777988 · 34.4Hexagram 34

A store of power.

Line image

Innerly, in lines 1 and 6, we accept a passive phase of the life energy and our interpretation of feeling is accepting this as well (lines 5 and 2). As, however, we do not accept the quietness of outer activity there is a tendency to desire action (lines 4 and 3).

The balance of this structure is towards accepting the experience of inactivity which makes this the positive drive of the tao for we then see our desire for action as an avoidance of the experience our circumstances can give us.

Trigram image

The emerging flow is stilled (Ch’ien) and does not move in the outer space (Ch’ien); this gives a hope of activity to identity (Tui) which may at first look outwards for expression but then accepts it innerly (Chên).

The flow shows that the rejection by identity (line 4) of being in a passive state is overcome by the potential energy itself, and this gives the hexagram its common name “power of the great”; the inner is always greater than the outer in the sense that it contains more possibilities of being real. Here its effect is powerful.

The Chinese Oracle

The power of the great.
Continuance in the tao brings reward.

Comments

The tao, or existent pattern of the way, of this hexagram is our growing acceptance of the potential, inner, reality. This is both source and setting for our outer conscious reality, but if we name it we will mistake its nature which is that it is undefined, unmanifest; manifest it and this is not the tao.

The reward of continuing in allowing and accepting this is a great leap in our ability to experience, a great expansion of our sense of the real. This is the power of the great.

Manifestations

The pattern
He watches,
comes late into action
with the power of great potential.
For humans
Slowly absorbing experience.
Quietly relating inner and outer.
Great power for action
when we are ready.
In nature
The seed, with great stores,
awaits in tranquillity,
then bursts upon the world.
In forms we make
Powerful government knows
the flexibility of new ideas
woven between the mature.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

Identity is looking for activity but our circumstances, the tao, provide none. The lack is so obvious that despite our natural urge to do something we have the possibility of restraining ourselves.

The Chinese Image
Power in the toes.
Advance brings misfortune.
Inner truth remains.

The toes lead our steps, but at present we should not be stepping, this activity is not sensing the inner truth but turning it into outer action. The truth of inactivity still remains to be discovered, but a leap in understanding such as this is not easily made.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Our feeling is of the life force and the life force is in its non-manifesting phase so we are feeling the great unknown. If we continue to open our feelings to the unknowable we shall find a sense of it that is not a definition, not even a defined feeling.

The Chinese Image
Continuance in the tao is good fortune.

If we define what our feeling is doing, however, we will manifest it and lose the direction of the tao.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

Where there are possibilities that are not yet manifest it is not the time to push ahead with action, it will not be supported by the life force so we will get stuck in a situation from which our own forcefulness will not allow us to escape. Action always lessens our awareness of possibilities for action and at present these are many and developing. This is a time for realizing the inactive as equally positive with the active and sometimes more appropriate.

The Chinese Image
The inferior man uses activity.
The superior man uses inactivity.
A goat butts against a hedge
and gets its horns entangled.

When we use activity we centre ourselves on this; the oracle image for this is inferior (narrowing). The wide way to experience is in not choosing so that more possibilities remain open to us.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Here we recognize the stillness of the outer and can separate our identity from activity. In this way we are available to the possibilities that are arising.

The Chinese Image
Continuance in the way
brings good fortune.
Regret disappears.
The hedge separates
and entanglement ceases.
Power, the axle (or wheel-spokes)
of a large waggon.

The large waggon will carry many things at once. Our attention is not just at the rim of the wheel where action takes place but in the connections to the whole and so the entanglement with activity ceases.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Our intuitive feeling is inactive; if we were concerned about this we would be involved, but here we let it be what it will.

The Chinese Image
He easily sacrifices the goat.
No regret.

The goat in this tao is the one who gets entangled (moving line 3); here we are free.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

In a tao of great possibilities yet to be realized we need to be aware of the emerging life force.

The Chinese Image
The goat carelessly butts the hedge and cannot go backwards or forwards.
No advantage.
Realizing the difficulties brings advantage.

If we are not aware of possibilities arising we cannot move with them as they arise, so we get stuck, unchanged; awareness of this brings our awareness of possibilities back again.

Secondary HexagramHexagram 11

Harmonious action.

Line image

With the lower half of the hexagram filled with yang lines all, the emerging part of the cycle of its activity is tranquil and at peace. The upper half is all yin and as this shows how we accept or ignore the emerging forces, we are here accepting all this peace. This shows a situation which is in perfect balance and without stress, and “peace” is the common name for the hexagram.

Trigram image

This flow is very harmonious and coherent with no hesitations or doubts, and this reinforces the peacefulness of the line structure. It flows from potential activity _in us_ so we ourselves become part of this dynamic balance. The emerging life force is at peace, the outer world has joy and expectation, our personal self is greatly and fruitfully active, and our inner being accepts all this. Acceptance is the key to peace.

The Chinese Oracle

Peace.
The narrow goes, the wide comes.
Good fortune and success.

Comments

Narrow in the sense of mean or narrow-minded; wide in the sense of greatly accepting. Good fortune and success in furthering us along our path of experience. Recognition is directed towards the infinite.

Manifestations

The pattern
Harmonious flow
from inner to outer
is power in the easy.
For humans
Unimpeded movement.
The path suits the traveller
and he shines within.
In nature
Unfolding of the life force
of the seed.
In forms we make
Form creates itself.
Now we can see it.
Shall we remember it
when we desire?

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

In this tao we are fully accepting the condition of the life force so this moving line is the natural flow of a cycle of which we are a part. It becomes more active here and as we follow it we become more active also.

The Chinese Image
When grass is pulled up
earth comes up with it.
Going forward brings good fortune.

Our activity follows the phase of the life force in the same image as the earth comes up with the grass—being so one with it. Following our circumstances willingly is always good fortune.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Feeling the peace of the life force brings us to peace with ourselves; when at peace we have enough space to feel the unpeacefulness of others and may be tempted to withdraw with our peaceful feelings to guard them from the stresses around us. Feeling, however, exists only in relationship with something so this protection is counter-productive. Our feeling of peace should remain in contact, should be like a peaceful lake in the middle of a teeming forest.

The Chinese Image
Benefit the undeveloped.
Cross the great river while having no boat.
Do not abandon comrades.
Thus walk in the middle.

It requires great fortitude to remain in peace amongst narrow attitudes, to achieve without knowing how (for if we know how, we have projected our own narrow attitudes), to stay in relationship when it threatens our peace, and so neither leave nor become entangled.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

All the cycles of our experience have active and inactive phases; we have more difficulty in feeling at peace while being active. This dynamic peace is about harmony, like an orchestra, requiring full acceptance of the whole.

The Chinese Image
Every plain is followed by a slope.
Every going is followed by a return.
Be heartened, continuing through trouble will bring success.

To be able to remain at peace through all the phases of the cycle of experience requires persistence, but this success is a great blessing.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Our involvement in outer peace is to accept it and also to some extent to be busy about it with our identity. Here we are no longer so concerned with this.

The Chinese Image
He flutters,
Leaves his wealth, calling his neighbours,
In sincerity, not because of warning.

Our wealth is our accumulation, which we value; in an inner interpretation this is our personal status in whatever terms it has grown. It is sometimes difficult to give up our specialness and be just like our neighbours and difficult to give up our individual difference and trust in circumstances. Fluttering, or instability, is some unsureness as our inner wish (sincerity) is implemented, but it is an inner wish and not fear of consequences.

Line 5 goes yang

less awareness of intuition

Because identity is activity-seeking, our interest in the peacefulness of intuitive feeling in this tao is a mixture of letting it be and wishing it to be what it is not. Here we drop this interest and free ourselves of the dilemma.

The Chinese Image
A king gives his daughter in marriage and thereby gains good fortune.

This symbolism is about feeling, the female mode we have responsibility for. The king (our identifying process) has paternal feeling for his marriageable daughter, she represents feeling we are concerned about but not attaching ourselves to, we are giving it away. The good fortune is resulting freedom.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

This tao is at peace because of its balance (the silence of the lower half is balanced by the acceptance of the upper half). Here in this moving line our inner being rejects the silence and the balance is upset. There is nothing to do about it other than experience what we are doing and thereby strengthen the links between our inner and outer being.

The Chinese Image
The wall falls into the moat.
Do not fight it.

Balance is the maintenance of a separation like the height of a wall and the moat, when balance is lost, the opposites come together. Nothing can be done but experience this.

Nuclear HexagramHexagram 43

A peak of accumulation.

Line image

The life force emerges and manifests without activity (lines 1, 2, and 3) and although we accept this stillness in our inner being (line 6) we are not accepting inactivity in our feelings nor in our outer world (lines 5 and 4). So there is a certain amount of stress here towards action, as though we wish to break out of a confined situation; we are watching the emerging life force for signs of movement. The common name of the hexagram is “resolution” or “breakthrough”.

Trigram image

All the trigrams are Ch’ien except the top one and nothing is manifestly active except that the inner is preparing activity (Tui). This flow is beautiful if we are at peace with it, but has dangers and is stressful if we are not; there is energy building up and our outer identity has no role in this, so the danger is from aspects of our identity trying to force the issue in order to gain expression.

The Chinese Oracle

Resolution in proclaiming the truth
at the king’s court. Danger.
Announce it to your own city.
Do not carry arms.
To have direction is favourable.

Comments

The king’s court is peopled by aspects of our identity because we, as identified beings, are ruled by the identifying process, our king. It is necessary that they all know what the situation is so that they do not “carry arms” or try to force their way. If we have direction then we are not looking for one and then the danger does not arise.

Manifestations

The pattern
The power of the creative
withholds action,
building up such a store
it brims over.
For humans
The time of accumulation
reaches its peak.
The time for movement approaches.
Do not squander it
there is power enough.
In nature
The lake has risen,
it must flow out
and water the land.
In forms we make
When the rich and powerful
do not notice
the poor and weak,
catastrophe threatens.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

The first sign of inner movement is not the time to make outer action. We should not be too eager or we shall not have the support of the life force and whatever we do will be superficial and unsatisfactory.

The Chinese Image
To set out with a show of strength and then fail is a mistake.

Line 2 goes yin

intuitive feeling more active

Activity is identity’s chosen role; here we feel the inactivity of the life force and fear for our ability to act.

The Chinese Image
Warning cries at night.
Armed, no fear.

In the darkness (activity is the “light” of consciousness) there are calls for light, for activity to avert extinction of our ability to identify, but we are armed with the light of the tao—the movement will come when it comes, we need not fear to miss but we will stay alert, that is how we are armed.

Line 3 goes yin

outer world changes more

Here we are not peaceful enough to withstand the anticipation of the tao and we create outer activity which will divert the life flow.

The Chinese Image
Powerful cheekbones.
Misfortune.
The superior man is resolute
and walks alone splashed with mud.
They speak against him
but he is blameless.

The cheekbones enable us to read determination in another’s face; here there is this power of self-will which is misfortunate in this context because no amount of it can be effective and it produces stress with no flow for its relief. The wide-seeing superior man is just going about his business, not trying to push things, and this is correct in our present circumstances.

Line 4 goes yin

accepting the outer state more

Here we are involving our identity in outer inactivity, which is to say we are worried about it and consider it a problem to be solved; this is an impatience for activity and is not supported by the life force.

The Chinese Image
His thighs are without skin
and walking is difficult.
If he would be led like a sheep
all would be well, but what
is said is not heard.

The muscles of the thigh carry us forward, and here there is no support from the life force if we go forward. If we were following the life force we would not have this problem.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

Our intuitive state is inactive (line 2) so here we become aware of this lack of feeling. This has dangers in this tao because unless we can persevere with quiet feeling, our interest will arouse desire for active feeling; if we create activity with desire we will miss the next movement of circumstances.

The Chinese Image
Ground-clinging plants.
The middle way is free of blame.

The middle way is neither identified outside nor inside, it is non-identified, clinging to the real or wholeness or earth. Staying with what exists, not searching, is the advice contained here.

Line 6 goes yang

our inner being accepts less

This whole tao is a watching for potential to be manifest and this sixth line is the watcher of the emerging life force; if we cease to be alert it will catch us by surprise and we will be out of step with it.

The Chinese Image
No warning.
Misfortune.