986689 · 27.1.3.4.6Hexagram 27

Choice from the flow.

Line image

Our intuitive feelings are active and are accepted (lines 2 and 5) and the outer world also (lines 3 and 4). The inner is not active in providing new energy so we are acting out energy already in our outer identity. This hexagram is commonly called “nourishment”; our inner being is nourished by the experience of identity in relationship. The outer is food for the inner and the inner is food for the outer in continuous cycles of experience.

Trigram image

The emerging energy is very active (Chên) and flows freely in the outer world and our outer being, identity, (both K’un). This is only seen distantly by our inner being (Kên).

Here is a flow of energy that is freely out into action and the experience is viewed widely by the stillness of our inner being. This expresses outer experience nourishing the inner.

The Chinese Oracle

Nourishment.
Persistence in being correct
brings good fortune.
Watch how people nourish others and themselves.

Comments

Nourishing requires the supply of what is lacking; to nourish others we often provide what we have in surplus regardless of what the other needs. It is necessary to persist in seeing widely and witnessing ourselves (being correct) to see what is needed.

Manifestations

The pattern
All action has results in form.
All growth towards the archetypes.
For humans
From what has passed through
we are made.
From what we choose
we are nourished according to our need.
In nature
Storm and torrents flow.
In every crevice watered something grows.
Every crack eroded shows
what has passed,
each hollow filled, another shape.
In forms we make
To provide what others need
to fill their form,
follow the pattern of their choice.
For our own we follow ours.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

Where new energy is becoming available we may look for nourishment in some new experience from the life force rather than that available in our present circumstances.

The Chinese Image
You let your magic tortoise go and look at me with drooping mouth.
Misfortune.

Tortoise shells were used for divination, and divination is the link between the outer and inner knowing; without the link we lose the thread of what experience is about—nourishing the inner self from outer experience. What is needed is in our experience now.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

Intuitive feeling is necessary for us to know our circumstances and if we cannot feel our circumstances we seek nourishment elsewhere.

The Chinese Image
Seeking nourishment from below
is not proper.
Seeking nourishment from above
brings evil.

Both below and above identity in the hexagram we come to the inner, and this hexagram is about nourishing the inner through outer experience; so to seek the emerging life force is to look to nourishment coming to identity in the future, which is not correct or proper, not existing. To look to the inner being for nourishment is to look to what is already formed so it is narrowing or evil.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

In this tao outer activity is the source of experience and is essential to nourishment, without our taking part in outer experience the tao is useless to us.

The Chinese Image
He refuses nourishment.
Misfortune.
For ten years there is no progress.

When we avoid outer experience at the time it is offered in our circumstances it is lost and the nourishment of it cannot be had until such circumstances come to us again; this is symbolically the complete cycle of ten years.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Outer activity in the world is an essential part of this tao from which we gain nourishment; we do not, however, benefit from owning that activity and so nourishing our separate ego-being. Here in this line we diminish our owning of outer activity and so can participate more because with less desire we have a wider view.

The Chinese Image
Nourishment on the mountain top.
Good fortune.
He glares like a tiger looking down.
No error.

A hunter which has perfected the art of being alert; the tiger. Looking down he has a wide view. On the mountain we also have a wide view which comes from a vantage point of disinvolvement.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

We normally accept ourselves to be as we feel ourselves to be (which is the interpretation line 5 puts upon line 2). Here we are less aware.

The Chinese Image
Leaving the usual ways.
Perseverance, keeping still,
brings good fortune.
Do not cross the great water.

Without a feeling of ourselves in our circumstances action becomes hazardous so it is inadvisable to instigate changes.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

The inner being accepts nourishment and is the source of outer nourishment while doing so. The position has a fine balance and so has a danger of imbalance; either way it is the producer of a flow of nourishment.

The Chinese Image
The source of nourishment.
Peril but good results.
Crossing the great water brings good fortune.

Crossing the great water is changing our way of being, and experiencing without choice makes this change, but if we choose we are fed from past experience, not from the source of nourishment, the present.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 62

After reaching a level.

Line image

The two yin lines associated with feeling (2 and 5) are the dominant conscious ones, the outer (lines 3 and 4) being yang and the inner (1 and 6) being outside our awareness. So the activity of which we will be most conscious is feeling. There is a compliance with the life force shown in lines 5 and 6 so we do not take off on initiatives of our own and this is strengthened by the inactivity of our outer world and our disinterest in it.

Trigram image

This is a time for inner activity as shown by the Chên image for our inner being. The emerging energy is not seeking manifestation of activity but of stillness (Kên) and this gives maturity to our outer action (Sun) and a new way to be aware of ourselves (Tui).

The flow which comes from the bottom of the hexagram comes to a halt in the middle (outer reality) and then starts a new flow at the top; this is a movement which ends one mode of experiencing and prepares another. Our troubles with such a flow come from an identity which cannot accept its outer stillness.

The Chinese Oracle

Success of what is small.
Continuance in the way is rewarding.
Small things not great ones
should be entered into,
like bird song on the wing.
Remaining lowly brings good fortune.

Comments

The central part of the hexagram which symbolizes the outer is occupied by Sun and Tui, the gentle and the hopeful, the established and the new, and these are not the energy required for large outer activity.

The inner work being accomplished in this tao is done by the life force and does not show much in outer manifestation, so the little things that can be done become important and keep us away from blocking and diverting the inner flows.

Manifestations

The pattern
Action has given birth to stillness,
consolidation.
From this only small new movement
can arise.
A new start is preparing.
For humans
His ideas are formed.
Through these changes push their way
so he changes but a little as yet.
In nature
The wood of a tree
is solid and firm.
New growth from this
is a small part of the whole.
New growth comes from the root.
In forms we make
The establishment
is not the origin
of social change.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

Widening our awareness requires the activity of the life force. Here, unfortunately in our experience, the life force goes into a tranquil phase and the tao of inner change is interrupted; outer activity is not a suitable vehicle for our energies in this tao so we shall do no good by trying to externalize. It is an experience of frustration we do best to witness rather than trying to correct.

The Chinese Image
The flying bird meets misfortune.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

Intuitive feeling is the vehicle of identity in this tao, so we miss the flow when this feeling becomes less active and concern ourselves with more personal, psychological matters, trying to distinguish what the blockage is.

The Chinese Image
He passes by a reference to his ancestor and meets a reference to his past mother.
He does not reach the prince but meets the minister.
No error.

The ancestor and mother are records of past things, old ways of defining and feeling his reality; the prince is a new way of ruling, a new way of experiencing and we cannot reach this without intuitive feeling; we can only reach the minister who is the organizer of practical matters. There is no error because the cause of all this is not within our control.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

The tao (our circumstances) favours inner awareness and we avoid this by creating outer activity. When the pressure for change is from our inner reality yet this is transferred to a projection outside, there is a blockage of inner flow which shows itself in activity of our “personal unconscious” and this _will_ be heard, if we do not listen it will force its way into consciousness; accidents are formed in this way.

The Chinese Image
Unless he is very careful someone will strike him from below
(or behind, or an inferior position).
Misfortune.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

To become interested in peaceful outer activity (the yang line 3) gives direction without involvement but to become agitated about its inactivity would neglect the tao and deplete inner energies.

The Chinese Image
No error.
He does not pass him by but accosts him.
Activity is dangerous and continuing caution is required.

The danger of activity is becoming identified in it, making it important, we are aware of (we accost) this syndrome but identifying is a slippery customer.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

We do not wish to feel something; this means there is no flow of energy although the possibility of it is there.

The Chinese Image
Dense clouds from our western land but no rain falls.
The prince shoots and hits one in the cave.

Feeling is the release and flow symbolized by rain; here it is not released because identity is not allowing it; it comes from the west, where the sun sets, showing it to be a dying activity. The prince, our latest identity, has aimed his identifying into the inner darkness, the cave, and has hit something there; he does not know what he hit but he was probably afraid of it.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

We are now less involved in this tao of accepting the inner reality in which we only have a little show outside.

The Chinese Image
He does not meet him but passes him by.
The bird flies from him.
Misfortune.
Natural and intended hurt.

What we avoid meeting is the tao, the circumstances we are in; this splits our reality into outer and inner and the wholeness (the bird, which uses a polarity of wings together) leaves us. Inasmuch as we are aware of this it is an intended hurt, but our awareness is partial.

Nuclear HexagramHexagram 2

Choices amongst activity.

Line image

Here all is activity and acceptance. Everything moves according to its place and there is no question, no complication of hesitation or aim, no attitude is taken up and no stance is maintained. This is a symbolically female mode, not shown in relationship with male as in trigram Li but the elemental female itself of K’un, which flows according to the forces within it in a spontaneous acceptance of movement as its reality.

Structure is not very real to this element, its reality is in the changing flow of the moment as identity experiences where it is but never _knows_ it; to know where you are, you have to stop the movement with an idea, knowing takes an extension of time whereas the purely yin element rides reality in the present, which is time but has no time sequence.

Identity in this mode does not abstract ideas from its experience so it has no structure of idea to confront the experience. We go from one thing to another as it happens, participating in primary manifestation.

Trigram image

Manifestation is all flow and for this to be so, there has to be acceptance of all the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When we accept everything, nothing is held up in the flow and it remains in dynamic balance without stress. Identity does not know itself; it experiences itself but has no concept of what that means—it means only what is experienced

This flowing mode is nearer to our inner source of manifestation than the mode of concepts—we know without knowing why we know—it is an unencumbered way to be and intensely real, being so near to the source of manifestation.

We meet the paradox here that this source of manifestation which we approach in feeling has the male symbol of the creative—the ultimate extreme of idea that arrives at idealessness or non-manifestation. The paradox is resolved when we see the dynamics of yin and yang where the energy flows in and out between the male and female modes; it is one mode really, which manifests in a cyclic form.

The patterns which we humans choose in this flow by our individual natures are the 64 qualified tao or hexagrams. This hexagram of K’un trigrams bears these particularly deep symbolisms because it is one of the extremes of the cyclic movement, but it is nevertheless one of the 64 patterns that we make, and it refers to minor happenings in our lives as well as our very existence itself. We need sometimes to allow ourselves its influence.

The Chinese Oracle

The receptive element brings sublime success. The symbol of a mare.
At first he leads and loses the way, then he follows and is supported.
Friends in the west and south, not in the east and north.
Peaceful continuance is beneficial.

Comments

As in hexagram 1 there is inevitable success in the receptive, but if we start to lead, we lose this tao of being receptive. To be receptive is to allow the self to resonate with the other (the friend). To befriend the height of activity (south, midday, warmth) gives life to the resonance whereas to seek passivity of action (north, night, cold) kills the resonance.

A mare bears the foal, carries man, and is one with nature in a natural and gentle manner—in the receptive, we reject nothing.

Manifestations

The pattern
Simple flow of activity:
unquestioning,
moves unjudged
accepting all things.
For humans
Born from the earth
of its elements.
Return sometimes unprotesting,
resting in the flowing juice of life.
In nature
Onto the earth
warm and chill.
Into the earth
seed, root, love
moving in the magic of water.
In forms we make
The only form he can make
is an empty tube.
The only government
the will of the people.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

The life force itself is going into a quiet phase and this will become more evident to us as its manifestation grows outwards. We need to accommodate this, to accept it in this tao of the receptive.

The Chinese Image
Hoarfrost underfoot, ice then comes.

Cold is symbolic of inactivity, so this is to say that inactivity will become more manifest.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

In this tao, change occurs whether we are feeling it or not—if we feel it, we are aware of our involvement and may even think that we cause the activity, but it is not so except in a very narrow sense; the great tao moves us and accomplishes itself.

The Chinese Image
Straight, wide, great.
Purposeless yet it achieves.

There is no choice of ways so our way is straight, awareness is not limited so it is wide (has a lot of scope) and it is the great tao that is purposeless, yet it achieves (manifests) in everything.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

In this tao which is all activity there is no chosen coming and going—it encompasses all coming and going. The activity is seen rather as a flow of energy from one part to another—a wider view of many cycles operating. The outer reality expressed by line 3 is our outer world, however, and here in this line the activity is felt as being withdrawn; withdrawn from us and continued elsewhere. We are receptive in this tao, so we are not concerned so much with our part as the activity of the whole.

The Chinese Image
Concealing possibilities is correct.
Outer activities will eventually prosper.

Possibilities, or our own personal aims which we may exercise in the world, are not relevant here in this tao where all are equally received—in other circumstances we can attend to these and bring them to manifestation, but not now when we can experience without choice.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Cycles of free manifestation flow in phases of activity and tranquility. Our identity does this also and in this tao it does not indicate any manipulation on our part.

The Chinese Image
A tied up sack.
No praise, no blame.

There is no praise or blame because it is the natural state of affairs for cycles to have closed phases.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Here everything is seen carried in the great tao. We remove our attention from our feelings and they continue to affect the way we are but, as we say, unconsciously.

The Chinese Image
A Yellow undergarment.
Greatest good fortune.

Yellow is active (being near the middle of our visible range of light frequencies) and the undergarment is our unseen clothing or unconscious form; this is what carries us here, so we flow naturally without conscious effort.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

Line 6 is about our inner acceptance of experience, and in this moving line we separate from the great flowing tao and identity believes that it creates and destroys. We have here a birth into identity in some way and we choose and take sides and enter mind reality with our being. We move into the contest between being active or passive and must choose.

The Chinese Image
Dragons fight in the wilderness.
Their blood is black and yellow.

Black is the colour of night and inactivity, while yellow is our most noticeable and so active colour, so this is the nature of the contest.