August 4, 2010
- The I Ching on How to Avoid Evil (in your actions) -
Hexagram 25
Wu Wang – Innocence (The Unexpected)
Ch’ien, heaven is above; Chên, movement, is below. The lower trigram Chên is under the influence of the strong line it has received form above, from heaven. When, in accord with this, movement follows the law of heaven, man is innocent and without guile. His mind is natural and true, unshadowed by reflection or ulterior designs. For wherever conscious purpose is to be seen, there the truth and innocence of nature have been lost. Nature that is not directed by the spirit is not true but degenerate nature. Starting out with the idea of the natural, the train of thought in part goes somewhat further and thus the hexagram includes also the idea of the fundamental or unexpected.
THE JUDGEMENT
INNOCENCE. Supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
If someone is not as he should be,
He has misfortune,
And it does not further him
To undertake anything.
Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that leads him to do right with instinctive sureness and without any ulterior thought of reward and personal advantage. This instinctive certainty brings about supreme success and “furthers through perseverance”. However, not everything instinctive is nature in this higher sense of the word, but only that which is right and in accord with the will of heaven. Without this quality of rightness, an unreflecting, instinctive way of acting brings only misfortune. Confucius says about this: “He who departs from innocence, what does he come to? Heaven’s will and blessing do not go with his deeds.”
THE IMAGE
Under heaven thunder rolls:
All things attain the natural state of innocence.
Thus the kings of old,
Rich in virtue, and in harmony with the time,
Fostered and nourished all beings.
In springtime when thunder, life energy, begins to move again under the heavens, everything sprouts and grows, and all beings receive for the creative activity of nature the childlike innocence of their original state. So it is with the good rulers of mankind: drawing on the spiritual wealth at their command, they take care of all forms of life and all forms of culture and do everything to further them, and at the proper time.
See also:
“Perhaps there is no inclination to turn inward. Let it be. Just watch. The power of attention more and more can fill the body. Everything we need is here in us. Everything for fuller being. There is a kind of sacred descent of attention that can bring this about. Seeing the obstacles, thoughts, feelings, yes, perhaps a pressure that keeps me from it. But if I can relax inside, just allow the pure attention to flow in, be in that. Very natural. It is what we are. Attention: a sacred energy coming into me. Be sensitive to it. Recognize again and again that it is there. When the attention is with this other energy permeating me, very concentrated yet very light, free, wishing nothing, needing nothing, everything opens to this: the head, the heart. The only discovery is this energy. When this energy is there and I am sure of it, aware of it moment by moment, I begin to be.”
Comment by Ian — August 4, 2010 @ 10:41 am
This says It, brother!
Comment by Donn — August 4, 2010 @ 11:22 am
yeah, I posted this and then read your previous comment. Cracked me up how much they had in common.
Check the link, if you haven’t already, for more (and the source of the quote).
Comment by Ian — August 4, 2010 @ 11:46 am
Wow! The other excerpt is just as awesome! My practice for the last few months has been Centering Prayer, and those quotes describe things quite well! Thanks for sharing all this, but you’re another reason why my reading list never gets any smaller? :D
Comment by Donn — August 4, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
great, definitely check out the book. Since you have a zen background too, I’d recommend anything by William Segal, who combines the Gurdjieff stuff with Zen pretty neatly. I think you’d dig it. :)
(though I hate to increase your reading list even MORE)
Its funny you see this lining up with Centered Prayer, since Gurdjieff called his way of doing things a kind of “esoteric Christianity”.
Comment by Ian — August 4, 2010 @ 2:33 pm