One hugs one's companions before leaving for work. taoscopy.com
Limitation60
Set boundaries and apply discipline to create balance and order in life. Prioritize moderation and clear limits for greater focus and harmony.
↓ Line 1
Staying within limits and not overreaching oneself leads to no blame.
↓ Line 3
Recognizing one's limitations can be painful, but it is necessary and without blame.
↓ Line 4
Accepting limitations with contentment leads to success.
↓ Line 6
Persisting in harsh limitations leads to misfortune, but recognizing this can alleviate remorse.
↓ Temptation44
A fleeting encounter with a powerful influence. Be mindful and cautious. Keep your integrity intact.
60 Limitation
Other titles: Restrictive Regulations, Restraint, Regulations, Articulating, Receipt, Restraining, Containment
Judgment
Legge:Restrictive Regulations bring progress and success, but if they are severe and difficult they cannot be permanent.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Limitation. Success. Galling limitation must not be persevered in.
Blofeld:Restraint -- success! It is wrong to persist in harsh restraint.
Liu: Limitation. Success. Bitter limitation should not be continued.
Ritsema/Karcher:Articulating, Growing. Bitter Articulating not permitting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confused relations. It emphasizes that making limits and connections clear, particularly through speech, is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Receipt. Withered moderation; one may not determine.
Cleary (1):Discipline is developmental, but painful discipline is not to be held to. [Discipline means having limits that are not to be exceeded. This hexagram represents practicing obedience in unfavorable circumstances, adaptably keeping to the Tao. The situation may be up to others, but creation of destiny is up to oneself. When discipline gets to the point of inflicting suffering, it brings on danger itself even where there was no danger; you will only suffer toil and servility which is harmful and has no benefit.]
Cleary (2): Regulation is successful, but painful regulation is not to be held to.
Wu: Regulation indicates pervasiveness. Excessive regulation should not be obstinately pursued. [Sometimes the meaning of conservation or moderation is implied. Although the idea of regulation is convincing, it should not be applied blindly without regard to conditions.]
The Image
Legge: Water over a lake -- the image of Restrictive Regulations. The superior man constructs methods of numbering and measurement, and examines the nature of virtuous conduct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Water over lake: the image of Limitation. Thus the superior man creates number and measure, and examines the nature of virtue and correct conduct.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes water held in a dyke above a marshy lake. The Superior Man employs a system of regulations in his plans for the widespread practice of virtue.
Liu: Water above the lake symbolizes Limitation. The superior man devises number and measure, and measures conduct and virtue.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing stream. Articulating. A chun tzu uses paring to reckon the measures. A chun tzu uses deliberating actualizing-taoto move.
[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): There is water over a lake, regulated. Thus superior people determine measures and discuss various actions.
Cleary (2): … Leaders establish numbers and measures, and consider virtuous conduct.
Wu: There is water above the marsh; this is Regulation. Thus, the jun zi enacts statutes and deliberates virtues. [A study of the limits and merits will avert difficulties.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Progress and attainment are seen in the equally divided dynamic and magnetic lines, with the dynamic lines in the central places. If the regulations are severe and difficult, the course of action will come to an end. We see a cheerful attitude directing the course amidst peril. The rules are correctly initiated by the ruler in the fifth place. Heaven and earth observe their regular cycles and complete the four seasons. When rulers frame their laws according to just limitations, the resources of the state suffer no injury, and the people receive no hurt.
Legge: The written Chinese character which denotes Restrictive Regulations means the regular division of a whole, such as the division of the seasons of the year into ninety-day periods clearly marked by the solstices and equinoxes. Whatever makes regular division may be denominated by a "restrictive regulation," and there enter into it the ideas of ordering and restraining. The hexagram deals with the regulations of government enacted for the guidance and control of the people. An important point is made that these regulations must be adapted to the circumstances and not made too strict and severe.
Ch'eng-tzu says on the Image: "The water which a lake or marsh will contain is limited to a certain quantity. If the water flowing in exceeds that amount, it overflows. This gives us the idea of Restrictive Regulations."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Restrictive Regulations are necessary for growth, but severe restriction must itself be limited.
The Superior Man differentiates his options in relation to the goals of the Work.
The Work itself is nothing if not a rigid structure imposed upon one's life -- a "restrictive regulation" of the ego's illusion of freedom of choice. Ordinary people insist that their lives are ordered by the intelligent exercise of free will, but this "freedom" is more commonly just a rationalization for the activity of autonomous complexes. No one can look objectively at the current state of the world and seriously claim that it reflects either rational order or balanced perception. Collective human experience on this planet is determined by the whims of archetypal forces expressing themselves through the unconscious psyches of six-billion people.
The Work then, is a restrictive regulation of these autonomous forces -- it is a limitation, a containment of the expression of instinct and desire. We are reminded of the alchemical vessel which is hermetically sealed to prevent its contents from escaping before they have been transmuted into gold. If the alchemist miscalculates his "methods of numbering and measurement" the vessel becomes a kind of bomb: the seal breaks, the contents explode, and the Work is ruined. This is what is meant by "if the regulations are severe and difficult, the course of action will come to an end." If we restrict the contents of the vessel beyond their capacity for confinement the psyche boils over in some degree of rebellion. This is no minor thing -- depending on the circumstances, severe psychotic reactions can be created in this manner.
On the other hand, the ego thinks that all but the most minor restrictions are severe and difficult, and it is constantly on the verge of rebellion. As always, it is the Self which must determine how far the restrictive regulations can be taken. From its perspective outside of spacetime it is best able to determine how much pressure the psyche can take -- frequently it is far more (or sometimes far less) than the ego thinks possible.
The Confucian commentary observes: "We see a cheerful attitude directing the course amidst peril." This refers to the lower trigram of Cheerfulness encountering the upper trigram of Peril or Danger. The restrictions of the Work are more often than not unpleasant and risky, constantly verging on some kind of an explosion. An attitude of cheerful acceptance enables one to survive these difficult trials. This is an extremely important concept, because without it one can all too easily fall into a suicidal despair. The Work can become an impossible burden unless one learns how to approach stress and hardship with an almost irreverent sense of humor. (This in itself is an essential lesson about how to purge the ego of its myopic notions of what it will and will not "accept" in life.)
There is an old Zen proverb that says: "Hell, also, is a place to live in." The message is clear: be of good cheer, because without it you are sure to fail.
The seeming inevitability of conflict among the archetypal "powers" can cause us to experience life as a hopeless, senseless impasse. But the conflict can also be discovered to be the expression of a symbolic pattern still to be intuited. It can be lived as if it were a drama, the play of life or of the gods, for the purpose of experiencing an ultimate meaning ... When one can feel with Goethe that "everything transient is but a symbol," then meaning can be found not only in creativity, joy and love but also in impasse, suffering and conflict. Then life can be lived as a work of art. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows its subject not quitting the courtyard outside his door. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Not going out of the door and the courtyard is without blame.
Blofeld: He goes not go forth from the outer gates and courtyards of his home -- no error!
Liu: One does not go out of the door and courtyard. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Not issuing-forth-from the door chambers. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Not going out of the door or window; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Not leaving home, there is no blame.
Wu: He does not go beyond the entrance hall of his house. No error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He knows when he has free course and when he is obstructed. Wilhelm/Baynes: One knows what is open and what is closed. Blofeld: He acts thus from his knowledge of when things can be carried through to their end and when they will be blocked. [The implication is that we should now hold back.]Ritsema/Karcher: Knowing interpenetrating clogging indeed. Cleary (2): Not leaving home is knowing passage and obstruction. Wu: He knows what can be done and what cannot be.
The Master said: "When disorder arises, it will be found that ill-advised speech was the stepping stone to it. If a ruler does not keep secret his deliberations with his minister, he will lose that minister. If a minister does not keep secret his deliberations with his ruler, he will lose his life. If important matters in the germ are not kept secret, that will be injurious to their accomplishment. Therefore the superior man is careful to maintain secrecy, and does not allow himself to speak."
Legge: Line one is dynamic in a dynamic place, and therefore has the power to move. But he is kept in check by the dynamic second line, and his fourth line correlate occupies the first position in the trigram of Peril. He therefore knows when he has free course and when he is obstructed, and in this case the course of wisdom is to keep still. He regulates himself by a consideration of the times. The Daily Lecture says that the line tells an officer not to take office rashly, but to exercise a cautious judgment in his measures.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Wilhelm/Baynes: Often a man who would like to undertake something finds himself confronted by insurmountable limitations. Then he must know where to stop. If he rightly understands this and does not go beyond the limits set for him, he accumulates an energy that enables him, when the proper time comes, to act with great force. Discretion is of prime importance in preparing the way for momentous things. …We see locked doors ahead and therefore hold back.
Siu: At the outset, the man appreciates his own limitations and exercises judicious discretion in not pressing beyond them. He does not exert his authority rashly.
Wing: Although you would like to take certain measures in the current pursuit of your aims, when you see obstacles ahead you must stop. Such Limitations should be recognized and accepted. Stay within the limits and collect your strength quietly.
Editor: If this is the only changing line, the hexagram becomes number twenty-nine, Danger. Obviously, "discretion is the better part of valor" -- one should stay put and not act.
Never set your foot on the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go. Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by. Proverbs 4: 14
A. Sit tight and accept the limitations of the situation.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows its subject with no appearance of observing the proper regulations, in which case we shall see her lamenting. But there will be no one to blame but herself.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He who knows no limitation will have cause to lament. No blame.
Blofeld: Sighing over an apparent lack of restraint -- no error!
Liu: One does not limit oneself and has cause for lamenting. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Not the Articulating like, by-consequence the lamenting like. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: If one is not moderate-like, then one will be sighing-like; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): If one is not disciplined, one will lament. It is no fault of others.
Cleary (2): Without regulation there will be lament, but you cannot blame anyone.
Wu: If he does not achieve any regulation, he will lament later. No one is to blame.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Who should there be to blame? Wilhelm/Baynes: Lament over neglect of limitation -- who is to blame for this? Blofeld: Who would find fault with that? [It is salutary to regret lack of restraint in ourselves or others.] Ritsema/Karcher: Furthermore whose fault indeed? Cleary (2): Whose fault is the lament that comes from lack of regulation? Wu: He laments for being not able to conserve. Who else is to blame?
Legge: Line three should be dynamic, but is magnetic, and neither central nor correct. She has no proper correlate, and is the topmost line in the trigram of Complacent Satisfaction. She refuses the restrictive regulations and will discover her mistake after it is too late. She knows by her lamentations that she only has herself to blame.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man does not follow promulgated laws in his own activities. His actions lead to regret.
Wing: Your extravagant behavior and lack of restraint have led you into a state of difficulty. If you are now feeling regret over this and not busy placing the blame elsewhere, you will avoid further mistakes.
Editor: Wilhelm says: "No blame," and Blofeld says: "No error." These renderings seem misleading, since Legge's admonition: "But there will be no one to blame but herself" is more in harmony with the line's meaning. Wilhelm's commentary paradoxically acknowledges this: "But one has oneself to blame for this result." The line is often given in the conditional sense: "If you don't observe the proper regulations, you'll be sorry."
A healthy mind is a castle that cannot be invaded without the will of its master; but if [evil spirits] are allowed to enter, they excite the passions of men and women, they create cravings in them, they produce bad thoughts which act injuriously upon the brain; they sharpen the animal intellect and suffocate the moral sense. Evil spirits obsess only those human beings in whom the animal nature is preponderating. Minds that are illuminated by the spirit of truth cannot be possessed; only those who are habitually guided by their own lower impulses may become subjected to their influence. Paracelsus -- De Ente Spirituali
A. An image of self-caused misfortune.
B. You'll regret it if you exceed the mean.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject quietly and naturally attentive to all regulations. There will be progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Contented limitation. Success.
Blofeld: Peaceful restraint -- success!
Liu: Peaceful limitation. Success.
Ritsema/Karcher: Quiet Articulating Growing.
Shaughnessy: Placid moderation; receipt.
Cleary (1): Peaceful discipline is developmental.
Cleary (2): Peaceful regulation is successful.
Wu: He achieves regulation with ease. Pervasive.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Progress and success is due to the difference which accepts the ways of the ruler above. Wilhelm/Baynes: Accepting the way of the one above. Blofeld: Success is indicated by the firm line immediately above this one. Ritsema/ Karcher: Receiving tao above indeed. Cleary (2): Taking up the higher path. Wu: He supports his superior.
Legge: Line four is magnetic, as it ought to be, and she has respect for the authority of the dynamic ruler in line five above her -- hence the good symbolism and auspice.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man understands the nature of regulations and accommodates accordingly. He does not waste energy in useless struggles, but directs it effectively to solving the problem at hand.
Wing: Allow your Limitations to become natural extensions of your behavior.
Accommodate and adapt yourself to the fixed conditions in the situation. Don't carry on battles over "the principle of the thing." Deal with the matter at hand and you will meet with success.
Editor: The idea here is to work within the limitations of the situation at hand. By doing this, one acts according to the will of the Self: ("...accepts the ways of the ruler above").
When nothing is possible without His will, then what is the use of planning? Is it not better to depend on Him and do as He wills? ... When his will bids circumstances and environment change, then accept the change, not before. Swami Saradananda
A. Accept the restrictions of the Work.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject enacting regulations severe and difficult. Even with firmness and correctness there will be evil. But though there will be cause for repentance, it will by and by disappear.
Shaughnessy: Withered moderation ; determination is inauspicious; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Painful discipline bodes ill if persisted in, but regret vanishes.
Cleary (2): Painful regulation bodes ill if persisted in. By repenting, it is eliminated.
Wu: There is excessive regulation. It will be foreboding to pursue it obstinately. Regret will disappear. [In this extreme position, he has no business to do stringent regulation. Whatever he does will be excessive and therefore foreboding. The fact that he remembers the virtue of regulation will mitigate his regret for overdoing it.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The course indicated by the hexagram has come to an end. Wilhelm/Baynes: Its way comes to an end. Blofeld: Misfortune in the sense that the road we are following peters out. [This implies that we should stop following our present course and that, by doing so, we shall eliminate the cause of our present worry or regret.] Ritsema/Karcher: One's tao exhausted indeed. Cleary (2): That path comes to an impasse. Wu: Excessive regulation is foreboding, because it goes nowhere.
Legge: Line six is magnetic, in its proper place. She must be supposed to possess an exaggerated desire for enacting regulations. They will be too severe, and the effect will be evil. But as Confucius says in the Analects 3:3, it is not so great a fault as to be easy and remiss. It may be remedied, and cause for repentance will disappear.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man exhibits an exaggerated desire for restrictive regulations. This will not be endured for long by the people. However, ruthless severity may, at times, be the only protection against temptation and irresolution and may eliminate later cause for repentance.
Wing: Excessive restrictions demanded of others will eventually meet with resentment. Nothing worthwhile can be accomplished in this way. However, for your own benefit, you may require severe restraints for a time to aid in your self-development and to help you avoid regretful mistakes.
Editor: In terms of the Work, this is an extremely tricky line demanding subtle interpretation. The first two sentences are a rephrasing of the Judgment; the last sentence is a disclaimer telling us that excessive regulations are acceptable after all. This juxtaposition of contradictory ideas suggests a test situation: it is left entirely up to the querent where to draw the line. In the absence of contrary data it is usually safe to side with Confucius as described in Legge's commentary. On the other hand, it must also be recognized that extreme restriction is not the middle way, hence can only be useful as a strategic temporary measure, not as a way of life.
Sacrifice is necessary. If nothing is sacrificed nothing is obtained. And it is necessary to sacrifice something precious at the moment, to sacrifice for a long time and to sacrifice a great deal. But still, not forever. This must be understood because often it is not understood. Sacrifice is necessary only while the process of crystallization is going on. When crystallization is achieved, renunciations, privations, and sacrifices are no longer necessary. Gurdjieff
A. You are limiting yourself, but it is OK.
B. Too much structure inhibits growth.
C. When discipline becomes oppression, the Work suffers.
44 Temptation
Other titles: Coming to Meet, The Symbol of Meeting, Contact, Sexual Intercourse, Encountering, Coupling, Infiltration by Inferior Men, Adultery "Contains a definite warning about a person or situation which may appear harmless but will prove dangerous." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Temptation shows a female who is bold and strong. It will not be good to marry such a female.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Coming to Meet. The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden.
Blofeld: Contact. Women wield the power. Do not marry. [At this time marriage would be unfortunate; the husband would almost surely be henpecked.]
Liu: Encountering. The female is forceful. One should not marry her.
Ritsema/Karcher:Coupling, womanhood invigorating. No availing-of grasping womanhood. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...]
Couple , KOU: intense, driven encounter, at once transitory and enduring, that is the reflection of primal yin and yang; meet, encounter, copulate; mating animals; magnetism, gravity; to be gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms.
Shaughnessy: The maiden matures ; do not herewith take a maiden.
Cleary (1):Meeting, the woman is strong. Don’t get married.
Cleary (2): In meeting, the woman is strong. Do not marry the woman.
Wu:Rendezvous indicates that the woman is strong. It is not advisable to marry that woman.
The Image
Legge: The image of wind with the sky above it forms Temptation. The sovereign, in accordance with this, delivers his charges, and promulgates his announcements throughout the four quarters of the kingdom.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Under heaven, wind: the image of Coming to Meet. Thus does the prince act when disseminating his commands and proclaiming them to the four quarters of heaven.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing across the face of the earth. When the ruler issues commands, he has them proclaimed in every corner of the world.
Liu: The wind under the sky symbolizes Encountering. The ruler issues his directives, announcing them to the four corners (throughout his country).
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing wind. Coupling. The crown-prince uses spreading-out fate to command the four sides.
[Fate, MING: individual destiny; birth and death as limits of life; issue orders with authority; consult the gods. The ideogram: mouth and order, words with heavenly authority.]
Cleary (1): There is wind under heaven, meeting. Thus do rulers announce their directives to the four quarters.
Wu: There is wind under heaven; this is Rendezvous. Thus, the sovereign announces the royal mandate to the whole nation.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Temptationhas the significance of unexpectedly coming on. We see in it the magnetic line coming unexpectedly on the dynamic ones. Marriage is improper, because one so symbolized should not be long associated with. When heaven and earth meet together as here represented, all the variety of natural things becomes displayed. When a dynamic line finds itself in the central and correct position, good government will nourish all under the sky. Great indeed is the significance of what has to be done at the time indicated byTemptation.
Legge: A single, magnetic line enters at the bottom of the hexagram. This is the figure used to represent the time of year when light and heat begin to wane. In the divided line we see the symbol of the inferior man, beginning to insinuate himself into the government of the country. His influence, if unchecked, would go on to grow and fill the vacant seats with others like himself. The objective of the Judgment is to arouse resistance to this evil influence.
Temptation is defined here as a sudden and casual meeting with something inferior -- the divided line is seen as appearing all at once in the figure. The first line, magnetic in a dynamic place, becomes the symbol of a bold woman of more than questionable virtue who appears unexpectedly on the scene with the object of seducing all five of the dynamic (male) lines to herself. No one would contract a marriage with such a female, and every good servant of his country will repel the entrance into government of every officer who can be so symbolized.
On the first two sentences of the Confucian commentary, the K'ang-hsi editors say: "The magnetic line meets with (or comes unexpectedly on) the dynamic ones. The magnetic line, that is, plays the principal part. The case is like that of the minister who assumes the power of decision in place of the ruler, or of a hen crowing at sunrise -- is not the name of shameless boldness rightly applied to it?"
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Do not unite with an inferior element in your situation. ("Lead us not into temptation.")
The Superior Man formulates his code of conduct and abides by it.
Wilhelm translates the forty-fourth hexagram as Coming to Meet, and Blofeld gives it the rather startling subtitle of Sexual Intercourse. There is no doubt at all that the figure has an aura of illicit excitement associated with it which I feel is best conveyed by R. L. Wing's title of Temptation, though Adultery might also be suitable. One sometimes receives this hexagram under dramatic circumstances, and it serves to dump cold water on a potentially volatile series of choices and their equally volatile consequences.
When we consider the importance of the proper correlation of male and female lines in the I Ching, we see that the Judgment in this hexagram can psychologically depict the temptation to an adulterous union of thought and feeling. Adultery is a very useful metaphor for understanding the principles of the Work -- it means union with anything which, inI Ching terms, is not a "proper correlate.” To adulterate something is to degrade a pure substance by the addition of an inferior ingredient. The image of a temptation to adulterate the Work in this hexagram is therefore a warning in the strongest possible terms that you are vulnerable to some inferior choices.
Consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled with inhabitants ... The earth indeed may be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages; but not heaven. The reason is that hell is from adulteries, and heaven from marriages ... When the procreations of the human race are effected through marriages in which the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is done on earth as in the heavens, and the kingdom of the Lord on earth corresponds to the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens. Swedenborg -- Apocalypse Explained
The concept of the hieros gamos, or holy marriage, is a ubiquitous archetype found in every tradition rooted in the Perennial Philosophy. If this "marriage” symbolizes a proper union or reunion of previously separated elements, then it follows that the opposite situation: a union of mismatched entities would be symbolized by adultery. To recreate a primordial gestalt of perfection out of an exploded multiverse of mixed forces demands that all of the original pairs of opposites become properly matched correlates. Although any two opposite genders might feel a mutual attraction, there is really only one opposite which is an appropriate spouse. In the realm of human relationships this is evoked in the concept of the Soul Mate. Esoterically speaking, every polarized force in the multiverse has its proper correlate; it follows that the Work (in its largest conception) cannot be completed until each is reunited with each.
Indeed every act of sexual intercourse which has occurred between those unlike one another is adultery... Members of a race usually have associated with those of like race. So spirit mingles with spirit, and thought consorts with thought and light shares with light. If you are born a human being, it is the human being who will love you. If you become a spirit, it is the spirit which will be joined to you. If you become thought, it is thought which will mingle with you. If you become light, it is the light which will share with you. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip
The point is important enough to bear repeating: psycho-spiritually interpreted, sexual intercourse and marriage symbolize the possibility of a unification of forces. Conversely, union with an improper correlate means adulteration of the Work. This is the esoteric meaning underlying the Hindu caste system:
When (unrighteousness) overwhelms the family, O Krishna The women of the family become corrupt; and when, O Krishna, the women are corrupt, there arises a mixing of castes. Bhagavad-Gita 1: 41
The "mixing of castes” is, in the symbolism of theI Ching, the union of improper correlate forces. ("Women,” as we have seen, usually symbolize the emotional and feeling aspects of the psyche.) We readily recognize that the above quotation from the Bhagavad-Gita accurately reflects the symbolism of the forty-fourth hexagram, reiterating the great truth that when emotions make the choices, the unity of the psyche is compromised.
Added notes, 9/7/10: Sometimes this hexagram is received in answer to queries related more to a fated (karmic) situation than anything normally regarded as “temptation.” In these cases Ritsema/Karcher’s expanded notes on the ideograms are useful guides: “… gripped by impersonal forces. Primal forces couple in the inner world, seeding enduring new forms… This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the encounter of primal energies. It emphasizes that seeing-through your personal situation as the connection of objective forces is the adequate way to handle it...”