More on Hexagram Sixty Four

It is interesting, at least to me, that the commentary on hexagram sixty four is somewhat similar to the commentary in hexagram three. Sixty three's commentary says, "The conditions are difficult, The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than leading the world out of confusion and back to order." The commentary in three says, "Times of growth are beset with difficulties. They resemble a first birth. But these difficulties arise from the the very profusion of all that is struggling to take form." The reason for these similarities is that the book of changes is never completed. The lessons we are to learn from it are never completed. When we have gone through each hexagram and learn the lessons from that hexagram, we start over again on a higher level of understanding. This is a never ending process. This is a hard concept for us in the west to swallow. We tend to go to school, then to college, then maybe reach for a master's or even a doctor's degree, but then we think we are done. We think we have it all. Actually learning never begins until the formalities of a classroom and passed beyond. Then we get the real learning, the real life learning. That is a truer form of learning. In any true martial art, in any true form of qigong, in any true spiritual disciple, there is never an end of the levels in which we can learn. It is true that everything is based on the first level. Therefore, the very first lesson, that the dragon is hidden, in hexagram one line one, is true at all times and in all situations within the context with which the lesson is to be received. We are always on that first level. We must remember at all times that there truly is a "hidden dragon." And that dragon will burn us if we do not take the proper steps.

In the second lesson the dragon always "appears in the field." We must understand this, that the dragon is there. Whenever we first prepare, on any lesson, on any level, that the dragon is going to appear in the field. The field is the space part of the space time continuum, and the dragon is the fohatic energy that impregnates that space. I know these just seem like words without any meaning. But as we go deeper into the book we come to understand the meaning of those words. Without space there can be no time. Without the field there can be no dragon. Without yin there can be no yang. He who truly understands this could potentially rule the world. The commentary says, "Such a man is destined to gain great influence and to set the world in order." Since we see no meaning in these words we tend to pass them over, and find some way they can apply in a divination, but they never seem to apply to us. Yet we are the focus in every way in the book of changes. The Sage is the speaker who speaks to us. When the Sage speaks to us one way, then the Sage becomes "The great man who makes his appearance in his chosen field of activity. When we have learned our lessons fairly well, then the Sage is telling us that we ourselves are making our appearance. Our chosen field of activity is our own spiritual development. When we concern ourselves with this we imitate the Sage. Thus the image of hexagram forty two says, "When he sees good, (sees the Sage, hexagrams nineteen and twenty) he imitates it; If he has faults, he rids himself of them."

There is an ultimate goal here, that is the goal of all mankind, though most of us do not know it and therefore do not work toward it. The commentary on hexagram sixty four again tells us of the goal. "The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion back to order. But it is a task that promises success. because there is a goal that can unite the forces now tending in different directions." And here is the ultimate goal of all humanity, that of bringing order out of confusion. There is an element on the earth now that is working to create confusion in order to bring order, their order, out of chaos. These people will not stop at anything to gain complete control over humanity. This is not what I am talking about. I am talking about first bringing order in our own lives, When we bring order into our own lives we bring order into our world and then into the entire cosmos. This is the highest use of the I Ching. To create unity within ourselves, within our relationships, and within society. When we do this, society is effective, and as the commentary on hexagram fifty line three says, "If he would only see to it that he is possessed of something spiritual, the time will come, sooner or later, when the difficulties will be resolved, and all will go well."