New Class Enrollment: “Da You In-service Program for the Chinese Classics”
The top nine line of the Da YouHexagram states: “With both you and Heaven blessing yourself, there will be allgood fortune in every aspect.”
If we deliberately study thesequencing of the hexagrams of I Ching, we will come to find how intriguinglysignificant it is! The succession of thesixty-four hexagrams is based upon the inter-locking logic of inevitability,seamlessly developing from one to the next hexagram. For example, after the “Tai” Hexagram and the“Pi” Hexagram, closely follow the “Tong Ren” Hexagram and “Da You”Hexagram—having been through all the upheavals of “with the peaking of composurecomes the beginning of hardship,” we might contrarily sublimate our sufferingsto develop our own macro-perspectives that are in-built in the “Tong Ren”Hexagram and the “Da You” Hexagram.
If we interpret the Chinesecharacters “同人: Tong Ren” as “given that we are all humans, thereshould not be extreme inequalities.” Similarly, the Chinese characters “大有: Da You” can be interpreted as “no haste, everyone is going to have their share.” The “Tong Ren” Hexagram and the “Da You” Hexagram are both reverselycomplementary; the Chinese character “同: Tong” of the Tong Ren Hexagram, combined with the Chinese character “大: Da” of the Da You Hexagram, turn to be theso-called “大同, Da Tong: universal union, beingconflict-free.” As Confucius transcribessuch an ideal into the text, they turn to be the so-called “the world ispublic-shared” and “the world is free from conflicts.”
“同人: Tong Ren” means mutual assistance, while “大有: Da You” means being commonly shared. Professor Zeng told us: There is no shortcut to achieving the state of “Da You;” it is a gradually forming process,developing and accumulating from nothing to something, from little tomuch. Only through ceaselesslycontinuous efforts can you achieve the state of the top line of the Da YouHexagram: “自天祐之，吉无不利: with both you and Heaven blessingyourself, there will be all good fortune in every aspect.” The Chinese character “自: self” in the quote refers to yourself,connotatively meaning ceaselessly independent efforts.
For everyone, to be lucky andprosperous in life is exactly a common wish, and the best thing is we caneventually get all we want. However,there are prerequisites for obtaining good fortune; since the ancient times, IChing has already revealed to us the right method, that is, “only you andHeaven can bless yourself.” As youyourself are willing to work hard, so will Heaven assist you. Only by diligently learning, constantlyimproving yourself so as to re-create your own destiny, can it then be possiblefor you to travel all the way with happiness, and make good luck yourcompanion.
The earlier we start to study IChing, the earlier we can obtain the key to wisdom. From the figures of the hexagrams, we canobserve the developing of the phenomena; from the numerology of the hexagrams,we can predict the regularity of change; from the cosmic principles of thehexagrams, we can gain the insights about how to cope with the externalevents—such a chain-correlated pattern of the figures, the numerology and thecosmic principles can best help us develop our systematic thinking, and broadenour own perspectives and scope. Practicethe teachings of I Ching, we will get to where we want to be!
