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Joy58
Embrace joy and communicate openly. Positive interactions and shared enthusiasm strengthen bonds and cultivate happiness.
↓ Line 6
Joy that is based on seduction or manipulation is not true joy and can lead to problems.
↓ Treading 10
Careful progress ensures safety; walk with awareness and integrity.
Original Readings
58 Joy
Other titles: The Joyous, Joyousness, Pleased Satisfaction, Encouraging, Delight, Open, Usurpation, Self-indulgence, Pleasure, Cheerfulness, Frivolity, Callow Optimism
Judgment
Legge:Joy intimates that under its conditions there will be progress and attainment, but it will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Joyous. Success. Perseverance is favorable.
Blofeld: Joy -- success! Persistence in a righteous course brings reward.
Liu: Joyousness. Success. Continuance is favorable.
Ritsema/Karcher:Open, Growing. Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of interaction and exchange. It emphasizes that stimulating things through cheering and persuasive speech, the action of Open, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: stimulate!]
Shaughnessy:Usurpation: Receipt; a little beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): Joy is developmental, beneficial if correct. [This hexagram represents joy in practicing the Tao. Having one’s will in the Tao is finding joy in the Tao; when one delights in the Tao, then one can practice the Tao. This is why Joy is developmental.]
Cleary (2):Delight comes through, beneficial if correct.
Wu:Joy indicates pervasiveness. It is advantageous to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: Two images of the waters of a marsh, one over the other, form Joy. The superior man, in accordance with this, encourages the conversation of friends and the stimulus of their common practice.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Lakes resting one on the other: the image of The Joyous. Thus the superior man joins with his friends for discussion and practice.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes two bodies of water conjoined. The Superior Man joins his friends in discussions and in practicing the various arts and virtues.
Liu: The beautiful lakes symbolize Joyousness. The superior man joins his fellows for teaching and study.
Ritsema/Karcher: Congregating marshes. Open. A chun tzu uses partnering friends to explicate repeating.
Cleary (1): Joined lakes are joyful. Thus do superior people explain and practice with companions. [As water provides moisture for myriad beings, joy develops myriad beings; joyful within and without, reaching the outer from within, communicating with the inner from without, inside and outside are conjoined, without separation between them – therefore it is called joy.]
Cleary (2): ... Thus do developed people study and practice with companions.
Wu: One marsh is adjacent to another; this is Joy. Thus the jun zi discusses and exchanges ideas with friends.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Joy has the meaning of Pleased Satisfaction. We have the dynamic lines in the center and the magnetic lines on the outer edge of the two trigrams, indicating that in pleasure what is most advantageous is the maintenance of firm correctness. Through this there will be found an accordance with the will of heaven, and a correspondence with the feelings of men. When such pleasure goes before the people, and leads them on, they forget their toils; when it animates them in encountering difficulties, they forget the risk of death. How great is the power of this Pleased Satisfaction, stimulating in such a way the people!
Legge: The feeling of pleasure is the subject of this hexagram, which is made up of the doubled trigram of Cheerfulness, or Pleased Satisfaction. The progress and attainment of the figure are due to the one magnetic line surmounting each trigram and supported by the two dynamic lines. The idea is that of mildness which is energized by a double portion of strength.
The pleasure which leads the people to endure toil and risk death is the effect of the instructive example of their ruler. Fu Fan-hsien paraphrases this portion of the text as: "When the sage with this precedes them, he can make them endure toil without any wish to decline it, and go with him into difficulty and danger without their having any fear."
Anthony: This hexagram speaks, on the one hand, of that on which true joy depends, and on the other, of joy as desire, which leads to conflict. The essence of true joy is inner stability. Being firmly devoted to our path, we do not waver. When we think of the soft and comfortable path, on the other hand, self-conflict begins. Therefore, getting this hexagram indicates that we may be wavering or irresolute.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: A cheerful attitude serves the will.
The Superior Man shares his thoughts and feelings. [Or, psychologically interpreted: observes, weighs and integrates his thoughts with his feelings.]
The title of this hexagram denotes joyousness and pleasure, and most people regard it as a good omen when they receive it. Yet, an analysis of the lines indicates that only the first two are particularly favorable, and the hexagram itself seldom seems to refer to anything remotely resembling “Joy” in a typical oracle consultation. The lessons to be learned from the figure are the differences between self-indulgence and maintaining emotional stability in one's conduct of the Work, which always demands a firm control over one’s affects. To receive this hexagram without changing lines requires the querent's careful discrimination -- it can mean simply: "Oh happy day!" Or, it can suggest that you examine an inclination toward lack of control in the situation at hand. The oracle is capable of brutal sarcasm when your query warrants it, so don't be too quick to accept the shallow meaning ofJoy – as often as not, Self-indulgence is the more appropriate title.
In light frivolity, the center is lost; in hasty action, self-mastery is lost. Lao Tse
The Image depicts an open interchange among “friends.” Intrapsychically, this suggests the normal give and take between thoughts and feelings for the purpose of reaching integration. The symbol of “two bodies of water conjoined” (Blofeld) might refer to the adjacent dimensions of thought and emotion within the psyche. When feelings are not in harmony with intellectual differentiation (a common phenomenon), give and take (“discussion and practice”), is essential to effect integration: i.e., harmony, or “joy.”"Practice" suggests cycles of time, and the notion that perfection is still to be achieved.
Shaughnessy’s seemingly anomalous title of Usurpation for this hexagram offers some subtle insights into the symbolism here. Emotions, feelings, affects, are often portrayed as daemonic forces which “usurp” ego consciousness and indulge themselves in the “joy” of expressing whatever they happen to represent in the psyche. This is often what is implied when receiving this hexagram.
Each of us is equipped with a psychic disposition that limits our freedom in high degree and makes it practically illusory. Not only is "freedom of the will" an incalculable problem philosophically, it is also a misnomer in the practical sense, for we seldom find anybody who is not influenced and indeed dominated by desires, habits, impulses, prejudices, resentments, and by every conceivable kind of complex. All these natural facts function exactly like an Olympus full of deities who want to be propitiated, served, feared and worshipped, not only by the individual owner of this assorted pantheon, but by everybody in his vicinity. Jung -- Psychology and Religion
Cleary’s Taoist commentary: “As water provides moisture for myriad beings, etc.,” supports this interpretation. Water symbolizes the emotional realm, and the “myriad beings” dwelling therein are emotional entities: creatures like untamed animals, which are never happier than when running free. To them it’s Joy; to the executive function in the psyche, it’s Self-indulgence. Usurpation has taken place.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows the pleasure of its subject in leading and attracting others.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Seductive joyousness.
Blofeld: Joy in the form of allurement. [This suggests the superficial joy offered by attractions that would make no appeal to the Superior Man.]
Liu: Enticing joyousness.
Ritsema/Karcher: Protracting Opening.
Shaughnessy: Shadowyusurpation.
Cleary (1): Induced joy.
Cleary (2): Induced delight.
Wu: He attracts others to enjoy life.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her virtue is not yet brilliant. Wilhelm/Baynes: Line six is not bright. Blofeld: This sort of joy is experienced by the unenlightened. Ritsema/ Karcher: Not-yet shining indeed. Cleary (2): Induced delight is not enlightened.
Wu: “ He attracts others to enjoy life,” but his action is reproachable.
Legge: The symbolism of line six is akin to that of three. Line three attracts others around herself for the sake of pleasure; the subject of this line leads them to follow herself in quest of it. The action of the hexagram should culminate and end in line five, but the subject has not yet understood the willpower by which the love of pleasure should be controlled.
Anthony: If we are irresolute, the pressures that vanity exerts in the form of self-pity, impatience, restlessness or desire, may cause us to stray from our path. Such impulses, if not firmly resisted, will take over, at least temporarily. Of all evils, vanity is the most seductive, therefore the most dangerous.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Vanity in his leadership causes the man to become dependent upon external conditions and chances for satisfaction.
Wing: You are totally given over to external conditions. Your sense of well-being springs not from within, but from what satisfaction you can find in the outside world. Because of this you are subject to the mercy of chance and the fates of others.
Editor: Blofeld renders the line as: "Joy in the form of allurement.” Wilhelm uses the concept of "seduction" to illustrate the idea, and Liu says: "enticement." Shaughnessy’s“shadowy usurpation” suggests a kind of demonic possession, and sometimes this interpretation feels more accurate than any of the others. It is instructive to note that Wilhelm's commentary on this line states that the seduction refers to the situation confronting the querent rather than the querent's attitude per se: "It rests with him whether he will let himself be seduced." Intrapsychically, you are being self-indulgent toward an inferior impulse or emotion.
For every one is in the joy of his heart when he is in his ruling love; and so, on the other hand, he is in anguish of heart when he is withheld from it. This is the common torment of hell, out of which innumerable others arise. Swedenborg – Apocalypse Explained
A. You are being tempted by base desires or illusions.
B. Some sort of self-indulgence or “shadowy usurpation” is indicated.
10 Treading
Other titles: Treading, Conduct, The Symbol of Stepping Carefully, Proper Conduct, Cautious Treading, Proceeding Cautiously, Watch Your Step, Proceed at Your Own Risk, Advancing With Care "Illustrates the difference between courage and foolhardiness." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Cautious Advance suggests the idea of one treading on the tail of a tiger, which does not bite him. There will be progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Treading . Treading upon the tail of the tiger. It does not bite the man. Success. [For the weak to take a stand against the strong is not dangerous here, because it happens in good humor and without presumption, so that the strong man is not irritated but takes it all in good part. Such simplicity and unpretentiousness is faith derived from reality -- neither from love of happiness nor fear of unhappiness, but free of fear and hope. The concern here is with the art of action by means of proper conduct, and presupposes being childlike in its highest sense.]
Blofeld: Though he treads upon the tiger's tail, it does not bite him. Success! [The general idea of this hexagram is that success can be won, but that the situation is dangerous enough to require extreme caution. The `tiger' MAY not bite, but on the other hand, as lines three and five demonstrate, we cannot be certain of this. To consort with rulers and people in high places may be most beneficial; but, should we fail to please, they may make us regret our temerity.]
Liu: Treading: Stepping on the tail of a tiger, but it does not bite one. Success. [You should act only after you have planned carefully, and then with resolution.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Treading a tiger tail. Not snapping-at people. Growing.
[This hexagram describes your situation in terms of finding and making your way. It emphasizes that doing this step by step is the adequate way to handle it.]
Shaughnessy: Treading on a tiger's tail; not a real man; receipt.
Cleary (1): Even when they tread on a tiger’s tail, it doesn’t bite people. This is developmental.
Cleary (2): Someone treads on a tiger’s tail without being bitten, thus getting through.
Wu:Treading after a tiger without being bitten indicates pervasion.
The Image
Legge: The image of the sky above, and below it the waters of a marsh, formCautious Advance. The superior man, in accordance with this, discriminates between high and low, and gives settlement to the aims of the people.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven above, the lake below: the image of Treading. Thus the superior man discriminates between high and low, and thereby fortifies the thinking of the people. (Thus the superior man creates in society the differences in rank that correspond with differences in natural endowment, and in this way fortifies the thinking of the people, who are reassured when these differences accord with nature ... We see a universe moved from within, without external manipulation. Since the universe is also within the human being, internal universal order leads to order without by the force of necessary differentiation.) [Cf. the ideal society in Plato’s Republic.]
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a body of water lying open to the sky. The Superior Man consults both high and low and thereby steadies the people's will.
Liu: The heaven above and the lake below symbolize Treading. The superior man differentiates between high and low, and thus fixes the minds of the people.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven above, marsh below. Treading. A chun tzu uses differentiating Above and Below. A chun tzu uses setting-right the commoners, the purpose.
Cleary (1): Above is the sky, below is a lake: Treading. Thus do superior people distinguish above and below, and settle the will of the people.
Cleary (2): … Leaders stabilize the wills of the people by distinguishing positions.
Wu: Heaven above and marshes below, this is Treading. Thus the jun zi discriminates various levels of governmental services and sets the goals of the people.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Cautious Advance we have the symbol of Weakness treading on that of Strength. The lower trigram indicates Pleasure and Satisfaction, and responds to the upper indicating Strength. Hence it is said, "He treads on the tail of a tiger." The fifth line is dynamic, in the center, and in his correct place. He occupies the God-given position, and falls into no distress or failure -- his action will be brilliant.
Legge: Cautious Advance is made up of the lower trigram of Pleased Satisfaction or "Naiveté," and the upper trigram of Heaven, or Primal Power. Being situated below the great symbol of Strength, Naiveté is seen to be stepping on a tiger's tail. To emerge unscathed from such a danger depends entirely upon propriety and a strict observance of all the rules of correct behavior. On these, as so many stepping stones, one may tread safely amid scenes of disorder and peril.
The symbol of weakness, according to Wang Shen-tzu is the third line which is urged on by the two lines below it to encounter the three strong lines above. Other commentators say that the whole lower trigram, partaking of the yin nature, is the symbol of weakness, and the entire upper trigram is symbolic of strength. The Chen-Chung editors say that to get the full meaning, we must hold both views.
Ch'eng-tzu says of the Image: "The sky above and a marsh lying
below it is true in nature and reason, and so should be the rules of propriety
on which men tread."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: A cautious advance in the face of potentially volatile conditions will lead to safety.
The Superior Man orders his priorities realistically and gets a grip on himself.
Cautious Advance depicts the lower trigram of the joyful Youngest Daughter stepping on the heels of the upper trigram of Heaven -- the stern Pater Familias: Yahweh Saboath, or Zeus with his thunderbolt. In her innocence she doesn't realize the danger of her action. This is "treading on the tail of the tiger," and the hexagram teaches us how to do this without being bitten. The original Judgment suggests that superior powers realize the innocent intent of the action, and may be inclined to be lenient.
You should not resist fate,
nor need you escape it;
if you go to meet it,
it will guide you pleasantly.
Goethe
Wilhelm's notes on The Image illustrate the undemocratic truth that although all men are created equal in the eyes of God, every human being possesses clearly differentiated strengths, weaknesses, talents and incapacities. In Lectures on the I Ching, he says:
The secret of proper conduct is in inequality. Uniformity alone cannot give rise to proper conduct. To be sure, uniformity might produce rule and regulation or law and force. But tedious force and brutal law never led people to convictions that legitimately resulted in proper conduct (the term includes that which produces proper conduct and proper conduct achieved). Instead, as Confucius said: "Force produces only alienation and people transgress secretly that which is public regulation."
Cautious Advance often images a test situation, or it can be a warning that you are walking on the edge of a precipice. The image of The Fool in the tarot deck has similar associations. Without changing lines, this hexagram implies a need for extreme caution, or that your actions are tempting fate.
The passions, instead of having to be painfully exterminated, are yoked like snarling tigers to the adept’s carriage. The dangers of such a course are obvious. As one of my Lama teachers put it: "While you were traveling in that cart, a tumble would have done you little harm. Now I have given you an airplane. Don't crash in flames!" J. Blofeld -- The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet