I Ching - Hexagrams

Tony Crisp

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Hexagram Fifty

Ting (Pro: Ding) - Becoming Receptive

When wood is gathered and a flame added a transformation occurs. The fire gives warmth to all.

When we become receptive to the world around us energy and creativity ignites in us, and our life is warmth and heat to others. Our vision of what is needed becomes power leading to successful realisation of our goals.

It is wise to remember that the ordinary everyday actions of others sustain our own existence. Without others growing our food or making our clothes, our life would be greatly impoverished.

Give honour to this wonder of the ordinary in everyday life and in yourself. Remember your own part in it. This receptivity brings you in connection with the immense forces of the ordinary.

There is no need to DO anything extraordinary here. The suggestion is to BE oneself.

If the query is concerned with relationship, it shows harmony and home life in a peaceful mode.

The hexagram also represents being nourished spiritually. Although the universal principle of life is abstract in that we cannot see it, it is always directly visible in living people and in nature around us. The nourishment is therefore to be receptive to the invisible within the visible.

Key words: Be nourished and nourishing by remembering the mystery of universal life hidden in the ordinary everyday experience.

The Moving Lines

1.No matter who we are, through clearing the past debris of attitudes and emotions we may have gathered over the years, we can find a fruitful place in the scheme of things.

2.. It is a real achievement to have created something during ones life. This may cause others to envy, but no harm can arise from this.

3.Being overlooked despite the great qualities one has to offer leads to frustration. Develop inner calm, for change will come.

4.Through failing to develop the necessary qualities an opportunity is lost, perhaps in disgrace. Confucius says of this, ‘Weak character coupled with honoured place .... will seldom escape disaster’.

5.All the preparations are excellent. Any problems have been melted away, and success and support are now assured. Great value is evident here.

6.Not only do you have quality to offer, but also a way that connects others with wider influence. Great good fortune is imminent. Advance in this issue is certain.

Hexagram Fifty One

Chên (Pro: Jên; vowel so short as to be almost non-existent) - Vitalising Shock

When life-giving rains come and the river runs with terrible power its force can be frightening. But if harnessed the flood can irrigate the land and give life.

It is a time of power when opportunity comes like the flood. Without fear harness and direct.

Be happy and let life be full. Remain without conceit or pride. This will keep your way open to the flow of life and its secrets.

There is a meeting with the unexpected, perhaps with sudden events or with the absence of what was expected - rather like looking for something where we were certain it was, to realise with a shock or puzzlement that it is not there.

The hexagram depicts thunder repeating. It suggests the repeated appearance of the unexpected, of something that will startle us, but not be of great threat. The unexpected can be a reaction from within in regard to something, or it can be events. In either case we are told to remain relaxed within to meet what appears. Tension would only make us react badly.

Through the unexpected life is confronting us with the way things are rather than how we believe them to be. There may be some anxiety mixed with this. The events may question or confront old opinions and ways of doing things. Be ready to let go. So remaining calm and balanced enables one to adjust more quickly to the situation.

Key words: The unexpected and vitalising experience repeats. Do not panic. Consider what life is telling you.

The Moving Lines

1.Loud noises, like fireworks, can frighten us. Such fear makes us feel insecure, but this passes and through the heightening of feelings the shock produces greater awareness.

2.If we accidentally drop our treasure into the depth of the ocean, it gains nothing to leap in after it. The loss must be somehow accepted. Don’t fear, we will recoup the loss.

3.Fate has shocked us through events. This calls for responsiveness of spirit, not withdrawal into depression. Be spurred to action.

4.You could fight this if only there was an opponent. You could move if the situation were clearer. But it is like a mire.

5.Like a thunderstorm, things are happening quickly and without prediction. Calmly do what has to be done. Calamities will then be avoided.

6.Shock may take away initiative. Seeing what has happened to others in this uncertain time, make necessary moves. This may bring maliciousness, but do not get involved. Make no moves, thus avoiding error. A relationship may be criticised by others.

Hexagram Fifty Two

Kên (Pro: Gên; vowel so short as to be almost non-existent) - Power In Stillness

Listening to the voice of the silence, beyond the confusion of thoughts and senses brings us to the centre of things.

From here we act when there is need to act. We remain silent and still when there is need for inaction.

Often we create an enormous inner storm because our emotions or thoughts call up an imagined reality in which we then live in turmoil. Like someone for years fearing their partner will leave them, and so living in turmoil even though the partner is still there.

When you walk for hours up a mountain and then look back, the affairs of your life seem far away. Things that may have troubled can be seen in perspective from such a height. There is a remove from the immediacy of events that stirred us emotionally.

The ability to stand aside from emotions and thought, and see them as the scurrying ants they are, is necessary or possible in regard to this query. Recognise how great a skill it is to be capable of stilling thoughts and reactions and simply observe. This is done by recognising thoughts and emotions are not reality itself, only a phantom of it.

It must be remembered however that BEING or stillness, is balanced by BECOMING or change. In some way there is overbalance here toward being. Care must therefore be taken not to repress change.

Key words: Still the mind and heart, lest their tempest rob all peace. Find balance between Being and Becoming.

The Moving Lines

1.The subtle inclination to move ahead on something new needs to be stilled. What ever you want to advance on, take time to consider in stillness for a while. When perception comes persist, to avoid irresolute indecision.

2.Too late you realise this direction should not have been taken, but you are carried along through involvement. It is not too late to stop, but you may not stop the person pressing you on.

3.In trying to stop the storm of sexual desire or emotions it must not be forced. Such desire imprisoned by restraint leads to painful conflict. Better to grow from within than to place restraints externally.

4.When the cat waits for the mouse its whole being is involved in its stillness. We would be wise to be as complete in our stillness as the cat. Do not fight motivations, but do not identify either.

5.Sometimes words are spoken out of agitation rather than quiet wisdom. Best then to remain silent and only speak when there is need.

6.Real stillness arises when within non action, there is no attempt to rigidly hold movement at bay. One does not motivate action, and yet allows things to happen. Deep self acceptance has flowered.

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