Hexagram Fifty Part Two

The commentary on hexagram fifty says, "The highest earthly values must be sacrificed to the divine. But the truly divine does not manifest itself apart from man." Do you see what this is really saying? At first, it just sounds like religious talk that has no real substance. That is why so many people have such a hard time understanding the I Ching, because they don't put any spiritual value to it, and are just concerned with their day to day lives, thinking that is all there is. But there is a deep meaning here. In essence the commentary is saying there is no difference between the divine and man. We are made up of the same content. It is all vibration. We must sacrifice the material for the divine for the material realm IS in reality, the divine. We cannot separate the two; and if we are merely concerned about our day to day existence, we fail, because we do not recognize the source of all that is. It is only when we come humbly (hexagram fifteen) to the divine that the divine forgives us (hexagram forty) and 'invites us to a closer intimacy" (hexagram thirty five). The commentary goes on to say, "The supreme revelation of God appears in prophets and holy men. To venerate them is true veneration of God." This is because the prophets and holy men, and ultimately all men, are an aspect of the supreme revelation of God, in other words, of God himself. We cannot separate the sacred and the profane. They are both part of the overall existence that alone is God. Finally, the commentary says, "The will of God, as revealed through them, should be accepted in humility; this brings humility and true understanding of the world, and this leads to great good fortune."

We can accomplish much by hard work and determination. We can accomplish much through the workings of the ego and doing things as we are taught to do them in school. But true, effortless success comes from "the primal depths of the universe." When we allow it to take over, when we humble ourselves, and let its will become our will, we not only have success, but we have it without stress, without fatigue, joyously, knowing that it is the Father (the teachings of the I Ching, the Holy Man) that works through us. This is how we transform ourselves. In hexagram forty nine, we overturned the old, the old nature, the old man, the ego, and we transform ourselves in hexagram fifty into spiritual beings of light.