A Strong and Good Friend

Hexagram twenty four line four speaks of a person who finds themselves in an "inferior society." They do however, have a strong and good friend. In society many times we find ourselves surrounded by people who do not harmonize with us for whatever reason. As hexagram eleven line two says, we "bear with the uncultured." Not everyone was meant to be our friends. There are times in life when we have to choose who we are naturally drawn to and who we are not. Hexagram sixty one speaks of the natural tendency for those who belong together to find each other. Hexagram forty five has an element of this also. When we do not seem to fit in with our surroundings, it can be a lonely situation. We feel like the wanderer in hexagram fifty six who has no close circle of friends. We must be very accommodating and humble. Sometimes this can be a delicate situation.

But if we can only remember that we do truly have a strong and good friend, that being our own higher selves. When we recognize this, as the commentary on hexagram twenty four line four says, "We turn back alone." The world and all its comforts are not quite so meaningful to us. We realize that while we are a "wanderer" we are not truly alone. We go to that which supports us. We go to our own higher self. Therefore, though we are alone in the world, we are not concerned. While still in the world, we are no longer of it. We no longer enjoy the "lower pleasures" of hexagram fifty eight line four, but find pleasure in the higher forms of "joyousness." We no longer find ourselves "associating with inferior people in whose company we are tempted by pleasures that are inappropriate for the superior man" (hexagram fifty eight line two). But we find pleasure in the true company of our own higher self, who teaches us the way, the tao, of true life and happiness. There is no greater happiness than to know we have "unity" with the source of all wisdom and knowledge, oneness with the creator of all, our own higher selves.