination purposes, it should be regarded figuratively -- unless a problem of administration is actually involved in the enquiry.]
Liu: Union. Good fortune. The prediction for one attempting union should be greatness, continuation, and constancy; no blame. If one hesitates, then joins late: misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Grouping, significant. Retracing the oracle-consulting: Spring, perpetual Trial. Without fault. Not soothing, on-all-sides coming. Afterwards, husbanding: pitfall. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of how you categorize people and things and how you relate to these categories. It emphasizes that joining people and things through recognizing their essential qualities is the adequate way to handle it.]
Shaughnessy:Alliance: auspicious. The original milfoil divination: prime; permanent determination is no trouble. The un-tranquil land comes; for the latter fellow inauspicious.
Cleary (1):Accord is auspicious. Investigating and ascertaining, if the basis is always right, there is no error: Then the uneasy will come; but the dilatory are unfortunate.
Cleary (2): Accord bodes well. Make sure the basis is always right, so that there will be no fault. Then the uneasy will come. Latecomers are unfortunate.
Wu: Subservience indicates auspiciousness. Seeking to confirm the intent and motivation of allegiance by divination is without fault. Those who seek peace can all come, but those who hesitate and come late will have ill fortune.
The Image
Legge: The image of the earth, and over it water, form Holding Together. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, established the various states and maintained an affectionate relation to their princes.
Wilhelm/Baynes: On the earth is water: the image of Holding Together. Thus the kings of antiquity bestowed the different states as fiefs and cultivated friendly relations with the feudal lords.
Blofeld: The hexagram symbolizes water lying upon the land -- co-ordination. [This is indicated by the nature of the component trigrams. It is by co-operation between the fertile earth and the water which irrigates it that growth is achieved.] The ancient rulers strengthened the realm by being on affectionate terms with the feudal lords. [This may suggest dealing kindly with immediate subordinates.]
Liu: Water over the earth symbolizes Union. The ancient kings established many states and were friendly with the feudal lords.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above earth possessing stream. Grouping. The Earlier Kings used installing myriad cities to connect the connoted feudatories.
Cleary (1): There is water on the earth, in accord. Thus did the kings of yore establish myriad realms and associate with their representatives.
Wu: There is water on the ground; this is Subservience. Thus the late kings founded the states and kept a personal relationship with all the princes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Holding Together denotes help, and we see in the figure inferiors docilely following their superior. All that is said in the Judgment follows from the position of the dynamic line in the center of the upper trigram. Those who do not respond to him have exhausted their good fortune.
Legge: The idea of union between the different members and classes of a state and how it can be secured, is the subject of Holding Together. The dynamic line in the fifth place of authority represents the ruler to whom the subjects of all the other lines offer a ready submission. Generally, the second line is the proper correlate of the fifth, but here all of the other lines are also his subjects. Harmonious union is secured by the sovereign authority of the ruler, but he is warned to see that his virtue is worthy of his position, and his subjects are warned not to delay in submitting to him. Those who do not seek to promote and enjoy union until it is too late are left out in the cold. The sentiment is the same as that in the lines of Shakespeare about the tide in the affairs of men. In the Image, "water upon the face of the earth" suggests an emblem of close union.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The success of the Work is determined by the proper integration of intrapsychic forces. Separated and disparate forces are an index of its failure. Unremitting willpower is the catalyst for unity. Do you have the requisite will to facilitate this goal? Ask the oracle.
The Image: Archetypal intelligences (the gods) created many dimensions of awareness (Jung's collective unconscious or objective psyche), maintaining benevolent contact with them all. ("Benevolent" refers to original intent -- Plato's realm of ideal forms -- "The Good." This is the image of an evolving multiverse of awareness – a human psyche.)
Psychologically interpreted,Holding Together depicts the Self as the fifth-line ruler surrounded by its satellite complexes. Astrologically rendered, we see the same image in the solar system with its Sun surrounded by planets -- each symbolizing a faculty within the psyche (e.g., Mercury is intellect, Mars is aggression, etc). Viewed this way, the eighth hexagram portrays the functioning of a divine process. (Whenever the "ancient kings" are mentioned in the I Ching,we can take them as the symbolic architects of a primordial ideal of perfection.)
The Image in Holding Together is an allegory of the Self establishing the various complexes within the psyche (the Sun establishing its planets) so that they can evolve into a reflection of the ideal intent of the Work. (In the timeless realms of hyperspace, the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem exist simultaneously, although here in spacetime, as key facilitators in a “work in progress,” we labor somewhere between cause and effect.)
Although the psyche of a functional human being is held together relatively coherently, its inner relationships are continuously orbiting each other in cycles of change. (Astrological transits symbolize such changes.) The Tao of psychic evolution (the Work) is to respond to the changes consciously and coherently so that all forces eventually become synchronized with the will of their source. The ego’s sole responsibility is to do this in the spacetime dimension for the benefit of the Self.
In whatever way one may conceive the relationship between the individual self and the universal Self, be they regarded as identical or similar, distinct or united, it is most important to recognize clearly, and to retain ever present in theory and practice, the difference that exists between the Self in its essential nature -- that which has been called the ‘fount', the ‘center', the ‘deeper being', the ‘apex' of ourselves -- and the small ordinary personality, the little ‘self' or ego, of which we are normally conscious. The disregard of this vital distinction leads to absurd and dangerous consequences. Roberto Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The message for the superior man in this hexagram is the only injunction in the Book of Changesto re-consult the oracle. Implicit in this curious challenge is a need to evaluate your competence to further the Work. The answer should tell you the condition of your will.
The will is, curiously, not recognized as the central and fundamental function of the ego. It has often been depreciated as being ineffective against the various drives and the power of the imagination, or it has been considered with suspicion as leading to self-assertion (will-to-power). But the latter is only a perverted use of the will, while the apparent futility of the will is due only to a faulty and unintelligent use. The will is ineffective only when it attempts to act in oppositionto the imagination and to the other psychological functions, while its skillful and consequently successful use consists in regulating and directing all other functions toward a deliberately chosen and affirmed aim. Roberto Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The differences between hexagrams number seven and number eight are the differences between a geocentric and a heliocentric frame of reference – emphasizing the fact that the ego and the Self each perceive the psyche from an entirely different point of view.