With our life energy moving into an inactive phase, and having the feeling of difficulties we wish to get out of, we may be persuaded to push some activity to make things better; this is not going to be useful when we are in a state where we do not see our way very well.

The gossip comes from all those parts in us which think we can get out of difficulty by doing something but do not realize that the difficulty is an unawareness that we cannot help at present. Good fortune comes eventually because this state is itself part of change.

Not taking sides in a conflict is sometimes quite difficult. Initially it is a hard course because participants within us wish to join in, but eventually it is rewarding as we understand more widely.

The middle way is the ancient virtue; it attains its ends because conflict is always temporary and fluctuating. If we are ruled by some identification (in service of a king) it is better not to further it now.

In this tao our feeling is closed to the “other” so conflict arises; here we recognize this closed feeling and see it as causing the conflict or as an important element in it.

There can only be conflict when views are narrow—when they are wide they overlap.

The active life energy emerging into this tao becomes conflict due to lack of insight. Here we accept this as the tao, as our way of inner being, but conflict as a way of being resolves nothing and pushes identity further into its identifying isolation. In a wide sense, we lose when in conflict, whether we win or lose the contest.

The situation in contest changes all the time and this (the number 3) takes our advantage from us. The gains are superficial and transitory.

Amongst the forces acting upon the emerging life force is our selection of what we will recognize. In this tao we, as identity, are not recognizing emerging activity and this makes it inactive for us in this moving line. This selection of the particular from the whole is the natural course of growing identity but as it matures experience is gathered into its inner being and, if it remains open, the outer and inner resonate as one.

The superior man is one who experiences more widely, which is also less selectively.

Having a less active feeling about the emerging life force narrows what we can see of it; in this tao it is the best that feeling can do.

The door crack is the narrowing of our viewpoint by the lessening of feeling, symbolically female and hence the woman. Open feeling is at a disadvantage when identity is withdrawn from it (line 5) and especially in this tao of stillness and review.

Less outer activity tends to balance our outer-inner position and so is in keeping with the tao. By acting out less, we see more of what is going on around us.

This is an outer line and we vary our action according to changes in outer circumstances rather than allowing ourselves to be carried by the momentum of our involvements.

We, identity, are less involved in our active outer world and by acting out in a less entangled way we have a wider view.

The king is the identifying process which rules our conscious world, here we contemplate being in this identified world in a new way, not as one identified, who would be a subject of the king, but as a guest, a visitor. The advantage is that we remain centred, not becoming entangled in identifications.

Feeling is of the life force and of its movements which are the tao, so the movement of this line corrects the imbalance that the hexagram pictures and brings our separated parts together.

Becoming aware of our intuitive feelings gives awareness of the flow of the life energy which is the “course of his life”. It is the superior man who does this because it is a widening view.

Realizing what we have been doing always changes our direction. Becoming more involved in the tao of overlooking life gives insight into ourselves and brings about a change in the balance between the viewer and the viewed, when there is full involvement the experiencer and the experience become one.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.