Repenting for one's actions
One is devastated by shame so one relies on the judgment of others. taoscopy.com
Retreat33
Step back and reassess. Retreat to gain strength and clarity. Focus on inner resources, conserve energy, and observe quietly. Let go gracefully, avoid confrontation, and prepare for future action.
↓ Line 1
At the beginning of retreat, it is important to recognize the danger and avoid taking action that could lead to entanglement.
↓ Line 3
Hesitation in retreat can cause anxiety, but maintaining supportive relationships is beneficial.
↓ Line 5
Retreating in a friendly manner and maintaining perseverance ensures good fortune.
↓ Biting Through21
Face conflicts head-on to clear blockages; decisive action breaks through obstacles.
33 Retreat
Other titles: The Symbol of Retirement, Yielding, Withdrawal, Retiring, Wielding, Strategic Withdrawal, Inaccessibility, Disassociation from Inferior Forces, “When an opportunity for something better comes along, do not quarrel with an impossible situation.” -- D. F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Retreatmeans successful progress. Advantage comes from firm correctness and attention to details.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Retreat . Success. In what is small, perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: Yielding. Success! Persistence in small things wins advantage. [Much of the teaching of the Book of Change is concerned with the wisdom of restraint or withdrawal as the best way of achieving our goal under certain circumstances; so this hexagram is not necessarily unfavorable to the wise. This is not a time when we can hope to achieve much; but attention to small matters will stand us in good stead later.]
Liu: Retreat. Success. To persist in small matters is of benefit.
Ritsema/Karcher:Retiring, Growing. The small: Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of conflict and consequent seclusion. It emphasizes that withdrawing from the affairs at hand to conceal yourself in obscurity is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: retire!]
Shaughnessy: Wielding: Receipt; little beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): Withdrawal is developmental. The small is beneficial and correct.
Cleary (2): Withdrawal is successful. Small benefit is correct.
Wu: Retreat indicates pervasion. It will be advantageous for the little men to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: A mountain beneath the sky -- the image of Retreat. The superior man keeps inferior men at a distance by his dignified bearing rather than hostility.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Mountain under heaven: the image of Retreat. Thus the superior man keeps the inferior man at a distance, not angrily but with reserve. [He does not hate him, for hatred is a form of subjective involvement by which we are bound to the hated object.]
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes mountains beneath the sky. The Superior Man, by keeping his distance from men of inferior character, avoids having to display wrath and preserves his dignity. [The component trigrams, symbolizing mountain and sky, indicate withdrawal to a solitary place when circumstances are unfavorable.]
Liu: The mountain beneath the sky symbolizes Retreat. The superior man keeps his distance from the inferior, not with anger, but with dignity.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing mountain. Retiring. A chun tzu uses distancing Small People. A chun tzu uses not hating and-also intimidating.
Cleary (1): There are mountains under heaven, which is inaccessible. Thus do superior people keep petty people at a distance, being stern without ill will.
Cleary (2): … Being strict without ill will.[Petty people can be useful, so there is no ill-will, but their pettiness cannot wield authority, so be strict. In terms of learning to be a sage, the celestial ruler is the master, and the physical body takes orders from it, so that the desires of the various parts of the body cannot cause disturbance.]
Wu: There is a mountain under heaven; this is Retreat. Thus the jun zi distances himself from the little men, not because of despising them, but because of maintaining his own esteem. [The difference between the jun zi and the little men is one of education and not of birth. Confucius was a teacher first and a philosopher second, for he said: “Education is classless.” Every one of us has the potential of becoming a sage.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: There is progress in Retreat. The dynamic ruler in the fifth place receives a proper response from his correlate in line two. The action is in accordance with the requirements of the time because what is inferior is gradually increasing and advancing. The actions required during a Retreat are of great significance.
Legge: Retreat is the hexagram of the sixth month when the yin influence, represented by the two magnetic lines, has established a foothold. This suggests the growth of inferior and unprincipled men in the state, before whose advance superior men are obliged to retire. Yet the auspice of Retreat is not all bad. By firm correctness the threatened evil may be arrested to some extent. Ch'eng-tzu says: “Below the sky is the mountain. The mountain rises up below the sky, and its height is arrested, while the sky goes up higher and higher, till they come to be apart from each other. In this we have an emblem of retiring and avoiding.”
Anthony: The correct time for retreat comes when others are not receptive to us, when delicacy of feeling is lost, when we begin to be attacked by doubt, or when our actions no longer yield progress. The person who can hold his ego in check has many creative moments open to him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: When carried out with shrewd discernment, Retreat is a strategy for success.
The Superior Man removes himself from disintegrating forces without calling attention to himself. He controls his weaknesses by maintaining his serious purpose.
With the possible exception of line two, there is very little ambiguity in the hexagram of Retreat. Without changing lines it is a clear injunction to remove yourself from an inferior situation, influence, emotion or way of thinking. The figure has certain affinities with hexagram number forty- four: Temptation which also depicts an inferior element encroaching from below.
To yield is to be preserved whole. Lao-tse
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare hexagrams number forty-four, Temptation; number thirty-three, Retreat; and number twelve, Divorcement; in that order. What are the next three logical hexagrams in the sequence, and what are the implications of the series as a whole?
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows a retiring tail. The position is perilous. No movement in any direction should be made.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the tail in retreat. This is dangerous. One must not undertake anything. [Since the hexagram is the picture of something that is retreating, the lowest line represents the tail and the top line the head. In a retreat it is advantageous to be at the front.]
Blofeld: Withdrawal to the hindermost point -- trouble! It is useless to seek any goal or destination at such a time.
Liu: The tail in retreat. (Someone closely following.) Danger. No undertakings.
Ritsema/Karcher: Retiring tail, adversity. No availing-of possessing directed going.
Shaughnessy: Wield the tail; danger; do not herewith have any place to go.
Cleary (1): Withdrawing the tail is dangerous; don’t go anywhere with this.
Wu: To retreat in the rear is perilous. He should not undertake it.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: If no movement is made, what disaster can there be? Wilhelm/Baynes: If one undertakes nothing while exposed to the danger of the retreating tail, what misfortune could befall one? Blofeld: If you refrain from moving back so far what misfortune can overtake you? Ritsema/ Karcher: Not going wherefore calamity indeed. Cleary (2): If you do not go anywhere, what trouble will there be? Wu: How can retreat in the rear be perilous if he does not undertake it?
Legge: A retiring tail suggests the idea of the subject of the line hurrying away, which would only aggravate the evil and danger of the time.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man is in a perilous position at the end of the retreating column still in contact with the enemy. No action should be undertaken under such circumstances.
Wing: Your position in the situation is in close proximity to an adversary. It would have been to your advantage to Retreat earlier. Do not take any action now, as it will only invite danger.
Anthony: Our ego keeps engaged with the negative power through looking at and examining the issue. We may be considering a compromise with the evil element, or remain involved with desire, fear, anger, impatience or anxiety. We must disconnect, not looking at the situation with our mind’s eye.
Editor: In vulgar English: "Your ass is exposed!" This suggests the analogy of being threatened by a barking dog -- the surest way to be bitten is to show fear and run. The best strategy is to remain as calm as possible, and then slowly back off. Ritsema/Karcher's definition of "adversity" includes the idea of a malevolent spiritual force: "pacifying or exorcizing such a spirit can have a healing effect."
The discreet man sees danger and takes shelter, the ignorant go forward and pay for it. Proverbs 22:3
A. You are exposed and vulnerable. Stay calm -- do nothing rash when exposed to threatening forces and you'll survive.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows one retiring but bound -- to his distress and peril. If he were to deal with his binders as in nourishing a servant or concubine, it would be fortunate for him.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A halted retreat is nerve-wracking and dangerous. To retain people as men-and maidservants brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Yielding under constraint results in ills and trouble, but there is good fortune in store for those who are supporting servants and concubines.
Liu: Retreat with entanglements is dangerous and leads to illness. Take care of women and subordinates. Good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Do the wielding; there is sickness; danger; keeping servants and consorts is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Entangled withdrawal has affliction, but it is lucky in terms of feeding servants and concubines.
Cleary (2): Entangled in withdrawal, there is affliction and danger, but feeding servants and concubines leads to good results.
Wu: The retreat is tied to a string. It will be ominous to have illness, but auspicious to have maids and servants.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The peril is due to distress and exhaustion. A great affair cannot be dealt with in this way. Wilhelm/Baynes: The danger of a halted retreat is nerve- wracking; this brings fatigue. "To retain people as men-and maidservants brings good fortune." True enough, but one cannot use them in great things. Blofeld: The evils referred to here are those attendant on extreme fatigue. Though supporting servants and concubines brings good fortune, it does not lead to achieving anything of consequence. [Seemingly, Confucius, always inclined to be austere, does not altogether approve of this type of good fortune.]Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing afflicting weariness indeed. Not permitting Great Affairs indeed. Cleary (2): Affliction and exhaustion. Not suitable for great works. Wu: Illness can be wasting. No big business is achievable.
Legge: Line three has no proper correlate in line six, and he allows himself to be entangled and impeded by the first and second lines. Because he is too familiar with them they are presumptuous and fetter his movements. He should keep them at a distance.
Wu: The subject of this yang position feels that he is attached to the occupant of the second (line), a yin position. This sentimental attachment, symbolized here as the string attachment, hinders his freedom to retreat. Under these circumstances it is all right for him to handle small matters, such as hiring domestic help, but no big business.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man loses his freedom of action during retreat. The hangers-on impede and fetter his movements. The expedient course of action is to employ them in such a way as to retain the initiative. But he must maintain an appropriate distance from them and not rely on expedient actions of this kind in dealing with important matters.
Wing: You've been held back from Retreat and consequently are in the center of a difficult situation. Inferior persons or ideals may surround you. They can be used to insulate you from further difficulties, but you can accomplish nothing significant while fettered by inferior elements.
Editor: The image suggests being held back by inferior or subordinate forces within the situation. Ritsema/Karcher explain that "Possessing afflicting adversity" can connote "a spirit that seeks revenge by inflicting suffering on the living. Pacifying or exorcizing such a spirit can have a healing effect." (I have received this line when exactly that meaning was implied in the query.) Psychologically, sublimation is indicated. This is the art of making negative energy "sublime," i.e.: positive. "Servants and concubines" sometimes symbolize subconscious complexes: their libido can be either positive or negative, depending upon how it is treated. Remember that the proper nourishment of libido is not the same as indulging it.
For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and is liable also to diseases which overtake and impede us in the search after true being; it fills us full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery, and in fact, as men say, takes away from us the power of thinking at all. Whence come wars, and fightings, and factions? Whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? Plato -- Phaedo
A. Encumbered and exhausted -- make the most of whatever advantages you have to harmonize the situation.
B. Sublimate, placate or otherwise transform inferior forces to serve your higher purposes.
C. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows its subject retiring in an admirable way. With firm correctness there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Friendly retreat. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Blofeld: An admirably carried out withdrawal. Persistence in a righteous course brings good fortune.
Liu: Appropriate retreat. To continue brings good fortune.
Shaughnessy: Enjoyable wielding; determination is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Excellent withdrawal; correctness is auspicious.
Wu: The commendable retreat is auspicious if persevering.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: This is due to the rectitude of his purpose. Wilhelm/ Baynes: Because the will thereby reaches a correct decision. Blofeld: This results from a withdrawal carried out as a result of rectifying our aims. [I.e. revising them in the light of unfavorable circumstances.]Ritsema/Karcher: Using correcting the purpose indeed.) Cleary (2): Because of right aspiration. Wu: He needs to put his aims in the right perspective.
Legge: The K'ang-hsi editors refer to the words of I Yin as an illustration of what is said in line five: "The superior man will not for favor or gain continue in an office whose work is done." He advances or withdraws according to the character of the time. The strength and correct position of the fifth line show that he is able to maintain himself, and as he is responded to by the magnetic second line, no opposition would come from any of the others. Therefore, he is free to keep his place, but since he recognizes the advance of inferior men in lines one and two, he deems it better to withdraw from the field for a time. Thus there is successful progress even in his retreat.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man recognizes the proper time for an admirable retirement with necessary amenities and without disagreeableness. Firmness in the rectitude of his purpose is necessary to guard against being misled by irrelevant issues.
Wing: Make your Retreat friendly but firm. Do not be drawn into irrelevant discussions or considerations concerning your decisions. A persevering withdrawal brings good fortune.
Editor: Both Legge and Blofeld use the concept of rectification in their translations of the Confucian commentary. [Rectify: 1.a: to make or set right: remedy. 2.a: to restore to a healthy state.] The idea is that one must pleasantly but firmly disassociate oneself from an inferior alliance -- the only hope of improvement lies in withdrawal from the scene.
A faultless person is one who withdraws from affairs. This must be done with strength. Yamamoto Tsunetomo -- The Book of the Samurai
A. Withdraw to make correct – don’t make a big deal of it.
B. The integrity of the Work demands a withdrawal from an inferior alliance.
21 Biting Through
Other titles: Biting Through, Gnawing, The Symbol of Mastication and Punishment by Pressing and Squeezing, Gnawing Bite, Severing, Chewing, Punishment, Reformation, Reform, Differentiation, Discrimination, Making a Distinction, Getting the message "Something which should be, or has to be bitten through. This is essentially the legal hexagram. When asking about a man's intentions, he is probably married." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Success is found in Discernment. The restrictions of the law bring advantage.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Biting Through has success. It is favorable to let justice be administered.
Blofeld: Gnawing. Success! The time is favorable for legal processes. [The concept of gnawing is suggested by the component trigrams, which are regarded (owing to the arrangement of their lines) as not commingling; they are as separate from each other as the upper and lower jaw when something tough is being gnawed.]
Liu: Chewing: Success. It benefits to administer justice. [Chewing indicates success through hard work. Those who get this hexagram will have trouble in the beginning.]
Ritsema/Karcher:Gnawing Bite, Growing. Harvesting: availing of litigating. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting a tenacious obstacle. It emphasizes that biting through and picking things clean until the essential is revealed is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: gnaw and bite through!]
Shaughnessy: Biting and chewing: Receipt; beneficial to use a court case.
Cleary (1):Biting through is developmental. It is beneficial to administer justice.
Cleary (2): Biting through is successful. It is beneficial to apply justice.
Wu: Discernment is pervasive. It will be advantageous to exact punishments.
The Image
Legge: The images of thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings promulgated their laws and framed their penalties with intelligence.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder and lightning: The image of Biting Through. Thus the kings of former times made firm the laws through clearly defined penalties.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning accompanied by thunder. The ancient rulers, after making their legal code perfectly clear to all, enforced the laws vigorously. [The firm and yielding lines more or less alternate; or the lower trigram can be regarded as filled with the power of thunderous force, while the upper trigram, representing beauty, is soft and yielding. (Li, the upper trigram, stands for lightning as well as for fire, beauty, etc.) I do not know what the ancient Chinese views on thunder and lightning were; it appears from this that they were regarded as two forces which, like steel and flint, emitted brilliance when brought into sharp contact with each other. A pair of trigrams both with yielding centers is not felt to be a good arrangement; that it nevertheless favors the process of the law may have been suggested to the writer of the Text by the fact that the weak lines (morally weak people?) are fully contained by the strong (prison walls, warders and so forth?)]
Liu: Thunder and lightning symbolize Chewing. The ancient kings made the laws and clarified the penalties.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, lightning. Gnawing Bite. The Earlier Kings used brightening flogging to enforce the laws.
Cleary (1): Thunder and lightning, biting through. Thus did the kings of yore clarify penalties and proclaim laws. [Those who administer laws should emulate the ancient kings in first clarifying them before executing them, in order to avoid mistakenly injuring life.]
Wu: Thunder and lightning form Discernment. Thus the ancient kings made just punishments and upheld the law of the land.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The existence of something between the jaws gives rise to the name Discernment-- union by means of biting through the intervening article. The dynamic and magnetic lines are equally divided in the figure. Movement is denoted by the lower trigram, and Clarity by the upper -- thunder and lightning uniting in them, and having brilliant manifestation. The magnetic fifth line is in the center, and acts in her high position. Although she is not in her proper place, this is advantageous for the use of legal constraints.
Legge: Discernment means literally "union by gnawing." The figure consists of undivided lines in the top, bottom and fourth places -- giving the image of open jaws with something in them "being gnawed." When the object has been bitten through, the upper and lower jaws come together in union -- hence: " Union by gnawing." Remove the obstacles to union and high and low will meet together in understanding. The force exerted by gnawing suggests the idea of legal constraints.
The equal division of the dynamic and magnetic lines is seen by taking them in pairs, though the order of the first pair is different from the other two. The magnetic fifth line is the ruler of the hexagram, indicating that judgment is tempered by leniency.
Ch'eng-tzu says that thunder and lightning are always found together, and hence their trigrams go together to give the idea of union intended in Discernment: one trigram symbolizing majesty and the other intelligence.
Cleary (1): Practice of the Tao is like administering justice: Discerning true and false, right and wrong, is like the judge deciding good and bad; getting rid of falsehood and keeping truth, so as to preserve essence and life, is like the [just] administration rewarding the good and punishing the bad, so as to alleviate the burden of injustice.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Further the Work through careful Discernment between what is true and false, right and wrong, correct and incorrect.
The Image portrays the connection between cause and effect, where consequences are always based on the inexorable laws of nature.
To bite is to comprehend, and to bite through is to make distinctions. The top and bottom lines of the hexagram represent the upper and lower jaws, and both bear images of restriction and punishment. Each of the lines between them portrays some version of biting through flesh. Hence, the jaws define the general problem, and the teeth differentiate the details.
The symbol of losing teeth has the primitive meaning of losing one's grip because under primitive circumstances and in the animal kingdom, the teeth and mouth are the gripping organ. If one loses teeth, one loses the grip on something. Now this can mean a loss of self-control, etc. The English word grip is contained in the German word begriff (conception or notion). The Latin word conceptio means the same, i.e., catching hold of something, having a grip on something. Jung -- Letters
In I Ching symbolism, the "ancient kings” are always synonymous with spiritual authority. Analogous to gods or cosmic forces, their "laws" are like the laws of karma or of nature -- inexorable in their outcome. Therefore, the punishment theme in the hexagram warns us that a lack of Discernment in the matter at hand has built-in penalties: i.e., "Get the message or suffer the consequences.”
Behold, sin and punishment are one, and the fire of punishment is the fire that refines my works. Even in the sinner I am the actor, and I, too, am the sufferer in the experience of punishment. P.F. Case -- The Book of Tokens
To receive this hexagram without changing lines indicates a need to make some important distinctions in the matter at hand. “Figure it out” might make a good alternate title at such times. Cleary’s Taoist note on the image (“Those who administer laws should emulate the ancient kings in first clarifying them before executing them, in order to avoid mistakenly injuring life”) is a clear admonition to get all of your facts straight before proceeding with your inquiry. That you don’t know or understand something is implied.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The twenty-first hexagram turned upside down becomes the twenty-second. The message for the superior man in the Image of each concerns the enforcement of law. What is the relationship between Discernmentand Persona in such a context? The component trigrams of these two figures also make up hexagrams number fifty-five, Expansion of Awareness and number fifty-six, Transition.The messages for the superior man in each of these figures also relate to litigation. Why? What do the four hexagrams suggest about the nature of the Work?