Our desired outer activity is identity-forming and here yielding is not desired by identity and is held up by our activity. Identity is too fixed in its ideas to accept retreat.

Our identity is served by our intuitive feel of our circumstances and our definition of these feelings; when we are focused upon a particular outer activity these servants are neglected sometimes, but it is they who distinguish our situation so that we do not act inappropriately.

Here we accept the inactivity shown by line 3, so we are recognizing our circumstances.

The superior man has a wider view and inferior is narrowing; following the tao by accepting our circumstances despite desire widens our view of our situation, but if our view were narrow we could not feel the sense of this.

When we identify ourselves with the life force we become one with our circumstances and so yield perfectly where appropriate without opposition anywhere.

The noble is well-bred; the well-bred is perfectly balanced.

The emerging energy moves out naturally, in this tao we do not have an activity-seeking attitude.

That our own activity would create problems is evident, so evident that we are able to follow the tao and do not get involved with these difficulties.

In this tao where our attention is open to feeling (line 5 is yin) if our feelings are active, as they become here, there is no blockage to the flow.

Open feeling is very versatile and will carry our lives in whatever direction is suitable. Directions are suitable when they are there in our circumstances, if we need to create them with our desires there would be error but here we can follow and the tao contains all that we need and think we need.

The potential feeling becomes manifest activity. We are not manipulating the energy into activity but accepting what it does, going with our circumstances; thus we are in direct communication with whole reality.

When we are identified narrowly (the mean man) we cannot be aware of whole reality by the very nature of identification.

Our involvement in the lack of activity of the outer world (line 3) in this tao is not because we are worried by it, we can see the difference between our ego-activity and that of the life force; we see that if our activity is not that of the life force we become separate or out of phase with it, and being out of phase is full of effort.

This also implies that realizing that others have different needs, we do not impose our way upon them.

Here we become less aware of a feeling of stillness and one of two consequences may arise: either we become still as our actions come directly from our centre of stillness, or our disinterest in stillness shows itself in an interest in activity. In this tao the first of these is indicated, but our activity-seeking identity may also be active.

Inner truth and dignity are attributes that come from the still centre of our being; acting from there we remain whole during action instead of becoming polarized and identified.

To become more involved in the emerging energy of this tao is not to be in possession of it but to be possessed within it.

He is blessed by heaven because the experience comes upon us like a gift, not by effort. What occurs is the achievement of the life force—but we are a part of this and in no way left out.

Here the silence of identity (lines 4, 5, and 6 are yang) ignores the activity of the life force and it ceases to have influence.

The brake is applied; there is nothing we can do about it but follow our circumstances. Any attempt to get out of our circumstances will prove unfortunate so we need simply to experience where we are. A lean pig is an underfed pig and when we are under-stimulated we “leap about” to cause activity.

Feeling is our link between the undefined inner and manifest outer; here in this line new activity of feeling is occurring although identity is taking no notice.

Our present identifications (the guests) are not noticing the nourishment available, but this cannot be error, it is just circumstance.

In this tao we do not have a true picture of our circumstances and in this line we act out in circumstances of which we are ignorant.

If our increased involvement is with a sense of outer peace all is well, but this is likely to be a search for outer activity and if it is we will search and find none.

The tank which has or has not fish in it is our personal inner being and the fish are our personal identifications in this. Here there are no fish, the process of identifying is inactive in this tao, so if we expect something we are disappointed.

Our intuition about our circumstances as shown by line 2 is inactive; by accepting this lack of interpretive feeling, we allow life to happen to us.

The melons, the gourd family of fruits, have a multitude of seeds in the fruit casing, many possibilities. These possibilities are hidden within the fruit, the fruit is hidden in the leaves, it appears that nothing is there; then suddenly from this nothing (from heaven) there is a happening. This describes how life is when we do not anticipate it.

By accepting the energy of this tao which flows through emotional channels there is a forcing of their recognition.

The way emotion forces its way into recognition is often uncomfortable and causes regret, but it is necessary for it to be expressed so this is not an error.