Establishing a hierarchy
Tasks are divided according to each person's abilities. taoscopy.com
Union8
Collaboration and uniting with others bring strength. Commit to shared goals and build alliances.
↓ Line 2
Inner commitment and perseverance in relationships lead to positive outcomes.
↓ Line 5
Leadership and restraint in relationships bring harmony. Allow others freedom and trust in their loyalty.
↓ Discipline7
Strategic alignment leads to victory; discipline and structure ensure success.
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.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways not your ways -- it is Yahweh who speaks.
Yes, the heavens are as high above earth
as my ways are above your ways,
my thoughts above your thoughts.
Isaiah 55: 6-9
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows the movement toward union and attachment proceeding from the inward mind. With firm correctness there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Hold to him inwardly. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Unification (or cooperation) should proceed from within our own circle. Righteous persistence will bring good fortune.
Liu: Union from within. Continuing brings good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Ally with him from within; determination is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Accord coming from within is correct and bodes well.
Cleary (2): Accord coming from within is auspicious if correct.
Wu: A desire to serve comes from within. With perseverance, there will be good fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She does not fail in what is proper. Wilhelm/Baynes: Do not lose yourself. Blofeld: When unification or cooperation proceeds from within our own circle, the results will not be disappointing. Ritsema/ Karcher: Not originating letting-go indeed. Cleary (2): Accord coming from within means not losing oneself. Wu: With self-discipline there will be no error.
Legge: Line two is the proper correlate of the ruler in line five. Her position in the center of the lower trigram suggests the movement proceeding from the inner mind.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man retains his individuality and dignity in his relationships with others. He is not like the obsequious office seeker. His convictions are deeply founded.
Wing: Trust your inner mind, maintain your integrity, and follow the demands of your convictions. You will be sought after by others. If you chase after the approval of others, you will lose your dignity.
Editor: Legge's commentary on the relationship between lines two and five portrays the ego-Self relationship. The Self is the dynamic ruler dwelling in a psychic dimension ("the inward mind"). The ego is always magnetic in relation to the Self, and ideally the servant of the Work in spacetime. The inward mind is thus the source of the voice of the Self. Because not every image or impulse in the psyche originates from the Self, Wilhelm's translation of the Confucian commentary ("Do not lose yourself"), warns us to be conscious enough to maintain connection with our authentic inner voice -- not some complex masquerading as such. (Often a tricky distinction.)
Man too, in his inner being, has a plane of contact with the divine self. And that's why he can only find his own divine being within himself, never by directing his attention towards the outside world. Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation
A. Unity proceeds from within -- listen to your inner voice. (The image can sometimes suggest meditation.)
B. Integration of the psyche is an inner process – you must facilitate the transformation by holding firmly to the principles of the Work.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, affords the most illustrious instance of seeking union and attachment. We see in it the king urging his pursuit of the game only in three directions, and allowing the escape of all the animals before him, while the people of his towns do not warn one another to prevent it. There will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Manifestation of Holding Together. In the hunt the king uses beaters on three sides only and foregoes game that runs off in front. The citizens need no warning. Good fortune.
Blofeld: Relying on his people's co-operation, the King pursues game which is enclosed on three sides, but loses the quarry ahead. This is because the local people were not warned. [This would seem to suggest that our loss is not due to disloyalty but to having failed to take people into our confidence.] Righteous persistence brings good fortune.
Liu: Union with honor. The king hunts on three sides only, losing game through the front. The people are not afraid. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Manifest Grouping. The king avails-of three beaters. Letting-go the preceding wildfowl. Capital people are not admonished. Significant.
Shaughnessy: Lustrously ally. The king herewith thrice drives (the hunt) losing the front catch; the city men are not warned; auspicious.
Cleary (1): Manifesting accord. The king uses three chasers and loses the game ahead. The citizens are not admonished. Auspicious.
Cleary (2): Manifest accord … The local people are not warned, etc.
Wu: This [line] reveals the essence of allegiance. The king deploys a three-sided chase in his hunt, such that he allows the game in front of him to escape. The townspeople do not warn one another of the king’s doing. There will be auspiciousness.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune is because of the line's correct and central place. The king takes only those animals who present themselves obediently. He allows the others to escape. That the people do not warn one another to prevent the animals to escape shows how the king, in his high eminence, has made them pursue the due course. Wilhelm/Baynes: The position is correct and central. Discarding those who resist, accepting the devoted: this is the meaning of "foregoes game that runs off in front." "The citizens need no warning," for the one above makes them central. Blofeld: This good fortune is indicated by the central position of the ruling line. Leaving alone those difficult to catch and following where the chances seem good, the King nevertheless loses the game in front of him. This means that, although the local people were not warned, the ruler adopts a fair and liberal policy. [The implication is that such a policy is required for the success of our plans.]Ritsema/Karcher: Situation correctly centered indeed. Stowing-away countering, grasping yielding. Letting-go the preceding wildfowl indeed. Capital people not admonished. Commissioning centering above indeed. Cleary (2): The local people are not warned, because the ruler has effected balance. Wu:“To allow the game in front of him to escape” means setting free those who want to leave and taking in those who want to come, etc.
Legge: As the ruler, line five is the center of union. The ancient rule for hunting expeditions was that after the beating was completed and the king was ready to commence taking game, one side of the enclosure into which it had been driven was left open and unguarded. This was proof of the royal benevolence which didn't want to make an end of all the creatures inside. So well known and understood was this benevolent principle, that all of his subjects cooperated in carrying it out. The union shown here is therefore characterized by mutual confidence and the appreciation of benevolent virtue.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The superior ruler accepts those who voluntarily come to him and lets others go who care to go. He neither invites nor flatters. Union is based on mutual confidence and appreciation.
Wing: You can trust fate at this time to bring you together with those who would further you. There is a natural attraction at work here. The atmosphere is liberal, and much can be accomplished. The time is auspicious, indeed.
Editor: This line is the subject of the Judgment and most of the commentary on the Judgment. It depicts a shake-down or refining process. In terms of the Work, because the ego has free will, it always has the option of "escape." The Self allows it to choose, because free choice is essential to any permanent psychic integration. A coerced synthesis could hardly be expected to hold together for very long. Blofeld's translation and note seem to miss this idea.
A human being can choose to deny his individuality or truth, although, sooner or later, he must inevitably choose, of his own free will, to remain dormant or submit to the Way of Heaven. Z.B.S. Halevi -- A Kabbalistic Universe
A. A sorting-out process -- some elements are gathered, and some discarded. (Could be a test of your discrimination.)
B. Psychic forces re-position themselves in relation to their source.
C. The decision is yours whether or not to follow the demands of the Work.
D. Astute choice separates truth from error.
7 Discipline
Other titles: The Army, The Symbol of Multitude and of Army, Legions/ Leading, The Troops, Collective Force, Discipline, Soldiers, Group Action, A Disciplined Multitude, Ego Discipline, Willpower "Can refer to mourning but its essential meaning is Discipline." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Disciplineindicates that with firm correctness and a leader of age and experience, there will be good fortune and no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Army. The army needs perseverance and a strong man. Good fortune without blame.
Blofeld: Persistence in a righteous course brings to those in authority good fortune and freedom from error. [If the enquiry is not concerned with military affairs, we must interpret this hexagram symbolically in the sense that life is a battle.]
Liu:The Army. The army demands perseverance and a strong person (leader). Good fortune. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Legions: Trial. Respectable people significant. Without fault. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of unorganized crowds or bunches of things. It emphasizes that organizing these things into functional units is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to lead!]
Shaughnessy: The Troops: Determination for the senior man is auspicious; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): For the leader of the army to be right, a mature person is good; then there is no error.
Wu: The Army indicates persevering. Led by the elder man, it will be auspicious.
The Image
Legge: Water in the midst of the earth -- the image ofDiscipline. The superior man nourishes and educates the people, and collects from among them a mighty army.
Wilhelm/Baynes: In the middle of the earth is water: the image of The Army. Thus the superior man increases his masses by generosity toward the people.
Blofeld: The symbol of water surrounded by land. The Superior Man nourishes the people and treats them with leniency.
Liu: Water in the earth symbolizes the Army. The superior man increases his followers by benevolence toward the people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Earth center possessing stream. Legions. A chun tzu uses tolerating commoners to accumulate crowds.
Cleary (1): There is water in the earth, The Army. Thus does the superior person embrace the people and nurture the masses.
Cleary (2): … Leaders develop a group by admitting people.
Wu: There is water underneath the ground; this is The Army. Thus the jun zi receives people and shelters them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Discipline describes the masses who make up the army, and the firm correctness referred to means a morally correct intent. When the leader uses the masses with such correctness, he may fulfill the ruler's will. The focus of strength in the second line is responded to by his proper correlate in the ruler's place. Although action is dangerous, it accords with the best sentiments of men, and although the leader may distress the country the people will still follow him -- there will be good fortune and no error.
Legge: Discipline is symbolized here by the conduct of a military expedition. The arrangement of the lines suggests the idea of a general surrounded by his troops. The dynamic yang line in the center of the lower trigram has the confidence of the magnetic ruler in the fifth place. Entire trust is reposed in him because he is strong and correct. He is referred to as an old and experienced man, hence all of his enterprises will succeed.
Perilousness is the attribute of the lower trigram, and Docility or Accordance with Others, that of the upper. War is like poison to a country -- painful, and potentially ruinous, and yet the people will endure it on behalf of the sovereign whom they love and respect.
In regard to the Image, Chu Hsi says: "As the water is not outside the earth, so soldiers are not outside the people. Therefore if a ruler is able to nourish the people, he can get the multitudes for his armies."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Discipline directed by willpower and serious intent advances the Work. Or: With experienced judgment and proper will and intent there will be a good outcome.
The Superior Man trains and nourishes his powers to build an invincible unity.
The English word "infantry," meaning foot soldiers (the backbone of any army), is derived from the French word enfant, meaning infant, or child. This ancient association was made because a good military officer was expected to treat his soldiers as if they were his own children -- with a stern but loving discipline designed to improve their character. This concept is what the Image alludes to when it says: “The superior man nourishes and educates the people, and collects from among them a mighty army.” Psychologically interpreted the idea is that the ego-complex is the general officer in the second line that nourishes, educates and controls the other complexes within the psyche. This can only be accomplished through discipline, and thus I have chosen that name for the hexagram rather than the more usual title of The Army.
With the only dynamic line of the hexagram placed in the center of the lower trigram we have an image of the position of the ego-complex in relation to the rest of the psyche. The magnetic ruler in line five represents the Self, isolated from direct physical involvement and dependent upon the dynamic ego to carry out the Work in the material dimension. The seventh hexagram, therefore, shows the Work from the ego's point of view.
Hexagram number eight, Holding Together, is the inverse of this image, and shows the Work from the Self's point of view outside of spacetime. There it is the dynamic fifth line ruler who is the focal point -- an image of the Self surrounded by its satellites. In that dimension the second line ego-complex is only another magnetic complex in the company of other magnetic complexes. Ideally, the lower complexes within the psyche should be magnetic in relation to a dynamic ego, but the ego is always magnetic in relation to the dynamic Self. From the Self's point of view all of its complexes are its magnetic "children," or "infantry." Hexagrams seven and eight should be studied together as reversed images to get a full comprehension of each.
The images in the lines of Discipline all deal with the management of forces as a coordinated whole -- as long as they are under the firm command of the ego (who is only a general carrying out the orders of the Self), things proceed successfully. If the Discipline breaks down and the ego- general loses control, defeat is certain.
Narutomi Hyogo said, "What is called winning is defeating one's allies. Defeating one's allies is defeating oneself, and defeating oneself is vigorously overcoming one's own body. It is as though a man were in the midst of ten thousand allies but not one were following him. If one hasn't previously mastered his mind and body, he will not defeat the enemy." Yamamoto Tsunetomo -- The Book of the Samurai