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The Bachnut Journal

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Thomson Machine Works

Winter Solstice 2018

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19. Approaching

Decision:

Approaching.
Sublimely prosperous and smooth.
Favorable to be steadfast and upright.
Ends in the eighth month;
Misfortunes follows.

Commentary on the Decision

Approaching,
The firm is advancing and growing.

Joyous and obedient.
The firm is central and properly responded to.
Great success along with his correctness.
This is the Tao of Heaven.

At the end of the eighth month,
There will be misfortune.
Recession is not too long incoming.
Commentary on the Symbol

Earth above Lake.
An image of Approaching.
In correspondence with this,
The superior person is willing to teach inexhaustibly
And, in his tolerance, protect the people without limit.

Significance

This gua is very special. The four most auspicious virtues of yuan, hung, li, and then have been bestowed upon it. It expounds the principle of leadership. A leader should influence people with his noble character and conduct. The ancient Chinese believed that the king was the Son of Heaven. When the king arrived (Approaching) on Earth, he represented Heaven to protect and nurture his people. If the king acted in accordance with the will of Heaven, people from eight directions would come and follow him. The two solid lines at the bottom of the gua are qualified to be the host. they represent the advance of the firm. However, the firm element at the second position is central and properly responds to the yielding element at the fifth place; it is more suitable to be the host. Thus Confucius says, “Great success along with his correctness. This is the Tao of heaven.”

King Wen’s Decision says, “Ends in the eighth month; misfortune comes.” There several possible interpretations. The basic idea rests upon the growth and advance of the yang energy. In a yearly cycle, yang energy emerges in the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. It is represented by the twenty-fourth gua, Turning Back.

The Myriad

The Family Boundary

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In terms of family we rarely look beyond the boundaries of those we encounter in our own lives. As children, we are aware of three core generations during our life. That core shifts from our parents to us as we have children ourselves. Experience of the great-grandparents or great-grandchildren is uncommon. 

I was fortunate to have met my mother’s grandparents. Every summer our family would drive from California to my parent’s childhood homes in Idaho. I especially loved the 160 acre Vinyard Farm 10 miles east of Twin Falls across the old Hansen Bridge on the Snake River. I loved everything about the farm. Nothing during the rest of the year could compare to be on the farm exploring the wonder of animals and things I couldn’t find in the city.

Three Generations of Vinyards, c. 1935
In back: Charles Centennial & Maude Melissa Berry, Charles Everett & Alice Eliza Davis.
In front: Bryson Davis & Alice Vivian

One of my most vivid earliest memories is the day my great-grandfather died in July of 1952 when I was five years old. I remember his distress call to the family, “I can’t see!,” as he emerged from his bedroom outside the kitchen where the rest of the family was gathered. Later that morning, I remember looking out the window from across the driveway at the back of the main house. I was being hugged by my aunt Lois. She was in tears and I was bewildered by the huge ambulance parked outside the back door to the kitchen. He had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

My mother would talk often of my great-grandfather, Charles Centennial Vinyard. He was the most important man in her life and she idolized him. My grandfather was a great storyteller, and between the two I have plenty of stories of life on the farm. And then I had the museum of rusting horse drawn farm implements to play on behind the barn.

After my mother died in 2014 I realized that I had lost my last connection to my family ancestral narrative. And because I had not taken full advantage of this, I knew I had a responsibility to not let what I knew be lost to my grandchildren. So empowered with the family knowledge I did possess, I began the search for whatever ancestral bits I could find to add to the family saga. My goal in the beginning was to develop each parent’s lineage back to the immigrants to this country. Going beyond that seemed improbable. I was wrong.


Featured Post

Differentiation

Differentiation is the identification of the specific from the general. It can happen biologically—the eye evolves to sense a range of specific wavelengths from the general spectrum of white light. Differentiation is part of survival for all forms of life. In humans, however, it became very complex as the species developed into tribal, agrarian, and urban societies, each with norms based on a core mythology to maintain stability. These norms enable societies to develop a cultural … [Read More...]

The Wayfarer by Bosch

Wayfarer-Bosch

Wisdom of the Daodejing

Daodejing 32

Existence is infinite, not to be defined. And though it seem but a bit of wood in your hand, to carve as you please, it is not to be lightly played with and laid down.

When rulers adhered to the way of life, they were upheld by natural loyalty. Heaven and earth were joined and made fertile, life was a freshness of rain—subject to none, free to all.

But men of culture came, with their grades and their distinctions; and as soon as such differences had been devised no one knew where to end them. Though the one who does know the end of all such differences is the sound man.

Existence might be likened to the course of many rivers reaching the one sea.

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