Forget the body.
Let go of sensations
and obsessions and objects.
Do non-doing to the point that thoughts
cease to arise. Releasing mental constructs and
emotional entanglements, you’ll begin
to flow as a sage. Then let go
of that notion on top
of everything
else.
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You’re bound to
become a buddha if you practice.
If water drips long enough, even rocks wear through.
It’s not true thick skulls can’t be pierced;
people just imagine their
minds are hard.
The way is difficult
and very intricate. Lalla discarded her
books that told about it, and through meditation
saw the truth that never comes to anyone
from reading words.
The essence of awareness,
complete and clear, is a formless body.
Don’t mistake far and near based on intellectual opinion.
When thoughts differ, you’re blind to the substance
of the mysteries. When mind diverges,
you’re not neighbor to
the Way.
When subjectively
discriminating myriad things,
you get submerged in the objects before you.
When conscious awareness is fragmented,
you lose the basic reality.
If you understand
such expressions with complete
clarity, you’ll wind up unburdened,
as you were before.
This is a time for
disengagement and retreat.
In stillness you are out
of the reach of
danger.
It is inherent in the design of life that forces of darkness and disruption come into prominence from time to time. This hexagram indicates that this is such a time and advises you to respond by quietly retreating. To struggle or resist in anger now is to add fuel to the fire of negativity which threatens to consume you.
The superior person accepts that there is a natural ebb and flow between the forces of light and dark in the world. Wisdom lies not in resisting these movements but in responding to them appropriately. Just as a plant which sprouts in the dead of winter is doomed, and one which sprouts in spring flourishes, so it is with us. Success and prosperity accrue to those who advance in times of light and retreat in times of darkness. To retreat now is to benefit, in the end, from the changing tides.
Retreat is not the same thing as surrender, capitulation, or abandonment, which are desperate and unsatisfying measures. Neither is it characterized by a hardening into angry or punitive emotions. It is instead an acceptance and a choice: we calmly accept that the energies of the moment are against us, and we wisely choose to withdraw into the safety of stillness. In this dignified and balanced manner we protect ourselves from negative influences and arrive rested in a more beneficial hour.
from The I Ching, or Book of Changes
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