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769999 · 13.2.3.4.5.6Hexagram 13

Fulfilment in desire.

Line image

The only activity here is of intuitive feeling (line 2), so our experience of this tao will be of feeling; it is a communication between our personal self and what is “other”. This “other”, in general our circumstances, may be people or other things with which we relate; basically intuitive feeling is relationship in some form, and this tao is about relationship simply as it feels to us. The three yang lines at the top of the hexagram show that we have a tendency to ignore these feelings.

Trigram image

There is not a full flood of relating, the energy shown in the emerging trigram Li is hesitant and this is turned into structured forms in our outer world, so there is a tightness in relationship. The two trigrams in the top half of the hexagrams are Ch’ien, showing a withdrawal from participation; this is useful inasmuch as we do not manipulate but it is an impediment to the flow of relating. The flow, going from the hesitant to the structured, shows the tao as being about the establishment of relationship.

The Chinese Oracle

Fellowship in the open.
Success.
It is of benefit to cross the great water.
The superior man is furthered by perseverance.

Comments

It is the resonance of relationship, not what goes on within you or me, that is “in the open”. It is what is between us and exists in its own right—sometimes we have to obey it no matter what we think we ought to do. It has success; it causes great change in us and if we follow it, it is as if we were in a different country over the great water. It widens our reality if we pay attention to this aspect of ourselves which is outside ourselves—in the open.

Manifestations

The pattern
A transitory brightness
grows into the lasting,
indeed the eternal.
For humans
Living relationships
mean one fulfilling the other.
Recognition of complement
is attraction,
its activity, a stable
pattern of flow.
In nature
The fire is kindled
with the promise of wood.
The wood becomes radiant
only with fire.
Together they are like the sun.
In forms we make
Form is used,
transformed into brightness
in which the different
recognize one other
as part of one.
The wise ruler uses form thus.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

When there is activity in the emerging life force there is possibility of relationship, there is the beginning of a cycle of relating.

The Chinese Image
Relationship at the gate.
No error.

Indeed how can there be error in the beginning if the movement is supported by the life force?

❦

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

Without active feelings there can be no resonance between ourselves and others (what is other to ourselves). Any relationship that will open our awareness has to be with something or someone different from ourselves.

The Chinese Image
Fellowship within the clan causes regret.

We need to seek our complement, not our likeness, for feelings to become dynamic and resonate with one another.

❦

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

The tao is about feeling the resonance of relationship but here we are shy of the contest that polarity involves and transfer our attention to outer activity, doing things rather than feeling them and thinking things out rather than feeling them within us. In this way we miss the change in ourselves that the resonance of feeling would cause.

The Chinese Image
His weapons are hidden in long grass,
He is on a high mound.
For three years he can do nothing.

Weapons are symbolic of our polarity in activity; we hide this polarity which tends to create contest if it is manifest; we mount an easily defended position and so we miss a whole cycle of activity—we have to wait for this challenge to recur (symbolically three years). If we can gather our courage we should go forth and experience consequences instead of hiding from them, and this change is probably more possible than we think.

❦

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

The outer world is not active in this tao so here we are accepting inactivity on the outside. This enables us to pay attention to our feeling which is what the tao calls for.

The Chinese Image
He climbs his wall and does not attack.
Good fortune.

Our “wall” is our perimeter, where we find contact with the “other”, so here we find that being on this boundary between ourself and the other, where relationship happens, does not mean contest. Resonance is not battle.

❦

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

We now open ourselves to our active intuition and thus become aware of our relating, our resonance with others. When this resonance is felt it takes over our attention from the dominance of those parts of ourselves which are normally taking turns in conscious expression; resonance is not owned, it just happens, so whenever resonance takes over, feelings of separation cease.

The Chinese Image
The comrades at first weep and are sad but end by laughing.
The crowd comes together.

The crowd of our separations come together into the resonance, which is the happiness of laughter here.

❦

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

Relationship has its own cycle of change; as we begin to relate, it is from the position of separate identity, so the relationship is about contact and contest, out of this comes an area of shared experience, a resonance, and out of this again comes acceptance of the distance or separateness of the other in which contact and contest are less important while the resonance becomes more important. This third stage is symbolized here as we accept the stillness of the emerging life force of the tao (the lack of contact between polarities).

The Chinese Image
Relationship.
Distance.
Absence of desire.
No regret.

This is not a needy or desiring relationship so there will be no regret in it.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 19

Overgrowth.

Line image

The inactivity of lines 1 and 2 make a situation in which the activity of all the other lines is not replaced from the inner source. We will be likely to build hopes on present activities which will not be fulfilled unless we remain very flexible in our approach. “Approach” is the common name of the hexagram.

Trigram image

There is a hope of activity in the emerging life force (Tui) which acts profusely in the outer world (Chên) and is accepted without reservation by both identity and our inner being (both K’un). Here we have a budding and a growing and a continuance of growth which is like a plant that shoots from the earth and grows ever larger with no thought of flowering and a return to seed. Where we are concerned with approach to our circumstances things are in order but where we wish for an outcome they are in disorder.

The Chinese Oracle

Approach.
Greatest success.
Correct persistence is rewarded.
At the eighth month there will be evil.

Comments

The eighth month (September for the Chinese calendar) is the month of harvest and the life force narrows into seed; evil is narrowness in the oracle’s terms. So there is expansion in approach which naturally will contract again and if we ourselves are narrow we will not see this and will press on with expansion, then evil takes on our usual derogatory meaning. Correct persistence is following the tao, or our changing circumstances.

Manifestations

The pattern
A time of happening approaches.
Lightness is in the air
flowing through every activity
as doors open—into space.
For humans
Flow into activity is unimpeded,
so free it knows no end,
so young it knows no maturing.
In nature
Intimations of spring are everywhere.
Growth so rich it may not flower.
In forms we make
Without regulation
form grows rampant.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

As the life force emerges it is met with the acceptance of our inner being (line 6) so there is a harmonious approach.

The Chinese Image
Approaching together.
Continuance in the way
brings good fortune.

Continuance in the tao requires that it is accepted, that our always changing circumstances are accepted.

❦

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

When our feelings follow the life force and when identity accepts the feelings (line 5 is yin here) we have an open response to our circumstances which is entirely flexible.

The Chinese Image
Approach together.
wholly beneficial.

Our attitudes to our circumstances are built upon the intuitive feelings of this line, so when the feeling is one with the circumstances all approach together.

❦

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

As this outer activity comes to its end we may be carried forward by the momentum of our investment in it and look around for more activity, but to approach something new we need continually to empty ourselves of the old.

The Chinese Image
He is willing to approach
but there is no advantage.
Being uneasy about this
brings good fortune.

If we always seek advantage we do not know how to deal with the aftermath of activity. We then need to question our attitude.

❦

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Being involved in existing outer activity would be the danger in this tao because this would perpetuate our existing directions of growth beyond their peak. Here in this line however we move our attention away from outer activity.

The Chinese Image
Perfect approach without error.

Perfect in the sense of complete, without doubt, and perfectly flexible.

❦

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

We identify less with feelings of quietness and so prepare for something new.

The Chinese Image
Wise approach like that of the great ruler.

The great ruler of identity is the way we continually distinguish our circumstances and so follow the tao without becoming captured by any particular stance or mode of being.

❦

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

The difficulties of this tao concern our tendency to identify with a fixed mode of being. Here in this line we no longer have this difficulty and can fully approach the next, changed, experienced.

The Chinese Image
Open-hearted approach.
Good fortune and no error.

An approach that fully gives up the old cycle of an experience is generous and flows readily. Reality only stops flowing when we get involved in its structure.

Nuclear HexagramHexagram 44

Adapting to circumstances.

Line image

Here the life force is manifesting actively (line 1) and we are not feeling it, not involved in it, not recognizing what it is (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all yang). This unawareness is likely to lead us into misreading our situation.

Trigram image

The only trigram with any activity is that for the emerging life force, Sun, and we do not respond to this circumstance which comes to us in a rather rigid and formed shape. We cannot influence it because it has no changeability and we may not recognize its strength because of its gentleness. We need to remain alert and witness our desires rather than trying to fulfill them.

The Chinese Oracle

Sudden meeting.
The woman is powerful.
Do not marry.

Comments

The meeting is sudden because we are very unaware in this tao, like someone who is very short-sighted and suddenly recognizes something at close range. Feeling (the woman) is powerful and this feeling is emotional feeling that we have stored and now seeks activity, so it is not born out of our present circumstances but is triggered by them. It is useful to allow such feeling but useless to wed ourselves to it.

Manifestations

The pattern
The powerfully mature
has its activity.
Without being influenced
has influence.
For humans
He does not try to change
what is so formed,
but meeting it
he is so drawn
he must himself change.
In nature
The flow of oceans
does not yield to our swimming.
The place of planets
does not shift for our desire.
In forms we make
All forms have archetypes
they tend towards,
yet the archetype has no form.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yang

life force shows less change

Here the silence of identity (lines 4, 5, and 6 are yang) ignores the activity of the life force and it ceases to have influence.

The Chinese Image
The wheel is held by a metal brake.
Continuance in the way brings good fortune.
A lean pig leaps about.

The brake is applied; there is nothing we can do about it but follow our circumstances. Any attempt to get out of our circumstances will prove unfortunate so we need simply to experience where we are. A lean pig is an underfed pig and when we are under-stimulated we “leap about” to cause activity.

❦

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Feeling is our link between the undefined inner and manifest outer; here in this line new activity of feeling is occurring although identity is taking no notice.

The Chinese Image
There are fish in the tank.
It does not benefit the guests.
No error.

Our present identifications (the guests) are not noticing the nourishment available, but this cannot be error, it is just circumstance.

❦

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

In this tao we do not have a true picture of our circumstances and in this line we act out in circumstances of which we are ignorant.

The Chinese Image
No skin on his thighs.
He walks with difficulty.
Keeping alert he makes no error.
❦

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

If our increased involvement is with a sense of outer peace all is well, but this is likely to be a search for outer activity and if it is we will search and find none.

The Chinese Image
No fish in the tank.
Misfortune.

The tank which has or has not fish in it is our personal inner being and the fish are our personal identifications in this. Here there are no fish, the process of identifying is inactive in this tao, so if we expect something we are disappointed.

❦

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Our intuition about our circumstances as shown by line 2 is inactive; by accepting this lack of interpretive feeling, we allow life to happen to us.

The Chinese Image
A melon wrapped in leaves is hidden.
Something falls from heaven.

The melons, the gourd family of fruits, have a multitude of seeds in the fruit casing, many possibilities. These possibilities are hidden within the fruit, the fruit is hidden in the leaves, it appears that nothing is there; then suddenly from this nothing (from heaven) there is a happening. This describes how life is when we do not anticipate it.

❦

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

By accepting the energy of this tao which flows through emotional channels there is a forcing of their recognition.

The Chinese Image
He approaches with his horns.
Regret but no error.

The way emotion forces its way into recognition is often uncomfortable and causes regret, but it is necessary for it to be expressed so this is not an error.