One starts by smelling oneself before taking a bath. taoscopy.com
Difficulty3
Embrace challenges and uncertainty; growth is difficult but necessary. Encouragement and persistence lead to success.
↓ Line 1
At the beginning of an enterprise, there is hesitation and hindrance. It is important to remain steadfast and seek assistance.
↓ Line 3
Acting without guidance leads to confusion. Recognize the situation and avoid proceeding blindly to prevent disgrace.
↓ Line 5
Challenges arise even in favorable situations. Moderate persistence is beneficial, but excessive effort can lead to trouble.
↓ Modesty15
Embrace humility and balance; let modesty guide your actions for harmonious progress.
Original Readings
3 Difficulty
Other titles: Difficulty at the Beginning, The Symbol of Bursting, Sprouting, Hoarding, Distress, Organizational Growth Pains, Difficult Beginnings, Growing Pains, Initial Obstacles, Initial Hardship
Judgment
Legge: Difficulty indicates progress and success through firm correctness. Action should not be undertaken lightly, and it is wise to seek help.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Difficulty at the Beginning works supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Nothing should be undertaken. It furthers one to appoint helpers.
Blofeld: Difficulty followed by sublime success! Persistence in a righteous course brings reward; but do not seek some new goal (or destination); it is highly advantageous to consolidate the present position. [The fundamental idea of this hexagram is that of birth and growth amidst difficulty, as with a sprouting seed becoming a young plant and forcing its way through the earth. Our affairs, being still in their early stages, are vulnerable; we must not wander forth, but attend to them until they ripen; then, with proper care, the seed will bring forth a splendid tree. The upper trigram, a pit, suggests a need for caution; but, if we heed these omens, our success is assured.]
Liu: Difficulty in the Beginning : great success. It is of benefit to continue without planning to go someplace. One should find helpers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Sprouting . Spring Growing Harvesting Trial. No availing-of possessing directed going. Harvesting: installing feudatories. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of beginning growth. It emphasizes that collecting potential in preparation for arduous labor is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Hoarding : Prime receipt; beneficial to determine. Do not herewith have someplace to go; beneficial to establish a lord.
Cleary(1): In difficulty, creativity and development are effective if correct. Do not use. There is a place to go. It is beneficial to set up a ruler.
Cleary(2):Creativity is successful. It is beneficial to be correct. Do not make use of going somewhere. It is beneficial to set up lords.
Wu:Distress is primordial, pervasive, prosperous, and persevering. The subject should proceed with caution. It will be advantageous to establish marquisates.
The Image
Legge: The image of clouds and thunder formsDifficulty. The superior man, in accordance with this, adjusts his measures of government as in sorting the threads of the warp and woof.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Clouds and thunder: the image of Difficulty at the Beginning. Thus the superior man brings order out of confusion.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning spewed forth by the clouds -- difficulty prevails! The Superior Man busies himself setting things in order.
Liu: Clouds and thunder symbolize Difficulty at the Beginning. The superior man makes order out of disorder.
Ritsema/Karcher: Clouds, Thunder, Sprouting. A chun tzu uses the canons to coordinate. [Canons: standards, laws; regular, regulate; the Five Classics. The ideogram: warp-threads in a loom.]
Cleary(1): Thunder in the clouds is held back; the superior person orders and arranges.
Cleary(2): Clouds and thunder – Difficulty. Thereby leaders organize.
Wu: Clouds and thunder form hexagram Distress. Thus the jun zi plans and organizes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Difficultyis experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse, but correct action succeeds in the face of danger. By the action of thunder and rain, which are the attributes of the lower and upper trigrams, all between Heaven and Earth is filled up. But the conditions of the time are irregular and obscure. Authority should be delegated, but the feeling that rest and peace have been secured should not be indulged in even then.
Legge: The written character for Difficultyis pictorial, and shows a plant struggling with difficulty as it rises above the surface of the earth. This initial difficulty is a metaphor for how struggle is the condition of a state which is emerging from disorder after a revolution. The author saw his social and political world in great disorder and difficult to reform, yet he had faith in himself and the destiny of his House. Let there be prudence and caution, with unswerving adherence to the right. Let the government of the different states be entrusted to good and able men -- then all will be well.
According to the arrangement of the eight trigrams, Heaven and Earth are the parents of the other six, who are their children. The first-born son is the lower trigram of Movement, and the second-born son is the upper trigram of Peril. McClatchie renders here: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering."
The power to move in the lower trigram is likely to produce great effects; to do this in perilous and difficult circumstances (symbolized by the upper trigram) requires firmness and correctness. Good princes throughout the realm will help to remedy the political and social disorder of the times, but the supreme ruler should not trust his subordinates to the point of relaxing his vigilance.
The lower trigram represents thunder, the upper represents rain clouds. The hexagram therefore places us in the atmosphere of a thunderstorm -- a metaphor for the situation of a political state in difficulty. When the thunder has pealed, and the clouds have discharged their burden of rain, the atmosphere is cleared and there is a feeling of relief.
Anthony: This hexagram means that we have not yet found the correct path.
It also means confusion: too many possibilities. Nothing is clear. This lack of clarity is the “hindrance” referred to in the first line of the hexagram. In the second line, the remedies that come forth are inappropriate. In the first stages of dealing with a problem, we are tempted to grasp at solutions, whereas we should wait until the proper actions become clear.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Under the conditions of Difficulty it is best to mark time while seeking assistance.
The superior man uses careful analysis to separate order from confusion.
Wilhelm’s title for this hexagram is Difficulty at the Beginning. I prefer Difficulty, because it is a situation encountered at any phase of the Work, not just the beginning.
Difficulty is experienced because confusion and multiplicity prevail during the initial phase of any creative activity -- thoughts and feelings proliferate and threaten to overwhelm the mind with infinite complexity. The only way to proceed under such circumstances is to carefully sort out the components of the situation and arrange them in categories and in order of importance. To "sort the threads of the warp and woof" is to weave a tangled mess into a tapestry.
The Orderly Sequence of the Hexagrams gives us an image of what takes place under the hexagram of Difficulty:
When there were Heaven and Earth, then afterwards all things were produced. What fills up the space between Heaven and Earth are those individual things. Hence the Dynamic and Magnetic are followed by Difficulty. Difficulty means filling up.
"Filling up," is rendered as "fullness" in some translations. This is the exact meaning of the gnostic term: "Pleroma," or "Fullness" which Jung correlates with the Collective Unconscious or Objective Psyche. These are interior dimensions from which emanate the archetypal energies which we experience as instinctual drives and emotional complexes. This is the "hyperspace" from which the Self, via the oracle, responds to our queries and directs the Work.
Thus we see that the third hexagram, following the creation of the cosmic pair of opposites in the first two figures, represents a dialectical progression. Lao Tse, who wrote the Tao Te Ching some six-hundred years after the I Ching was committed to writing, describes this unfolding process:
Out of Tao, One is born;
Out of One, Two;
Out of Two, Three;
Out of Three, the created universe.
The created universe carries the yin at its back
and the yang in front;
Through the union of their pervading principles
it reaches harmony.
The identical idea is found in many traditions, giving it the status of an archetype within human consciousness. It is not necessary to be familiar with the technical terminology of Kabbalah to recognize that the same idea is being discussed in the following passage:
In Chokmah and Binah we have the archetypal Positive and Negative; the primordial Maleness and Femaleness, established while "countenance beheld not countenance" and manifestation was incipient ... It is between these two polarizing aspects of manifestation -- the Supernal Father and the Supernal Mother -- that the web of life is woven; souls going back and forth between them like a weaver's shuttle. In our individual lives, in our physiological rhythms, and in the history of the rise and fall of nations, we observe the same rhythmic periodicity. D. Fortune --The Mystical Qabalah
This idea has been stated very simply:
All things are a single form which has divided and multiplied in time and space. W.B. Yeats -- A Vision
Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? -- Black Elk
And also with poetic complexity:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water ... God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven." And so it was ... God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth. Genesis
There are some profound ideas in these images about the structure of human consciousness and the contents of the unconscious psyche. The basic idea is that of Emanation -- the creation of physical reality from a supreme principle in ordered hierarchies of increasing complexity. This concept is essential for a full understanding of the Work.
The involution of man was his descent from the sphere of the spirit, developing bodies of a mental, emotional and then physical nature until he manifested upon this planet. His evolution is to civilize this planet and to develop mastery of the physical, emotional and mental planes and relink himself in unity with God once more, thus completing the cycle. He came from God as an inexperienced Spark of Divine Fire and returns to Him, with all the experience of manifestation, as a Lord of Humanity. Gareth Knight -- The Work of a Modern Occult Fraternity
In many systems of thought, the proliferation of forces is seen in sexual terms -- the cosmic parents produce entities in male and female pairs (gnostic syzygies), which in turn produce offspring. Hence, Confucius says: "Difficulty is experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse." That this has an explicit sexual connotation is confirmed by McClatchie: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering." Thus we see that the correct and incorrect correlation ("intercourse") of dynamic (male) and magnetic (female) lines in anyI Ching hexagram symbolizes the favorable (life-enhancing) or unfavorable (life-negating) combinations of thought and feeling within the psyche.
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The sexual intercourse of Heaven and Earth is also described in hexagram number eleven,Harmony. In terms of these sexual metaphors, what does the term "adultery" imply in regard to the Work? See hexagram number forty-four, Temptation, for further insight on this theme.
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows the difficulty its subject has in advancing. It will be advantageous for him to abide correct and firm. Advantageous also to be made a feudal ruler.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Hesitation and hindrance. It furthers one to remain persevering. It furthers one to appoint helpers.
Blofeld: Uncertainty prevails. It is best to make no move, but to build up determination and to consolidate the position.
Liu: Considering and considering. It is of benefit to continue in the right way. One should find helpers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Stone pillar. Harvesting: residing in Trial. Harvesting: installing feudatories.
Shaughnessy: To and fro; beneficial to determine about a dwelling; beneficial to establish a lord.
Cleary(1): Not going anywhere, it is beneficial to abide in correctness. It is beneficial to set up a ruler. [It is beneficial to set up the ruler and nurture the original energy.]
Cleary(2): Staying around, it is beneficial to remain correct. It is beneficial to set up lords. [In Buddhist terms, to “stay around” means to be immediately aware of any mental movement and not roll along, following thoughts. This is what is called “coming back before going far.”]
Wu: There is a formidable obstruction to advance. It will be advantageous, however, to remain persevering … etc. [If the subject can remain firm and correct, he will overcome.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Although there is difficulty in advancing, the mind of the subject of the line is set on doing what is correct. While noble, he humbles himself to the mean, and grandly gains the people. Wilhelm/Baynes: The aim of the work is nonetheless to carry out what is right. When an eminent man subordinates himself to his inferiors, he wins the hearts of all people. Blofeld: Despite prevailing uncertainty, the way of righteousness must be pursued with firm correctness. Men in high places, by co-operating with those under their care, will thereby win the support of the people. Ritsema/Karcher: Although a stone pillar, purpose moving correctly indeed. Using valuing the mean below. The great acquiring the commoners indeed. Cleary(2): Though they stay around, the action of their wills is correct. Because they value the lowly, they win many people. Wu: Although he is under constraint, he has set his goal correctly. Like a noble man serving the common people, he will receive their support.
Legge: The first line is energetic and strong, and his place in the trigram of Movement disposes him to action. But above him is the trigram of Peril, and the lowest line of that, to whom he must look for response and cooperation, is magnetic. Hence arise the ideas of difficulty in advancing, the necessity of caution, and the advantage of being clothed with authority. He is noble, firm and correct, but his place is below the divided lines, symbols of the weak and lowly.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the man takes stock of the obstacles. He does not force his advance. He perseveres on the right course and acquires the appropriate assistants. He continuously rechecks his bearings, as the confusion is gradually resolved.
Wing: It seems that you have come across a confusing obstacle at the very beginning of your path. The best way to attract the helpers you will need is to maintain a devoted and humble attitude. Do not attempt to boldly push ahead unaided. However, do keep your goal in sight.
Editor: The symbolism suggests the following intrapsychic correlations:
Advance: The advance of consciousness, comprehension, etc. Feudal Ruler: The ego as master of its thoughts and feelings. "Humbles himself to the mean": ("Mean" here means "lowly.") The ego remains firm and correct, maintains his will, but doesn't take on airs -- he nurtures his humility. The people: Thoughts, feelings, opinions, attitudes, emotions, appetites, etc.
The optimal stance that the ego can strive for--without necessarily hoping that it can ever be accomplished fully -- could be described as a continual awareness of the conflicting polarities likely to appear in ever- new forms as old ones are resolved: of waiting and seeing, of living things out, weighing various aspects and bringing them into balance, ever ready to work with the materials at hand. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. There are intimidating obstructions to progress. Remain persevering while seeking assistance. If you subordinate yourself to your situation you’ll gain insight into its nature. Take no major action.
B. A difficult path demands impeccable will and full acceptance of responsibility.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows one following the deer without the guidance of the forester, and only finding himself in the midst of the forest. The superior man, acquainted with the secret risks, thinks it better to give up the chase. If he went forward, he would regret it.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Whoever hunts deer without the forester only loses his way in the forest. The superior man understands the signs of the time and prefers to desist. To go on brings humiliation.
Blofeld: Pursuing a deer without a guide, the hunter finds himself lost in the forest. The Superior Man perceives that he must stay where he is, as going forward would lead to trouble.
Liu: He hunts deer with a forester. He gets lost in the forest. The superior man, knowing this, prefers to give up the hunt. To go on would bring regret.
Ritsema/Karcher: Approaching stag, lacking precaution. Namely, entering tending-towards the forest center. A chun tzu almost not thus stowing-away. Going abashed.
Shaughnessy: Approaching the deer without ornamentation, it is only to enter into the forest. For the gentleman it is just about as good as dispensing with it; to go is distressful.
Cleary(1): Chasing deer without a guide, just going into the forest. The superior person, knowing the dangers, had better give up; to go would bring regret.
Cleary(2): Chasing deer without preparation only goes into the bush. Leaders see that it is better to give up, for to go would bring regret. [ If you have no accurate knowledge yourself and do not have enlightened teachers or associates, and practice blindly, then you will fall into a pit.]
Wu: Hunting in the forest without the guidance of a ranger will result in roaming aimlessly with a chance of getting lost. The jun zi senses the risk. It is better to quit than to proceed and regret.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: One pursues the deer without the guidance of the forester in his eagerness to follow the game. The superior man gives up the chase, knowing that if he go forward he would be reduced to extremity. Wilhelm/Baynes: He desires the game, but to go on brings humiliation. It leads to failure. Blofeld: His lack of caution in hunting the deer resulted from his being too set on capturing it. The Superior Man always desists when to advance would bring disaster. Ritsema/Karcher: Approaching stag, without precaution. Using adhering-to wildfowl indeed. A chun tzu stowing it: Going abashment exhausted indeed. Cleary(2): Chasing deer without preparation is following the beasts. To go would bring regret and lead nowhere. Wu: Hunting without a guide is like chasing around the game. To proceed will end in an awkward situation.
Legge: The third line is magnetic, not central, and in the place of a dynamic line. These things are all generally unfavorable, but the outcome of the whole hexagram being good, the superior man sees the immediate danger and avoids it.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man wanders aimlessly without adequate guidance, like a hunter without a forester. The superior man knows when going forward will cause regret. He gives up the senseless chase and avoids eventual disgrace.
Wing: You can sense the difficulties that lie ahead on your path. If you nevertheless plunge into the forest of obstacles without an experienced guide, you will surely lose your way. Such egotism and vanity brings unrelenting humiliation. A wiser man will alter his goals here.
Editor: Forest symbolism is usually associated with the feminine principle and the unconscious psyche. A deer, being a denizen of the forest, could symbolize an undifferentiated, unassimilated, autonomous force within the situation at hand. As the object of the quest, it represents the answer to a question, a solution to your problem, etc. To complete the metaphor, the forester would be your intuition or inner guide: the Self. The message is that you have no insight into the prevailing situation and should stop trying to force a solution. Cease your fruitless speculation and wait for the way to become clear.
It is only when the human being really knows what he is doing that he can be called self-conscious and responsible. The person who is guided by his ego alone is not self-conscious in this sense, for he is limited in his self-knowledge to the conscious realm only, and beyond this terrain yields himself blindly to the obscure urges and devious impulses of the unconscious. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. “Lost in the woods,” you don't yet grasp your situation. Never act on what you don’t understand.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows the difficulties in the way of its subject's dispensing the rich favors that might be expected from him. With firmness and correctness there will be good fortune in small things. In great things there will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Difficulties in blessing. A little perseverance brings good fortune. Great perseverance brings misfortune.
Blofeld: Fertility cannot easily be brought about. Persistence in small things will bring good fortune; in greater matters, it will bring disaster.
Liu: Difficulties in prosperity. Good fortune for small things. Misfortune for great things.
Ritsema/Karcher: Sprouting: one's juice. The small, Trial: significant. The great, Trial: pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Hoarding its fat; little determination is auspicious, great determination is inauspicious.
Cleary(1): Stalling the benefits. Rectitude in small matters is good. Self-righteousness in great matters brings misfortune. [This is being great but conscious of the small, waiting for the time to be able to get out of difficulty.]
Cleary(2): Stalling the benefits. There is good outlook for the correctness of the small, bad outlook for the correctness of the great.
Wu: Hoarding wealth suggests conditions suitable for limited progress but detrimental for great undertakings.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He experiences difficulty in bestowing his rich favors -- the extent to which they reach will not yet be conspicuous. Wilhelm/Baynes: Because the benefaction is not yet recognized. Blofeld: We have wrought insufficiently for the public good. Ritsema/Karcher: Sprouting one's juice. Spreading-out not-yet shining indeed. Cleary(2): The giving is not yet enlightened. [It is not that there is no giving at all, just that it does not accord with greater reality.] Wu: His benefaction has not been illuminating. [We should remind ourselves that distributing accumulations need not be limited to tangible assets. Kindness, sympathy, and moral support can certainly be included.]
Legge: Line five is in the place of authority, and should show himself a ruler by dispensing benefits on a grand scale. But he is in the center of the trigram of Peril, and his correlate line two is weak. Hence arises the symbolism, and great things should not be attempted.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man attains a position of authority. Premature expressions of good intentions lead to damaging misinterpretations. Time is required for stepwise maturation and acquisition of general confidence. Consummation cannot be forced.
Wing: Although your position is one of authority within the situation, you have much left to achieve in the way of establishing yourself. Small efforts in this will bring good fortune. But beware: Do not attempt any large endeavor. It could easily end in disaster.
Editor: The image depicts an impasse or restriction preventing the flow of energy which would resolve it. Modest effort will improve the situation; major action will make it worse. Sometimes the line implies that you have not yet understood the matter under question. It can also image a situation in which psychic energy is blocked from consciousness.
The attributes of the spirit are not only beyond the power of sensual perception, but they are beyond the power of intellectual comprehension; they can only be known to the spirit, and they are called occult because they cannot be understood without the possession of the light of the spirit. F. Hartmann -- Paracelsus: Life and Prophecies
A. Conserve your energy. Take only limited action, one step at a time; allow the situation to unfold at its own pace.
B. Obstructions inherent in the situation prevent the flow of information needed to comprehend it. To strive too hard is to lose it altogether.
C. Integral obstacles inhibit an immediate resolution of the situation at hand.
15 Modesty
Other titles: Modesty, The Symbol of Humility, Moderation, Humbling, Respectful/Humble, Yielding/Retiring. 1. Obtaining this hexagram implies that modesty is needed in our attitude, meaning, to allow ourself to be led without resistance. – C.K. Anthony. 2. A Humble or modest person is thought of as having an “empty or unoccupied” mind, meaning a mind without prejudice. – Chung Wu. 3. Only superior people who practice Tao know where to stop, disregard what they have and appear to have nothing. – T. Cleary.
Judgment
Legge:Temperance indicates successful progress. Temperancebrings a good issue to the superior man's undertakings.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Modesty creates success. The superior man carries things through.
Blofeld:Modesty brings success. The Superior Man is able to carry affairs through to completion.
Liu: Modesty: success. The superior man can continue to work to the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Humbling, Growing. A chun tzu possesses completing. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the necessity to cut through pride and complication. It emphasizes that keeping your words unpretentious is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Modesty: Receipt; the gentleman has an end.
Cleary (1):Humility is developmental. The superior person has a conclusion.
Cleary (2):Humility gets through. A leader has a conclusion.
Wu:Humility is pervasive. The jun zi will have grace in death.
The Image
Legge: A mountain hidden within the earth -- the image of Temperance. The superior man, in accordance with this, diminishes his excesses to augment his insufficiencies, thus creating a just balance.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Within the earth, a mountain: the image of Modesty. Thus the superior man reduces that which is too much, and augments that which is too little. He weighs things and makes them equal.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a mountain in the centre of the earth. The Superior Man takes from where there is too much in order to augment what is too little. He weighs things and apportions them fairly. [The component trigrams symbolize a mountain surrounded by flat earth, thus suggesting too much in one place and too little in others.]
Liu: The mountain within the earth symbolizes modesty. The superior man reduces the excess and increases the lacking; he weighs and then equalizes all things.
Ritsema/Karcher: Earth center possessing mountain. Humbling. A chun tzu uses reducing the numerous to augment the few. A chun tzu uses evaluating beings to even spreading-out.
Cleary (1): There are mountains in the earth; modesty. Thus does the superior person decrease the abundant and add to the scarce, assessing things and dealing impartially.
Cleary (2): … Leaders assess people and give impartially, by taking from the abundant and adding to the scarce.
Wu: There is a mountain inside earth; this is Humility. Thus the jun zi takes excess from the more to enrich the less and measures goods to ensure fair distribution. [To prepare oneself to accept what is fair among all his fellow men is the essence of humility.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: It is the way of heaven to dispense its blessings downwards, and the way of earth to radiate its influence upwards. Both heaven and earth diminish the full to augment the lowly. Spiritual beings inflict calamity on the proud and bless the meek, and men resent ostentation and love temperance. Temperanceenlightens an honorable office, and neither will men ignore it in lowly positions. Thus does the superior man attain his ends. [Emphasis editor's -- Ritsema/Karcher translate "spiritual beings" [Kuei Shen] as: "The whole range of imaginal beings both inside and outside the individual; spiritual powers, gods, demons, ghosts, powers, fetishes.”]
Legge: An essay on temperance rightly follows that on abundant possessions. The third line, dynamic among five magnetic lines, in the topmost place of the trigram of Keeping Still, is the ruler of the hexagram. He is the representative of Temperance -- strong, but self-effacing. The idea is that temperance is the way to permanent success.
The Confucian commentary deals generally with the subject of temperance, showing how it is valued by heaven and earth, by spirits and by men. The descent of the heavenly influences, and the low position of the earth are both symbolic of temperance. The heavenly influences are seen in the daily fluctuations of the sun and moon, and the fertility of the earth correspondingly waxes and wanes with the seasons.
The Daily Lecture says:"The five yin lines above and below symbolize the earth; the one yang line in the center is the mountain in the midst of the earth. The many yin lines represent men's desires; the one yang line represents the heavenly principle. The superior man, looking at this symbolism, diminishes the multitude of human desires within him, and increases the single shoot of the heavenly principle; so does he become grandly just, and can deal with all things evenly according to the nature of each. In whatever circumstances or place he is, he will do what is right.”
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Temperance means maintaining a dynamic/magnetic balance of forces to attain success.
The Superior Man maintains equilibrium in all that he does.
The most common translation of the title for this hexagram is Modesty, but I have chosen Temperance as a title more expressive of the ideas in the Image and Confucian commentary. The words “modesty” and “humility” often carry a connotation of weakness in western usage, and “temperance,” meaning to temper or regulate, is more expressive of the dynamic strength of will required to restrain and modulate the drive to dominate every situation.
The Image shows a mountain hidden beneath the earth--the quiet, invincible power of sheer will is hidden from view, yet it influences everything. Who observing such a level surface would know that the bulk of Mt. Everest was buried beneath it? Temperance means that one's power is hidden, that the fluctuations of heaven and earth are kept in such dynamic/magnetic balance as to be invisible to ordinary vision. The temperate person is strong enough to bear the weight of the world when that is necessary for the Work.
Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Roman Emperor, was arguably the most powerful man of his time, yet his temperance and modesty showed him to fulfill the ideal of the superior man. Only the truly strong can be truly modest.
And let this truth be present to thee in the excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so also are they more manly; and he who possesses these qualities possesses strength, nerves and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of passion and discontent. For in the same degree in which a man's mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength. Marcus Aurelius