669979 · 33.1.2.3.4.6Hexagram 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 60

Scarcity.

Line image

Activity is centred in the outer world (lines 3 and 4) and we are recognizing that our inner world is quiet (lines 6 and 1). So the activity of this tao is on the outside and is not supported by new energy from the depth of our being. Intuitive feeling is quiet also and we are not noticing this so there may be some tendency to overdo the outer activity.

Trigram image

The emerging energy in the image of Tui is more of a hope than a flow, yet in the outer world there is a torrent of activity (Chên) which is contemplated, held at a distance, by our identity (Kên), so there is little flow taken up by our inner being (K’an). So from a very small emerging energy flow we have a great outer surge or release of energy; the surge exhausts itself and we contemplate this because it leaves our inner being with very little energy. The common name of the hexagram is “limitation” and it is about providing this limitation so that a small resource is not squandered.

The Chinese Oracle

Limitation (or restraint).
Success.
Do not persevere in excessive restraint.

Comments

The intention is to spread resources, not to go into some sort of a fast, it is to learn control, not abstinence. Control requires just the right balance of inflow and outflow.

Manifestations

The pattern
When there is little at the beginning
its activities rise to a peak, its limit,
and fall to a dangerous low.
For humans
He limits the flow.
Seeing scarcity he spreads resources
to avoid famine.
In nature
In poor soil the seed germinates,
rises up but does not mature.
In forms we make
When the little
is gathered up by the few
the rest are empty.
This is dangerous.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

In this tao outer activity is not fed sufficiently to keep up its flow. Here in this line inner activity increases, but it is still necessary to conserve this and not to let it flow outwards without restraint. We have to provide our own restraint in this tao where our outer reality will take all that we can give and more, draining our source.

The Chinese Image
Not to go out of the door
and courtyard is without error.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Restraint is a form of relationship with something and all relationship needs intuitive feeling, a direct knowledge of the other. If we are restrained in our relationships they do not flow, and feeling _is_ a flow, not something we hold. So here in the line of feeling, although we are in a tao of restraint, to stop a flow outwards would suffocate relationship and then there is nothing to restrain; where feeling is more active as in this line, it should flow out.

The Chinese Image
Not to go out of the door
and courtyard brings misfortune.

Whether it is beneficial to “go out” depends upon the subject to which the symbolism is attached; in line 1 it is no error not to go out because the subject is our inner energy that needs to be conserved, here the subject is feeling and to control the flow of feeling does not conserve it for it is a flow itself, it only makes us confused which is a misfortune.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

Activity decreases in this tao because it is exhausted, and perhaps it is exhausted because it was unrestrained.

The Chinese Image
He acts without limitation
then regrets it.
No error.

Here is a lesson learned and this is certainly no error. Without the experience of mistakes life is all theory, so mistakes that are regretted (and so understood) are experience well used.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Our outer world is active in this tao and here we are becoming less concerned with this activity, so we are not pushing it along by being active in it. This is in keeping with the idea of limitation and produces a more harmonious flow.

The Chinese Image
Natural limitation. Success.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Our intuitive feeling is inactive; to become more involved in inactive feeling (feeling of peace) is harmonious in a tao of restraint, no effort of restraint is required is required when we are naturally peaceful.

The Chinese Image
Voluntary restraint.
Good fortune.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

It is the inactivity of the life energy that makes limitation necessary; by ignoring this we will overreach ourselves and be limited by the trickle of support the tao can give.

The Chinese Image
Limitation by pain.
Continuance brings misfortune,
but regret will disappear.

If we continually limit ourselves by the painful results of excess, a balance will be set up which keeps us on the edge of pain and this is a misfortune, but if we learn from going into pain through excess our regret ceases.

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.