The Noble One: Well

The well is a fundamental thing to a village. Without water, people could not live there. The well is needed to quench thirst, wash, and cook. In some places, wells even provide the water to grow crops. The well is truly a central and essential part of any community.

And how simple and pure it is: an opening in the life-giving earth, pure water seeping in, stored unseen, available to sustain many people as long as the work is done to reach it.

In the same way, the Image of Hexagram 48, Well, asks if we can be as vital to our community as a well. The noble one encourages the people and lends them assistance. This is no mere platitude. Firstly, in order to encourage people and lend assistance, one has to have real substance. Just as water in its purity revives the thirsty, so too must a noble one have pure character if he or she will really help others. Secondly, a noble one who is like the well must be just as inexhaustible. Thirdly, the noble one, like the well, does not discriminate. All people draw from a well. All people draw from a noble one.

If you would be a noble one, then ask yourself if you can be like a well, sustaining all who come to you. Could you really “encourage people and lend assistance?”