One stays close to one's family to stop predators. taoscopy.com
Abundance55
Abundance and prosperity surround you, but be mindful not to let them lead to arrogance or distraction. Stay focused and genuine in the present moment to make the most of your opportunities.
↓ Line 4
Despite obstacles, meeting someone of like mind brings good fortune and clarity.
↓ Line 5
Opportunities and recognition are approaching. This brings good fortune.
↓ Line 6
Isolation and excessive focus on personal abundance lead to misfortune and loss of connection.
↓ The Family37
Focus on nurturing harmony in your community or family. Cultivate stability and mutual support by fostering open communication and shared values.
55 Abundance
Other titles: Abundance, Fullness, The Symbol of Prosperity, Greatness, Abounding, Richness, Prolific, Fruitful, Luxuriant, Zenith, Affluence, Correct Action, Lucid Behavior, "Generally means that one will have enough for one's needs with a little over. Does not mean large wealth as a rule." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Expansion of Awareness means progress and development. When the king is enlightened there is no need to fear a change. Let him be as the sun at noon.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Abundance has success. The king attains abundance. Be not sad. Be like the sun at midday.
Blofeld:Abundance -- success! The King inspires them. Do not be sad; it is fitting to be like the sun at its zenith. [Abundance in itself is often good; but it is generally followed by the waning of what was abundant; moreover, as we shall see, there can be abundance of darkness, or anything else unpleasant. (The Judgment itself) may be taken as an auspicious omen.]
Liu: Greatness. Success. The king attains greatness, without sadness; he should be like the sun at midday.
Ritsema/Karcher:Abounding, Growing. The king imagining it. No grief. Properly sun centering. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of profusion and abundance reaching culmination. It emphasizes that exuberantly increasing things to their fullest is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Abundance: Receipt; the king approaches it; do not be sad. It is proper for the middle of the day.
Cleary (1): Richness is developmental. Freedom from worry when the king is great is suited to midday.
Cleary (2):Richness is success; a king attains this. Do not worry. Take advantage of the sun at noon.
Wu: A sage king will attain abundance. There is no need to worry, for he knows the expedience of observing the midday sun.
The Image
Legge: The superior man, in accordance with this, decides cases of litigation, and apportions punishments with exactness.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Both thunder and lightning come: the image of Abundance. Thus the superior man decides lawsuits and carries out punishments.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder and lightning occurring simultaneously. The Superior Man decides law suits and inflicts the necessary penalties.
Liu: Thunder and lightning coming together symbolize Greatness. The superior man judges lawsuits and imposes punishments.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, lightning, altogether culminating. Abounding. A chun tzu uses severing litigating to involve punishing.
Cleary (1): Thunder and lightning both arrive, abundant. Thus do superior people pass judgment and execute punishment.
Cleary (2): Thunder and lightning both come in richness. Thus do leaders pass judgments and execute punishments.
Wu: Thunder and lightning come together; this is Abundance. Thus the jun zi decides the verdicts and exacts the punishments.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The greatness of Expansion of Awareness is due to Movement directed by Clarity. Although the king has attained this state, he must still make it greater. But there is no need for anxiety -- let him be as the sun at noon: let his clarity shine on all under the sky. As soon as sun and moon reach zenith their light begins to wane. The intercourse of heaven and earth alternates between abundance and scarcity. It waxes and wanes according to the seasons. How much more so with men or spiritual forces! [Ritsema/Karcher translate "spiritual forces" [Kuei Shen] as: "The whole range of imaginal beings both inside and outside the individual; spiritual powers, gods, demons, ghosts, powers, fetishes." -- Ed.]
Legge: The written Chinese character denoting Expansion of Awarenessis the symbol of being large and abundant -- a condition of prosperity. In human affairs, prosperity often gives place to its opposite. The lesson of the hexagram is to show how the ruler may preserve the prosperity of his state and people. The component trigrams show Motive Force under the direction of Intelligence. A ruler with these attributes will not fail to maintain the progress and development of his kingdom. He is told not to be anxious, but to study how he may always be like the sun at its zenith, cheering and enlightening all.
It must be noted that a change has been introduced in this hexagram in explaining the symbolism of the lines. Normally, for two lines to have a correct relationship one must be female (magnetic) and the other male (dynamic). Here two dynamic male lines make a proper correlation in the first and fourth places.
In the Image, lightning appears as the natural phenomenon of which Clarity is the symbol in the lower trigram. The virtues of Clarity and Movement are required of the superior man in judging litigation.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Don't grieve when the truth hurts: a loss of illusion is a gain in awareness. Once truly attained, enlightenment cannot be lost, it can only be increased.
The Superior Man acts with clarity by accurately evaluating cause and effect. [Or: The objective assessment of any contradiction is the road to comprehending it.]
The fifty-fifth hexagram is very intriguing in that it appears to have a misleading title in the original Chinese, which is usually translated as Abundance,Fullness, Prosperity, etc. All of the internal clues, plus empirical experience with the figure have convinced me that the title Expansion of Awareness is a more accurate description of the forces operating in this hexagram. Here is my reasoning:
First, the component trigrams of Clarity and Movement portray action directed by clear comprehension, as well as awareness itself in motion or expansion. The title of Abundance seems misleading because it suggests a relatively static condition, whereas the combined trigrams in the figure symbolize Clear Movement. These trigrams appear in reverse sequence in hexagram number twenty-one, Discernment, which symbolizes the act of comprehending -- a dynamic function of consciousness described in the Image here as a quest for justice: "Thus the superior man decides lawsuits and carries out punishments." (Wilhelm) Notice also that the message for the superior man in this Image is almost identical with that in Discernment:"Thus the kings of former times made firm the laws through clearly defined penalties." (Wilhelm) The ancient kings can always be taken as symbolic of archetypal forces (the "gods"), so their laws are those of nature, not of humankind. Interpreted broadly, both messages counsel us to: "Comprehend the law of Tao, or suffer the penalties of ignorance." Which is to say: "expand your awareness."
Second, note the message in the Judgment. Most of the translators render this by comparing the king at the peak of his power with the sun at the peak of its illumination at noon. The sun is the symbol of clarity and enlightenment, and the sun at its zenith therefore symbolizes a high point of awareness.
Third, notice that lines two, three and four depict an eclipse of the sun through its waxing, full and waning phases. This suggests ignorance gradually evolving toward comprehension, which is finally attained in line five. The progression in the hexagram is from ignorance to clarity, and then in line six, ignorance within clarity -- i.e., an image of one who remains obtuse while surrounded by the light of illumination.
Fourth, the combined trigrams of shock and light (thunder and lightning) suggest a sudden and numinous illumination: the sort of en-light-enment (expansion of awareness) described by Yogis:
Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain through the spinal cord ... The illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring louder, I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light ... I was no longer myself, or to be more accurate, no longer as I knew myself to be, a small point of awareness confined in a body, but instead was a vast circle of consciousness in which the body was but a point, bathed in light and in a state of exaltation and happiness impossible to describe. Gopi Krishna --Kundalini, the Evolutionary Energy in Man
It is possible that the written character translated into English as Abundance has these associations in Chinese. Unfortunately, the title of Abundance itself does not immediately suggest in the English language the ideas that are integral in the symbolism of the hexagram.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows its subject in a tent so large and thick that at midday he can see from it the constellation of the Bushel. But he meets with the subject of the first line, undivided like himself. There will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The curtain is of such fullness that the polestars can be seen at noon. He meets his ruler, who is of like kind. Good fortune.
Blofeld: So great is the obstruction that the midday sun appears to him as a tiny star. Meeting a prince of equal rank -- good fortune!
Liu: The shield is so great that you can see the polestar at noon. One meets an ignorant ruler. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Abounding: one's screen. Sun centering: visualizing a bin. Meeting one's hiding lord. Significant.
Shaughnessy: Making abundant his curtain; in the middle of the day one sees the Dipper; meeting his placid ruler; auspicious.
Cleary (1): Increasing shade, seeing stars at midday. Meeting the hidden master is auspicious.
Wu: He makes abundance of curtains. His house is so dimmed as if he could see the Dipper with the sun at noon. He meets with his equal partner. Auspicious.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The position of the line is inappropriate. There is darkness and no light. The good fortune of meeting the first line means that action may be taken. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is not the appropriate one. He is dark and not light-giving. This means action. Blofeld: The extent of the obstruction is indicated by the unsuitable position of this line. His seeing only a tiny star at midday implies nothing wherewith to lighten the darkness surrounding us. His good fortune in meeting a prince of equal rank indicates that action can now be taken. [We are obstructed by ignorance or stupidity and should not act until someone ready to help us appears.]Ritsema/Karcher: Situation not appropriate indeed. Shade, not brightening indeed. Significant movement indeed. Cleary (2): With abundant shade, the position is not appropriate. Seeing the stars at midday means it is dark and dim. Meeting the hidden master is auspicious in terms of action. Wu: Because his house is darkened, etc.
Legge: The first sentence of line four is the same as line two, until we come to the strange correlation of the two dynamic lines in four and one, and the issue is good. An alternative translation is: "He meets with the subject of the parallel line."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The eclipse is decreasing. The man gets together with elements with which he has a natural affinity.
Wing: Although your position as been less than ideal, you will finally meet with the right elements to help you achieve your aim. Enthusiasm coupled with wise decisions lead to good fortune.
Editor: The essential image is one of ignorance (darkness) which is dispelled by an alliance or connection. Ordinarily one would not expect to take action when in the dark about the situation in question, but here action is advised in order to dispel the darkness. Because of the unusual correct correlation between two dynamic lines, the image suggests that a highly abstract, "intellectual" association may be called for here.
Nowhere is the basic requirement so indispensable as in psychology that the observer should be adequate to his object, in the sense of being able to see not only subjectively but also objectively. The demand that he should see only objectively is quite out of the question, for it is impossible. We must be satisfied if he does not see too subjectively. Jung -- Psychological Types
A. When you're in the dark, seek help: Take steps to clarify the situation.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows its subject bringing around her the men of brilliant ability. There will be occasion for congratulation and praise. There will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Lines are coming, blessing and fame draw near. Good fortune.
Blofeld: The variegated beauty of the sky after a storm now appears. Blessings [Unexpected or seemingly unmerited good fortune] and fame are won -- good fortune!
Liu: Glory will come, causing prosperity and recognition. Good fortune.
Shaughnessy: There comes a pattern, celebratory and uplifting; auspicious.
Cleary (1): Bringing beatification, there is glory; this is auspicious.
Cleary (2): Bringing brilliance, there is celebration and praise, etc.
Wu: If he could welcome his notable partner, there would be something to celebrate and praise. Auspicious.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune is the congratulation that is sure to arise. Wilhelm/Baynes: It bestows blessing. Blofeld: Here, good fortune connotes the blessings already mentioned. Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing reward indeed. Cleary (2): There is joyful celebration. Wu: His good fortune depends on that there is something praiseworthy.
Legge: Line five is the ruler's place, magnetic herself, but the ruler of the trigram of Movement. She can do little without assistance, but if she can bring into her service the talents of lines one, three and four, and even of two, her magnetic correlate, the results will be admirable. Nothing consolidates the prosperity of a country so much as the cooperation of the ruler and her able ministers.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The modest ruler assembles ministers of brilliant ability around him. Especially is he attracted to men who are sound of heart and sure of getting results.
Wing: Be receptive to the opinions of others. Invite counsel from the most able helpers you know. Such modesty brings unexpected good fortune and rewarding results for all concerned.
Editor: "Brilliant ability" refers to the lines of the lower trigram of Clarity which rise to assist and reinforce the central line in the trigram of Movement. Wilhelm refers to these lines directly; Blofeld calls them "variegated beauty;" Liu, "Glory;" Ritsema/Karcher translate it as "composition"-- ("a well-composed whole and its structure; beautiful creations.") Shaughnessy dubs it a "pattern," etc. – none of the translators use exactly the same term. Because this is the ruler's place, all versions implicitly refer to the imagery in the Judgment: "The king attains abundance. Be not sad. Be like the sun at midday." Note however, that everyone except Blofeld places this in the future: it seems to be a coming event. If this is the only changing line, the hexagram created is number 49, Metamorphosis,suggesting that an Expansion of Awareness may be in the offing: "Comes the dawn!"
For it is the function of consciousness not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses, but to translate into visible reality the world within us. Jung --The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche
A. You are surrounded by forces of enlightenment and lucid action is possible. "Gather your wits about you" -- clarity approaches.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject with her house made large, but only serving as a screen to her household. When she looks at her door, it is still, and there is nobody about it. For three years no one is to be seen. There will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: His house is in a state of abundance. He screens off his family. He peers through the gate and no longer perceives anyone. For three years he sees nothing. Misfortune.
Blofeld: There is abundance in his dwelling and a wall around his house; yet, peering through the gate, he sees no one. For three years, he sees nobody -- misfortune!
Liu: One's house is big and luxurious; later it will be overgrown. Someone looks in at the gate and does not see anyone. For three years he sees nothing. Misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Abounding: one's roof. Screening one's dwelling. Peeping-through one's door. Living-alone, one without people. Three year's-time not encountering. Pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Making abundant his room, screening his house, and arching his window; he is alarmed at his having no people; for three years he does not follow; inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Embellishing the room, shading the house; peeking in the door, it is quiet, with no one there, unseen for three years. Inauspicious.
Cleary (2): Making the house rich, shading the home. A peek in the door finds quiet, etc.
Wu: He has his house richly decorated. He uses curtains to shield his home. Peeping through its door, one sees not a single soul. For three years, nobody has been seen therein. Foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She has made her house large -- she soars in her pride to the heavens. She looks at her door, which is still, with no one about it -- she only keeps herself withdrawn from all others. Wilhelm/Baynes: He flutters about at the border of heaven. He screens himself off. Blofeld: He seems to be hovering on the border of the skies. He has deliberately hidden himself. [The whole of this refers to someone who had done very well for himself but who, out of snobbery or for a similar reason, refuses to share his good fortune and therefore remains alone and miserable amidst his splendid possessions.] Ritsema/Karcher: The heavenly border, hovering indeed. Originating-from concealing indeed. Cleary (2): Making the house rich is pride. For one has hidden oneself. Wu: He has made himself feel like flying high in the sky. For he has hidden himself from the rest of the world.
Legge: All the conditions of line six are unfavorable, and she is left to herself without any helpers. Her long isolation undoes her -- the issue is only evil. No one but herself has any confidence in her. She holds herself aloof from others, and they leave her to herself.
Anthony: If, after being helped, as in the fifth line, we seek only to have our own way, or to be master of the situation, we lose all the benefits of acting correctly. If we are to make progress, we must keep our motives pure.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is overwhelmed by his pride as he seeks personal splendor, alienating even members of his own household. He becomes isolated and is undone.
Wing: Your quest for abundance has made you proud. Your desire to maintain it has isolated you. You are out of harmony with the times and out of touch with those close to you. Therefore you have already lost your greatest possessions.
Editor: A "house made large" symbolizes an expanded psyche, or a situation of abundant choice. That this is "a screen to her household” tells us that important aspects of the situation are unrecognized: She "can't see the trees for the forest.” Legge's "still” door is a portal closed to awareness. In short, because of self-chosen isolation, she doesn't take advantage of an abundance of unperceived opportunities. A hermit’s life of renunciation may bring about an expansion of awareness, but it is wasted if one does not take appropriate action in the world. Ironically, the hexagram created when this is the only changing line is number 30, Clarity, offering a clear image of what she is missing in life.
Communication must be radiation and receiving and exchange. Whenever irritation is involved, then we are not able to see properly and fully and clearly the spacious quality of that which is coming toward us, that which is presenting itself as communication. The external world is immediately rejected by our irritation which says, “No, no, this irritates me, go away.” Such an attitude is the complete opposite of transcendental generosity. So the bodhisattva must experience the complete communication of generosity, transcending irritation and self-defensiveness. Otherwise, when thorns threaten to prick us, we feel that we are being attacked, that we must defend ourselves. We run away from the tremendous opportunity for communication that has been given to us, and we have not been brave enough even to look to the other shore of the river. We are looking back and trying to run away. Chogyam Trungpa
A. You are out of touch with reality -- blind to the light which surrounds you, too myopic to see your options.
37 The Family
Other titles: Family Life, Clan, Home, Linkage, Dwelling People, The Psyche, "May indicate a situation where the family can and should help." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: For the regulation of The Family, what is most advantageous is that the wife be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Family . The perseverance of the woman furthers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dwelling People. Harvesting: woman Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of living and working with others in a common space. It emphasizes that caring for your relation with those who share this space and for the space itself is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: dwell with people!]
Shaughnessy: Family members: Beneficial for the maiden to determine.
Cleary (1): For people in the home it is beneficial that the woman be chaste. [In the human body, the vitality, spirit, soul, psyche, and intent all belong to yin and all take orders from the human mentality … When you refine away the human mind, the mind of tao spontaneously becomes manifest.]
Wu:The Family indicates that it is advantageous for a woman to be persevering. [This is a hexagram with its emphasis on women. Both constituent trigrams are feminine … Hence those who endeavor to be firm and correct will have advantages.]
The Image
Legge: Wind rising out of fire -- the image of The Family. The superior man speaks the truth and is consistent in his behavior.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind comes forth from fire: The image of The Family. Thus the superior man has substance in his words and duration in his way of life.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind rising from fire. The Superior Man's speech is full of substance and he behaves with constancy.
Liu: The wind coming out of the fire symbolizes The Family. The speech of the superior man should have substance, and his conduct be enduring.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind originating-from fire issuing-forth. Dwelling People. A chun tzu uses words to possess beings and-also movement to possess perseverance.
Cleary (1): Wind emerges from fire, members of a family. Thus is there factuality in the speech of superior people, consistency in their deeds.
Cleary (2): … Developed people are factual in speech, consistent in action.
Wu: Wind comes forth from fire; this is The Family. Thus the jun zi speaks with facts and acts with perseverance.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Family the wife is in her correct place in the lower trigram, and the husband in his correct place in the upper. That spouses occupy their correct positions shows the correct relationship between heaven and earth. The parents rule the family: let the father indeed be father, and the son son; let the elder brother be indeed elder brother, and the younger brother younger; let the husband indeed be husband, and the wife wife -- then the family will be in its correct state. Bring the family to that state, and all under heaven will be established.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Family simply means "a household," or "the members of a family." The lesson of the hexagram is the regulation of the family, effected by the cooperation of the husband and wife in their several spheres, and only needing it to become universal to secure the good order of the kingdom. The important place accorded to the wife is seen in the short sentence in the Judgment -- that she be firm and correct, and do her part well is essential for the family's proper regulation.
The wife is represented by line two and the husband is her proper correlate in line five. The relationship between heaven and earth is analogous to the relationship between husband and wife.
The second sentence of the Confucian commentary, more closely rendered, would be: "That in the family there is an authoritative ruler is a way of naming father and mother." This means that the assertion of authority in a family should be a correct balance of force and gentleness.
Anthony: The Family symbolizes correct relationships between people – the family unit, the spiritual family (the Sage and the student), and human groups generally. When these most basic relationships are correct, the world is made correct through the force of inner truth, through cultivation of the feminine component of our nature, and through persevering in a virtually menial position (from our ego’s viewpoint) so that our work can come to fruition. All this means to forgo striving and self-assertion, and to allow ourself to be led, while persevering in gentleness and devotion to our path.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: For the correct regulation of the psyche, what is most important is that the ego must be firm and correct.
The Superior Man lives his allegiance to the ideals of the Work.
Applying the Hermetic Axiom: "as above, so below," the relationships within a family are analogous to the relationships within a city-state, or a kingdom, and vice- versa:
Society centuries before the time of Confucius had been organized on the basis of family. In the early days of the Chou dynasty fiefs had been allotted to the feudal lords in a system of planned colonization. These feudal lords, linked to one another and to the royal house by marriage ties, took their families, retainers, peasants, artisans and soldiers to form self-sufficient colonies based on an agricultural economy and governed from well-fortified walled cities. These large family groupings of the nobility were preserved only so long as the relationships of parents to children, brothers to brothers, and masters to servants were effectively controlled. D.H. Smith -- Confucius
If the ideal city is like a family, then the analogy also holds for an individual -- here the comparison goes directly from city to psyche:
Have we any greater evil for a city than what splits it and makes it many instead of one? Or a greater good than what binds it together and makes it one? ... Then is that city best governed which is most like a single human being? Plato -- The Republic
Psychologically interpreted, the hexagram of The Family symbolizes the psyche, and the Confucian commentary tells us that when its inner components all assume their proper roles and functions, then the Work will come into fruition. ("All under heaven will be established.") The identical idea has been stated in Gnostic thought:
Jesus said to them: "When you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter the Kingdom. The Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas
The husband is the analogue of heaven or the Self, and the wife is the analogue of earth or the ego. When the ego assumes its correct role as the magnetic servant of the Work, then inner transformations can take place. I have paraphrased the Judgment in terms of the necessity of the ego to follow the dictates of the Work, but one could alternately phrase it in terms of keeping emotional responses under control. For the wife to be "firm and correct" is to ensure that emotions, drives and appetites are not allowed to make decisions -- they are servants, not masters. This is the essence of the Work, and arguably the most reiterated idea in theI Ching.
The patient should be encouraged to use his mind, through observation and discrimination, to bring clearly into his awareness the irrational aspect of his drives and emotions, and also the possible drawbacks and harmfulness to himself and others of their uncontrolled manifestation … To act on the spur of an impulse, a drive or an intense emotion can very often produce undesirable effects which one afterwards regrets … Therefore, he should learn – by repeated experiment and effort – to “insert” between impulse and action a stage of reflection, of mental consideration of a situation, and of critical analysis of his impulse, trying to realize its origin, its source. R. Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The thirty-seventh hexagram teaches us that the way to manage the emotions is no different than the proper management of aFamily. No wise parent can teach a child self-discipline by adopting the child's point of view: permissiveness, either with our children or our own primitive drives and passions, is a sure formula for disintegration. The Work demands that the ego hold the line on this issue -- indeed, it is the ego's only legitimate function.
We are dominated by everything with which our [ego] becomes identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves. R. Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis