Seeds Falling to the Ground

In keeping with the concept of cycles we find a very blatant passage that discusses cycles clearly and with commitment. The commentary on hexagram twenty three tells us, "The light principle is invincible because in its sinking it creates new life." The dark forces, as always, tend to undermine the light force, not confronting the light force directly, but discreetly, until it splits it apart. However, the commentary on hexagram twenty three also tells us that "The light principle cannot be wholly split apart." While the dark undermines it, it cannot fully subjugate it because just as fruit must decay before new seed can develop, so to, the light principle as it sinks, like fruit, renews itself. This is an eternal principle. It can never be changed. (See hexagram thirty two.) The same principle is discussed Biblically with the story of a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying. It is also said that the early Church flourished by the blood of its martyrs. This is important to understand, that there is always a cycling of light and dark, high and low, prosperity and scantiness, good and evil. And we, when approaching the I Ching for our spiritual growth must decipher just where we are on the sine wave curve, and our proper action or non action based on the wavelength height and broadness that we are placed on. In this case it is said that "The superior man does nothing because the time has not yet come." In order to accomplish our will, or our duty, it is essential to understand when something can be undertaken and when it cannot. It is hubris and foolishness to at all times try to enforce our will.

In hexagram one we are told that "time is no longer a hindrance but the means of making actual what is potential." When we understand the signs of the times we can prepare properly, either with non action if it is called for, or action. But action must be based on what is right. Hexagram thirty four tells us that, "being intent on movement, we may not wait for the right time." If we act consciously and willfully, we act without the benefit of the highest principles. Hexagram twelve line four says, "He who acts at the command of the Highest remains without blame." In other words we must dispense with conscious will and forced action based on motives that are not pure, and do not come from the sanctity of a heart filled with love for the universe. We can make a lot happen for a while with conscious effort, but when we do so we become in synch with the dark force of hexagram twenty three that eventually undermines the light principle. We do not act at the command of the highest but from our own impure motives. Therefore, like the inferior man of hexagram twenty three line six, "Our house is split apart."

Sometimes we have to "wait for the rain" as in hexagram five. We are the small force of hexagram nine which can not produce the rain of its own, but when the six stages pass the rain comes in its own due time, not ours, and there is rest. If we try to force the issue we are "not plowing the field for its own sake," and we are "counting on the harvest" in contrast to the council given us in hexagram twenty five line two.

Finally, it is often when things seem their worst, when we "fall into the pit," as in hexagram five line six, or we "stray into a gloomy valley" that the "three uninvited guests arrive." (We receive help from spiritual sources.) Or "the man with the scarlet knee bands suddenly arrives." Things are not as they appear. It is only when we have full confidence in a power greater than ourselves, and yield (hexagram two) to that power that a light develops out of events, and we suddenly see the way. First comes the darkness, then the light,and as that is so, we should never despair.