Resigning oneself
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Divorcement12
Progress stalls as negative influences prevail. Patience and self-reflection are key to overcoming obstacles.
↓ Line 1
The beginning of stagnation. It is important to remain true to oneself and maintain integrity.
↓ Line 2
The wise endure the stagnation and use it as an opportunity for growth and preparation.
↓ Line 5
The stagnation begins to lift. The wise remain cautious and ensure stability as progress resumes.
↓ Line 6
The period of stagnation is ending, leading to a time of prosperity and success.
↓ The Marrying Maiden54
Proceed cautiously, recognizing limitations and external influences. Adapt to circumstances with humility and patience, but remain aware of your own path and intentions.
12 Divorcement
Other titles: Standstill, The Symbol of Closing, Stagnation, Obstruction, The Wife, Obstructed, Decadence, Disjunction, Impasse, "Yin supporting yang which is wrong, they part company. Bad prospects for marriage or partnership. " -- D.F. Hook
Judgment:
Legge: Divorcement means there is a lack of communication between the different classes of men. This is unfavorable to the superior man. The great has departed and the inferior has arrived.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Standstill . Evil people do not further the perseverance of the superior man. The great departs; the small approaches.
Blofeld: Stagnation (obstruction) caused by evil doers. Although the omen portends ill for the Superior Man, he must not slacken his righteous persistence. The great and the good decline; the mean approach. [When heaven and earth cease to co-operate, no growth is possible and stagnation results. The trigram (earth), when in intercourse with heaven, has the auspicious meaning of glad acceptance; but, when separated from heaven, it represents weakness and darkness, etc.]
Liu: Stagnation. Stagnation is of no benefit, although not of man's doing. The superior man carries on (according to his principles). The great is departing. The small is arriving.
Ritsema/Karcher: Obstructing it , in-no-way people. Not Harvesting: chun tzu, Trial. the great going, the small coming. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of being blocked or interfered with. It emphasizes that accepting the hindrances that temporarily interrupt the flow of life and thwart communication is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: accept obstruction!]
Shaughnessy: The wife's non-persons; not beneficial for the gentleman to determine; the great go, the little come.
Cleary (1): Obstruction’s denial of humanity does not make the superior person’s rectitude beneficial. The great goes and the small comes.
Cleary (2): … Does not make the leader’s correctness beneficial, etc.
Wu:Stagnation is destined to cause obstruction of normal course of action. It is not beneficial to the jun zi who takes a persevering stand. The great goes out and the small comes in.
The Image:
Legge: Heaven and earth are estranged -- the image of Divorcement. The superior man preserves his virtue by withdrawing from evil, and refuses both honor and wealth.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven and earth do not unite: the image of Standstill. Thus the superior man falls back upon his inner worth in order to escape the difficulties. He does not permit himself to be honored with revenue.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes heaven and earth cut off from each other. To conserve his stock of virtue, the Superior Man withdraws into himself and thus escapes from the evil influences around him. He declines all temptations of honor and riches. [To understand why the trigrams for heaven and earth arranged in what seems to be their natural positions have this inauspicious significance, see notes on the preceding hexagram, (Harmony).]
Liu: Heaven and earth are not united, symbolizing stagnation. The superior man restrains himself to avoid danger. He seeks neither honor nor wealth.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven, earth, not mingling. Obstruction. A chun tzu uses parsimonious actualizing-tao to cast-out heaviness. A chun tzu uses not permitting splendor to use benefits. [Actualize-tao: Ability to follow the course traced by the ongoing process of the cosmos ... Linked with acquire, TE: acquiring that which makes a being become what it is meant to be.]
Cleary (1): When heaven and earth do not commune, there is obstruction. The superior person therefore is parsimonious with power and avoids trouble, not susceptible to elevation by emolument.
Cleary (2): … Leaders … should not prosper on wages.
Wu: … The jun zi practices the virtue of frugality to alleviate difficulties, but does not allow himself to be honored with official salary.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The unfavorable auspice of Divorcement is because heaven and earth are not in communication, and all things consequently fail to unite. High and low, superior and inferior, do not meet in union, and there are no well- regulated states in the kingdom. The lower trigram consists of magnetic lines, and the upper of dynamic lines: darkness is within, clarity without; weakness within, strength without. The lower trigram represents the advancing inferior men, the upper trigram represents the retreating superior men.
Legge: The form of Divorcementis the exact opposite of Harmony, and much of what has been said on the interpretation of that will apply to this. Divorcement is the hexagram of the seventh month when the process of growth has ended and increasing decay may be expected. The trigram of Earth is below and that of Heaven is above, and since it is always proper for the lower trigram to take the initiative, how can Earth take the place of Heaven? As in nature, it is Heaven that originates, not Earth, and in a state the upper classes must take the initiative, and not the lower.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The time is out of joint -- decadence waxes and virtue is mocked.
The Superior Man refuses to participate in the prevailing disorder.
If the preceding hexagram images the fruitful union of heaven and earth in a holy marriage, this figure shows their Divorcement.
Divorcement: The act, process, or an instance of separating things closely joined -- the state of being separated.
To receive this figure without changing lines suggests that you are separated from truth or virtue, or that for the moment at least, the situation at hand affords no possibility of reconciliation. During such conditions it would be the height of folly to "wed oneself" to the prevailing disorder.
Note however that every line but the third shows some kind of effort to reunite that which has been separated. The first shows an alliance of closely related elements bent on serving the Work; line two depicts a kind of holding action which is necessary to allow a superior element to prevail. The third line identifies recalcitrant forces which prevent union, and four depicts another alliance -- a higher octave of its first line correlate. Line five images nearly complete re-unification and six shows the end of Divorcement. These images suggest that although disunion prevails, the energy in the situation is promoting connection.
As regards the Judgment:
Plato seems to have expressed Confucius' idea perfectly. In The Republic he makes Socrates say that the true philosopher, finding himself in an evil environment, "will not join in the wickedness of his fellows, but neither is he able singly to resist all their fierce natures, and therefore seeing that he would be of no use to the State or to his friends, and reflecting that he would have to throw away his life without doing any good either to himself or others, he holds his peace, and goes his own way ... he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes." H.G. Creel -- Confucius and the Chinese Way
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. With firm correctness on the part of its subject, there will be good fortune and progress.
Wilhelm/Baynes: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Perseverance brings good fortune and success.
Blofeld: When grass is uprooted, what is attached to it is pulled up as well. Righteous persistence brings good fortune and success. [Although this hexagram is ominous, the first line is auspicious. This sort of contradiction is common with bottom and top lines, which are often held to precede or follow after the main situation.]
Liu: When ribbon grass is pulled out, its roots come with it. They are of the same kind. Continuing leads to success and good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Eradicating thatch-grass intertwined. Using one's classification. Trial: significant. Growing.
Shaughnessy: Plucking the cogon-grass stem with its roots; determination is auspicious; receipt.
Cleary (1): Pulling out roots of a reed takes others with it. It is good and developmental to be correct.
Cleary (2): … Correctness is auspicious and successful.
Wu: Like pulling reeds with all their connecting roots, it will be persevering, auspicious and pervasive.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The will of the parties intended is bent on serving the ruler. Wilhelm/Baynes: The will is directed to the ruler. Blofeld: The omen is favorable owing to continued loyalty to the rule. [The ruler is now surrounded by evil men or men of mean attainments, but the Superior Man continues to help him.] Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose located-in a chief indeed. Cleary (2): The will is in the leader. Wu: Because the aspiration is to serve the king.
Legge: Naturally we should expect the advance of the first of the three magnetic lines to lead to evil. But if she sets herself to be firm and correct, she will bring about a different issue. She is one of the cluster of inferior forces who are able to change their mind, and set their hearts to love their ruler.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the inferior people are advancing. The man retires from public office in order to preserve his integrity. He brings along his associates, who are like the sod clinging to the uprooted grass.
Wing: If it is not possible to change or influence the current environment while preserving the principles that have formed your character, then withdraw completely. Success will come to you in a more profound sense than could be realized from a compromising situation. Important associates may leave with you. Good fortune.
Editor: Compare this with the first line of the preceding hexagram. In some circumstances the meaning can be similar to the proverb: "Birds of a feather flock together." In another sense, if "grass roots" are the foundation, source, bare essence of something, then the first line can represent the roots of the lower trigram, which is seen as a clump of grass or "cluster of inferior forces." The image suggests the separation of oneself from an entrenched position and moving upward. Confucius sees this movement as being in accord with the will of "the ruler" -- in psychological terms: the will of the Self.
Endeavor to ascend into thyself, gathering in from the body all thy members which have been dispersed and scattered into multiplicity from that unity which once abounded in the greatness of its power. Bring together and unify the inborn ideas and try to articulate those that are confused and to draw into light those that are obscured. Porphyry
A. A fundamental change for the better, or the first step toward unity: grass-roots support.
B. An ascent from a fixed position. A confederation of lower elements combines to serve a greater whole.
C. Form follows function. Stay connected with your origins/basic values in context of hexagram’s meaning in Judgment and Image.
D. Action follows perception.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows its subject patient and obedient. To the inferior man comporting himself so there will be good fortune. If the great man comports himself as the distress and obstructions require, he will have success.
Wilhelm/Baynes: They bear and endure; This means good fortune for inferior people. The standstill serves to help the great man to attain success.
Blofeld: Because they know how to please the authorities, fortune now favors the mean, but the Superior Man prefers to contend with the causes of stagnation in the realm. [He cares for the welfare of others more than for being in favor.]
Liu: Forbearance and obedience bring good fortune for the inferior. The superior man is stagnant. But his purpose will succeed.
Ritsema/Karcher: Enwrapping receiving. Small People significant. Great People Obstructed. Growing.
Shaughnessy: Wrapping the steamed offering: for the little man auspicious, for the great man negative; receipt.
Cleary (1): Embracing servility, the petty person is lucky; for the great person, obstruction is developmental.
Cleary (2): Embracing service, small people are lucky; great people get through obstruction.
Wu: Using flattery to please the superior will bring good fortune to the little man. The great man will find it obstruction to progress, but with patience, he will turn obstruction into pervasion.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The great man does not allow himself to be disordered by the herd of inferior men. Wilhelm/Baynes: He does not confuse the masses. Blofeld: He does so by not entangling himself with the masses. Ritsema/ Karcher: Not disarraying the flock indeed. Cleary (2): They are not deranged by the crowd. Wu: Because he despises the company of little men.
Legge: Patience and obedience are proper for the inferior man in all circumstances. The subject of the second line is a great man, and occupies the place in the center -- if, when confronted by difficulties he cherishes the attributes of patience and obedience, he will soon have a happy issue out of the distress.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man achieves good fortune by patience and obedience to his superior, who resolves his uncertainties. The great man, however, acts independently in meeting the challenge of the circumstances.
Wing: It is better to quietly accept Stagnation than to attempt to influence the leaders and willing victims of the situation. By remaining apart, you will not corrupt your principles. Success is indicated.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, the ego must always be aware of two realms of power in the psyche: the differentiated complexes and the integrating principle, or Self. In unifying its components, the Self sometimes uses strategies which are beyond the comprehension of the ego. When such tactics are in effect, it is time for the ego to "bear and endure" in good faith.
Thus the Hermetic treatise of rebirth describes the stages by which in the mystical situation the astral soul is dissolved and the spiritual self generated: one by one, the demonic powers (hailing from the Zodiac) are ousted from the subject and replaced by "powers of God" descending into it by grace and with their entrance progressively "composing" the new person. The initiate, ascetically prepared, is throughout receptive rather than active. With the dissolving of the former self he passes outside and beyond himself into a different being. -- H. Jonas --The Gnostic Religion
A. Subordinate elements endure an impasse: the Self refuses to pander to the illusions of its satellites. Sit tight and allow the situation to evolve. Trust the Work.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows him who brings the distress and obstruction to a close -- the great man and fortunate. But let him say: "We may perish! We may perish!" So shall the state of things become firm, as if bound to a clump of bushy mulberry trees.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Standstill is giving way. Good fortune for the great man.
"What if it should fail? What if it should fail?" In this way he ties it to a cluster of mulberry shoots.
Blofeld: Stagnation (obstruction) is now coming to an end and fortune favors the Superior Man, but he must not forget the situation is so dangerous that collapse may yet occur. Accordingly, he must strengthen himself as mulberry trees are strengthened by tight bindings.
Liu: Stagnation is coming to an end. The great man has good fortune. "Will it fail, will it fail?" He ties it to the mulberry shoots.
Ritsema/Karcher: Relinquishing Obstruction. Great People significant. Its extinction, its extinction. Attaching tending-towards bushy mulberry trees.
Shaughnessy: Beneficent wife; for the great man auspicious; it is lost, it is lost, tied to a bushy mulberry.
Cleary (1): Ending obstruction, great people are fortunate, but tie themselves to a tree trunk lest they go to ruin.
Cleary (2): Putting a stop to obstruction, great people are fortunate. But they still keep destruction in mind.
Wu: Stagnation will soon be brought to a close. This is auspicious for the great man. Would the nation perish? Would the nation perish? It is like having tied it to the trunk of a mulberry tree.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune of the great man arises from the correctness of his position. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is correct and appropriate. Blofeld: That fortune now favors the Superior Man is indicated by the suitable position of this line. [A firm line with other firm lines on either side.]Ritsema/Karcher: Situation correcting appropriate indeed.
Cleary (2): The fortune of great people is when their position is truly appropriate. Wu: Because his position is proper.
The master said:"He who keeps danger in mind is he who will rest safe in his seat; he who keeps ruin in mind is he who will preserve his interests secure; he who sets the danger of disorder before him is he who will maintain the state of order. Therefore the superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget the possibility of ruin; and when all is in a state of order, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is kept safe, and his states and all their clans can be preserved. This is according to what the I Ching says: `Let him say, "Shall I perish? Shall I perish?" So shall this state be firm, as if bound to a clump of bushy mulberry trees.'"
Legge: The dynamic fifth line in his correct central place brings the distress and obstruction to a close. Yet he, as ruler, is warned to maintain his caution in two lines of rhyme: "And let him say, `I die! I die!' -- So to a bushy clump his fortune he shall tie."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man brings order and progress to the situation. He exhibits cool-headedness and caution during the transition and maintains contingency plans in readiness.
Wing: A sweeping change for the better is indicated. Things can improve and progress. Yet this is the very time to feel cautious and reserved. With such an attitude your success is doubly insured and a strong foundation is established for the new times.
Editor: The image in the first line is of the entangled roots of grass plants. The differences between line one and line five are the differences between roots and stalks -- one is a cause, the other is an effect. The roots are entangled naturally, the stalks must be bound together by a conscious act of will: one is a hidden natural association, the other is an overt willed association.
The affairs of men are often spoiled within
an ace of completion,
by being careful at the end as at the beginning
failure is averted.
Tao Te Ching
A. Be careful during a time of transition.
B. Advance with care out of stagnation.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows the overthrow and removal of the condition of distress and obstruction. Before this there was that condition. Hereafter there will be joy.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The standstill comes to an end. First standstill, then good fortune.
Blofeld: Stagnation (obstruction) has now been overcome and is followed by great joy.
Liu: Stagnation ends. First there is stagnation, later good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Momentary wife; at first negative, later happy.
Cleary (1): Overturning obstruction: first there is obstruction, afterward joy.
Wu: Stagnation is ousted, etc.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: How could it be prolonged? Wilhelm/Baynes: When standstill comes to an end, it reverses. One should not wish to make it permanent. Blofeld: In the end it must be overcome. How could it endure forever? [The process of change is continuous. This is the last line, which is held to have emerged from the evil symbolized by the hexagram as a whole.]Ritsema/Karcher: Wherefore permitting long-living indeed? Cleary (2): What can last? Wu: How could it last?
Legge: There is an end to the condition of distress. It was necessary that that condition should give place to its opposite; and the dynamic line in the topmost place fitly represents the consequent joy.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Stagnation and disintegration give way to happiness and progress. But they may not last long.
Wing: The opportunity to change a situation from Stagnation to progress is at hand. It will not happen of its own accord. A strong and continuing sense of purpose is necessary to achieve and maintain the greatest possible heights of success.
Editor: When this line changes the hexagram becomes number forty-five: Contraction. This suggests that when an impasse is finally broken, the energy released begins to accumulate for a new cycle of growth.
When one has learned to live with the manifestations of the "not-I" in an attitude of concrete acceptance, bearing one's seemingly inferior personal characteristics as a burden rather than identifying with them and at the same time humbly remaining open to the demands of hitherto unrealized transpersonal powers, a new phase of psychological transformation is initiated. The instinctual drives themselves may change character and consequently the needs for suppressive discipline or sublimation can be lessened. Much of what formerly seemed evil, or at least compulsively disturbing, reveals itself as merely primitive and therefore capable of constructive growth. The instinctual drives thus transformed and matured cease to be sources of moral danger, temptation or sin; instead they become the originators of new creative impulses and possibilities of expression which eventually widen the scope of the personality and with it the whole life. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. The situation is about to improve. Once the lessons of an impasse are integrated, one moves on to other things.
54 The Marrying Maiden
Other titles: The Marrying Maiden, The Symbol of the Marriage of the Younger Sister, Marriageable Maiden, The Marrying Girl, Subordinate, The Second Wife, Converting Maidenhood, Returning maiden, Making a young girl marry, Marrying a young girl, Marrying a Maiden, Unilateral Action, Impropriety, Improper Advances, "Deals with life and death, sex and birth. It contains a warning about a person or situation. It deals essentially with discrimination. The first step on the Path without which we are useless." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Propriety indicates that action will be evil, and in no wise advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Marrying Maiden. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.
Blofeld:The Marriageable Maiden. Advance brings misfortune. No goal (or destination) is now favorable.
Liu: The Marrying Girl. Undertaking leads to misfortune. Nothing benefits.
Ritsema/Karcher: Converting Maidenhood, chastising: pitfall. Without direction: Harvesting. [Without direction: Harvesting: ... In order to take advantage of the situation, do not impose a direction on events.] [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Returning maiden: To be upright is inauspicious; there is no place beneficial.
Cleary (1): Making a young girl marry: To go on will lead to misfortune; no profit is gained.
Cleary (2):Marrying a young girl. To go on an expedition leads to misfortune, with nothing gained.
Wu: Marrying a Maiden indicates that it will be foreboding to make moves. There is nothing to be gained.
The Image
Legge: The waters of a Marsh with Thunder over it form the hexagram of Propriety. The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder over the lake: the image of The Marrying Maiden. Thus the superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder over a pool. The Superior Man knows that, to achieve an enduring end, he must be aware of his mistakes at the beginning.
Liu: Thunder over the lake symbolizes the Marrying Girl. The superior man knows the cause of error, and persists in his virtue to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing thunder. Converting Maidenhood. A chun tzu uses perpetually completing to know the cracked.
Cleary (1): There is thunder above a lake, making a young girl marry. Thus superior people persist to the end and know what is wrong.
Cleary (2): Thunder over a lake – Marrying a young girl. Developed people consider lasting results and know what is wrong. [The way developed people handle things is that before they take the time to ask how to start something, they first consider lasting results. If they think of lasting results, they know what is wrong with acting prematurely, like marrying an immature girl. If you understand the meaning of this, you can apply it to government and to contemplating mind as well.]
Wu: There is thunder above the marsh; this is Marrying a Maiden. Thus, the jun zi in the pursuit of lasting excellence realizes the flaws and corrects them.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In the marriage of a young bride the proper relationship between heaven and earth is seen. Nothing could grow or flourish if heaven and earth did not unite. The marriage of a young bride is therefore both the commencement and goal of humanity. But here the desire of pleasure employs movement to attain union. This action will be evil because the lines are in inappropriate places, and the magnetic three and five are mounted on dynamic lines.
Legge: The Chinese phrase for this hexagram might be equivalent to the English "giving in marriage,” but there are some special meanings in this case which must be understood. The Judgment gives a bad auspice because the trigram of the Youngest Daughter is beneath the trigram of the Eldest Son. Since the action of the hexagram begins with the lowest trigram, we have two violations of propriety. First, the marriage is initiated by the woman and her friends. She goes unilaterally to her future home instead of the bridegroom coming to fetch her. Second, the parties are unequally matched -- there is too great a disparity in their ages. In addition, all the lines in the hexagram except the top and the bottom are in places inappropriate for them. Some commentators insist that the symbol of the contracting of a marriage in this hexagram sets forth some principles which should obtain in the relation between a ruler and his ministers.
The growth of things in nature from the interaction of heaven and earth is analogous to the increase of mankind through the interaction between male and female in marriage. The K'ang-hsi editors reconcile this good auspice with the unfavorable Judgment by saying: "The interaction of the yin and yang cannot be dispensed with, but we ought to be careful about it in the beginning in order to prevent mischief in the end.” The error here is that the desire for the marriage originated with the lady, and that she is heedless of the disparity in their ages.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Propriety means that unilateral action is inappropriate.
The Superior Man understands that the Work is guided from within, and that choices which ignore this truth can only retard its progress. (Present actions originate future consequences: pay heed to your choices.)
The traditional name for this hexagram is The Marrying Maiden -- a title which does not convey to modern western readers the subtlety of its symbolism. Blofeld says: "This hexagram is, on the whole, a most unfortunate omen ... We must not suppose that it deals only with marriage. What is said about the maiden symbolizes in some way or other what we may expect for ourselves within the context of our enquiry." The figure is certainly difficult, but "unfortunate" only if its import is resisted or denied: any portrayal of our situation which eliminates illusion (however painful the realization), must be regarded as a positive lesson.
Although the Confucian commentary describes this hexagram in terms of self-seeking aspiration, the wretched protagonist of the figure is not invariably culpable, and neither Judgment nor Image imply this. In addition to being at the very bottom of the social pecking order, the maiden is portrayed as half-blind, crippled and a "slave." Although condemned by the commentators for importuning a marriage that would raise her status, a close reading of the lines reveals that only the sixth place suggests possible impropriety -- the others all contain advice about how one of extremely low status should cope with restricted circumstances. The hexagram therefore can deal with either of two possible conditions: those involving Proprietyand those involving Making-do as an adaptation to adversity.
In the first instance, it is useful to compare the symbolism here with that of the preceding hexagram of Gradual Progress. There we see the organic progression of the Work allegorized as the proper marriage of a young woman. In this case, Gradual Progress has been turned upside down and the symbolism reversed: this young woman improperly pursues a marriage on her own initiative. Psychologically interpreted, it can be regarded as an image of the ego pushing its own agenda or desire for union.
The ego may move in directions and toward actions that are at variance with the intentions and standards of the Self ... The mature adult needs to recognize eventually his or her relative limitedness vis-à-vis the "Self- field" and the cosmic organism of which s/he is but a cell. We are subject to the ordering and growth intents of the entelechy of the whole. E. C. Whitmont -- The Alchemy of Healing
To recognize our `relative limitedness “vis-à-vis the Self-field” is to renounce our claim to unilateral action. Though the ego ardently desires a marriage with the Self, only the Self can initiate such a union. Chou Tun I, an early Neo-Confucian, makes an observation which illuminates Legge's Image:
"The superior man, in accordance with this, having regard to the far-distant end, knows the mischief that may be done at the beginning. The most important things in the world are tendencies. Tendencies may be strong or weak. If a tendency is extremely strong, it cannot be controlled. But it is possible to control it quickly if one realizes that it is strong. To control it requires effort. If one does not realize early enough, it will not be easy to apply effort.”
To receive this hexagram without changing lines can be an admonition to examine your motives and actions in the matter at hand. Where are you out of line? If no obvious impropriety is involved, it could also portray an essentially impotent predicament. At such times Ritsema/Karcher's synopsis bears repetition: "This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the changing status of someone who cannot control their circumstances. It emphasizes that finding a real field of activity through accepting this imposition is the adequate way to handle it.”
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare Propriety with hexagram number fifty-three, Gradual Progress, then compare them both with hexagram number thirty-one,Initiative. What are the similarities in their ideas? Now look at hexagrams number eleven, seventeen and twenty-two and observe the over-all philosophy which begins to emerge.