Giving false results
One fiddles data to make it say what one wants. taoscopy.com
Increase42
Growth and progress: Favorable conditions and efforts lead to increase and success. Be generous, share your gains, and stay humble.
↓ Line 3
Adversity can lead to growth if one remains sincere and balanced.
↓ Line 4
Being balanced and communicative leads to influence and the ability to enact change.
↓ Line 5
True kindness and sincerity bring ultimate good fortune and recognition.
↓ Clarity30
Clarity and adaptability. Embrace the light to illuminate your path. Recognize patterns in life, align with them, and nurture personal growth.
Original Readings
42 Increase
Other titles: The Symbol of Addition, Gain, Augmenting, Help from Above, Benefit, Advantage, Profit, Expansion
Judgment
Legge: Increase denotes advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken -- it will be advantageous even to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Increase. It furthers one to undertake something. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Blofeld: Gain. It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination) and to cross the great water (or sea).
Liu:Increase. It is of benefit to set forth. It is of benefit to cross the great water.
Ritsema/Karcher: Augmenting , Harvesting: possessing directed going. Harvesting: wading the Great River. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of increase and advance. It emphasizes that expanding the quantity and quality of your involvement is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to augment!]
Shaughnessy:Increase:Beneficial herewith to have someplace to go; beneficial to find the great river.
Cleary (1): For Increase, it is beneficial to go somewhere; it is beneficial to cross great rivers.
Wu: Gain indicates an advantage in having undertakings and in crossing a big river.
The Image
Legge: Wind over thunder -- the image of Increase. When the superior man perceives good, he moves toward it; when he perceives his faults, he eliminates them.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind and thunder: the image of Increase. Thus the superior man: if he sees good, he imitates it; if he has faults, he rids himself of them.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind and thunder. The Superior Man, seeing what is good, imitates it; seeing what is bad, he corrects it.
Liu: Wind and thunder symbolize Increase. When the superior man discovers good, he follows it. When he has errors, he corrects them.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind, thunder. Augmenting. A chun tzu uses visualizing improvement, by-consequence shifting. A chun tzu uses possessing excess, by-consequence amending.
Cleary (1): Wind and thunder increase. Thus do superior people take to good when they see it, and correct whatever faults they have.
Wu: Wind and thunder make Gain. Thus, when the jun zi sees a good deed, he improves his own at once; when he realizes he is making a mistake, he corrects it at once.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Increase shows the upper trigram brilliantly decreased to augment the lower. What descends from above reaches to all below, and the satisfaction of the people is without limit. Advantage in movement is shown in the blessings dispensed by the second and fifth lines from their correct positions. The action of Wood shows that it is advantageous to cross the great stream. Through the trigrams of Movement and Humility there is unlimited daily advancement -- heaven dispenses and earth produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time.
Legge: Increase has the opposite meaning to hexagram number forty-one, Compensating Sacrifice [Decrease]. What king Wen had in mind was a ruler or a government operating to dispense benefits to the people and increase their resources. The two important lines in the figure are the correlates two and five. The general auspice of the hexagram is one of being successful in one's enterprises and of overcoming the greatest difficulties.
The formation of the trigrams here is the reverse of that in the preceding hexagram. The people are full of pleasure in the labors of the ruler for their good. "The action of Wood" in the Confucian commentary refers to the upper trigram, which is the symbol of Wind and Wood. From wood boats are made on which the great stream may be crossed. In three hexagrams, this, fifty-nine and sixty-one, in which this is the upper trigram, we find mention made of crossing the great stream. In the Image thunder and wind are seen to increase one another, and their combination gives the idea of Increase.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Take advantage of your opportunities.
The Superior Man recognizes his duty and rectifies his mistakes. Or: "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative."
If the ego's sacrifices for the good of the Work are described in the previous hexagram, here we see the inverse image of that figure in which it is the Self who bestows its blessings upon the psyche. The one implies the other -- in the words of an old Blues lyric: "If you don't put somethin' in, you can't get nothin' out..." The forty-first and forty-second hexagrams are intimately related, and in their interaction portray the active progress of the Work. To paraphrase the last sentence of the Confucian commentary: "The Self dispenses and the ego produces, and all proceeds according to the requirements of the time."
If a man continually weighs his actions and aims at the mean, he is in the highest of human ranks. In that way, he will come close to God and will attain what belongs to Him. This is the most perfect of the ways of worship. Maimonides -- Eight Chapters
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows increase given to its subject by means of what is evil, so that she shall be led to good, and be without blame. Let her be sincere and pursue the path of the Mean, so shall she secure the recognition of the ruler, like an officer who announces herself to her prince by the symbol of her rank.
Wilhelm/Baynes: One is enriched through unfortunate events. No blame, if you are sincere and walk in the middle, and report with a seal to the prince.
Blofeld: He used an unfortunate means to gain something; but, as he acted in all sincerity, he was not to blame. Walking in the center (of the hall) to report to the Prince, he carried his jade tablet of office. [The additional Chinese commentaries declared that the jade tablet is a symbol of our being able to give an assurance of our faithfulness.]
Liu: He is enriched by unfortunate affairs. No blame, if you are sincere and moderate in your conduct, and report to the officials for the record.
Ritsema/Karcher: Augmenting's availing-of pitfall affairs. Without fault. Possessing conformity, center moving. Notifying the prince, availing-of the scepter.
Shaughnessy: Increase it, using work service; there is no trouble. There is a return in the middle of the ranks reporting to the duke using a tessera.
Cleary (1): Using unfortunate events to gain increase is blameless. Acting in a moderate, balanced way with sincerity and truthfulness, public announcement uses the imperial seal.
Cleary (2): Enhancement through unfortunate events is blameless. Sincere and balanced in action, one presents impartial use of authority.
Wu: He experiences increasing misfortune, but this is blameless. He proceeds with confidence and reports to his prince by holding a tablet in his hands.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Increase is given by means of what is evil and difficult, as she has in herself the qualities called forth. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is something that certainly is one's due. Blofeld: His gaining something by an unfortunate means may lead to the supposition that such means are a matter of course. Ritsema/Karcher: Firmly possessing it indeed. Cleary (2): There has always been such a thing as enhancement through unfortunate events. [If one can believe that misfortune is beneficial, then it is no longer unfortunate.] Wu: “He experiences increasing misfortune,” because of his position, not his doing.
Legge: Line three is magnetic, neither central nor in her correct position. It would seem therefore that she should have no increase given to her. But it is the time for giving increase, and the idea of her receiving it by means of evil things is put into the line. That such things serve for reproof and correction is well known to Chinese moralists. But the paragraph goes on also to caution and admonish. There is a soul of good even in those who seem only evil, and adversity may quicken it.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Even unfortunate events accrue to the good of the man. Pursued with reasonableness and sincerity, they exert beneficial influence, as if officially sanctioned.
Wing: You may find that you are going to Benefit from what might be considered unfortunate circumstances. If you hold to your principles, nevertheless, you can avoid reproach.
Editor: Every translation of the Confucian commentary says something distinctly different in the English language. When this happens it is a fair assumption that the original is ambiguous as well. My experience with the line prefers Wilhelm’s version of line and commentary. Psychologically interpreted, since the idea of "No blame" applies, we can assume that a painful but necessary transformation is in progress. This may be taking place on unconscious levels of the psyche.
Life on earth is tough. Of that there is no doubt, but esoteric tradition says, that under these harsh conditions of maximum physical constraint, many things can be quickly acquired, that are not possible in the upper worlds. The pleasure and pain of the body are the vital teaching situation of the psyche. Illness, love, even war, may be important demonstrations to the non- sensual psyche, of laws it has to respect, both below and above. Z.B.S. Halevi -- Adam and the Kabbalistic Tree
A. "Through adversity we acquire strength."
B. Growing pains.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject pursuing the due course. Her advice to her prince is followed. She can with advantage be relied on in such a movement as that of removing the capital.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If you walk in the middle and report to the prince, he will follow. It furthers one to be used in the removal of the capital.
Blofeld: He walked up the center of the hall and informed the Prince of his fealty. It is favorable to be entrusted with the task of removing the capital.
Liu: If you are moderate in your conduct, people will follow you. It is beneficial to be dependent or move to a new place.
Ritsema/Karcher: Center moving. Notifying the prince, adhering. Harvesting: availing-of activating depending-on shifting the city.
Shaughnessy: In the middle of the ranks reporting to the duke to follow; beneficial herewith to make a family and to transfer the state.
Cleary (1): When balanced action is openly expressed, the public follows. It is beneficial to use a support to move the nation.
Cleary (2): Balanced action openly expressed is followed impartially. It is beneficial to use this as a basis to move the center of operations.
Wu: When his approach is central, the prince will value his counsel. It will be beneficial to counsel the prince on relocating the capital.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Her only object is the increase of the general good. Wilhelm/Baynes: "If you report to the prince, he will follow," because his purposes are thereby increased. Blofeld: He reported his fealty so as to be of use in carrying out the Prince's will. Ritsema/Karcher: Using Augmenting purpose indeed. Cleary (2): Open expression of impartial following is because of the beneficial aim. Wu: his goal is to benefit the state.
Legge: Line four is the place of the minister -- next to the ruler. She is magnetic, but her position is appropriate, and since she follows the due course, her ruler listens to her and even supports the most critical movements. Changing the capital from place to place was frequent in feudal China. That of Shang, which preceded Chou, was changed five times.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: As the mediator between the prince and his followers, the man renders proper advice on the distribution of benefits. If he does not retain portions for selfish purposes and follows a moderate course, he will retain the confidence of all for executing critical projects.
Wing: You have the opportunity to act as a mediator between someone in a higher position than yourself and those below you, whom you represent. If you express yourself in a reasonable manner and make Benefit to all concerned the first priority of your interests, your advice will be followed. This influential position can have far-reaching effects.
Editor: This is an image of trustworthiness. All the translators except Legge emphasize the idea of moderation, or "walking in the middle." Wilhelm and Liu also make it a conditional statement: “If” you follow the middle way, etc.
The ego has both to exert and to restrain its power drive, not only in respect to inner and outer entities but in respect also to its own position and needs as conscious center. This means that the function of the ego is not only one of controlling but of balancing and directing...It has the task of emotional integration of experience, that is, of adaptation to the inner world by realizing itself in relation to the Self, to the total functioning authority. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
A. Balanced devotion to the Work will ensure the reciprocity of inner forces. A new seat of power may thus be created within the psyche.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows its subject with sincere heart seeking to benefit all below. There need be no question about it; the result will be great good fortune. All below will with sincere heart acknowledge his goodness.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If in truth you have a kind heart, ask not. Supreme good fortune. Truly, kindness will be recognized as your virtue.
Blofeld: Be confident (or sincere) and kind, but refrain from asking questions and you will enjoy sublime good fortune. Faithfulness (or sincerity) and confidence are virtues proper to us.
Liu: If you are sincere and benevolent in your heart, without consulting, there will be great good fortune. People will trust your benevolent character.
Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing conformity, a benevolent heart. No question, Spring significant. Possessing conformity, benevolence: my actualizing tao.
[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.]
Shaughnessy: There is a return with a kind heart; do not question it; prime auspiciousness. There is a return that treats kindly my virtue.
Cleary (1): When there is truthfulness and a benevolent heart, there is no need to ask – it is very auspicious. Truthfulness and benevolence are charismatic qualities in oneself.
Cleary (2): There is sincerity to benefit the mind. Do not ask – it is very auspicious. There is sincerity granting one’s rewards.
Wu: Having confidence in his people and being benevolent-hearted, he enjoys great auspiciousness without asking for it. His people return his kindly virtue by placing their confidence in him.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He gets what he desires on a great scale. Wilhelm/ Baynes: You have attained your purpose completely. Blofeld: The whole of this passage presages the fulfillment of what is willed. Ritsema/Karcher: Actually no questioning it. The great acquiring purpose indeed. Cleary (2): Do not question it. Great achievement of what is intended. Wu: He asks no questions. His goal is amply realized.
Legge: Line five is dynamic, in its fitting position, and central. It is the seat of the ruler, who has his proper correlate in line two. Everything good, according to the conditions of the hexagram, may be said of him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Without asking for recognition and gratitude, the man in a high position benefits those below. He acts from the inner necessity of acknowledged goodness.
Wing: A true kindness on your part, something you did or will do without thought of your own gain, will bring you recognition.
Editor: The image suggests a cornucopia of power flowing to meet that which is receptive to it. If this is the only changing line the new hexagram becomes number twenty-seven, Nourishment. Literally: “Increasebrings about Nourishment.” Sincere: Heartfelt, true. Heart: Center, core, source. All below: Unconscious complexes, components of the psyche, etc.
Jung uses the term Self to represent the center of psychic awareness that transcends ego consciousness and includes in its scope all the vast reaches of the psyche that are ordinarily unconscious; it therefore is not merely a personal consciousness but a nonpersonal one as well. Achievement of this level has been regarded by most of the great religions of the world as the supreme goal. It is expressed in such terms as “finding the God within." For the Self, the center of this new kind of consciousness is felt to be distinct from the ego and to possess an absolute authority within the psyche. It speaks with a voice of command exerting a power over the individual as great as that of the instincts. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. The image suggests the Self bringing increase to its satellites.
30 Clarity
Other titles: The Clinging, The Symbol of Brightness and of Separateness, Flaming Beauty, Radiance, Fire, The Net, Allegiance, The Cosmic Mean, Synergy, Sunlight, Perception, Pertaining to Comprehension, The Light, Consciousness, Lucidity
Judgment
Legge: The free course and success of Clarity comes from firm correctness. The nourishment of bovine docility creates good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Clinging. Perseverance furthers. It brings success. Care of the cow brings good fortune.
Blofeld:Flaming beauty. Righteous persistence brings reward. Success! Rearing cows -- good fortune! [Cows are gentle creatures which require looking after; hence this sentence means that good fortune can be gained by looking after those in need of help.]
Liu: Fire. It is of benefit to continue. Success. To take care of the cow leads to good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Radiance, Harvesting Trial. Growing. Accumulating female cattle. Significant. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of expanding light, warmth and awareness. It emphasizes that joining with and depending on what spreads this light, the action of Radiance, is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:The Net: Beneficial to determine; receipt; raising a cow is auspicious.
Cleary(1):Fire is beneficial for correctness and development. Raising a cow brings good fortune.
Cleary (2): Fire is beneficial if correct; then there is success, etc. [In Buddhism, when demons cause disturbance, it is necessary to cleave to true teaching to get rid of aberrations.]
Wu: Allegiance indicates that it will be advantageous to be persevering and pervasion will follow. It will be auspicious to raise the cow.
The Image
Legge: The image of brightness repeated forms Clarity. The great man, in accordance with this, cultivates more and more his brilliant virtue, and diffuses its brightness over the four quarters of the land.
Wilhelm/Baynes: That which is bright rises twice: the image of Fire. Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness, illuminates the four quarters of the world.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire rising in two tongues of brilliant flame. The Superior Man, by perpetuating the brilliance of the ancients, illuminates every quarter of the earth. [In other words, we should make ourselves as completely dependent on the principle of righteousness as natural objects are dependent upon nature; in this way, we are sure to be successful.]
Liu: Doubled brightness symbolizes Fire. A great man perpetuates the light and illuminates the four corners of the universe.
Ritsema/Karcher: Brightness doubled arousing Radiance. Great People use consecutive brightening to illuminate tending- towards the four sides.
Cleary (1):Light has dual function. Thus do great people illumine the four quarters with continuing light. [The sun goes in at night and comes out in the daytime; this pattern represents inner illumination and outer illumination, one light having dual function…Outer illumination has to be based on inner illumination… Illumination must reach inside and outside, so that both are illumined and both are correct.]
Cleary (2): Illumination doubled makes fire. Great people illumine the four quarters with continuing illumination.
Wu: Brightness doubled makes Allegiance. Thus the great man carries on the brightness to shine the four corners of the earth.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge:Clarity means clinging attachment. The sun and moon have their roots in heaven, and all the growing things have their roots in the earth. The double brightness of the two trigrams is rooted in correctness, and all under heaven are thereby transformed. The magnetic second line is central and correct, indicating a free and successful course. Nourishing a passive docility will lead to good fortune.
Legge:Clarity is the trigram of fire and light, and the sun is the source of both of these. Its attribute is brightness, and by a natural metaphor: intelligence. But this trigram also means inhering or in adhering to -- being attached to. In the hexagram we have a double brightness -- a phrase which denotes the ruler. If we take the two central lines as emblematic of the situation, we have the magnetic dwelling with the dynamic above and below -- a condition requiring a docile humility and strict adherence to what is correct. Ch'eng-tzu says: "The nature of the ox is docile, and that of the cow is much more so. The subject of the hexagram adhering closely to what is correct must be able to act in obedience to it, as docile as a cow, and then there will be good fortune."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Willed persistence gets results. Be receptive to your inner light, and reflect it in your life.
The Superior Man cultivates his capacity to manifest his comprehension of the Work in his everyday choices.
Light is a symbol of both normal consciousness and super- consciousness. Probably every religion in the world uses it in the latter sense -- from the "Let there be light" in the first chapter of Genesis, to The Lord of Light (Ahura Mazda), the supreme being of Zoroastrianism. The TibetanBook of the Dead speaks of the "clear white light" which is the first thing encountered after bodily death -- a phenomenon reported as the experiential perception of those who have had near-death experiences. Light means Truth, it means Reality, and the "double brightness" of this hexagram tells us that Clarity is manifested both above and below.
Meditation on light is one of the most important exercises in the various schools of Tibetan Yoga. The more these psychic and spiritual powers can be achieved during life, the stronger is the ability to penetrate and overcome the bardo. D. I. Lauf, Secret Doctrines Of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead
The Confucian commentary gives the examples of the sun and moon in the heavens, and of growing things on the earth as emblems of Clarity. Sun and moon are certainly luminous, but growing things are not, and when we meditate on the reason for this strange juxtaposition we are led to the idea of the Self and the ego. The Self is the sun, the source of illumination which causes the ego to grow. Sun is to growing things as Self is to ego. This idea is repeated in the relationship between the sun and the moon -- the moon is not self-luminous, it can only reflect the light of the sun. Therefore, sun is to moon as Self is to ego.
The idea is that despite our illusions to the contrary, all of our power originates somewhere else. When we allow the power to work through us without interference, we become "docile" like the cow in the judgment. Clarity, therefore, is attained through docility -- the ability to subdue and restrain the autonomous components of the psyche, which left to their own devices would prefer to go around pontificating their brilliant illusions rather than quietly reflecting the truth. It is not easy to reflect the truth, and the superior man is counseled to constantly perfect his capacity to do so. It is only when Self and ego come together in a fusion reaction that the energy released attains the true "double brightness" imaged in the hexagram. The identical idea is found in the Kabbalah:
Said Rabbi Simeon: "When the Holy One arrays himself, it is in the ornaments from both the celestial and terrestrial worlds; from the former with that heavenly light on high that no human being can approach unto; from the latter with the souls of the righteous who the more they approximate themselves to this divine light the more receptive and filled with it do they become, so that through them it expands in all directions and the world like a cistern or ocean is filled with it." The Zohar
Wilhelm mentions that the hexagram "divided within and closed without, is an image of the meshes of a net in which animals remain snared." This gives us the image of Clarity as Comprehension -- a net which captures and encloses insights. To receive the figure without changing lines is often a confirmation of an idea or action -- it is saying: "You have comprehended," or "Your proposed action is lucid, intelligent, etc."