شش خطی 8
همبستگی، اتحاد (Bi)

Accord has the meaning of association with one another and learning from one another. In the body of the hexagram, one yang dwells in the place of honor, while the five yins above and below all follow it accordingly. Also, the quality of the hexagram is obedience by which to get through danger; therefore it is called accord.

This hexagram, representing yin following yang, follows on the previous hexagram contention. In contention, yin does not obey yang, but instead overthrows yang; yin and yang are at odds, the five elements injure each other, harming their reality, therefore ending in calamity. If you know this is wrong and cultivate the reverse, yin does not overthrow yang but submits to yang; yin and yang harmonize, the five elements are one energy, essence is stable and life is solid. This is the path of making the wrong accord with the right, making the artificial accord with the real.

What is auspicious about accord is that it is good to accord with what is right and what is real, and nothing is more important than to accord with the basis of true reality. The basis here is the primordial positive energy, trapped in the palace of water . This energy is produced by heaven, and so is called the vitality of the true one, the water of the true one, and the energy of the true one. This is the basic energy that produces things.

In human beings, this energy is basic humanity, which is the reality in which yin and yang are united. But this basic energy, falling into yin, is covered up by acquired conditioning. It is easy to lose and hard to find; if you are not utterly empty and calmly attentive, with your mind steadfast and your will firm, you cannot recover it. That is why one can only be free from error if one investigates and ascertains the basis that is always right.

If one is always correct, under that correctness rises the basic energy, and once the basic energy is restored, yin energy submits to it; then this is the original flawless undamaged integral pattern of nature, which is impeccable, the complete original basis. The classic The Way and Its Power says, “Effecting utter emptiness, maintaining calm attention, as myriad things act in concert, I thereby watch the return.” The Spring Suffusing the Garden says, “The seven-times restored elixir is in people—first you should refine the mind and await the time.”

The way to be always correct is to become empty and keep quiet, to refine the mind. If you do not refine the mind thoroughly, the true yin within yourself will not become manifest; if you do not become thoroughly empty and quiet, the external true yang will not come.

If you want to conquer feeling, first conquer essence; “then the uneasy will come.” This is whereby to refine the mind and wait for the time, to seek restoration. In the word uneasy are various processes, like adjustment according to the time, and warding off danger. This explains the meaning of “always right.”

If I am uneasy and the other then comes, this is what is referred to by the saying “If you want to get, first you must give.” First giving means following the other’s wish, making oneself accord with the other, thereby to get the other’s pleasure. Afterward getting means that sincerity can move people; others come and accord with oneself, whereby one can take their living energy.

When before and after are clear, and other people and oneself are all taken care of, then the restored elixir can be crystallized. Otherwise, if one cannot first give, and idly imagines others will come, what should be first is put after, and what should be after is put first, reversing the accord. This is called acquired conditioning. As it is said, if ordinary people want to seek heaven, when they seek it they need worldly goods; if they give little and withhold much, the spirits and immortals will not come, and they are sure to have bad luck. How can they effect good fortune and realize the Tao?

Accord means familiarity, association, closeness. Above is water , below is earth ; water provides moisture without bound. This is the presence of water on the earth. Water is that which provides myriad things and beings with nutritive moisture; water travels on the earth, flowing without obstruction, the earth is boundless. This is the image of accord.

What the ancient kings saw in this was that the world is vast, and there is a limit to the exercise of government by one person, so that one person cannot associate familiarly with everyone. Therefore they established myriad realms and delegated representatives, instituting a system whereby the representatives came to court so that the king would be familiar with the representatives, and in turn had the representatives become familiar with the people of their realms. In this way government was able to reach where it otherwise could not, and be close to people who were far away and could not be otherwise approached. In other words, it was a matter of familiarity and association with the multitudes of people through familiarity and association with the representatives of government.

When practitioners of the Tao understand the principles of yin and yang, the earthly and the celestial, the five elements of vitality, spirit, nature, feeling, and energy, and the five virtues of benevolence, justice, courtesy, knowledge, and truthfulness, and cause them to dwell in their proper positions, this is like setting up realms and establishing government representatives. When yin and yang are harmonized, the five elements are a unified force and the five virtues are combined; this is like association with the representatives. When the five elements are united and the five virtues conjoined, all entanglements dissolve and all that is good reaches the same goal; this is like association with the people through association with the representatives.

In the body of the hexagram, the yang in the center of water is in the honored position of correct balance; this represents the mind of Tao, consciousness of reality. When the mind of Tao is manifest, benevolence, justice, courtesy, and knowledge are rooted in the heart, the tangle of myriad principles is integrated fully into the celestial design; the sprouts of living potential grow and fill the world, the golden flowers of spiritual energy bloom—you may gather them freely, they are spiritual medicines. This is like water flowing on the earth, reaching everywhere. The kings of yore associated with their representatives, practitioners of the Tao associate with all that is good—the principle is the same.