Line image
The only activity here is of intuitive feeling (line 2), so our experience of this tao will be of feeling; it is a communication between our personal self and what is “other”. This “other”, in general our circumstances, may be people or other things with which we relate; basically intuitive feeling is relationship in some form, and this tao is about relationship simply as it feels to us. The three yang lines at the top of the hexagram show that we have a tendency to ignore these feelings.
Trigram image
There is not a full flood of relating, the energy shown in the emerging trigram Li is hesitant and this is turned into structured forms in our outer world, so there is a tightness in relationship. The two trigrams in the top half of the hexagrams are Ch’ien, showing a withdrawal from participation; this is useful inasmuch as we do not manipulate but it is an impediment to the flow of relating. The flow, going from the hesitant to the structured, shows the tao as being about the establishment of relationship.
The Chinese Oracle
Fellowship in the open.Success.It is of benefit to cross the great water.The superior man is furthered by perseverance.
Comments
It is the resonance of relationship, not what goes on within you or me, that is “in the open”. It is what is between us and exists in its own right—sometimes we have to obey it no matter what we think we ought to do. It has success; it causes great change in us and if we follow it, it is as if we were in a different country over the great water. It widens our reality if we pay attention to this aspect of ourselves which is outside ourselves—in the open.
Manifestations
A transitory brightnessgrows into the lasting,indeed the eternal.
Living relationshipsmean one fulfilling the other.Recognition of complementis attraction,its activity, a stablepattern of flow.
The fire is kindledwith the promise of wood.The wood becomes radiantonly with fire.Together they are like the sun.
Form is used,transformed into brightnessin which the differentrecognize one otheras part of one.The wise ruler uses form thus.
Changing Lines
Line 1 goes yin
life force shows more changeWhen there is activity in the emerging life force there is possibility of relationship, there is the beginning of a cycle of relating.
Relationship at the gate.No error.
Indeed how can there be error in the beginning if the movement is supported by the life force?
Line 2 goes yang
intuitive feeling less activeWithout active feelings there can be no resonance between ourselves and others (what is other to ourselves). Any relationship that will open our awareness has to be with something or someone different from ourselves.
Fellowship within the clan causes regret.
We need to seek our complement, not our likeness, for feelings to become dynamic and resonate with one another.
Line 3 goes yin
outer world changes moreThe tao is about feeling the resonance of relationship but here we are shy of the contest that polarity involves and transfer our attention to outer activity, doing things rather than feeling them and thinking things out rather than feeling them within us. In this way we miss the change in ourselves that the resonance of feeling would cause.
His weapons are hidden in long grass,He is on a high mound.For three years he can do nothing.
Weapons are symbolic of our polarity in activity; we hide this polarity which tends to create contest if it is manifest; we mount an easily defended position and so we miss a whole cycle of activity—we have to wait for this challenge to recur (symbolically three years). If we can gather our courage we should go forth and experience consequences instead of hiding from them, and this change is probably more possible than we think.
Line 4 goes yin
accepting the outer state moreThe outer world is not active in this tao so here we are accepting inactivity on the outside. This enables us to pay attention to our feeling which is what the tao calls for.
He climbs his wall and does not attack.Good fortune.
Our “wall” is our perimeter, where we find contact with the “other”, so here we find that being on this boundary between ourself and the other, where relationship happens, does not mean contest. Resonance is not battle.
Line 5 goes yin
more awareness of intuitionWe now open ourselves to our active intuition and thus become aware of our relating, our resonance with others. When this resonance is felt it takes over our attention from the dominance of those parts of ourselves which are normally taking turns in conscious expression; resonance is not owned, it just happens, so whenever resonance takes over, feelings of separation cease.
The comrades at first weep and are sad but end by laughing.The crowd comes together.
The crowd of our separations come together into the resonance, which is the happiness of laughter here.
Line 6 goes yin
our inner being accepts moreRelationship has its own cycle of change; as we begin to relate, it is from the position of separate identity, so the relationship is about contact and contest, out of this comes an area of shared experience, a resonance, and out of this again comes acceptance of the distance or separateness of the other in which contact and contest are less important while the resonance becomes more important. This third stage is symbolized here as we accept the stillness of the emerging life force of the tao (the lack of contact between polarities).
Relationship.Distance.Absence of desire.No regret.
This is not a needy or desiring relationship so there will be no regret in it.