Our intuitive feeling of the life force diminishes while we are attached to progress outside in the world. In this tao outer activity is stilled (in trigram Kên) so looking for activity here is disappointing.

The grandmother symbolizes an old generation of feeling, past feeling, and past feeling coming into the present is emotion; so as we feel less of our present circumstances, past feelings find their release; they needed release so this is a blessing.

We normally make activity in order to control our circumstances; here we do not do this but trust in the tao of progress itself.

To live without manipulating requires giving up our hoping; we can only regret if we have been hoping for something.

The progress of being in the flow is towards balancing the inner and the outer; if we keep returning to our outer reality for a sense of realness we repeat habit tracks.

The rodents have typically quick, darting movements, running for cover, and here it is as though we were using the outer reality as safe cover. We feel unsafe when we cannot distinguish and identify our circumstances but the greater danger lies in our being trapped in distinguished reality as the only way of being that we can recognize.

In this tao progress is toward the balance of inner and outer (the non-defined and the defined), so in this moving line we are following the tao as we become less involved in identifying our feelings—we still feel but our mind does not take over the feeling.

The choice between gain and loss is something we experience by going out from our centre into definition; without this there is no regret, no hope to be dashed. When we act in the movement of the moment everything is furthered, not just that which would lead to a particular outcome.

Here we react to shock immediately by stirring our inner peace into activity. We are alert and not taken much off our guard, or the shock is such that it is quickly recognized; either way it is quickly followed by relief.

This is the numbness reaction to shock. Feeling cannot co-ordinate and so does not function, creating a strange separateness but this will pass.

The danger of overload is a danger to our ability to distinguish what is happening to us, a danger to identity itself. When we cannot distinguish because of shock we lose all of value because confusion has no values.
Over nine hills is nine times up and down again, a vacillation about the number nine, which is 3 × 3 or symbolically change which is changing—all is confusion as we try to follow the change but cannot. But it all comes back again at the end of the process, the seven days. This symbolism just describes the shock syndrome.

With shock, action becomes confused; but it is action that leads out of shock so instinctive action is an effective outlet; it also involves acting without caution.

It is necessary to move to get out of shock and our lightning-like reflexes operate, knowing in their own way what is needed; but here we control this and do not move.

Here we are taking possession of the action of shock, using it for our purposes, conscious or unconscious. This is a misunderstanding; shock is by its nature spontaneous and although we may serve our purposes by this means we narrow our reality.

In mud we get stuck and here we get stuck in shock, using it, entangling with it. Allow shock and it flows out, try to define or use it and it stays.

This fifth line is our recognition of intuitive feeling. Here the shock to feeling causes withdrawal from it—yet we cannot withdraw successfully from something so evident.

The danger is that we are distracted from outer action needed in response to the shock, “things need doing”. We are wildly seeking but nothing is lost so we need not seek.

This line of our inner being does not accept the shock, it is a matter for our outer coordination to deal with it.

The outer boundary of self, the identified self which has many facets, are the “neighbours” who are disoriented, not the inner self, they look around with frightened eyes for some help but get none and feel let down.

When the life force is inactive less activity is possible, especially when we are in the tao of obstruction.

Remaining involves being still, being alert, being aware; more being, less doing.

The natural reaction of feeling to troubled times is to become less sensitive; it is an instinctive move to balance sensitivity with aggravating circumstance.

The minister supplies the king with advice and information, as feeling does for identifying. Feeling is suffering under the stress of our circumstances but this is not a fault in the way we feel.

Here we act out to overcome our frustration although there is no path there; our objectives cannot be reached so we will then give up the attempt.

The unflowing state of outer action appears to us to be an obstruction. By becoming less involved in this we can be more aware of what is actually going on around us.

Connecting things together is a state of awareness, not of outer activity; here we try to understand our situation instead of battling against it.

The obstruction is so great that we turn to our intuitive feeling, which we have been ignoring.

Feeling our circumstances helps as a friend would, be relating innerly. Our ignorance of this feeling was part of the obstruction so this improves matters.

The obstruction in this tao is about our not being able to be still nor to act. Here our inner being becomes still, which is helpful.

Remaining is also keeping still and to see the great man is to see widely, not narrowing our view by choice; this is the good fortune.