You may drink from the well unhindered. It is there for all to partake as long as the rope and jug are still in place. The well precedes and endures beyond all forms of social organization and governance that come and go in time because it serves the deepest needs of humanity.
At the same time, care must be taken that the jug is not broken. This can happen when artificial constraints are formed and get in the way. The most common instance is where the few deny access for the many.
It is important at this time for people of great inner wealth to step up and be a conduit for others to tap into that wealth. If this happens, then abundance is multiplied, serving everyone, including the one who is the conduit. The path of abundance is the path of a snowball that starts rolling and grows to enormous proportion. That is the nature of abundance.
Read the text from Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching
“In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favourable 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 organisation 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 defence 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.
The well is there for all. No one is forbidden to take water from it. No matter how many come, all find what they need, for the well is dependable. It has a spring and never runs dry. Therefore it is a great blessing to the whole land. The same is true of the really great man, whose inner wealth is inexhaustible; the more that people draw from him, the greater his wealth becomes.
It is not given to every mortal to bring about a time of outstanding greatness and abundance. Only a born ruler of men is able to do it, because his will is directed to what is great. Such a time of abundance is usually brief. Therefore a sage might well feel sad in view of the decline that must follow. But such sadness does not befit him. Only a man who is inwardly free of sorrow and care can lead in a time of abundance. He must be like the sun at midday, illuminating and gladdening everything under heaven. “
Meditation
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Today: I Ching
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