976996 · 58.1.3.4.5.6Hexagram 58

It comes!

Line image

Our outer world is active (line 3) and we are not concerned with this (line 4); although the emerging energy (line 1) is not active we accept and are changed by this in our inner being (line 6); meanwhile the feeling of our situation is quiet (lines 2 and 5). Because we accept the inner quietness and are not involved in outer activity the tone is unworried and feeling is relaxed. The only active lines are about outer activity and our inner being; here is the resonance of activity in the tao, it is at the edge of our awareness and not quite definable. This resonance is clarified by the common name of the hexagram, which is “joy”.

Trigram image

The life force emerges as a new energy (Tui) to be only lightly, hesitantly, manifest (Li). It passes structure in our identity (Sun) and gives new energy to our inner being (Tui again). Here is a flow which shows the indefinable quality of joy, our structure can nowhere grasp it, plan for it, or hold it when it occurs. It is a most spontaneous and inner experience where the bubbling of energy from the inner appears in our outer reality. It is an experience that identity can do nothing about except experience joyfully; to try to impose any structure upon it brings on such difficulties as we have with this tao.

The Chinese Oracle

Joy. Success.
Continuance along the way
is rewarding.

Comments

The reward of allowing the tao is joyousness, and is continuing along its way. It is a totally simple tao for identity when it is less separate because the joy is the experience of resonance happening; an energy not an object.

Manifestations

The pattern
The pre-form of activity
has joy.
The formed activity also
has joy.
For humans
He knows in his fibre
the power to create.
He knows in his body
the motions of creation.
How could he not
enjoy his creation?
In nature
A sunrise that excites the soul.
A day that satisfies it.
In forms we make
The prototype is ready.
The plan is made.
Harmonious with its outcome.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

It is easier for us as identified beings to respond to the active phases of the life force, and this is especially true in this tao where our attention is on the inner being. Joy comes naturally at this time because there is activity outside for us to identify amongst.

The Chinese Image
Joy of inner wholeness.
Good fortune.

The life force becomes active and so supports our acting outwards. The inner being (line 6) accepts the life force and so we are centred and complete innerly so we act out without doubt.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Feeling the potential of the life force brings just that bubbling joy that knows that the outer form will be appropriate, so we are in harmony with it. This is spontaneous and unidentified feeling so it does not interfere with the flow of the tao.

The Chinese Image
Genuine joy.
Good fortune.
No regret.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

Here we are not allowing the spontaneous flow of the tao into outer activity, because of hopes, fears, and so forth, we are holding activity for the future and the energy of joy is converted into that of worry. This is an internal and repetitive flow instead of a flow through identity and it blocks our receptiveness to the life force, this can only enter where there is an emptiness to receive it.

The Chinese Image
Future joy.
Misfortune.

Joy cannot be in the future, it is existential or it is not at all. It cannot be planned, hunted and found, for then we have no room to receive it.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

In this tao it is vital to the flow that outer activity is spontaneous, so when we try to distinguish, plan, and manipulate our environment, the joy is lost and planning takes its place.

The Chinese Image
Calculating joys brings restlessness.
Discarding the error brings happiness.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Intuitive feeling is inactive in this tao. To become involved in this inactivity, whether it be to identify with it or to question it, stops the flow of the tao. It is always true that even to observe we stop the flow.

The Chinese Image
Trusting in something
that is disintegrating
brings trouble.

The existential moment is always fresh; the happenings in it then disintegrate, as they have to as it is a flow of change, so if we attach ourselves to these happenings we cannot have joy in the existential moment.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

When the emerging life force is inactive (line 1) we tend to seek stimulation from the outer world; we miss the resonance between the inner and the outer when we do this, we own instead of taking part.

The Chinese Image
Alluring joy.
Secondary HexagramHexagram 18

Decay.

Line image

The inner being does not accept an active emerging life force (lines 6 and 1); our identity accepts an inactive intuitive feeling (lines 5 and 2); our identity accepts an inactive outer world (lines 4 and 3). We reject what is active and accept what is inactive. Human activity is aimed at furthering growth and complexity (organization); here we have its opposite, decay, the breakdown of complexity or the development of simplicity. The common name of the hexagram is “decay”.

Trigram image

Emerging energy is already formed (Sun) and there is hope of activity in the outer world (Tui), this activity is realized, however, in identity (Chên) while our inner being stands apart (Kên). The flow from the source is matured, firm and unchanging, and although there is the beginning of activity outside it is in our identifying that great change occurs—changing our identification; the change is here in our identity, not in our inner being.

The Chinese Oracle

Decay.
Greatest success.
It is of benefit to cross the great water.
Three days before the turning point
three days after.

Comments

Three days symbolizes change (three) and a cycle (day); change in the cycle occurs before and after the turning point between growth and decay; the change (activity) before is different to the change after because of the turning point so there is need to cross the great water, to change the mode of our being (across the great water the culture is different).

The mature identity cannot be re-born, first it has to complete its cycle by decay because structures are never re-born, only the essence of what they are, their being, can take a new form. Here is indeed the great water for us to cross, the greatest success that identity can achieve is genuinely to follow its continually changing circumstances.

Manifestations

The pattern
The source is firm,
formed and unflowing.
Outer form decays,
allowing new to take its place,
virile, rebuilding.
For humans
Our ways are fixed
and move no more.
Allow their death
and walk away in new country.
In nature
Maturity of autumn;
sap thickens, dries.
Decay of winter;
form dissipates.
Quickening of spring;
all is made new.
In forms we make
Perseverance in form,
momentum of habit,
pretence of life,
prevent reality living.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

Without the attention of our inner being (line 6 is yang) the emerging energy becomes quiet. This, in the context of decay, means a disconnection between an activity and the one following (the sixth line is our inner structure absorbed from activity and the first line is the next emerging energy).

The Chinese Image
The child deals with the actions of the father.
A son makes the father blameless.
Peril, but good fortune eventually.

For an internal interpretation the father is our past distinguishing which “fathers” our next response. The disconnection noted above is seen as a change of mode which, if a change in distinguishing (a son rather than a daughter which would be feeling) removes the old way of distinguishing (the father’s mode). Changing our way of being is going through instability (peril) but brings good fortune, a new way forward.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Here is a new feeling of the life force; it derives from our old way of feeling (the mother).

The Chinese Image
The child deals with the actions of the mother.
Do not be too active in this.

Feeling is a flow and so a continuity, consequently the change of one cycle to the next in feeling is not achieved by throwing out the old. The natural flow of feeling is for the new to take the place of the old when that is exhausted, so we allow old feelings to die, we do not kill them.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

The old outer activity had ceased and now here is the new in which our identity manifests; changing our outer mode is only carried out when we think the old is inferior and can be improved (the old mode is the father’s). We spend our time making things “better” and this means that we are always seeing ourselves as in some way in error.

The Chinese Image
The child deals with the actions of the father.
There is some regret but no great error.

We have to regret what we are in order to want to change it but this does not necessarily mean that there is error.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

The old outer activity has decayed by exhausting itself; this lessens interest in outer activity so that we do not change what has been done. In this tao it is important that a new cycle replaces the old or identity itself has no vehicle.

The Chinese Image
He tolerates actions of his father.
Continuing causes regret.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Here we are becoming less involved in the inactive feeling of line 2, less attached to it, and this is a turning point from decay to new growth. We prepare to take on a new cycle of activity, which in our usual progress is a development of what has gone before.

The Chinese Image
He deals with the actions of his father.
There is praise.

The praise belongs to the re-experience of our direction in a new way.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

Here we accept the turning point from decay to re-birth as it refers to our own being. In this we can have no purposes.

The Chinese Image
He does not serve kings or princes.
A loftier spirit has his own affairs.

This is the line of the inner being and as near to experience of the whole as our manifest part can reach. Kings and princes refer to the identifying process which is irrelevant here, where the turning point is in our own being.

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.