Merck MRK under CEO Kenneth Frazier (reelected)

 

HEXAGRAM 52 – Ken – Keeping Still, Mountain

Above    KEN    KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

Below    KEN    KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

The image of this hexagram is the mountain,

the youngest son of

• heaven and
  
• earth.
  

The male principle is at the top,

• because it strives upward by nature;
  

the female principle is below,

• since the direction of its movement is downward.
  

Thus

there is rest

• because the movement has come to its normal end.
  

In its application to man, the hexagram turns upon

the problem of achieving a quiet heart.

It is very difficult to bring quiet to the heart.

While Buddhism strives for

• rest through an ebbing away of all movement in nirvana,
  

the Book of Changes holds that

• rest is merely a state of polarity that always posits
  

  movement as its complement.
  

Possibly the words of the text embody directions for the practice of yoga.

THE JUDGMENT

KEEPING STILL.

Keeping his back still

So that he no longer feels his body.

He

• goes into his courtyard And
  
• does not see his people.
  

No blame.

True quiet means

• keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and
  
• going forward when the time has come to go forward.
  

In this way

• rest and movement are in agreement with the demands of the time,
  

and thus

• there is light in life.
  

The hexagram signifies the end and the beginning of all movement.

The back is named because in the back are located

all the nerve fibers that mediate movement.

If

• the movement of those spinal nerves is brought to a standstill,
  
• the ego, with its restlessness, disappears as it were.
  

When

a man has thus become calm,

he may turn to the outside world.

• He no longer sees in it the struggle and tumult of individual beings,
  

and therefore

• he has that true peace of mind which is needed
  
  • for understanding the great laws of the universe and
    
  • for action, in harmony with them.
    

Whoever

• acts from these deep levels
  
• makes no mistakes.
  

THE IMAGE

Mountains standing close together: The image of KEEPING STILL.

Thus the superior man

Does not permit his thoughts To go beyond his situation.

1The heart thinks constantly.

This cannot be changed,

but the movements of the heart – that is,

a man’s thoughts –

should restrict themselves to the immediate situation.

All thinking that goes beyond this only makes the heart sore.

THE LINES

Six at the beginning means:

Keeping his toes still.

No blame.

Continued perseverance furthers.

Keeping the toes still means halting before one has even begun to move.

The beginning is the time of few mistakes.

At that time

one is still in harmony with primal innocence.

Not yet influenced by obscuring interests and desires,

one sees things intuitively as they really are.

A man who halts at the beginning,

so long as he has not yet abandoned truth,

finds the right way.

But

persisting firmness is needed to keep one from drifting irresolutely.

Six in the fourth place means:

Keeping his trunk still.

No blame.

As has been pointed out above in the comment on the Judgment,

keeping the back at rest means forgetting the ego.

This is the highest stage of rest.

Here

this stage has not yet been reached:

the individual in this instance,

though able to keep the ego, with its thoughts and impulses, in a state of rest,

is not yet quite liberated from its dominance.

Nonetheless,

keeping the heart at rest

is an important function,

leading in the end to the complete elimination of egotistic drives.

Even though at this point

one does not yet remain free from all the dangers of doubt and unrest,

this frame of mind is not a mistake,

as it leads ultimately to that other, higher level.

MOVING HEXAGRAM

HEXAGRAM 30 – Li – THE CLINGING, FIRE

Above    LI    THE CLINGING, FIRE

Below    LI    THE CLINGING, FIRE

This hexagram is another double sign.

The trigram Li means

• ¨to cling to something,”
  
• “to be conditioned,
  
• to depend or rest on something,” and also
  
• “brightness”.
  

A dark line clings to two light lines,

• one above and
  
• one below –
  

the image of an empty space between two strong lines,

whereby the two strong lines are made bright.

The trigram represents the middle daughter.

The Creative has incorporated the central line of the Receptive, and thus

Li develops.

As an image, it is fire.

Fire

• has no definite form but
  
• clings to the burning object and thus
  

is bright.

As water pours down from heaven,

so fire flames up from the earth.

• While K’an means the soul shut within the body,
  
• Li stands for nature in its radiance.
  

THE JUDGMENT

THE CLINGING.

Perseverance furthers.

It brings success.

Care of the cow brings good fortune.

What is dark clings

• to what is light and so
  
• enhances the brightness of the latter.
  

A luminous thing giving out light

must have within itself something that perseveres; otherwise

it will in time burn itself out.

Everything that

gives light

is dependent on something to which it clings,

in order that it may continue to shine.

Thus

• sun and moon cling to heaven, and
  
• grain, grass, and trees cling to the earth.
  

So too

the twofold clarity of the dedicated man

• clings to what is right and thereby
  
• can shape the world.
  

Human life on earth is conditioned and unfree, and,

when man

• recognizes this limitation and
  
• makes himself dependent upon the harmonious and beneficent forces of the cosmos,
  

he achieves success.

The cow is the symbol of extreme docility.

By cultivating in himself an attitude of

• compliance and
  
• voluntary dependence,
  

man

• acquires clarity without sharpness and
  
• finds his place in the world. 1
  

THE IMAGE

That which is bright rises twice: The image of FIRE.

Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness,

Illumines the four quarters of the world.

Each of the two trigrams represents the sun in the course of a day.

The two together represent the repeated movement of the sun,

the function of light with respect to time.

The great man continues the work of nature in the human world.

Through the clarity of his nature

he causes the light

• to spread farther and farther and
  
• to penetrate the nature of man ever more deeply.
  

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