I Ching - O Livro das Mutações - continuação

18 Degeneration wind below, mountain above

From degeneration comes great development.

Degeneration is like ... a country is peaceful for a long time and becomes decadent.(...) when rulers and officials gladly go along with each other and there is no salutary protest, thus bringing about corruption.

... when the teaching is flourishing and a society gladly goes along with it, there will inevitably be people who join Buddhist organizations for the wrong reasons, with personal ambitions. Because of this the organizations become corrupt.

... order is the start of disorder, disorder can also be used to bring about order;... But it is impossible to remedy degeneration and decadence without great courage and strength...
Therefore one should renew oneself ... and be on the alert ...

Only if people know the gradual process of accumulating degeneration can they set up means of rescue, so that the world can be set in order; how can they sit there and do nothing, as though the world will order itself? It is necessary to go do something, like "crossing a river", as it were. And it is necessary to understand how the activity of heaven has an end and a beginning.
This means the twin action of compassion and wisdom, seeking to rise higher while educating those who are lower.

... dealing with the degeneration of the mother is most difficult. If you correct her, you injure love, but if you do not correct her you injure justice.

... those who exert generosity to the utmost to obey the Buddha, the Teaching, and the Community.

... those who protect the true teaching with the teaching of compassion.

... those who practice asceticism and detachment; they seem to have no will to teach others, but Buddhism needs such people as models.

... it is necessary to go through a crisis before it is possible to equalize insight and concentration so that the end turns out well. (...) excessive strength that is not balanced, so insight turns into degeneration;

... But to save the world from decadence it is essential to rely on the power of insight,...

idem