As
my sufferings
mounted I soon realized that
there were two ways in which I could respond
to my situation—either to react with bitterness or seek
to transform the suffering into a creative force.
I decided to follow the latter course…
Human salvation lies in the
hands of the creatively
maladjusted.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
There will be prayer, too,
but to a different god,
and dread will lurk
in the songs we sing.
Doom in the timpani
no matter what the tune,
the tune a variation
on the theme of doom.
We will sing in the dark
and try to forgive
and try not to dwell
on the lives we lived.
The music we play
will be a funeral song,
the poetry we speak,
that ancient tool
we used to believe
was the vital spark,
or if not the spark,
will be the match we strike
again and again
in the darkest dark.
A certain
young man was asking
around. “I need to find a wise person.
I have a problem.” A bystander said, “There’s
no one with intelligence in our town except that man
over there playing with the children, the one riding
the stick-horse. He has keen, fiery insight and
vast dignity like the night sky, but he
conceals it in the madness of
child’s play.”
The young
seeker approached the
children. “Dear father, you who
have become as a child,
tell me a secret.”
“Go away.
This is not a day for
secrets.” “But please! Ride your
horse this way, just for a minute.” The sheikh
play-galloped over. “Speak quickly. I can’t hold this one
still for long. Whoops. Don’t let him kick you. This is a wild
one!” The young man felt he couldn’t ask his serious
question in the crazy atmosphere, so he
joked, “I need to get married. Is
there someone suitable on
this street?”
“There are
three kinds of women
in the world. Two are griefs, and
one is a treasure in the world. The first,
when you marry her, is all yours. The second
is half-yours, and the third is not yours at all. Now get
out of here, before this horse kicks you in the head!
Easy now!” The sheikh rode off among the
children. The young man shouted,
“Tell me more about
the kinds of
women!”
The sheikh,
on his cane horsey,
came closer, “The virgin of
your first love is all yours. She will
make you feel happy and free. A childless widow
is the second, she will be half yours. The third, who is
nothing to you, is a married woman with a child. By her first
husband she had a child, and all her love goes into that child.
She will have no connection with you. Now watch out.
Back away. I’m going to turn this rascal around!”
He gave a loud whoop and rode back,
calling the children
around him.
“One
more question, Master!”
The sheikh circled, “What is it? Quickly!
That rider over there needs me. I think I’m
in love.” “What is this playing that
you do? Why do you hide
your intelligence
so?”
“The people
here want to put me
in charge. They want me to be
judge, magistrate, and interpreter of all the texts.
The knowing I have doesn’t want that. It wants to enjoy
itself. I am a plantation of sugarcane, and at the same time
I’m eating the sweetness.” Knowledge that is acquired is not like
this. Those who have it worry if audiences like it or not. It’s a
bait for popularity. Disputational knowing wants customers.
It has no soul. Robust and energetic before a responsive
crowd, it slumps when no one is there. The only
real customer is God. Chew quietly your
sweet sugarcane God-love, and stay
playfully childish. Your face will
turn rosy with illumination
like the red bud
flowers.
Let the lover
be disgraceful, crazy,
absent minded. Someone sober
will worry about things going
badly. Let the lover
be.
All day
and night, music,
a quiet, bright reed song.
If it fades, we
fade.
It is
an unavoidable fact
of life that inferior influences
sometimes prevail: improperly motivated
people ascend to power, there is injustice and conflict
and poverty, and spiritual life in general descends into darkness
and decay. While these difficult times are inevitable — and the arrival
of this hexagram indicates that this is such a time — this does
not mean that we have to stagnate personally as well.
By turning inward and realigning ourselves
with proper principles, we initiate
the return to light, truth
and progress.
The image
of P’i is of heaven
moving away from the earth.
When this happens, the inferior qualities
in ourselves and in others come to the surface and
seek expression. It is unlikely now that you can affect what
others do and say or that your activities will bear much fruit. While
it is natural to feel anxious and disappointed about this state of
affairs, it is essential to disengage from these inferior
emotions now. To indulge in them is to
abandon your superior self and
plunge into a state of
disintegration.
What is
wise now is to accept
that external progress is unlikely.
Turn your attention inward and examine your
own thoughts and attitudes for inferior influences
and departures from the principles of the Sage.
By withdrawing into solitude and refining
your higher nature, you continue
to grow while all else around
you stagnates.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 12, P’i Standstill (Stagnation)
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