Teladoc Health TDOC under CEO Jason Gorevic

Teladoc Health TDOC under CEO Jason Gorevic

 

HEXAGRAM 08 – Pi – Holding Together [Union]

Above    K’AN    THE ABYSMAL, WATER

Below    K’UN    THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH

The waters on the surface of the earth flow together wherever they can,

as for example in the ocean,

where all the rivers come together.

Symbolically this connotes

• holding together and
  
• the laws that regulate it.
  

The same idea is suggested by the fact that

all the lines of the hexagram except the fifth, the place of the ruler, are yielding.

The yielding lines hold together because they are influenced by

• a man of strong will in the leading position,
  
• a man who is their center of union.
  

Moreover, this strong and guiding personality in turn holds together with the others,

finding in them the complement of his own nature.

 

THE JUDGMENT

HOLDING TOGETHER brings good fortune.

Inquire of the oracle once again

Whether you possess sublimity, constancy, and perseverance;

Then there is no blame.

Those who are uncertain gradually join.

Whoever comes too late

Meets with misfortune.

What is required is that we unite with others, in order that

all may complement and aid one another through holding together.

But such holding together calls for a central figure around whom other persons may unite.

To become a center of influence holding people together is a

• grave matter and
  
• fraught with great responsibility.
  

It requires

• greatness of spirit,
  
• consistency, and
  
• strength.
  

Therefore let him who wishes to gather others about him ask himself whether he is equal to the undertaking,

for anyone attempting the task without a real calling for it

only makes confusion worse than if no union at all had taken place.

But when there is a real rallying point,

those who at first are hesitant or uncertain gradually come in of their own accord.

Late-comers must suffer the consequences, for in holding together the question of the right time is also important.

Relationships are formed and firmly established according to definite inner laws.

Common experiences strengthen these ties, and he who comes too late to share in these basic experiences must suffer for it if, as a straggler, he finds the door locked.

If a man

• has recognized the necessity for union and
  
• does not feel strong enough to function as the center,
  

it is his duty to become a member of some other organic fellowship.

 

THE IMAGE

On the earth is water: The image Of HOLDING TOGETHER.

Thus the kings of antiquity

• Bestowed the different states as fiefs And
  
• cultivated friendly relations With the feudal lords.
  

Water

• fills up all the empty places on the earth and
  
• clings fast to it.
  

The social organization of ancient China was based on this principle of the holding together of

• dependents and
  
• rulers.
  

Water flows to unite with water, because all parts of it are subject to the same laws.

So too should human society hold together through a community of interests that

allows each individual to feel himself a member of a whole.

The central power of a social organization must see to it that

every member finds that his true interest lies in holding together with it,

as was the case in the paternal relationship between king and vassals in ancient China.

 

THE LINES

 

Six in the second place means:

Hold to him inwardly.

Perseverance brings good fortune.

If a person responds

• perseveringly and
  
• in the right way
  

to the behests from above that summon him to action,

• his relations with others are intrinsic and
  
• he does not lose himself.
  

But

if a man seeks association with others as if he were an obsequious office hunter,

he throws himself away.

He does not follow the path of the superior man, who never loses his dignity.

Six in the third place means:

You hold together with the wrong people.

We are often among people who do not belong to our own sphere.

In that case we must beware of being drawn into false intimacy through force of habit.

Needless to say, this would have evil consequences.

Maintaining sociability without intimacy is the only right attitude toward such people,

because otherwise

we should not be free to enter into relationship with people of our own kind later on.

 

 

MOVING HEXAGRAM

 

 

HEXAGRAM 48 – Ching – The Well

Above    K’AN    THE ABYSMAL, WATER

Below    SUN    THE GENTLE, WIND, WOOD

• Wood is below,
  
• water above.
  

The wood goes down into the earth to bring up water.

The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient China.

1. The wood represents
   

• not the buckets, which in ancient times were made of clay,
  
• but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled up from the well.
  

1. The image also refers to the world of plants,
   

• which lift water out of the earth by means of their fibers.
  

1. The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of
   

• an inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.
  

 

THE JUDGMENT

THE WELL.

• The town may be changed,
  
• But the well cannot be changed.
  

It

• neither decreases
  
• nor increases.
  

They come and go and draw from the well.

If

• one gets down almost to the water And
  
• the rope does not go all the way, Or
  
• the jug breaks,
  

it brings misfortune.

In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved,

• partly for the sake of more favorable location,
  
• partly because of a change in dynasties.
  

• The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries,
  
• but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day.
  

Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which,

• evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs,
  
• is independent of all political forms.
  

• Political structures change, as do nations,
  

but

• the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same –
  

  this cannot be changed.
  

• Life is also inexhaustible.
  
  • It grows neither less nor more;
    
  • it exists for one and for all.
    

• The generations come and go, and
  
• all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.
  

However, there are

two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organization of mankind.

• We must go down to the very foundations of life.
  

  For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied
  

  is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made.
  

• Carelessness – by which the jug is broken – is also disastrous.
  

  If for instance
  

  the military defense of a state is carried to such excess that
  

  it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated,
  

  this is a breaking of the jug.
  

This hexagram applies also to the individual.

However men may differ in disposition and in education,

• the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And
  
• every human being can draw in the course of his education from
  

  the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man’s nature.
  

But here likewise two dangers threaten:

a man

• may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and
  
• remain fixed in conventions partial education of this sort is as bad as none or
  

he

• may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
  

 

THE IMAGE

Water over wood: the image of THE WELL.

Thus the superior man

• encourages the people at their work, And
  
• exhorts them to help one another.
  

• The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and
  
• the trigram K’an, water, is above it.
  

Wood sucks water upward.

Just as

• wood as an organism imitates the action of the well,
  

  which benefits all parts of the plant,
  

• the superior man organizes human society,
  

  so that, as in a plant organism,
  

  its parts cooperate for the benefit of the whole.
  

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