In the autumn of my sixty sixth year,
I’ve already lived a long time
The intense moonlight
Is bright upon my face.
There’s no need to discuss
The principles of koan study;
Just listen carefully to the wind
Outside the pines and cedars.
In the autumn of my sixty sixth year,
I’ve already lived a long time
The intense moonlight
Is bright upon my face.
There’s no need to discuss
The principles of koan study;
Just listen carefully to the wind
Outside the pines and cedars.
In fellowship with others,
embody the principles of the Sage.
This hexagram addresses the proper basis for relationships with others. It generally comes as a sign that some kind of self-correction is in order in this arena.
Proper relationships, whether in love, work, family, or friendship, must be founded on and conducted under proper principles in order to succeed. Our model for how to behave with others is the Sage: in relating we are obliged to practice kindness, humility, correctness, equanimity, and openness. Wherever we depart from these we lose the aid of the Higher Power and risk and encounter with misfortune.
The fundamental rule of the I Ching for the conduct of relationships is that they take place in the open. This means that every facet of a relationship should be seen as fair and correct by everyone concerned, not just yourself. It also means that it is improper to enter into or continue in relationships with unspoken reservations or hidden intentions.
Exceptional things can be accomplished by those who come together correctly in fellowship now under the guidance of an enlightened leader or leaders. Seek that role by patterning yourself after the Sage. Meet others halfway in a spirit of sincerity and receptivity. Give trust where it is due; where it is not, do not resort to harshness – reserve and reticence are adequate measures. Avoid the formation of factions and cliques, and correct your errors in relationships as soon as you become aware of them. In this way you can accomplish magnificent deeds now.
The I Ching, or Book of Changes
Hexagram 13, T’ung Jen / Fellowship with Others
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Favor
and disgrace are
equally problematic. Hope
and fear are phantoms
of the body.
What
does it mean that
“favor and disgrace are
equally problematic”? Favor
lifts you up; disgrace knocks you down.
Either one depends on the opinions
of others and causes you to
depart from your
center.
What
does it mean that
“hope and fear are phantoms
of the body”? When you regard your
body as your self, hope and fear have real
power over you. If you abandon the
notion of body as self, hope
and fear cannot
touch you.
Know
the universe as
your self, and you can live
absolutely anywhere in comfort.
Love the world as your self,
and you’ll be able
to care for it
properly.
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book.
A master’s
handiwork cannot
be measured but still priests wag
their tongues explaining the “Way” and
babbling about “Zen.” This old monk has
never cared for false piety and my
nose wrinkles at the dark smell
of incense before the
Buddha.
Crazy Cloud
speaks of Daito’s unsurpassed
brilliance but the clatter of royal carriages
about the temple gates drowns him out and no
one listens to tales of the Patriarch’s long
years of hunger and homelessness
beneath Gojo
Bridge.
In order to deepen his Zen understanding, Daito Kokushi (also known as Shuho Myocho, 1281-1338), the founder of Daitoku-ji, passed a number of years hiding out among the beggars clustered about Kyoto’s Gojo Bridge.
Do not
do anything (good or bad)
and do not even do this not-doing;
then straightaway one reaches that place where
there is no concern for external affairs, that
vast and peaceful place where there
are absolutely no obstructing
thoughts.
There,
all thoughts of the past
are extinguished, all thoughts of
the future do not arise, and
all present thoughts
are void.
Nevertheless,
this void-ness is also not
to be maintained. This non-maintenance
(of the void) is also to be forgotten, and this forgetting
is also not to be legitimized; further, free yourself from this
non-legitimizing. At the time when even the idea of
getting free is not preserved, only the alert
yet calm light from the spirit will
appear prominently before
oneself.