876699 · 59.3.4.5.6Hexagram 59

Dissipation of energy.

Line image

Owing to the fact that we are ignoring the inactive nature of feeling (lines 2 and 5) we are not in touch with the energy that will feed our outer action; this is neither good nor bad, but has the effect that we act in the outer world without any involvement in replacing this energy from within. We are finishing off an activity, clearing the system of commitment; the outer is active and we accept this (lines 3 and 4) while our inner being (line 6) is not involved in the emerging energy of line 1.

Trigram image

There is little energy to start with (K’an) and this rushes into outer activity (Chên); this rush is stilled by our identity which is not involved in it (Kên) and this forms mature structure in our inner being (Sun). Energy is dissipated or dispersed externally and as no new flow is identified from the emerging life force, our inner being becomes still.

Allowing this dissipation of what we may think of as our main assets, our activities or doing, creates an emptiness, and emptiness is itself creative in allowing new ways of being to enter.

The Chinese Oracle

Dispersing or scattering.
Success.
The king approaches his temple.
It brings advantage to cross the great water,
Continuance in the way is rewarded.

Comments

The king is our ruler, which for identity is the process of identifying; the temple of the whole process of identifying is where it sacrifices its separateness to the whole, not a physical place but a state of mind in which identifications are given up, sacrificed. The image says that a cycle of our identifying is dispersing and this scattering of our focus is the success our situation offers. To cross the great water is to change our way of being; to cross the mystical river is death and re-birth and across great stretches of water is always a different culture.

Sacrifice is not easy, but we do not approach our temple to ask for the continuance of what we are.

Manifestations

The pattern
Energy
working against resistance
is dissipated.
For humans
If he makes it a task
it is beyond his powers.
If he is wise he seeks help
and changes to new ways.
In nature
Thunder roars in the lowland
but is hardly heard up the mountain.
In forms we make
When resistance overcomes activity
systems lose their cohesion;
new ones form.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

When our own life force energies need no expression and have become silent we may follow the tao concerning some need outside ourselves.

The Chinese Image
He helps with the strength
of a horse.
Good fortune

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Feeling is our first interpretation of the life force, from it we define our reactions and outer actions in the world; here in this tao we are scattering a form of identity so it is counter-productive to turn feeling into attitudes.

The Chinese Image
Dispersion is occurring.
Hurry to protection
and regret disappears.

Feeling is protected if kept within; in sacrificing the formation of an attitude we must hurry because feeling turns into an attitude so quickly we hardly see it turning, if indeed we see it at all. If we can stop in time, regret will disappear because regret is only possible when we have invested in attitudes.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

Our outer activity naturally wanes in this tao, and it is harmonious to allow it to die away so that we have no goal, no desire to achieve. We will then be empty, ready to allow the inner source to pass through and resonate in us.

The Chinese Image
He dissolves his self-centre
No regret.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Our own outer activity is normally directed towards achieving our desires in the world. Here we withdraw from this relationship, it is time to end what we have been doing to make room for something new.

The Chinese Image
He disperses his grouping.
Greatest good fortune.
Scattering leads to re-grouping;
The ordinary man does not consider this.

The ordinary man is our normal mode of creating a world out of our attitudes, it takes an extraordinary attitude to realize that our being is indestructible and our form one of continual change.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Feeling is not creating anything and we are living in this state of non-identification more where nothing leads identity and it becomes an awareness of being.

The Chinese Image
He makes great statements.
Perspiring, the king gives his valuables to the people.
No error.

The effort is great when the identifying process gives away the right to identify; identity gives up the ownership of what is there; it is a great statement, a great realization.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

Accepting dispersal in our inner being is the scattering of our ongoing self, the realization that this is not necessary to being.

The Chinese Image
Scattering his blood.
Keeping at a distance.
No error.

Blood is the life flow, the nourishing medium of our inner life which enables the separate parts to maintain themselves. To scatter this is to dissipate the established pattern of ourself or to keep it at a distance from our ability to be. It is to flow simply with the life force rather than with our own pattern of flow.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 32

Continuing. Branching out.

Line image

While the energy manifesting from the inner and our own inner being are both active (lines 1 and 6), our direct feeling of the life force and our outer world approach is quiet (lines 2, 3, and 4 are yang). In line 5 we accept this inactivity by which we do not translate the life force into action.

This is a pattern of inner activity, attentiveness to quiet feeling, and an absence of outer activity. Because identity is always looking for outer activity to keep itself identified, the inner activity of the life force is not overtly felt; here we are watching for a feeling to develop, all our attention is on this and we are not interested in the world of outer activity.

Trigram image

Emerging energy is mature and unchanging (Sun) and does not make outer action (Ch’ien); identity has hope of activity (Tui) and our inner being is changing forcefully (Chên).

From this flow we can see that we are watching the life force and looking ahead for activity in the future; this persistence and expectation gives the hexagram its common name of “duration”.

The Chinese Oracle

Long duration.
Success.
No error.
Continuance brings advantage.
Movement is favourable.

Comments

Movement is favourable because this tao is the continuation of movement in the life force to bring it to manifestation. We are working towards something new even if it is not at present clearly defined, and we need to keep going and not despair at what may seem tardy progress.

Manifestations

The pattern
A new cycle comes from the old.
It does not wither but continues,
producing new growth.
For humans
More than one life in life.
Maturity does not stagnate,
middle age no signal of decline.
Youth continues into the old.
In nature
From mature wood
new strong shoots continue to appear.
In forms we make
By continual renewal
living form has duration.
By exceptional renewal, rejuvenation.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

When inner energy does not flow we turn to something new in our environment for comfort, stimulation, food for identity.

The Chinese Image
He concentrates on his desire for continuation.
Misfortune.

His desire for continuation is for this identity-feeling to continue, it requires activity, demands experience, or it fears for its validity and existence. This makes it difficult for us to follow the tao when it is inactive.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Feeling is the link between our inner and outer selves (one self in larger terms, but we feel it as two). Persisting in feeling the tao is, here, to have faith that the life force is providing the nourishment we need; this is the continuance in following the tao of which the oracle speaks.

The Chinese Image
All regret disappears.

Following the tao is choiceless and when we make no choices we cannot regret them.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

Here we cannot endure the inactivity of identity so we act out. Although this gives relief of the pressure to act, the outcome has no inner meaning and so is unsatisfactory.

The Chinese Image
He who is not faithful to continuance meets with disgrace.

Even when there is no one judging us, dis-grace is a fact for we have lost our grace, we are clumsy here, not graceful.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Outer activity is potential in this tao, not manifest, but now we are concentrating on this outer place for our sense of activity; we are looking in the wrong place.

The Chinese Image
No game in the field.

We are searching outside for what is inside, but what we seek will come from the inner, from nowhere it will seem, it does not exist out there.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Here we are not awaiting the emergence of the life force so feeling is released from being interpreted; the distinguisher or definer, on the other hand, is less able to operate.

The Chinese Image
Continuance brings good fortune to the woman and evil to the man.

We do not simply remain open to everything, we take attention away from feeling, this narrows conscious identity in its ability to define our circumstance but allows intuitive feeling to be itself.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

If we are not accepting the active emerging life force as the source of our next activity there is a tendency to prolong our present outer situation, especially in this tao of long duration.

The Chinese Image
Forced continuance has no merit.

To insist that activity must always flow tries to replace the natural cyclic reality with an imposed linear one; we distort the cycle to get something we desire. We miss the essence of continuing inner acceptance if we do this.

Nuclear HexagramHexagram 27

Choice from the flow.

Line image

Our intuitive feelings are active and are accepted (lines 2 and 5) and the outer world also (lines 3 and 4). The inner is not active in providing new energy so we are acting out energy already in our outer identity. This hexagram is commonly called “nourishment”; our inner being is nourished by the experience of identity in relationship. The outer is food for the inner and the inner is food for the outer in continuous cycles of experience.

Trigram image

The emerging energy is very active (Chên) and flows freely in the outer world and our outer being, identity, (both K’un). This is only seen distantly by our inner being (Kên).

Here is a flow of energy that is freely out into action and the experience is viewed widely by the stillness of our inner being. This expresses outer experience nourishing the inner.

The Chinese Oracle

Nourishment.
Persistence in being correct
brings good fortune.
Watch how people nourish others and themselves.

Comments

Nourishing requires the supply of what is lacking; to nourish others we often provide what we have in surplus regardless of what the other needs. It is necessary to persist in seeing widely and witnessing ourselves (being correct) to see what is needed.

Manifestations

The pattern
All action has results in form.
All growth towards the archetypes.
For humans
From what has passed through
we are made.
From what we choose
we are nourished according to our need.
In nature
Storm and torrents flow.
In every crevice watered something grows.
Every crack eroded shows
what has passed,
each hollow filled, another shape.
In forms we make
To provide what others need
to fill their form,
follow the pattern of their choice.
For our own we follow ours.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

Where new energy is becoming available we may look for nourishment in some new experience from the life force rather than that available in our present circumstances.

The Chinese Image
You let your magic tortoise go and look at me with drooping mouth.
Misfortune.

Tortoise shells were used for divination, and divination is the link between the outer and inner knowing; without the link we lose the thread of what experience is about—nourishing the inner self from outer experience. What is needed is in our experience now.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

Intuitive feeling is necessary for us to know our circumstances and if we cannot feel our circumstances we seek nourishment elsewhere.

The Chinese Image
Seeking nourishment from below
is not proper.
Seeking nourishment from above
brings evil.

Both below and above identity in the hexagram we come to the inner, and this hexagram is about nourishing the inner through outer experience; so to seek the emerging life force is to look to nourishment coming to identity in the future, which is not correct or proper, not existing. To look to the inner being for nourishment is to look to what is already formed so it is narrowing or evil.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

In this tao outer activity is the source of experience and is essential to nourishment, without our taking part in outer experience the tao is useless to us.

The Chinese Image
He refuses nourishment.
Misfortune.
For ten years there is no progress.

When we avoid outer experience at the time it is offered in our circumstances it is lost and the nourishment of it cannot be had until such circumstances come to us again; this is symbolically the complete cycle of ten years.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Outer activity in the world is an essential part of this tao from which we gain nourishment; we do not, however, benefit from owning that activity and so nourishing our separate ego-being. Here in this line we diminish our owning of outer activity and so can participate more because with less desire we have a wider view.

The Chinese Image
Nourishment on the mountain top.
Good fortune.
He glares like a tiger looking down.
No error.

A hunter which has perfected the art of being alert; the tiger. Looking down he has a wide view. On the mountain we also have a wide view which comes from a vantage point of disinvolvement.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

We normally accept ourselves to be as we feel ourselves to be (which is the interpretation line 5 puts upon line 2). Here we are less aware.

The Chinese Image
Leaving the usual ways.
Perseverance, keeping still,
brings good fortune.
Do not cross the great water.

Without a feeling of ourselves in our circumstances action becomes hazardous so it is inadvisable to instigate changes.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

The inner being accepts nourishment and is the source of outer nourishment while doing so. The position has a fine balance and so has a danger of imbalance; either way it is the producer of a flow of nourishment.

The Chinese Image
The source of nourishment.
Peril but good results.
Crossing the great water brings good fortune.

Crossing the great water is changing our way of being, and experiencing without choice makes this change, but if we choose we are fed from past experience, not from the source of nourishment, the present.