The family

Hi everyone

The thirty seventh section of the I Ching discusses the family. We all know what family means, both nuclear and extended; let's extend it one more step. Our relationship with the I Ching; for I mentioned sometime ago that in every chapter, every verse, the I Ching is talking about itself, and more specifically, speaking of itself in relationship to us. Between ourselves and the I Ching, we are a nuclear family. And in this family, there must be order, and a proper delegation of duties and responsibilities. In modern western society, there is sometimes exception taken to the stanzas in this hexagram due to the belief that we are more evolved than people of the past, and have a better understanding of the proper relationships between men and women, and the text sometimes seems somewhat sexist. I am not going to get into that tonight. I would wish that we look at this from a more spiritual perspective, and see the role of the female as our own role in relationship to the I Ching, the Sage, the Buddha, and/or the Christ. The judgment says, "The perseverance of the woman furthers." Since there is no direct human spoken language between the Spirit and ourselves, there must of necessity be a perseverance from us in learning to understand and apply the cosmic language. As Paul said, "If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them who are the lost." So who are the lost? Well, in a sense we all are, for we do not understand the hidden cosmic language. We may think we do, but we do not. So it is in our best interests, if we want to evolve, and eventually become literally sons and daughters of God, that we understand the language that he/she (for God is both) speaks to us. As Jesus said, "I speak to them in parables, because they cannot understand. As we travel the spiritual path, we come to realize more and more, that when we are on one spiritual level, the parables mean one thing, and when we pass on to a higher spiritual level they mean another. This principle applies whether we study the I Ching, or the Bible, or the Tao, or any other deeply spiritual manuscript. It is we who need to persevere, for the Sage, or the Christ, already knows the truth. It is we who need to dig for the "pearl of great price."

Furthermore, it is love that holds the family together. Without love, we are nothing. All things are accomplished through love. Accomplishments that are made without love will not endure. It says of the I Ching in the fifth line, "There is no fear." The commentary says, "...on the contrary, the whole family can trust him, because love governs their intercourse." Remember the discussions we had about love? God is love. He/she is not simply equal to love, but is in fact, love itself. God is defined by and as love. And as such we say, "we love him because he first loved us. To repeat myself, love is the key. It is absolutely the key. Jesus said, "This is my commandment that ye love one another." I am constantly repeating myself on this subject.

Now I will put it a little differently. Love is the opposite of fear. Hate is not, for hate is just the flip side of love. We hate when our love is rejected. But see, that is where we fail, for deep abiding love still loves, even when it is rejected. It loves even as the "crown of thorns" is placed on our head. It loves while the crowd mocks and jeers, and it loves when it is despitefully used. It loves when it is hated. This is hard. This is very hard. Yet we need to learn this kind of love to be close to the Sage, to the redeemer, to the savior, call him/her/it what you will.

Without these nuclear family ties, the sage cannot easily speak to us. Without love, the Sage has difficulty approaching us, and giving of its sustenance, as in hexagram forty eight. Without love, it is hard to approach, and understand the "king of glory." We are redeemed, but not with silver. We are redeemed by understanding first the truth that we are living our lives as an illusion. That we are dreaming, and have not awakened to our true nature. We are redeemed by accepting into our hearts the love of the sage, the love of God, the love of the Christ, of the Buddha, call it what you will.