896996 · 47.2.3.4.5.6Hexagram 47

Exhaustion of activity.

Line image

Our outer responses (lines 4 and 5) are quiet and so is our intuitive feeling (line 2), so although there is activity to be experienced shown in lines 1 and 3 we are not responding to it. This pictures the common name of the hexagram, which is “exhaustion”. Our inner being is accepting the activity of the emerging tao so activity will return, but for now we have exhausted our responses to our circumstances.

Trigram image

Energy emerges into manifestation in the image of K’an; low energy, low flow. In the outer world it is tentative (Li) and enters a structured identity (Sun); all this is a weak energy flow, although in the inner being there is an expectation of activity (Tui) for future outer action.

The direction in which we have been going has lost its impetus, has become exhausted. Identity itself only feels exhausted when it is identified with an exhausted activity such as this and is not able to let it rest.

The Chinese Oracle

Exhaustion restricts,
leads to success
through continuance by the great man.
No error, but words spoken are not believed.

Comments

Continuing to see reality more widely and less restricted by the choices of desire is the way of the great man which opens to new ways where energy is flowing. We have identified ourselves in something where the life force is exhausted but words will not be believed because identification, by its very nature, restricts our sight in reality so that where we identify, that alone is real. Our conscious mind can understand but does not have much say in where we identify.

Manifestations

The pattern
Basic forces of opposition
change into the firm
through exhaustion
of their activity.
For humans
He misunderstands exhaustion,
“building walls” is exhausted
not the builder.
If he continues higher
he is pretending.
In nature
When the seas boil
in fissures of fire
this is too extreme
for the delicate tissues of life;
but when this force is spent,
life begins.
In forms we make
The completion of a form
is always the condition
for the start of another.
Exhaustion is its signal.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

Here we have not changed our role, we see activity diminishing and our tiredness will not leave us until we can change. Resting is not for the purpose of allowing new efforts of the same sort we have been making, it is to empty ourselves of that effort so as to become new again; re-newed.

The Chinese Image
Entangled.
Naked branches in a dark valley.
For three years nothing happens.

The leafless tree is a winter tree and a dark valley is a night-time valley; the activity has gone out of the life force and until this changes, nothing can happen (the symbol three is of change and the year is a complete cycle).

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

When we are very tired we seek not only rest but also relief from tension and this leads us to relax restrictions that we normally impose upon ourselves—we indulge. When we open our feeling in this tao this is probably what we do.

The Chinese Image
Exhaustion and too much meat and drink.
The man with the scarlet sash is just coming.
Sacrifice furthers.
Activity brings misfortune
but there is no error.

Compensating ourselves for our circumstances is indulgence. If we are to benefit from the next turn of events (the man with the scarlet sash, an important one) this activity should be sacrificed or we miss, which is misfortune, but if we have not eyes to see it, it cannot be an error.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

Here we withdraw from outer activity, but as our outer activity is our contact with the “other” we isolate ourselves; when we do this our circumstances appear to oppose us.

The Chinese Image
Exhausted by rock.
Leans upon thorns.
Enters his house and does not see his wife.
Misfortune.

Exhaustion by rock; rock underlies the surface soil as truth underlies appearances, and truth represents “what is”; here we are exhausted by battling against what is, not accepting our circumstances, and so pain ourselves unnecessarily. In our personal self, our house, we are not aware of our intuitive feeling (the wife) and so do not see our circumstances as the truth would see it.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

We turn our attention to outer activity to find something new, recognizing that what we were doing is exhausted.

The Chinese Image
A slow arrival, exhausted in a golden carriage.
Some humiliation but he arrives.

Gold is an outer value and here we are carried by outer values, always looking for the new within these same values and so always exhausted; but continually looking for the new will eventually lead us to new values, a change in _us_. This is why the arrival is slow.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Here we come to experience our exhaustion of feeling; if we can witness this without trying to act upon it we may see that it is our chosen tao that is exhausted, not our being which belongs to the great tao and is never exhausted.

The Chinese Image
His nose and feet are cut off.
Opposition to the man with the scarlet sash.
Joy come slowly.
Sacrifice is needed.

The nose leads the direction we face and the feet lead the direction we take; both are frustrated, cut off. We are in opposition to a greater truth, our truth is too small and when we cease our attachment to it, joy, flow, will return.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

If we had let go earlier we would not be exhausted; here we are too exhausted to accept the energy of the life force.

The Chinese Image
Exhausted by entanglement with creepers.
Moves unsurely and says he regrets it.
If the regret is genuinely felt his movements bring good fortune.

The creeping plants hold us only because we entangle ourselves with them (we say of habits that they grow on us). Not knowing how our desires creep into actions we cannot act with decision to dissociate ourselves from them. Feeling the regret genuinely is to feel the actual situation, not just regretting the discomfort we are in.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 52

A wider view.

Line image

In this structure neither the inner (lines 1 and 6) nor the outer (lines 3 and 4) have activity with acceptance; feeling (lines 2 and 5) becomes the dominant mode, it is the function linking the inner and outer and the primary distinguisher of the life force. We find ourselves feeling without acting inside or outside. The common name of the hexagram is “keeping still” or “contemplation”.

Trigram image

As the life force emerges it tends to become still (Kên) so there is little outer activity (K’an). This stillness causes activity of the identified self (Chên) which itself seeks stillness (Kên). So the flow of the tao is one that causes great change in our personal self, an activity directed at achieving stillness. This is a reversal of the role identity has in its growth phase which has been about action outside in which we identified ourselves and so built our point of view in reality. Here we internalize the identity we have grown, we seek that inner space which is neither identified outside nor inside, where we can be ourselves without noticing it.

The Chinese Oracle

Stillness.
Keeping the back so still
there is no feeling of body.
Walking in the courtyard
he does not see the people.
No error.

Comments

Stillness relates to the idea of an unmoving central core like the centre of a rotating wheel which does not move but is the essential reference point of movement. It is an element in activity which we cannot distinguish and tend to see as unreal. Our backbone is such a reference point for our body, if no message goes out from it no movement arises. The courtyard surrounds the house; instructions from the house cause activity in the courtyard; here we walk in the courtyard, our being is in the place of activity, but we see no people which is to say that we have no concern about what goes on there. It is no error to be with activity while being innerly still; it is the act of dynamic relaxation and perfect poise.

Manifestations

The pattern
Seeking to return
to a peak once known.
The completion
that contains the beginning.
The start that is the end.
For humans
Resisting movement
he avoids beginnings.
Knowing that in the beginning
there was no end
he seeks no end.
Thereby he arrives
at a wider beginning.
In nature
The low reaches upward.
The confines seek to spread.
The fruit of the seed
seeks to become seed.
In forms we make
Cycles begin and end.
Their beginning and ending
has no ending
and no beginning.
This has the form
of encompassing a wider view.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

The emerging life force is the source of outer activity, so here we are stilling the beginning of movement. If we continue this throughout the flow, inner and outer, we will remain with our centre.

The Chinese Image
Keeping the toes still.
No error.
Continuance in the way
brings good fortune.

The toes lead the body when we walk, so this stilling of the toes is the beginning of keeping still, we stop the first part to move. This is the way to create stillness, right at the beginning before movement actually starts, so continuing in the way brings good fortune and there is no error.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

When experience comes to us we taste it with our feeling and then we follow this with decisions about how to behave in our circumstances. Here the stilling effect of the tao is in our feeling so that our usual flow or zest for life lessens; this is only a problem if we resist being still.

The Chinese Image
Keeping the calves still.
He is sad;
cannot assist the one he follows.

The calf muscles lift the body so that we fall into the next step; keeping them still we take no step. If we, identified self, follow something we cannot be still, we cannot assist the stillness by doing something.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

Here we act out in the tao of keeping still, we are using outside means, outside ideas, to create stillness. When we do this it is like damming a stream; the flow is from inner to outer so outside action cannot create stillness except by restricting some flow.

The Chinese Image
Keeping the loins still.
Stiffening the sacrum.
The heart suffocates.

In our animal world the prime life priority is of the species, a great identity of which all its members are a part. Here we keep the loins still and sacrum stiff and this is the cradle of our reproduction; we stop the flow the “heart” creates. So our way of trying to create stillness from the outside prevents manifestation, the flow of life, and misunderstands stillness; stillness has no wish to move.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Here we are no longer concerned about outer stillness, we just allow it to be still.

The Chinese Image
Keeping the body still.
No error.

It is the whole body, not a part, that we keep still. If we concentrate on keeping this or that part still the other parts will move unnoticed by us. It is the whole that is still when stillness is achieved.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Our intuitive feeling is active in this tao. Here we, as identity, are less involved in these feelings so we do not project them on to our circumstances. We project when we express what we feel about things.

The Chinese Image
Keeping the jaws still.
Words are in order.
Regret disappears.

The words are not said, yet they are in order. Our words are the outflow of our meaning and if our meaning is in perfect order it cannot be said—we only speak out of incompleteness, then there is something to be said. Here there is no care or regret because there is nothing left over, nothing to be said.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

When we accept stillness into our inner being the next expression of that being is perfectly still although in activity.

The Chinese Image
The most genuine stillness.
Good fortune.
Nuclear HexagramHexagram 37

Nourishing relationships.

Line image

The activity here is in our intuitive feeling (line 2) and acceptance of an inactive outer world (line 4), so spontaneous feeling will be evident and it will be somewhat enclosed or protected. The common name of the hexagram is “the family” and it may refer to an enclosed unit of the external family or to our internal unit of different identifying parts in our personal self.

Trigram image

In the trigrams forming “the family” it is not surprising to find Li and K’an alternating and maturing at the top in Sun (Li is elemental female surrounded by elemental male and K’an is the converse). The energy flow is hesitant and with doubt as different elements try to merge together while keeping their separate identities, eventually maturing into a structure as a family does and also as our personal identity does.

The Chinese Oracle

The family.
The importance of the woman develops.

Comments

The central value of the female element is both growing and causing development in the whole, the family. It is the female attributes that become important, the feeling mode that creates the family as a unit, although of course the wife is central in the family also.

Manifestations

The pattern
Opposites alternate in harmony,
gently maturing.
For humans
The taming of fire made home.
The fire of opposites dancing together
becomes life rhythm.
The young and hesitant grow mature.
The fluid pattern of family life
grows firm, even rigid.
In nature
Sun and rain.
nature grows and ripens.
In forms we make
The ordering of things
so each plays its part
establishes order in the whole.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

Activity from within is the essence and harmony in relationship, it comes from the shared reality and so is not in contest. Here it is activity that is shared and so helps to develop relationship.

The Chinese Image
The family is enclosed (regulated).
Regret disappears.

Enclosure separates the unit from the “other”, it creates the unit. The search for “the other” is satisfied so regret disappears in the relationship of complementary parts.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

We are not looking for new feeling from the life force, not making feeling out of it but attending to daily matters.

The Chinese Image
She does not attend to separate matters
but to the preparation of food.
Continuance in this brings good fortune.

If intuitive feeling is active it is interpreting the life force to guide the growth of identity but here identity has all it requires within it (within the family) and attending to this brings the good fortune.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

Forming the whole, whether in family or personal self, requires activity to be within an enclosed structure. Here the activity tends to go outside.

The Chinese Image
When family members are at variance the confrontation may bring regret and danger but then good fortune.
If the woman and children do not take this seriously there is regret.

Confrontation comes when partners in relationship strengthen their separate role and relate outside. Only the separate can relate yet relating brings separate parts together, so confrontation is a basic need in relating; if, however, feeling does not take this fact seriously the structure of relationship is no longer enclosed and for the “family” this causes regret.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Here we are becoming less concerned with a lack of outer activity, we are not looking for nourishment there because it already exists inside. This is to be centred.

The Chinese Image
Enriching the family.
Great good fortune.

The enrichment is from turning inwards so it is not about external wealth but the flow of internal relationships in feeling.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Our intuitive feeling attracts our attention. There is a looking around for new identification which is threatening to the family.

The Chinese Image
The king’s influence comes to his family.
Do not be troubled.
Good fortune.

The king rules and holds the kingdom together, so here the worry of independent parts breaking up the unit of interrelationship is unfounded.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

The life force emerging into relationship (line 1) is yang, which is to say undefined energy, and here we are trusting in this, basing our being upon it. We trust the bonds which make the parts whole without questioning how or why, which lays the foundation for sound sharing of outer experience and makes it possible to share within ourself. It is necessary for sharing parts to recognize their common root—their part in it.

The Chinese Image
Sincerity.
Arrayed like a king.
Good fortune in the end.

Sincerity being within the family it grows an identity, we identify within it, and this is like a king because it rules the way we are; when the parts identify in the whole (in this case the family) they no longer need to be stating their separateness and this is the good fortune at the end of the formation of the family.