889767 · 56.3.5Hexagram 56

Search for new reality.

Line image

In this structure we make our reality in feeling (lines 2 and 5 are yin) and we are not involved in the inner reality of our circumstances (line 6 is yang); the outer world does not provide a reality we can “get into” (lines 3 and 4 are both yang) so we feel but do not feel nourished. This feeling leads to a rejection of our present circumstances and the search for new situations; the common name of the hexagram is “the wanderer”, our feelings become like feelers searching for something that would be more real for us.

Trigram image

The life force emerges into stillness (Kên), makes outer structure (Sun), gives hope for a movement (Tui), and is taken hesitantly (Li) by our inner being; we seek to transform our outer reality and find circumstances that feel right for us, so we wander into different situations to find this sense of rightness. This tao comes about when we do not accept the circumstances we are in.

The Chinese Oracle

The wanderer.
Success of what is small.
Continuance brings good fortune.

Comments

The wanderer has given up his fixed home, his established reality, and searches for new experience. He is searching in what is small—in the narrow choosing reality—so his success will be there. He has a need to experience this so that he knows its truths and its limitations, so it is good fortune to persevere in it. There is no ultimate goal there, it is small, it is a passing through, a wandering.

Manifestations

The pattern
Stillness and maturity
searching for the new
leads to continual change.
For humans
He goes from place to place
making changes in each:
searching his death
that will enable him to live,
searching a change in himself.
In nature
When it is very dry
fire ranges across the forest
looking always for new fuel.
In forms we make
The state
engulfs other states
when its own opposition is dead.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

When there is no activity from the inner (whole) reality and we are wandering because we are, for now, ignoring the nature of the whole, our wanderings become random, our interest is in the illusion of movement and we do not find here the sense of realness we seek.

The Chinese Image
Entangling in trifling matters
brings misfortune.

We can experience the illusion without being entangled, without believing it to be totally real. Nothing is totally real except the whole, and by its nature identity cannot experience this as part of the smallness. The misfortune is losing touch with the whole.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

A feeling of unreality gives rise to the idea that circumstances are unsatisfactory and this drives the wanderer on. In this moving line this feeling becomes less active so we can rest a while in ordinary circumstances—these appear to be real again and support identity.

The Chinese Image
The wanderer is safe at an inn
and still has his valuables.
He has a loyal young servant.

An inn is a place for a temporary stay while wandering, and any wanderer’s valuables are his beliefs and principles; so we have settled into our reality and are not searching at the moment. We are helped in this by loyal feeling, a sense of realness that does not desert us; feeling is the servant of identity, providing what it needs to identify amongst; here it is tranquil (yang).

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

With an increase in outer activity the feeling of unreality in it all returns, as it must because the wanderer is not wandering purposelessly but to find a different sense of the real. When we lose our sense of purpose in outer activity it can no longer support our own sense of being real or justified.

The Chinese Image
The inn which housed the wanderer
burns down.
He loses his young servant.
There is danger.

The inn and the young servant are explained in line 2, which makes their context easy to see here. The feeling of danger is of insecurity, danger to feeling worthwhile.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Now we are interested in the idea of being inactive, doubting that all this wandering is a good idea, so we settle down where we are. Although we are accepting our outer reality as it is, unstimulating, this is not going to change anything, but to treat it as a rest is more real, for our wandering is not completed yet.

The Chinese Image
The wanderer finds shelter and rest.
He has his valuables and axe
but his heart has no joy.

Innerly our valuables are the identifications we have chosen and the axe symbolizes our defence of these; so according to the image we do not change ourselves, and as joy comes only with the flow of change we feel no joy, but we have rest.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

We are less in our feelings of wandering; wandering is not the important thing it was. Innerly wandering is searching for something outside ourselves that feels more satisfying, more nourishing; here we find that this is not the way, and this is itself a new direction for us.

The Chinese Image
He shoots a pheasant,
loses an arrow.
The end brings praise and office.

He gains nourishment (the pheasant) and loses direction (the arrow). His direction was wandering, and exchanging this for nourishment in his present situation is the end of wandering and creates an established presence (office) and recognition (praise).

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

When our outer reality becomes unsatisfactory we wander. Here in this line we are accepting wandering as a way of being and this will not be fulfilling for very long because it is not just that we are in a bad place—all outer identification feels lacking.

The Chinese Image
The bird burns up its own nest.
First the wanderer laughs
but then weeps and cries out.
He carelessly loses his cow.
Misfortune.

The bird is a symbol of spirit or whole reality and its nest is where it raises its young; our being cannot raise more young (new experience) if we stay in outer identification; the new comes from the inner. At first, being out in defined reality seems clear and to be a solution, but nothing new comes and it becomes a repetition. When the inner is included in our sense of the real, new experience comes fresh each day, like the service of a cow—this we carelessly lose.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 12

Standstill.

Line image

The top three lines, representing our outer attention, our identity and our inner being, are all yang; we are not very aware therefore of the life force as it manifests. Where we are not aware, we are not changed, and this tao is commonly named “standstill”.

Trigram image

Activity is stilled in the outer world, structured in our personal self and leaves the inner being unchanged, so the activity of this tao makes for rigid rules which inhibit change—our structure becomes so firm that the life force does not flow in it and stagnation occurs. The flow shows that it is not strictly the tao enforcing standstill in identity, it is equally the rigidity of our identity, roles we play, stances we habitually take up. To be free of these is to have freedom.

The Chinese Oracle

Standstill.
The evil obstructs the superior man.
The wide goes, the narrow comes.
He needs perseverance.

Comments

The narrowing of awareness in this tao cannot but obstruct the superior man, for he is our aspect of widening awareness. Becoming aware of our unawareness, which is persevering with being in our circumstances, makes this a constructive experience.

Manifestations

The pattern
Separation between the potential
and the field of activity
is standstill of flow.
For humans
How does he steer his boat
when there is no wind?
He does not blow on the sail,
he contemplates the stillness
and how it strengthens him.
In nature
When the sun
sinks behind the mountain
the earth sleeps.
In forms we make
When he raises laws
between the good and the bad
he imprisons rebirth.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

The ignoring of activity shown by lines 4, 5, and 6 results in silence; so the manifesting life force seems to disappear.

The Chinese Image
When grass is pulled up
earth comes with it.
Perseverance brings good fortune.

The activity of the life force is attached to our ability to react to it, or so it seems to our experience, so we need to keep going about our business. We have no way to directly influence the karma of our inner being; our ignoring needs to be as it is and will then change.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

In line 2 we interpret the life force in feeling, and in this tao of ignorance of the life force, we easily lose our ability to interpret it. In this moving line this happens and our narrower desiring mode of being is favoured by it; we feel that reality needs to be made what we desire (better) and we work for this, but this means that in this tao of experiencing our separation from the flow of the tao, we replace this experience with our desire and striving.

The Chinese Image
Fortune now favours the mean,
but the superior man looks to the stagnation to create success.

Our wide-seeing (superior) aspect can see that experiences such as this which distress our identified aspect are necessary and also wholesome.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

In this situation where we are not aware of the energy flowing from inner to outer we cease to act; this shows that we do not take account of activities outside our immediate awareness and we take the standstill as being our own responsibility—this in turn makes us feel blame for what is happening.

The Chinese Image
He hides his shame of purposes.

Blaming ourselves is a point of view we have adopted; blaming is not accepting.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Here identity opens itself to what is going on around it in the outside world and we become aware of the effects of our involvement there. We see that we act even when we are not aware, acting out of our greater self, and that we can simply follow this with our conscious identity.

The Chinese Image
To act from the highest is without error and his companions share the blessing.

In an inner interpretation the companions here are our separate parts of identity. The wider our view of reality becomes, the more our various aspects can take part and become a whole.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Here we become aware of our intuitive feelings, and as these are active (line 2) we become aware of the activity of the life force. The characteristic of this tao is our lack of flow due to a lack of awareness, so this move towards feeling opens the identity to possibilities of flow once more.

The Chinese Image
Standstill is giving way.
There is still danger needing attention like the binding of mulberry shoots.

The danger is of taking the flow to be our own and so still not opening ourselves to wider reality. The image of mulberry shoots probably arises out of the habit of mulberry bark to form sprouting burrs which take the strength from the tree; these were then bound tightly to contain them. In the same way, we need to strongly contain the urge to define and take possession of our feelings now or we will remain as separate as ever.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

As our being becomes one with the active emerging life force (line 1) the cycle is completed and we flow once again, released from our isolate position of unawareness.

The Chinese Image
Standstill is finished and a joyful flow takes its place.
Nuclear HexagramHexagram 28

Rigidity.

Line image

In our inner being, line 6, we accept the activity of change that is available in our circumstances (line 1 is yin), but our intuitive feeling in line 2 is inactive and so is our outer world in line 3; identity is not interested in changing any of this (lines 4 and 5 are yang). This is a picture of stress where there is inner pressure for change but no response from the outer, manifesting self. It is too still, too rigid, has no flexibility.

Trigram image

The energy emerges formed and structured by the trigram Sun, is inactive throughout its manifestation as Ch’ien both for identity and the outer world, and has just a hope of change in Tui for our inner being. Here is a flow only at the very borders of our awareness, everything manifest is held rigid and cannot move, yet the activity of the inner is pushing it to move. When rigid structures are forced to change shape something gives way suddenly.

The Chinese Oracle

Excess.
The ridgepole sags.
Movement is favourable.
Success.

Comments

We recognize excess by the stress it creates, without stress excess is felt as abundance. So here we are in a situation of stress pictured as the ridge of a roof about to give way; the ridge is where the two sides of the roof meet, and the roof is what separates us from the elements—a picture of our duality which “protects” identity from being engulfed in the great unknown reality. This “protection” is threatened, and keeping the polarities of our choices apart is threatened when they become excessive, when we or our society becomes too polarized for the flow of manifestation to happen, for the flow of manifestation is interchange between polarities.

Manifestations

The pattern
From the inner there is no flow.
Action is all inactivity,
Making return a beginning.
For humans
When firm and inflexible,
the only way of moving is to break.
When so gentle it changes nothing,
the only way of living is to die
into a beginning.
In nature
The wood is too ripe for budding,
too rigid for change
until it returns to earth.
In forms we make
No longer supported, must fall.
Falling, finds support.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

The stress in this tao is created by the force of the life energy from the inner acting upon rigid form in our lives (in ourselves). Here the activity is lessened and the stress limited.

The Chinese Image
Spreading white rushes underneath.
No error.

This is protection by the inner being, rushes are put under something to soften the contact, they are white because there is no selection in this action (white light is all-coloured light).

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Here the rigidity itself is loosening, we are starting to feel the life force again and this is the beginning of new feeling.

The Chinese Image
The wizened willow tree
puts out new shoots.
An old man has a young wife.
All is favourable.

The old finds a way to flow again, and it was the lack of flow that caused the excess of pressure.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

In this tao identity has excessively structured duality; to act out from this projects the stress into our circumstances.

The Chinese Image
The ridgepole sags to breaking point.
Misfortune.

The ridgepole giving way is like our giving out the stress from within us, we give way to it and the consequences to our environment are unfortunate.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

What we are accepting here in this moving line is the inactivity of our outer world, so there is less stress because we are not struggling with our rigidity. This does not change the rigidity but makes it more manageable and may mask the basic problem.

The Chinese Image
The ridgepole has support.
Good fortune.
Reliance on weak support
is unfortunate.

Reliance on masking the stresses we have would be a weak support.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Becoming aware of intuitive feeling that is inactive is to be more aware but not to have more feeling.

The Chinese Image
The wizened willow flowers.
The old woman takes a husband.
No praise. No blame.

This is widening awareness, opening up, flowering; then old feeling (from memory) comes to thought, to consciousness. These do not change things, the flowering does not change the tree and the old woman cannot have children, in other words there is no new growth.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

Here we give up the struggle and become unaware of the activity pushing us towards change. When we become unaware of forces they overtake us.

The Chinese Image
Fording a river, the water rises over his head.
Misfortune. No error.

To give way to the flow is no error, only uncomfortable; it overcomes the rigidity and so changes us.