789977 · 13.3.4Hexagram 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 42

Strength to accomplish challenges.

Line image

In lines 3 and 4 there is an active outer structure in which we are involved, it is supported by feeling but this feeling is not what we consider to be important (lines 2 and 5), it is what we do that has importance. Our inner being is quiet (lines 1 and 6), so here is a pattern of natural outer activity.

Trigram image

The emerging life energy is very forceful (Chên) and this flows freely in the outer world (K’un); identity contemplates this activity Kên without becoming over-involved, and Sun, in the place of our inner being, shows a maturing there.

This flow shows an advantageous time for outer activity because we are not too involved and we do not manipulate and make mistakes. Our inner being is supportive of the outer action and is maturing through the experience. This is an excellent situation for accomplishing what has been planned; its common name is “increase” or “gain”.

The Chinese Oracle

Increase.
Undertakings bring good fortune.
It is favourable to cross the great water.

Comments

Here the inner is increased by outer action. Changes are always involved in these increases so it is favourable to cross the great water—to change our approach to things, allow ourselves to see from new points of view. Widening experience and identity is increase.

Manifestations

The pattern
The flow of life seeks the high,
becoming firm yet gentle,
resisting indulgence.
In seeking the highest
the low is fulfilled.
For humans
Knowing he has power,
he accomplishes great tasks.
Not for himself
but he is strengthened.
In nature
On the mountain
the tree grows strong sinews
while nourishing the slopes.
In forms we make
Seeking the easy
weakens into difficulty.
Working in the difficult
grows an easy strength.

Changing Lines

Line 1 goes yin

life force shows more change

It is fortunate for our outer state when the life force is manifesting activity, it creates a balance of inner and outer activity so that the outer seems to move of its own accord, at other times we seem to have to push very hard to make the smallest movement. In this line our activity will feel right.

The Chinese Image
It is time for great works.
Greatest good fortune and no error.

Line 2 goes yang

intuitive feeling less active

Intuitive feeling is our first activity of distinguishing, we then define an attitude according to the feeling and so distinguish the feeling in terms of mind. It is advantageous in this tao that we should be free of mind attitudes and simply be in the flow, this gives freedom to the magic of the moment.

The Chinese Image
There is one who gives him very many tortoise shells and who would not be refused.
Long continuance in the way brings good fortune.
The king gives sacrifice to heaven. Good fortune.

Tortoise shells are artefacts of magic, and what the tao offers in this line is the magic of the life force providing our feeling with just what it needs. For this to be accepted we need to drop our way of identifying what is happening and then choosing (this is the mode that normally rules us, is our king); if this is not sacrificed the gift is not seen or felt at all. Learning to drop our personal activity takes this long perseverance and is the inner good fortune of the tao.

Line 3 goes yang

outer world changes less

It is more in tune with this tao to reduce our controlling of activity rather than to reduce the activity itself; our outer experience is food to the inner self. Here we make a move intending to do something about an overactive “I am” but “I am” doing it.

The Chinese Image
Unfortunate increase,
sincere and without blame.
Take the middle way and report
to the prince with your seal.

Our seal is that which identifies us and the prince is our identity (the outcome of our ruler which is the identifying process), so here we need to see how we are identifying ourselves, how we are choosing; the middle way is not to choose but to allow.

Line 4 goes yang

accepting the outer state less

Here we choose less amongst the strong flow of outer activity which is this tao; it is in keeping with this flow to go with the outer activity but not to manipulate it.

The Chinese Image
He walks in the middle and reports to the prince.
It is favourable to be an agent
in the removal of the capital.

The capital is the seat of government, the chooser, which is sacrificed in this tao to allow the magic of the life force. For symbols of the seal, the prince, and walking in the middle, see line 3.

Line 5 goes yin

more awareness of intuition

By accepting direct feeling of the life force we are becoming one with our intuitive feeling of this tao about increase.

The Chinese Image
If you come from the heart
and do not question,
greatest good fortune.
Genuine involvement
is the virtue recognized.

Questioning comes from the mind, flow from the feeling. The essence of the flow is to be genuinely in it, we cannot question a flow without stopping it.

Line 6 goes yin

our inner being accepts more

This is no time to get involved in inner stillness (line 1 is yang) when we are in a tao of nourishing outer activity.

The Chinese Image
He increases no one.
Someone strikes him.
He is inconsistent.
Misfortune.

Here we fail to sacrifice the importance of identifying—we identify in the inner stillness—and we miss the middle path, the non-identified state. By trying first the outer and then the inner as our focus we are not being consistent and nothing is furthered; only a shock will change this cycle of choosing, for it fuels itself, so it is as if someone strikes him.

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.