Semantic Restructuring is the pursuit of enlightenment, enlivenment, empowerment through the creative re-arranging of the building blocks of meaning. For a better description, Start Here.
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Bateson, books, cogling, context, CPB, embodiment, framing, I Ching, paradox, perception influence, prisdem, semantic punctuation, sensation, techniques, unconscious
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The Balkin I Ching says the ideogram for this hexagram originally meant a joint on a bamboo stalk. This picture is a nice follow up from yesterday's lecture on structure and natural forces. The joint of the bamboo stalk is the inspiration for bulkheads on ships. The joint on a bamboo stalk paradoxically fills what otherwise would be one large undifferentiated emptiness, creating physical strength but also the buoyancy that keeps bamboo afloat.
The reading focuses on restraint and moderation. It sees the inner trigram as "the lake" rather than the marsh, but for us the emphasis is on the contrast between the highly structured torrent with its great power arising from great disequilibrium with gravity and the marsh, at equilibrium and blurring the lines between river and riverbed and river bank. These extremes in proper alternation can create something flexible and strong, capable of withstanding damage and yet remaining afloat, as with the extremes of emptiness and fullness within the bamboo stalk. Moderation and restraint, and especially moderation in our restraints, is the energy of the day. Soon it will change.
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Liberals would be better served to read Elgin than Lakoff. Specifically, "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense for Business Success" would be a much better choice for learning to deal with the intellectual thugs in the conservative camp than Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant." Why? Because Lakoff's work presupposes a context of otherwise legitimate and intellectually honest discourse and debate, whereas Elgin's work starts with the assumption that there are people who will try to use language to dominate, harm, and humiliate.
Elgin's assumption is that some people engage, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unconsciously, in behavior that can best be described as verbal attacks. She makes a strong case, with examples that most people can relate to from personal experience. Then she presents relatively simple and straightforward methods to avoid being victimized by these people. And that really is the point, to avoid being victimized.
Of course the first way to avoid being victimized is to remain out of reach of the attacker. That holds just as true in political confrontations between conservatives and liberals; don't engage unless there is reason to believe you can prevail in and profit from the exchange. But where engagement cannot be avoided, there are ways to nonetheless side step verbal violence, and Elgin's wonderful collection of "Gentle Art" books are tops for this purpose. Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant" makes some valuable points that would be good to keep in mind when engaged in honest discourse with legitimate conversation partners. But all too often the exchanges between conservatives and liberals lack honesty and legitimacy; instead they are bash-fests in which liberals willingly participate as ideological piñatas.
And that is perhaps the single hardest part of this point: We liberals need to admit that all too often we are not being invited to discuss matters, we are only being set up to act as punching bags. And precisely because this is the case no amount of dry, academic finesse will be of any real value. If you have to interact with bullies it is vital to know how to avoid being victimized by them.
Now, for a practical example: Consider each of the following, even try reading them out-loud:
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
Why does Oblio hate America?!
If you have taken the time to read each of the examples as expressively as possible you will have noticed the subtle nuances between the various versions. But what all of the versions share is the presupposition that Oblio indeed hates America. This presupposition might not be factually correct, but nonetheless the question simply doesn't make sense without presupposing this one item. There is more. Not only does the question "deductively" presuppose that Oblio hates America, but each and every different emphasized version presupposes (as Elgin points out) that the questioner knows in advance that any reasons given are inadequate, and that Oblio should feel bad for hating America.
Of course Oblio should feel bad for hating America (it just so happens that Oblio loves America with a capital-L.) I think most of my readers (both of you) will agree that hating America is bad. But notice, the power of this pattern holds regardless the content, as can be seen with the examples, below:
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
Why does Oblio do [X]?!
It really doesn't matter much what you replace "do [X]" with, whatever Oblio's reasons they will be inadequate and Oblio should feel bad for doing X and for having such a lousy excuse. And this is an example of the kind of rhetoric the Coulters and Limbaughs and O'Reillys are trained in.
You really ought to read that link and then review this post. The first and foremost linguistic concern in the worthy goal of helping liberals not get pulverized by conservatives is perhaps the simple realization that it's not our imagination: they really do cheat. If you then choose to sit at the table with a known cheat, so be it. But don't make the naive mistake of thinking a better command of the odds for completing an inside straight is going to do you any real good.
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Kan, the abyss or gorge, doubled. Danger doubled. Or perhaps not.
I have always had trouble with this trigram and the assumption of dangerous badness related with it. Sure, if the image is about being on a high mountain pass and seeing a river raging in the ravine far below, sure, then there is danger---of falling. If the image is simply standing on the bank of a raging river, sure, there is danger---if one is foolhardy enough to try to swim it.
Before thinking further on this image in isolation, contrast it with Tui, which is the marsh or lake. What is the difference between these two types of water? Structure, relationship to gravity, boundaries. Kan is a time of clear gravitational pull and well defined boundaries. Tui is a time of near gravitational equilibrium and amorphous boundaries.
And so Xi Kan, the doubling of the torrent, is a time when the outer and the inner principle alike are in clear relationship with the primal forces and are well structured. To foolishly oppose or even try to cut across such currents is destined to failure. To follow along the bank to the place downstream where the waters calm is destined to succeed. Soon it will change.
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Difficulty in the beginning, like the blade of grass just beginning its task of rising up through the soil...and manure. "Thus the superior person regulates and brings order." The longer I meditate on this image the less I need to say. Soon it will change.
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Union. We are introduced to the notion of a ruling line in a trigram, and likewise in a hexagram. The initial line, having just entered the sequence, is weak. The sixth line is about to depart and is likewise weak. The 3rd and 4th lines are interface lines between the trigrams which make the hexagram, and thus in a smaller measure have similar weaknesses. But the center line of a trigram is at the height of its power and influence. So in the lower trigram the number two line is the ruler, and in the upper the number five line. And because the upper trigram is the outer or public face of the hexagram, it then is the ruler of the hexagram.
Which brings us finally to the reading, union, under a strong leader. One lightmaleyangconvex principle amidst 5 darkfemaleyinconcave principles. One creative, active principle in a fertile field of receptive energy. A strong person can lead in such a setting, indeed can even attract others to a cause.
But the blank emptiness of the receptive lines have no care what fills them, and so it is up to the active principle also to set values and criteria. Yes there is power here lead and unite, but for it to be lasting it must be based on sound values of wisdom and justice and sensitivity to the forces that surround. Soon it will change.
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Great Power. We are 1/4th the way through the building cycle from zero to 63; 1/8th the way through the full cycle from zero to zero, Kun to Kun, darkamptyreceptive to darkemptyreceptive. This is the 16th hexagram in our studies, and corresponds to the number 15 in the binary numbering system.
The readings speak of great strength or great power. But they also harp on the dangers inherent therein. For the life of me I cannot get anything better from the readings than the classic ending panel of Amazing Comics #15, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Energetically this is the first time we see a solid swell of lightmaleyang energy making its way from the bottom of the stack all the way across the divide between trigrams. So the active principle is on the rise and even uniting the trigrams, Heaven below connects with Thunder above via their light lines. But just as the image represents a heretofore unseen solidifying of the active principle on the formerly empty receptive field, it is nonetheless immature, unbalanced. So while there is power here it is not the power to break with traditions and remake the world to our liking. It is instead the power to benefit by doing the right things the right way. Nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, for this is the day that our efforts will not be for naught, when our great power can serve duty and right. Soon it will change.
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Duration, derived from thunder above gentle wind? How's that again? Two formless changing moving principles combine to give Duration? It is the inner directive, the adherence to one's true nature that endures.
This is also the eldest son wed to the eldest daughter. While moving a bit a way from that dimension of the analysis, it does draw the eye to the current condition of the upper/outer trigram being the complement of the lower/inner trigram. Obviously there are eight such arrangements, and distinguishing among them will be a worthy goal. The outer and inner are "opposites," complementing each other. In this case the outer is a strong and forceful trigram, thunder; this is the public face of the day. But the inner face of the day is the gentle wind. And there must be a kind of solidity, a trueness to form, to sustain such a seeming disparity.
This hexagram also brings to light the development of the nuclear trigrams. In effort to make sense of this arrangement who could resist finding meaning in the presence of the Ch'ien trigram, in this case we find it in the "lower" nuclear trigram; this then suggests we also have Sun, the gentle wind, as an "upper" nuclear trigram, which in turn could lead us to a new hexagram. We won't be following that path today, but it is there and it is part of the depth of study to which the chun tzu aspires.
Duration, despite seemingly transitory phenomena. Soon it will change.
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Abundance; lots of plenty. The wise man shines like the midday sun giving light and heat to all who will partake. Fire below, thunder above, the attention to tiny details of the previous hexagram is transformed by the reversal of that one bottom line into an overflowing cornucopia. Enjoy it while it lasts, make hay while the sun shines. Soon it will change.
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Preponderance of the Small, as per Wilhelm/Baynes. Image, the Hummingbird, who's proximity to Earth is dictated by her metabolism and diet, which is to say, she stays fairly close to the source of the nectar she needs almost second-by-second. Contrast with the soaring Eagle or high-flying Hawk; their food source, protein filled rodents, carries longer, and so they are fit to fly higher. But even the swooping Hawk cannot fall on its prey as quickly as that little Hummingbird can dart into a half-dozen flowers, partaking of the short burst energy it brings.
So Hsiao Kuo, for us, is the principle of the short burst, the fast twitch, the small and fleeting and fast and subtle. No elephants here. Only that sensitivity to minutia which lets the perspicacious perceive where the next bit of succulent sweet life is calling, and to be on our way. Soon it will change.
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From the Mawangdui: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
This certainly seems harsh. It is softened, somewhat in the traditional readings, under the heading, "The Marrying Maiden." (The Mawangdui reads, "Returning Maiden.") In the Wilhelm/Baynes the focus is on the metaphorical family relations ascribed to the trigrams, letting us view this hexagram as the marriage of the eldest son with the youngest daughter. This is viewed as subjugation, from a cultural context which allows multiple wives a youngest daughter is less likely to be chief wife, more likely to be subordinate wife. So the traditional readings are all about knowing one's place, not rocking the boat, keeping a low profile, practicing quiet rightness rather than boisterous righteousness.
But the relevance of the traditional filtering the energy images through the lens of the extended family structures of ancient China becomes less and less; so too for the ruler/official metaphors of feudal times. What then of the elemental or energetic? We have ShockQuakeThunderTheArousing above, facing the outer world; below, facing inward we have the gentle lake or marsh. Certainly thunder can herald flooding rains which over flow the lake boundaries or cause the marsh to flood; this then seems close enough to the traditional reading and yet just enough removed into the realm of symbology to be apt for all times.
As the lake or marsh are below the thunder and possibly at its mercy,
so too there are times when circumstances do not leave us any great
power or status or choice. We must continue being what we are, and we
must weather the consequences of what we do with our outward natures,
even if that weathering means a time of the marsh becoming a fetid
swamp, or a lake rising above it's boundaries and destroying nearby
crops. Sometimes such things happen, but the enlightened one goes about
her business attending to what must be attended to without rancor or
remorse for what the weather has brought. Soon it will change.
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