Restoring
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Decrease41
Simplify and reduce. Embrace minimalism to gain clarity and focus on what truly matters. Letting go can bring unexpected abundance.
↓ Line 1
Acting promptly and efficiently is beneficial, but one should be mindful of not diminishing others in the process.
↓ Line 2
Steadfastness is advantageous, but taking on new ventures may lead to trouble. By maintaining one's own resources, one can support others.
↓ Line 3
In a group, resources may be stretched thin, but solitude can lead to new alliances.
↓ Line 4
Reducing one's own shortcomings encourages others to approach with joy, leading to harmonious relationships.
↓ The Wanderer56
Embrace the journey. Stay adaptable and attentive. Balance independence with humility. Success comes from accepting change and being resourceful.
41 Decrease
Other titles: Decrease, The Symbol of Lessening, Loss, Diminishing, Reduction, Diminution of Excesses, Decline, Bringing into Balance, Dynamic Balance, Sacrifice, "Not necessarily material loss. Can mean decreasing the lower self to increase the higher." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Compensating Sacrifice means that sincerely maintained rectitude brings great success. Action is appropriate if one's sacrifice is sincere -- even two baskets of grain, though there be nothing else, may be offered.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame. One may be persevering in this. It furthers one to undertake something. How is this to be carried out? One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.
Blofeld: Loss accompanied by confidence -- sublime good fortune and no error! It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination). If there is doubt as to what to use for the sacrifice, two small bowls will suffice.
Liu:Decrease with sincerity: great good fortune, no blame. One may continue. It is beneficial to go somewhere. How can this (decrease with sincerity) be done? One may use two bamboo containers of grain for a sacrifice.
Ritsema/Karcher: Diminishing, possessing conformity. Spring significant. Without fault, permitting Trial. Harvesting: possessing directed going. Asking-why: having availing of. Two platters permit availing-of presenting. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of sacrifice and loss. It emphasizes that lessening yourself and decreasing your involvements is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: There is a return; prime auspiciousness; there is no trouble. It can be determined. Beneficial to have someplace to go. Why use two tureens; you can use aromatic grass.
Cleary (1): Reduction with sincerity is very auspicious, impeccable. It should be correct. It is beneficial to go somewhere. What is the use of the two bowls? They can be used to receive.
Cleary (2): … It is beneficial to have somewhere to go, etc … They can be used for presentation.
Wu: Loss indicates that with confidence there will be great fortune, no error, perseverance, and advantage to have undertakings. What to use in offerings? Two boxes of grain are adequate.
The Image
Legge: The image of a mountain and beneath it the waters of a marsh form Compensating Sacrifice. The superior man, in accordance with this, restrains his wrath and represses his desires.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the foot of the mountain, the lake: the image of Decrease. Thus the superior man controls his anger and restrains his instincts.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake at the foot of a mountain. The Superior Man keeps his anger under control and is moderate in his desires.
Liu: The lake beside the mountain symbolizes Decrease. The superior man curbs his indignation and restricts his desires.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below mountain possessing marsh. Diminishing. A chun tzu uses curbing anger to block the appetites.
Cleary (1): There is a lake under a mountain, reducing it. Thus does the superior person eliminate wrath and cupidity.
Cleary (2): Lake below a mountain – Reducing. Thus do developed people eliminate anger and greed.
Wu: There is a marsh below the mountain; this is Loss. Thus the jun zi mitigates his anger and restrains his desires.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Compensating Sacrificethe lower trigram is diminished to increase the upper, and the flow is upward. The two baskets of grain accord with the time. There is a time when the strong should be diminished and the weak strengthened. Decrease and increase, overflowing and emptiness, take place in harmony with the demands of the time.
Legge: Ch'eng-tzu says: "Every diminution and repression of what we have in excess to bring it into accordance with right and reason is comprehended under Compensating Sacrifice. If there is sincerity in doing this it will lead to success and happiness, and even if the offering is small, yet it will be accepted."
The K'ang-hsi editors say: "What is meant by diminishing in this hexagram is the regulation of expenditure or contribution according to the time. This would vary in a family according to its poverty or wealth, and in a state according to the abundance or scantiness of its resources. If one supplements the insufficiency of his offering with the abundance of his sincerity, the insignificance of his two baskets will not be despised."
The waters of a marsh are continually rising up in vapor to bedew the hill above it, and thus increase its verdure. What is taken from the marsh gives increase to the hill.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: A sacrifice creates equilibrium.
The Superior Man sacrifices his appetites to a higher principle.
The traditional name for this hexagram is Decrease, but the lines and commentary all describe a compensating exchange of forces to attain equilibrium. The idea of "sacrifice" is mentioned in the Judgment, and that also might make a good title, though the image of two baskets of grain suggests a balancing scale: a "compensating" device. In this hexagram, the flow of energy moves from below upwards -- the waters of the lake or marsh are dispersed to enrich the mountain. In psychological terms we think of the ego sacrificing or decreasing its autonomy to achieve psychic equilibrium with the Self: we forfeit something valuable to obtain something even more valuable. Without this quid pro quo, the concept of sacrifice is meaningless and irrational.
A sacrifice is meant to be a loss, so that one may be sure that the egoistic claim no longer exists. Therefore the gift should be given as if it were being destroyed. But since the gift represents myself, I have in that case destroyed myself, given myself away without expectation of return. Yet, looked at in another way, this intentional loss is also a gain, for if you can give yourself it proves that you possess yourself. Nobody can give what he has not got. Jung -- Transformation Symbolism in the Mass
Compare the Image message from hexagram number 15, Temperance with the notion of a compensating balance: "The superior man, in accordance with this, diminishes his excesses to augment his insufficiencies, thus creating a just balance." We are reminded of another "Temperance" -- the 14th Arcanum of the Tarot, which depicts an angel pouring water from one vessel into another: "compensating." A comparison of its symbolism with that of hexagram number 41 yields many insights:
The Path of ... TEMPERANCE, leads from ... the Personality [ego] to the Higher Self ... The whole experience is one of preparation of the Personality [ego], and the body in which it is operating, to deal with an influx of Light which would be devastating to a system unready to handle such energy. Most important here is the monitoring of progress, the continual testing from above. It is the angel here which is at once the Higher Self and the initiatory forces of Nature, which pours the elixir from vase to vase. This is an ongoing process of testing; measuring to see how much the physical vehicle can bear. R. Wang --The Qabalistic Tarot
Without belaboring the point, we can see that all sacrifice is a kind of remuneration: it couldn't be otherwise in an interconnected universe. The Image instruction for the superior man to “control his anger” is also echoed in the Temperance card. This relates to:
...an aspect of the Mysteries only rarely discussed, and certainly germane to the Twenty-Fifth Path [the Kabbalistic equivalent of the relationship between lines one and four in this hexagram]: this is the very real hostility often felt by the student toward the Path itself, as he works day after day and seems to be getting nowhere. Such hostility and frustration is in itself a major test; it is part and parcel of the work prior to the emergence of inner proofs. -- Ibid
"Decrease with sincerity" (Liu) refers to one's continuous sacrifice for the goals of the Work, and "curbing anger" (Ritsema/Karcher) is how one handles the archetypal forces evoked when the decrease seems endless and you've yet to receive anything in return. Like any other hexagram, Compensating Sacrifice can symbolize an infinity of possible situations, but psychologically speaking we can first regard it as an image of sacrifice for the purpose of attaining a balance of power within the psyche. Without the sacrificial devotion of the ego, the Self cannot attain its will; and if the Self can't make it, the ego is doomed by default.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows its subject suspending his own affairs, and hurrying away to help the subject of the fourth line. He will commit no error, but let him consider how far he should contribute of what is his for the other.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Going quickly when one's tasks are finished is without blame. But one must reflect on how much one may decrease others.
Blofeld: To hurry away when work is done is not wrong, but first consider whether such a hasty departure will harm the work.
Liu: To go quickly after the work is done brings no blame. One should consider how much the decrease will be.
Ritsema/Karcher: Climaxing affairs, swiftly going. Without fault. Discussing Diminishing it.
Shaughnessy: Already serving the ends in going; there is no trouble; toasting decreases it.
Cleary (1): Ending affairs, going quickly, there is no fault; but assess before reducing something.
Cleary (2): … Assess the reduction of this.
Wu: He stops doing his own things, and swiftly goes forward. There will be no blame. He should consider limiting the loss.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The subject of the fourth line mingles her wishes with his. Wilhelm/Baynes: The mind of the one above accords with one's own. Blofeld: Moreover, the approval of our superiors must first be obtained. Ritsema/ Karcher: Honoring uniting purposes indeed. Cleary (2): Valuing unification of aims. Wu: He does what pleases the above.
Legge: Line one is dynamic and his correlate in line four is magnetic. He wants to help her, but won't leave anything of his own undone in doing so. Nor will he diminish anything of his own for her without due deliberation.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man disregards his own interests to help his superior. The latter should be sensitive to the amount of such help that can be accepted without harm to the subordinate. Neither should a subordinate give without due consideration.
Wing: When you are in a position to help others or to be helped yourself, be certain that moderation is exercised. To give or take too much can result in an imbalanced situation. Think this through carefully before acting.
Editor: The full meaning of this line is best evoked by comparing it with its fourth line correlate. This is an image of less than total support. It says: "Render all due assistance." It is left up to you to differentiate the appropriate amount, which is a hint that a test may be involved. ("...Let him consider how far he should contribute of what is his for the other" can sometimes imply a warning about slavish service to archetypal powers.) When compared with the image of line four, we get a definite picture of an active balancing of forces – perhaps a dialectical process. The Self is demanding a differentiation from the rational ego. This is a complex line which often implies messages which are literally impossible to put into words.
Principally he must know how far he is willing to go, what he is willing to sacrifice. There is nothing more easy to say than everything. A man can never sacrifice everything and this can never be required of him. But he must define exactly what he is willing to sacrifice and not bargain about it afterwards. Gurdjieff
A. An image of judicious choices to attain proper balance or equitable compensation of forces.
B. How much are you willing to give to the Work? (Be careful with your answer!)
C. Render aid to "the one above." (The Self.)
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows that it will be advantageous for its subject to maintain firm correctness, and that action on his part will be evil. He can give increase to his correlate without taking from himself.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Perseverance furthers. To undertake something brings misfortune. Without decreasing oneself, one is able to bring increase to others.
Blofeld: Persistence in a righteous course brings reward, but to advance (or go anywhere) now would bring misfortune. This is not a time for decreasing but for augmenting.
Liu: To continue is beneficial. Undertakings bring misfortune. Without decrease, without increase.
Ritsema/Karcher: Harvesting Trial. Chastising: pitfall. Nowhere Diminishing, augmenting it.
Shaughnessy: Beneficial to determine; to be upright is inauspicious. Not decreasing it, but increasing it.
Cleary (1): It is beneficial to be correct. An expedition is inauspicious. No reduction or increase of this. [If you do not know when enough is enough and go on reducing and increasing, you will reactivate the human mentality and thus obscure the mind of Tao … It is because the strong energy is balanced, not biased or lopsided, that there is no more reduction or increasing to be done.]
Cleary (2): … Increase it without reduction.
Wu: It is advantageous to be firm and correct, but foreboding to go ahead. His decision of not taking a loss will benefit the other. [It may be justifiable for the below to support the above in a very moderate way in time of Loss, but it would be unacceptable by asking the below to give up all of its possessions … to satisfy the above.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: His central position gives its character to his aim. Wilhelm/Baynes: It has the correct mean in its mind. Blofeld: The central position of this line in the lower trigram indicates that persistence will be rewarded by the fulfillment of what is willed. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering using activating purposes indeed. Cleary (2): The balance that characterizes its aim. Wu: He is to remain central.
Legge: Line two is dynamic and in the central place. But he is in the place of a magnetic line, and should maintain his position without moving to help his fifth line correlate. Maintaining his own firm correctness is the best way to give assistance. " His aim" is to abide where he is and help the fifth line by the exhibition of firm correctness.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man renders faithful service without sacrificing himself. Forfeiting one's dignity and personality to do the bidding of a person of high rank is shameful.
Wing: When aiding others, be certain to maintain your sense of dignity. If the nature of your task diminishes your strength or compromises your principles, or if you sacrifice your personality to please your superior, you are acting shamefully. Only efforts that do not diminish your Self are worthwhile.
Editor: This line changes the hexagram to number twenty- seven, Nourishing, the corresponding line of which carries a similar message, i.e., the idea that one's impetus to act is incorrect. Lines one and three each show some variation of active compensating (balancing) going on. Here in line two, which is the center of the lower trigram, action is inappropriate. It is the fulcrum or point of balance which must remain stationary. Note the subtle differences in the various translations of the last sentence. You decide.
The Sage uses his mind like a mirror. It remains in its place passively, and it gives back what it receives without concealment. Therefore it can overcome things without distorting them. Chuangtse
A. You serve the Work best now by remaining in place. Willpower, non-action and example are all the assistance that is required.
B. Maintain the status-quo.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows how of three men walking together, the number is diminished by one; and how one, walking, finds his friend.
Wilhelm/Baynes: When three people journey together, their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, he finds a companion.
Blofeld: If three set forth together now, one will be lost on the way; whereas one man going forth alone will find company.
Liu: Three people walking together will lose one. When one walks alone, he will meet a friend.
Ritsema/Karcher: Three people moving, by-consequence Diminishing the-one-person. The-one-person moving. By-consequence acquiring one's friend.
Shaughnessy: If three men move then they will decrease by one man; if one man moves then he will obtain his friend.
Cleary (1): Three people traveling are reduced by one person; one person traveling finds a companion.
Cleary (2): … One person traveling gets companionship.
Wu: When three persons walk, one will be left out. When one walks alone, he will find a friend.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: When three are together, doubts arise among them. Wilhelm/Baynes: If a person should seek to journey as one of three, mistrust would arise. Blofeld: It is well to travel alone now, as three would give rise to suspicion. Ritsema/Karcher: Three by-consequence doubting indeed. Cleary (2): When one person travels, three then doubt. Wu: Three would create doubts.
The Master said: "Heaven and earth come together, and all things take shape and find form. Male and female mix their seed, and all creatures take shape and are born. In the Book of Changes it is said: `When three people journey together, their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, he finds a companion.' This refers to the effect of becoming one."
Legge: Chu Hsi says that the lower trigram was originally three yang lines, like "three men" walking together, and that the third line was removed and made into the topmost line of the upper trigram which was originally three yin lines. This exchange of places between lines three and six maintains their proper correlation and suggests the proper pairing of affinities. The K'ang-hsi editors observe that this line is true not only of three men, but of many repetitions of thought or action.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: A close bond is possible only between two persons. A group of three engenders jealousy. The lone man finds a complementary companion.
Wing: The closest bonds are now possible only between two persons. Groups of three create jealousy and mistrust and will eventually splinter. Yet someone who remains alone becomes lonely and will seek a companion. It is time to strike a proper balance.
Editor: The original condition described by Chu Hsi is an image of hexagram number eleven, Harmony, which represents the correct union of male and female forces. Psychologically the Syzygy archetype is suggested: the proper pairing of male and female which is seen in its supreme state in the hieros gamos or holy marriage. (See commentary on hexagram eleven for further detail.) A dialectical process is also implied.
God unfolds himself in the world in the form of syzygies (paired opposites), such as heaven/earth, day/night, male/female, etc ... At the end of this fragmentation process there follows the return to the beginning, the consummation of the universe through purification and annihilation. Jung -- Aion
A. The image suggests a sorting-out of affinities to attain balance or unity. Forces are seeking their natural level.
B. "Birds of a feather flock together."
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject diminishing the ailment under which she labors by making the subject of the first line hasten to her help, and make her glad. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If a man decreases his faults, it makes the other hasten to come and rejoice. No blame.
Blofeld: He reduced the number of ills besetting him and thus hastened the arrival of happiness -- no error!
Liu: If he decreases his sickness (or faults) quickly, he will be happy. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Diminishing one's affliction. Commissioning swiftly possesses rejoicing. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Decreasing his illness; serving ends has happiness; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Reducing sickness, causing there to be joy quickly, there is no fault.
Cleary (2): Reducing the ailment causes there to be joy soon. No blame.
Wu: His illness is alleviated and conditions are quickly improved. There is joy. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: This is a matter for joy. Wilhelm/Baynes: It is indeed something that gives cause for joy. Blofeld: A reduction of troubles is in itself a cause for happiness. Ritsema/Karcher: Truly permitting rejoicing indeed. Cleary (2): Reducing the ailment is a matter of joy. Wu: Capable of alleviating his illness is a cause for joy.
Legge: Line four is magnetic in a magnetic place, like someone ailing and unable to perform her proper work. But her first line correlate is strong, and is made to hasten to four's relief. The joy of the line shows her desire to do her part in the work of the hexagram.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: As a consequence of giving up his bad habits, the man attracts the help of well-disposed friends.
Wing: If you can now locate your shortcomings and bad habits and make a serious attempt to decrease them you will be approached by friends and helpers. A humble attitude on your part will open the way to progressive interaction and joy.
Editor: The full meaning of this line is best evoked by comparing it with its first line correlate. All translations render line four in the imagery of decreasing one's faults (or illness). That is: rid yourself of error and happiness will come to you. Legge's version depicts incapacity which is overcome through a correct union with line one. Taken in this sense, the line can symbolize the Self (line four, upper trigram of Heaven) gaining from the ego's sacrifice in spacetime (line one, lower trigram of Earth). Whatever the context of your query, the image here is of a harmonization of forces to bring about balance.
Man is a materialized thought; he is what he thinks. To change his nature from the mortal to the immortal state he must cease to hold fast in his thoughts to that which is illusory and perishing, and hold on to that which is eternal. F. Hartmann --Paracelsus: Life and Prophecies
A. A decrease in error is an increase in truth.
B. The elimination of imbalance promotes union; the elimination of illusion makes room for joy.
C. The one above (the Self) accepts your aid, endorses your action, etc.
56 The Wanderer
Other titles: The Wanderer, The Symbol of the Traveler, The Exile, Sojourning, The Newcomer, To Lodge, To Travel, Traveling, The Stranger, Strangers, The Traveling Stranger, The Outsider, The Alien, The Gnostic, The Tarot Fool, Wandering, Homeless, Uncommitted, On Your Own, "Can refer to being out of one's element." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Transition means that small attainments are possible. If the traveling stranger is firm and correct, there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Wanderer. Success through smallness. Perseverance brings good fortune to the wanderer.
Blofeld:The Traveler -- success in small matters. Persistence with regard to traveling brings good fortune.
Liu: The Exile. Small success. To continue leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Sojourning, the small: Growing. Sojourning, Trial: significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of wandering journeys and living in exile. It emphasizes that mingling with others as a stranger whose identity comes from a distant center is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Traveling. Small receipt. Traveling; determination is auspicious.
Cleary (1): Travel is developmental when small; if travel is correct, it leads to good fortune.
Cleary (2): Travel has a little success. Travel is auspicious if correct.
Wu:Traveling indicates small pervasion. Perseverance will bring auspiciousness.
The Image
Legge: A fire on the mountain -- the image of Transition. The superior man exerts cautious wisdom in his punishments, and does not permit prolonged litigation.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Fire on the mountain: the image of The Wanderer. Thus the superior man is clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and protracts no lawsuits.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire upon a mountain. The Superior Man employs wise caution in administering punishments and does not suffer the cases brought before him to be delayed.
Liu: Fire over the mountain symbolizes the Exile. The superior man is careful and clever in imposing punishments, and does not delay the cases brought.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above mountain possessing fire. Sojourning. A chun tzu uses brightening consideration to avail-of punishing and-also not to detain litigating.
Cleary (1): There is fire atop a mountain, transient. Thus superior people apply punishments with understanding and prudence, and do not keep people imprisoned.
Cleary (2): Fire on a mountain – traveling. Etc.
Wu: There is fire on the mountain; this is Traveling. Thus the jun zi exercises the utmost deliberations in exacting punishments such that prisoners will not be detained without cause.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Transition indicates that there may be some small attainment and progress -- the magnetic line occupies the central place in the upper trigram, and is obedient to the dynamic lines above and below it. We also have the attributes of Keeping Still connected with Intelligence in the lower and upper trigrams. Hence it is said that there may be some small attainment and progress. If the traveling stranger is firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune. Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken under these circumstances!
Legge: The written Chinese character for this hexagram denotes people traveling abroad, and is often translated as Strangers. The figure addresses itself to traveling strangers, and tells them how they ought to comport themselves through the cultivation of humility and firm correctness. By means of these they would escape harm, and make progress. The status of traveling stranger is seen as too low to expect great things of them.
It is assumed that the wanderer is in the position of the fifth line. The ideas of humility, docility, calmness and intelligence are derived from the attributes of the component trigrams. These are all characteristics which are proper to a stranger, and are likely to lead to advancement and attainment of his desires. Concerning the Image, K'ung Ying-ta comments: "A fire on a mountain lays hold of the grass, and runs with it over the whole space, not stopping anywhere long, and soon disappearing -- such is the emblem of the traveler."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: During a Transition, keep your willpower great and your expectations small.
The Superior Man sees clearly and does not embroil himself in complexity. He is clear-minded and cautious in judging the truth of the situation, maintaining detachment from the social milieu.
Wilhelm's translation of the title of this hexagram is The Wanderer. A wanderer is one who has no home, or who is between one home and another. This reminds us of the gnostic notion of the "Alien": the incarnate soul exiled to wander in the space-time dimension (i.e., this world).
The alien is that which stems from elsewhere and does not belong here ... The stranger who does not know the ways of the foreign land wanders about lost; if he learns its ways too well, he forgets that he is a stranger and gets lost in a different sense by succumbing to the lure of the alien world and becoming estranged to his own origin ... The recollection of his own alienness, the recognition of his place of exile for what it is, is the first step back; the awakened homesickness is the beginning of the return. Hans Jonas -- The Gnostic Religion
In the broadest interpretation then, the message in the Judgment: "If the traveling stranger is firm and correct, there will be good fortune" can refer to not becoming entangled in the affairs of this world in which we wander -- an idea emphasized in the first line. Ritsema/Karcher state it explicitly -- defining our challenge as "mingling with others as a stranger whose identity comes from a distant center." This is good general advice for anyone seriously engaged in the Work, since the "distant center" ("God," or the Self) represents the essence we incarnated to serve.
We are strangers in this world, and the body is the tomb of the soul, and yet we must not seek to escape by self- murder; for we are the chattels of God who is our herdsman, and without his command we have no right to make our escape. Pythagorean ethic
In more specific situations, the hexagram symbolizes a transitional phase. Lines two, three and four all depict "Inns" or temporary resting places (commonly experienced in dreams as images of hotels or motels). The symbolism is identical: the psyche is reflecting an interim situation during a state of Transition.
By definition, a transition is fluid and not yet fixed. Depending upon the choices made, one can go in different directions. In terms of consciousness, it is obvious that the transition can be from a lower state of awareness to a higher one, or vice-versa. Because a transition is an opportunity for deliberate choice-making, the Confucian commentary concludes with: "Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken under these circumstances!"
Lines one, three and six depict very negative situations involving ignorant, arrogant choices. We think of the ego blindly pushing the river of its desires, unable to see the unfortunate consequences it thereby engenders. Line two suggests a solid resting place during our journey, while line four depicts a tenuous, though not necessarily incorrect, similar situation. The fifth line counsels a kind of sacrifice to the ruler (the Self) which results in an eventual reward. The message is to let the Self guide you through a Transition.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Hexagram number fifty-six is the reverse of hexagram number fifty-five. Compare the role of the superior man in the Image of each figure. How are they the same? How are they different? What are the differences and similarities of the component trigrams of each hexagram, and how do they affect their respective meanings?
Notes, August 15, 2009: A new paraphrase of the Judgment and Image:
The Gnostic Alien. Small attainments are possible if the Alien keeps a clear head and maintains his self-discipline. The initiated Adept is intelligent, discreet, and displays vigilant wisdom: he maintains and protects his gnosis via cautious reserve in worldly disputes, eschewing needless contention. [He can do this because he knows that this is an illusory reality: a set-up, a trap, a Loosh factory created by the Demiurge.] A chun tzu uses brightening consideration to avail-of punishing and-also not to detain litigating. [In other words “do the work in the place in which you find yourself” quickly, and efficiently, with as few entanglements as possible under the circumstances. Shun new karma. Implicit is that this experience is preparation for the bodhisattva vow.]