696699 · 59.1.2.3.4.5.6Hexagram 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 55

Plentiful relationship.

Line image

As our inner being (line 6) links with an inactive emerging life force (line 1) and the outer part of the hexagram (lines 3 and 4) is yang, the activity we are concerned with is feeling (lines 2 and 5); the inactivity we are concerned about is that of the emerging life force. The feeling line 2 is between two yang lines so it is contained by not being able to feel activity; the tao is full of feeling, great in feeling, and its common name is “abundance” or “fullness”.

Trigram image

The flow starts hesitantly (Li), becomes firm in the outer world (Sun) so does not cause movement there, then there is a budding of hope in our identified self (about activity) shown by Tui which turns into a torrent of change in our inner being (Chên). This is a fullsome flow that is occurring within ourselves, the abundance is there in the way we experience but it is not at present an abundance of outer activity.

This is a time when we can feel gladly, the outside is secure and we could think this to be an inevitably good experience; unfortunately our identity may be looking to outer achievement and this is a misunderstanding of where the abundance is; we are it, we have no need to seek, if we remain within, outer action follows in its natural course.

The Chinese Oracle

Abundance is followed by success.
The king has abundance,
do not feel anxious
but shine like the sun at midday.

Comments

What we usually call success is the happy conclusion of outer activity; the abundance is not there but the success follows out of the abundance which is inner. The inner identifying process which rules our identity is the king who has abundance, there is an abundance of material to identify amongst because it is feeling that is identified and the tao is full of feeling. It is all here and now, so we should be feeling complete like the sun at its zenith, but if our habit is to live for the future, planning always the next move and desire, we will be anxious.

Manifestations

The pattern
The life force finds a form
which enables it to act plentifully.
For humans
His energies flow naturally
into activity.
What he needs comes to hand.
Acting after maturing
has abundant success.
In nature
When the fire has fuel
there is a great blaze.
In forms we make
The idea
worked out in privacy
comes out with an easy force.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

When the life force is actively changing we can take part in this. We find it easier to take part in activity, which we see as progress, than in the inactive phase where we tend to create activity by planning.

The Chinese Image
He meets a prince of equal rank.
Ten days they are together
without error.
Going forward is favourable.

Our prince of equal rank is the unexpressed half of ourself. When the life force is active there is no barrier to conscious expression of the inner self so it is favourable to go forward with this for its full cycle (the ten days).

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

To feel less in this tao is to misunderstand, and to act on such misunderstanding courts disaster. When we do not feel the present we look to the future to seek a direction; we avoid feeling, but feeling is the essence of our present situation. We have arrived, we are here now and need no direction.

The Chinese Image
His vision is obscured.
At midday he sees only a star.
Going forward; mistrust and aversion.

A star is the guiding light of navigators, so here we are trying to navigate, mistaking the sun, the abundance, for a direction. Going forward, which is following the mood of looking forward, is a mistrust of the life force, an aversion to feeling the present.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

If we are engrossed in outer activity we are avoiding the abundance of feeling; abundance may seem to risk being overwhelmed by feeling, but go with it, it is the tao and outer action is not fruitful at present.

The Chinese Image
Abundant obscuration.
A small star at midday.
He breaks his right arm.
No error.

The abundance of feeling is obscured so as to seem tiny and far away, a guide to direction and not a warmth to bask in. We cannot act out in this tao and this symbolically breaks our right arm, our arm of action.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

The outer state which we are now taking to be a centre of interest is distracting us from feeling; we are asking where the abundance is when it is there inside. This line deals with our outer identity so here we are projecting the feeling of the tao to our outer reality; it will find a response, a reflection of the tao.

The Chinese Image
Obscuration.
The midday sun a small star.
He meets his ruler,
who reflects him.
Good fortune.

We are still not seeing the tao for what it is and we still look for a direction, mistaking the sun that warms for a guiding star to some future event. Here we face the outer world as our reality and it becomes our ruler; its appearances are a reflection of our point of view, we see them through the filters of our choice. Our good fortune is being able to move (change) by accepting the tranquil (line 3, outer, as a substitute for line 1, inner).

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Here the fullness of feeling is ending with the end of the resonance between the second and fifth lines. The abundance goes on to its next phase, the outer manifestation which we call success.

The Chinese Image
Afterwards there are wonderful variations passing.
Blessings and fame approach.
Good fortune.

The variations which fill us with wonder are the changes that come to our outer lives as though undeserved, like blessings, they are not caused out there but come from the inner abundance.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

Our inner being does not accept the abundance of feeling so it is inhibited from flowing in the next cycle of our being.

The Chinese Image
Abundance within his house
and within the wall.
Peering through the gate
he sees no one.
For three years he sees no one.

The abundance stays inside so he cannot share it outside his person. Until we change (the three years is a cycle of change) we can find no one to share with. We need to learn to allow the abundance within to flow outwards; this follows its inner acceptance.

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.