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 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.

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.

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).

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 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.

The emerging life force ceases to provide new activity for us to identify. Interaction goes on within us (the Ting) acting upon itself; our attitudes change.

To have sons, a re-birth of our line, we must mate. To clear out old ways we have we must invert the sacrificial vessel. In both these we change our judgement of rules as to what is important—that the sacred vessel should be venerated no matter what it contains, or that to take a concubine is an indulgence. This is the root of changing ourselves, we no longer assume what we have previously taken as our law.

When feeling is active there is activity within the Ting, for it is we who are the sacrificial cooking pot in this tao. It is within, not dependent upon the other, an internal fermentation which will produce a new compound of ourselves. In this we resolve problems that have seemed insoluble.

For “the others” some translators have used “the enemy” and others “the comrades”; the important idea is that this is an inner state undisturbed by what goes on outside.

Our particular inner activity in this tao is not related to outer activity, hence the image of it going on within a pot, so the increase of outer activity in this line is a distraction from the tao, a misunderstanding of it.

When we embark on outer action our movements are governed by outer factors (we change the outside of the Ting) and the inner changes (the fat of the pheasant) are not experienced. Rain produces new growths, so progress, the lack of which we regret, returns when conditions become suitable again.

In this tao we have an inactive outer reality; If identity becomes involved there we remove our support of the changes going on within.

The Ting has three short legs upon which it stands, supporting it off the ground, the world, and these symbolize our connection with the outer. In this line we reject our separation from the outer reality and so start projecting our reality upon it which has the image of spilling ourselves.

Here we become less involved in the inactivity of intuitive feeling (line 2); as we cease to judge it and so tie it down we can move with the tao (our circumstances) once more.

This change enables the movement of the Ting to be active (yellow handles), we are centred in our inner self and outer value (gold) is one with eternal value (the rings). Continuing with this brings good fortune, which is remaining centred so that, in the image, we carry our Ting always without spilling it—without identifying ourselves outside.

To be involved in the emerging life force here is to actually be the change that the tao represents; we do not accomplish change, we are changed, we become change itself as our mode of being.

Jade has the illusive quality of perfection, of just-so-ness, a quality that cannot quite be captured in words and if so captured does not sing. This quality is similarly undefinable here where we are so centred that we are the centre.

The stress in this tao is created by the force of the life energy from the inner acting upon rigid form in our lives (in ourselves). Here the activity is lessened and the stress limited.

This is protection by the inner being, rushes are put under something to soften the contact, they are white because there is no selection in this action (white light is all-coloured light).

Here the rigidity itself is loosening, we are starting to feel the life force again and this is the beginning of new feeling.

The old finds a way to flow again, and it was the lack of flow that caused the excess of pressure.

In this tao identity has excessively structured duality; to act out from this projects the stress into our circumstances.

The ridgepole giving way is like our giving out the stress from within us, we give way to it and the consequences to our environment are unfortunate.

What we are accepting here in this moving line is the inactivity of our outer world, so there is less stress because we are not struggling with our rigidity. This does not change the rigidity but makes it more manageable and may mask the basic problem.

Reliance on masking the stresses we have would be a weak support.

Becoming aware of intuitive feeling that is inactive is to be more aware but not to have more feeling.

This is widening awareness, opening up, flowering; then old feeling (from memory) comes to thought, to consciousness. These do not change things, the flowering does not change the tree and the old woman cannot have children, in other words there is no new growth.

Here we give up the struggle and become unaware of the activity pushing us towards change. When we become unaware of forces they overtake us.

To give way to the flow is no error, only uncomfortable; it overcomes the rigidity and so changes us.