شش خطی 45
گردهمایی، جمع‌آوری (Cui)

Gathering means assembly. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is lake , joyful, and below is earth , amenable: When one accords with others, they are joyful; so it is called gathering.

This hexagram represents gathering the medicines together; it follows on the previous hexagram parting. In parting, one parts from mundanity by celestial energy. The path of parting from mundanity is a task to be done after obtaining the elixir. Before the elixir is obtained, if not for the work of gathering together the medicines, the elixir will not form.

After people are born, habit estranges them from what is essentially near; they forget the original reality and pursue external artificiality. So their mind and spirit are unstable, their vitality and energy are dissipated. It is not possible to immediately recover and concentrate the dissipated vitality and energy; it is important to be obedient and act harmoniously, progressing gradually in an orderly manner, not deviating from the process, applying the will single-mindedly, the longer the stronger, so that what was lost may be naturally recovered, what has gone may be restored.

This is like a king coming to have a shrine for spirits. Ancestors are people’s roots; if they forget their roots, people are disrespectful and inhuman. When the king comes to have a shrine for spirits, this is how to let people know there is a basis to be grateful to. People’s original natural reality is like their ancestral roots: When people abandon reality and accept falsehood, that is like forgetting ancestral roots. If people can gather in their spirit and energy, cultivate essence and life, and restore the original natural reality, that is like not forgetting ancestral roots.

When the king does not forget ancestral roots, he can unite the hearts of the people in the land; when practitioners of the Tao do not forget the fundamental, they can gather the great medicines of essence and life. But this matter of not forgetting the fundamental requires a great person to carry it out; it cannot be done by lesser people who do not know essence and life. Therefore “it is beneficial to see a great person; this is developmental.”

A great person is one who corrects self and corrects others. Correcting oneself, there is no ego; spirit and energy do not dissipate, and rectitude becomes the self. Correcting others, there are no personalities; character and constitution are sublimated, and rectitude becomes people. Correcting self and correcting others, inwardly thoughts do not arise, and externals do not enter: Inside and out are one single rectitude—benevolence, justice, courtesy, and knowledge are all based on truthfulness. When the primordial is gathered together, essence is stabilized and life is solidified.

Indeed, the benefit of development by gathering what is right is no small matter. What heaven enjoins on humanity is rectitude alone, and it is only by rectitude that humanity can answer heaven. Responding to heaven with rectitude, not forgetting the fundamental, is like making a great sacrifice to offer to heaven; it will not fail to bring about good fortune.

But the way to make a great sacrifice and bring about good fortune cannot be accomplished simply by a moment of emptiness; it is necessary to tread the ground of reality step after step before one can achieve it. If you know but do not act on it, it is the same as not knowing—how can you then attain good fortune? So “it is beneficial to go somewhere.” The value of knowledge is only in its application.

Gathering is assembling. Above is lake , below is earth ; moisture rises onto the earth. When moisture is in the earth and rises onto the earth, everything on the earth is nurtured by it and flourishes. But there is a limit to water; it cannot always provide moisture for things. Sometimes things flourish, and sometimes they don't. This is the image of gathering.

What superior people see in this is that when practitioners of the Tao get to where the five elements are assembled and have been returned to the source, when everything acquired is obedient to their will, if they do not know how to prevent danger and take perils into consideration, eventually what has been gathered will again disperse, and they will not be able to avoid the trouble of losing what has been gained.

Therefore superior people prepare weapons to guard against the unexpected. "Weapons" means the tools of wisdom, the work of silent operation of spiritual awareness. When the primordial has been congealed, it is not subject to injury by acquired conditioning, but it is still necessary to dissolve the influences of personal history before nature and life can be stabilized. If there is any remaining contamination, eventually conditioning will reassert itself and the primordial will again become fragmented. Therefore this work of guarding is indispensible.

If one can prepare the weapons of wisdom to avoid being caught unawares, one will always have autonomous presence of mind, and the jewel of life will not be damaged. After a long time, the five elements will merge and sublimate, body and mind will both be refined, merging with the Tao in reality, becoming eternally incorruptible. So the process of preserving integration is important.