869777 · 33.2.3Hexagram 33

Withdrawal.

Line image

The emerging life force is active and so is our feeling of it (lines 1 and 2), the rest of the lines are yang so there is no support for going forward in outer activity and also no acceptance of our situation. Inasmuch as we cannot accept circumstances which do not allow progress the tao follows its first common name, “retreat”, but if we are able to go with its movement the second name, “yielding” gives a better description.

Trigram image

The emerging energy seeks stillness (Kên) and this turns into unflowing structure in the outer world (Sun). Our identity is inactive and unconcerned (Ch’ien) as also is our inner being; this lack of involvement is part of the yielding aspect of the tao.

The Chinese Oracle

Yielding. Retreat.
Success.
Continuance in small matters
brings advantage.

Comments

When it is unsuitable to go in one direction we can go in another only if we are not totally locked into the desire for the first. Small matters or large ones are classified according to our choices and desires, so the direction in which we wished to go, and are prevented from advancing towards, is a large matter for us and other directions which hold no desire are small matters.

The advantage in continuing movement in these other directions is that they too contain experience; the success in this tao is in yielding to our circumstances and so finding new worlds we had not noticed because of our singleness of purpose.

Manifestations

The pattern
There is no movement outward.
Restraint where action might be
and a quiet withdrawal.
Outside forces are not opposed.
For humans
There is no judgement on retreat.
It is the natural flow.
To oppose now
is opposing our own pattern.
To fight is weaponless.
In withdrawing
the return is creative.
In nature
Deer grazing in a clearing.
Prowling cats.
There are more shadows in the forest.
In forms we make
When we have not the means
we cannot seek ends.
Rather use what is at hand.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

If we have no active life energy even retreat is impeded, slow, or left too late.

The Chinese Image
The tail of withdrawal.
Danger.
No goal has advantage.

If we identify ourselves with the rearguard of retreat we are clearly retreating from something we still desire; it is dangerous because this goal is not attainable.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

When we attach our identity too firmly to a direction and cannot advance there is shock which turns retreat into defeat in our minds. When in shock identity retreats into itself, shortens its boundaries to consolidate its realness.

The Chinese Image
Held fast.
Yellow oxhide.
Cannot be released.

Oxhide is tough and strong; yellow is active, being near the peak of our eye sensitivity; the desire for activity is so strong it holds us bound in our desire for certain results from our circumstances.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

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.

The Chinese Image
Constrained retreat.
Distress and danger.
Nourishing those who serve
is fortunate.

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.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

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

The Chinese Image
Retreat despite desire.
Good fortune for the superior man.
The inferior man cannot achieve it.

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.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

We have come to recognize the feeling of the life force and being open to this enables us to yield willingly, seeing it as right and not only necessary.

The Chinese Image
Admirable retreat.
Continuance brings good fortune.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

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

The Chinese Image
A noble withdrawal.
Everything is favourable.

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

Secondary HexagramHexagram 6

Conflicting opposites.

Line image

With the top three lines yang we cannot respond, and with the second line yang we do not intuitively feel what to do, so it is not surprising that this hexagram is commonly called “difficulty”. There is activity from the life force and in our outer world. The difficulty we have here is our inability to participate.

Trigram image

The alternate male and female symbols of the first two trigrams, each in their opposing form of first male surrounded by female and then female surrounded by male, shows vacillation with doubt and hesitation; this forms into a firm, perhaps obstinate structure in us shown by the third trigram Sun and a lack of involvement for our inner being in the top trigram Ch’ien.

Experiencing this difficult situation has a learning effect in our personality, our personal self, in dealing with the problems of our manifest reality; here we are very much out in the world and struggling with its inconsistencies.

The Chinese Oracle

Conflict.
Sureness of being right meets obstacles.
With care there is progress in the middle
but it is disastrous at the end.
It is beneficial to see the great man but not to cross the great water.

Comments

Sureness of being right comes to a developed identity who is sure of the rules (the restrictions in reality) that he lives by; this sureness meets obstacles at the boundaries of his restricted reality where the rules no longer apply. We develop by changing, which is to change the rules, so if we are very sure our rules are right this will serve us for a while (the middle) but later on, if we cannot change, this is disastrous to our growth or our ability to move with our environment which itself is changing all the time.

Great is wide; the great man sees widely, without restriction, and to do this will help, but the great water is a wide barrier between us and a changed way of being (the other country over the water) and to jump at change while we have narrow horizons would invite further difficulty.

Manifestations

The pattern
Alternate water fire
cannot grow together.
Opposing into firmness
is tranquility of solitude.
For humans
Conflict resolved by separation.
Internal conflict by distinctions.
In nature
Heat frustrates life functions of water,
water, the cleansing of fire.
when nature throws these together
life takes time to recover.
In forms we make
When an entity moves
in opposing directions
they each have need
of a single sphere.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

With our life energy moving into an inactive phase, and having the feeling of difficulties we wish to get out of, we may be persuaded to push some activity to make things better; this is not going to be useful when we are in a state where we do not see our way very well.

The Chinese Image
If affairs are not pushed forward to conclusion there is gossip but good fortune in the end.

The gossip comes from all those parts in us which think we can get out of difficulty by doing something but do not realize that the difficulty is an unawareness that we cannot help at present. Good fortune comes eventually because this state is itself part of change.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Here we become free of involvement in difficulty by a re-awakening of our intuitive feeling about our circumstances instead of trying to sort it out with our conflicting ideas.

The Chinese Image
The conflict is not resolved.
He returns home.
His kin, three hundred households,
are free of blame.

Resolving a conflict of ideas is not the only way of dealing with it, although when we are in conflict it may seem so. We can simply return to our observing centre and cease to project any idea on what we experience. Kin are those who are related, and within our personal self the related parts which were in conflict do not blame each other, instead they change their way entirely (symbolized by the number 3 for change and hundred for the entirety).

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

Not taking sides in a conflict is sometimes quite difficult. Initially it is a hard course because participants within us wish to join in, but eventually it is rewarding as we understand more widely.

The Chinese Image
He nourishes himself on ancient virtues.
Continuance in the way brings danger
but eventual good fortune.
If in service of a king seek no office.

The middle way is the ancient virtue; it attains its ends because conflict is always temporary and fluctuating. If we are ruled by some identification (in service of a king) it is better not to further it now.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Here we are accepting a world active in conflict. As we accept it, we do not fight to resolve it.

The Chinese Image
The conflict cannot be resolved.
He retreats from his position and accepts his circumstances.
Peacefully continuing in the way brings good fortune.

Here we can see the conflict from outside and so do not take sides. We see that the argument is fruitless.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

In this tao our feeling is closed to the “other” so conflict arises; here we recognize this closed feeling and see it as causing the conflict or as an important element in it.

The Chinese Image
Widely aware of the battle,
then good fortune comes.

There can only be conflict when views are narrow—when they are wide they overlap.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

The active life energy emerging into this tao becomes conflict due to lack of insight. Here we accept this as the tao, as our way of inner being, but conflict as a way of being resolves nothing and pushes identity further into its identifying isolation. In a wide sense, we lose when in conflict, whether we win or lose the contest.

The Chinese Image
If by chance we win a girdle (a token of position in the martial arts)${comma()} it will be taken from us three times before the day is over.

The situation in contest changes all the time and this (the number 3) takes our advantage from us. The gains are superficial and transitory.

Nuclear HexagramHexagram 44

Adapting to circumstances.

Line image

Here the life force is manifesting actively (line 1) and we are not feeling it, not involved in it, not recognizing what it is (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all yang). This unawareness is likely to lead us into misreading our situation.

Trigram image

The only trigram with any activity is that for the emerging life force, Sun, and we do not respond to this circumstance which comes to us in a rather rigid and formed shape. We cannot influence it because it has no changeability and we may not recognize its strength because of its gentleness. We need to remain alert and witness our desires rather than trying to fulfill them.

The Chinese Oracle

Sudden meeting.
The woman is powerful.
Do not marry.

Comments

The meeting is sudden because we are very unaware in this tao, like someone who is very short-sighted and suddenly recognizes something at close range. Feeling (the woman) is powerful and this feeling is emotional feeling that we have stored and now seeks activity, so it is not born out of our present circumstances but is triggered by them. It is useful to allow such feeling but useless to wed ourselves to it.

Manifestations

The pattern
The powerfully mature
has its activity.
Without being influenced
has influence.
For humans
He does not try to change
what is so formed,
but meeting it
he is so drawn
he must himself change.
In nature
The flow of oceans
does not yield to our swimming.
The place of planets
does not shift for our desire.
In forms we make
All forms have archetypes
they tend towards,
yet the archetype has no form.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

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 Chinese Image
The wheel is held by a metal brake.
Continuance in the way brings good fortune.
A lean pig leaps about.

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.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

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.

The Chinese Image
There are fish in the tank.
It does not benefit the guests.
No error.

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

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

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.

The Chinese Image
No skin on his thighs.
He walks with difficulty.
Keeping alert he makes no error.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

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 Chinese Image
No fish in the tank.
Misfortune.

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.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

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 Chinese Image
A melon wrapped in leaves is hidden.
Something falls from heaven.

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.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

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

The Chinese Image
He approaches with his horns.
Regret but no error.

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.