I Ching and the Human Body 2014 Class One Part 4
#29 The Abysmal/Water (Mastering Pitfalls)

 

Fountain, Rome.

 

 

March 2014 Class One - Part 4 - Hexagram #29: Please study this page with Audio Lecture - ICHB1P1Part4.MP3

 

 

 

Hexagram #29, The Abysmal/Water is one of the four "eternal" hexagrams in that is applies to all situations. From this perspective it is termed Mastering Pitfalls. Please see my article, The Four Eternal Hexagrams and the Shambhala Path of the Warrior.

 

 

#29 K’AN. The Abysmal [Water]
Mastering Pitfalls – One of the four timeless hexagrams; restoring the celestial within the mundane. Gorge. Dangerous place, hole, cavity, hollow pit, snare, trap, grave, precipice, critical time, test, risky. A dangerous situation you cannot avoid; take the risk without reserve. Ideogram: earth and pit. Gorge is the stream trigram doubled and includes stream's attributes: flowing water, dissolving, river tide flood.

 

 

 

 

 

From The Taoist I Ching: This hexagram represents the presence of white within black, restoring yang within yin... In human beings, after heaven and earth interact, the one point of original yang runs to the palace of earth; earth is filled in and becomes water, and heaven changes into fire. At this point yin traps the yang; the celestial root is obscured and mind gets involved in things. Though near to reality by nature, people become estranged from it by habit - descending lower and lower by daily repetition of habit, they fall into a state of ignorant obstinacy and do not know how to stop.

 

Getting out of danger requires that one believe it is dangerous - belief rules the mind. If one can believe in the danger, then one will not be seduced by external things. Practicing good, one can then be good; as it is said, once you reform, it is the same as if you were originally thus... Believing there is danger requires one to practice so as to get out of danger; believing but not practicing is like not believing. Once one can believe and practice one improves daily with daily practice, rising from lowliness to loftiness, gradually learning a state of exalted illumination. (Page 123-124.)

Greed (or desire) in people is like water. With random thoughts arising in profusion, abandoning the real and getting into the false, going along with the wind arousing waves, sinking into debasement, is like water flowing downward.

Irascibility in people is like fire. Becoming contentious and aggressive when provoked, aggrandizing oneself, and acting willfully without restraint, is like the flaming up of fire. (Page 316.)

 

 

The Judgment

The Abysmal repeated.
If you are sincere, you have success in your heart,
And Whatever you do succeeds.

Repeating Gorge.
Possessing conformity.
Holding-fast the heart Growing.
Movement possesses honor.

 

From The Taoist I Ching: It may also happen that while you are reading books or reciting poetry, personal desires suddenly vanish and a unified awareness is alone present - this too is one aspect of the arising of yang.

Also, sometimes when friends gather and talk, they reach a communion of the inner mind, and suddenly yang energy soars up and the true potential bursts forth - this is also one way in which yang arises.

Furthermore, even when playing music, playing games, writing, drawing, fishing, cutting wood, plowing fields, reading books, if you can harmonize spontaneously based on the natural essence, without seeking or desiring anything, there will be a serenity and contentment, clearing the mind so that you will forget about feelings - this is in each case a form or arising of yang.

What is essential is to become immediately aware of the movement of yang energy and to gather it in as soon as you become aware of it, so that the spirit is not attracted by externals. (Page 15-16.)

Homework ideas:

1. Recognize the experience of pitfall and how your sincerity is called to emerge from such experiences, and how sincerity carries you through them. If you choose, write about such an experience.

2. Notice situations in which unified yang energy arises. Be sure and go along with the arising. If you choose, write about such experiences.

3. Recognize situations that discourage the arising of unified yang energy, or ones that dissipate it. If you choose, write about such experiences.
 

PS: Why the past is associated with #29 The Abysmal/Water (I found this quote as I surveyed the life and work of Meher Baba- Bill):

There are very few things in the mind which eat up as much energy as worry. It is one of the most difficult things not to worry about anything. Worry is experienced when things go wrong, but in relation to past happenings it is idle merely to wish that they might have been otherwise. The frozen past is what it is, and no amount of worrying is going to make it other than what it has been. But the limited ego-mind identifies itself with its past, gets entangled with it and keeps alive the pangs of frustrated desires. Thus worry continues to grow into the mental life of man until the ego-mind is burdened by the past. Worry is also experienced in relation to the future when this future is expected to be disagreeable in some way. In this case it seeks to justify itself as a necessary part of the attempt to prepare for coping with the anticipated situations. But, things can never be helped merely by worrying. Besides, many of the things which are anticipated never turn up, or if they do occur, they turn out to be much more acceptable than they were expected to be. Worry is the product of feverish imagination working under the stimulus of desires. It is a living through of sufferings which are mostly our own creation. Worry has never done anyone any good, and it is very much worse than mere dissipation of psychic energy, for it substantially curtails the joy and fullness of life. - Meher Baba

 

 

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VTY Class Materials and
Other Information:

1. I Ching and the Human Body: Introduction

2. TRIBE (Class Roster)
3. Hexagram Titles Etymology

4. The Hexagram
5. Table of Contents of all classes

The classic "Wilhelm/Baynes" I Ching, the foundational text of our course.

 

 

This class is based primarily on the I Ching, as both an ancient and contemporary system of wisdom that is found within the human body. (See last year's class, I Ching and the Human Body, for more illustrations and information.)

 

 

 

Use of the I Ching and practices of yoga and meditation are all ways of "invoking drala" or the spirit of guidance. Cultivating both courage and sensitivity to life attracts the drala or blessing that is universally available.
 

 

Texts

 

Over the course of the year, along with the Wilhelm/Baynes I Ching, these texts and others will be introduced. Purchasing them is optional, based on the degree of study you wish to pursue and your own predilection for translations you are drawn to.

 

 

The Taoist I Ching, translated by Thomas Cleary.

 

 

Tiger and Dragon I Ching, by Rowena Patee Kryder.
 

 

 

I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change. Translated by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher.
 

 

 

Gene Keys by Richard Rudd.