Wiki I Ching

Breakthrough 43.3.4.6 → 61 Inner Truth

From
43
Breakthrough
To
61
Inner Truth

One suffocates in a heavy atmosphere so one goes out for some fresh air.
 taoscopy.com


Breakthrough 43
Break through obstacles with determination and clarity.
Confront negativity openly while maintaining integrity and wisdom.
The truth must be revealed, yet patience is required.

↓
Line 3
Standing firm in one's beliefs may lead to isolation and criticism, but it is necessary.

↓
Line 4
Struggles and difficulties are present, but following guidance can alleviate remorse.

↓
Line 6
Ignoring warnings and failing to act can lead to misfortune.

↓
Inner Truth 61
Inner truth and sincerity lead to harmony and trust.
Genuine communication fosters unity.
Be truthful with yourself and others to create meaningful connections.



Original Readings

43
Breakthrough


Other titles: Break-through, The Symbol of Decision, Resolution, Determination, Parting, Removing Corruption, Eradication

 

Judgment

Legge: Recognizing the risks involved in criminal prosecution, justice demands a resolute proof of the culprit's guilt in the royal court. One informs one's own city that armed force is not necessary. In this way progress is assured.

Wilhelm/Baynes:Break-through. One must resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king. It must be announced truthfully. Danger. It is necessary to notify one's own city. It does not further to resort to arms. It furthers one to undertake something.

Blofeld: Resolution. When a proclamation is made at the court of the King, frankness in revealing the true state of affairs is dangerous. [In vital matters, frankness may prove dangerous.] In making announcements to the people of his own city, it is not fitting for the ruler to carry arms. [It is better to repose trust in our own people.] It is favorable to have some goal (or destination).

Liu: Determination. Someone is proud in the king's court, and the king trusts him. If one exposes the truth, danger. It must be told to one's own people. Using force does not benefit. It does benefit to do something else. [You must decide how to deal with a situation before it reaches a dangerous point, or things will take their own course and overwhelm you.]

Ritsema/Karcher:Parting, displaying tending-towards kingly chambers. Conforming, crying-out, possessing adversity. Notifying originates from the capital. Not Harvesting: approaching arms. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of separation and diverging directions. It emphasizes that resolutely dividing your energies is the adequate way to handle it...]

Shaughnessy:Resolution: Raised up at the royal court, returning crying out; there is danger. Announcing from the sky; not beneficial to regulate the belligerents; beneficial to have someplace to go.

Cleary (1): Parting is lauded in the royal court. The call of truth involves danger. Addressing one’s own domain, it is not beneficial to go right to war, but it is beneficial to go somewhere. [The royal court is the abode of the mind-ruler, where true and false are distinguished.]

Cleary (2): Decision is brought up in the royal court. A sincere statement involves danger, etc.

Wu:Eradication indicates a conceited pronouncement in the royal court on the one hand, and a concerted call for vigilance on the other. It is essential to make the danger known to the people, but not to resort to force now. It is advantageous to have undertakings.

 

The Image

Legge: The image of the waters of a marsh mounting over heaven forms Resoluteness. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not hoard his wealth, but shares it with his subordinates.

Wilhelm/Baynes: The lake has risen up to heaven: the image of Break-through. Thus the superior man dispenses riches downward and refrains from resting on his virtue.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a marshy lake being drawn (sucked) towards the sky. The Superior Man distributes his emoluments to those below; dwelling in virtue, he renounces them.

Liu: The lake ascends to heaven, symbolizing Determination. The superior man distributes wealth below him, without displaying his favors.

Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh with-respect-to heaven. Parting. A chun tzu uses spreading-out benefits to extend to the below. A chun tzu uses residing-in actualizing tao, by- consequence keeping-aloof. [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 what it is meant to be.]

Cleary (1): Moisture ascends to heaven, which parts with it. Thus do superior people distribute blessings to reach those below, while avoiding presumption of virtue. [After people get mixed up in temporal conditioning, the discriminatory consciousness takes charge of affairs; wine and sex distract them from reality, the lure of wealth deranges their nature, emotions and desires well forth at once, thoughts and ruminations arise in a tangle, and the mind-ruler is lost in confusion. Because habituation becomes second nature over a long period of time, it cannot be abruptly removed. It is necessary to work on the matter in a serene and equanimous way, according to the time: Eventually discrimination will cease, and the original spirit will return; the human mind will sublimate and the mind of Tao will be complete – again you will see the original self.]

Cleary (2): … If they presumed on their virtue, they would be resented.

Wu: The marsh rises to heaven; this is Eradication. Thus the jun zi distributes his emolument to those below and is loath to monopolize virtues.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: Resoluteness is the symbol of displacing or removing. We see the dynamic lines displacing the magnetic line. The figure displays the attributes of Strength and Cheerfulness. There is displacement, but harmony continues. The exhibition of the criminal's guilt in the royal court is shown by the magnetic line mounted on five dynamic lines. The awareness of danger and appeal for justice makes the matter clear. If he has recourse to arms, what he prefers will soon be exhausted. When the advance of the dynamic lines is complete, there will be an end to displacement.

Legge:Resoluteness represents the third month when the last vestige of winter, represented by the sixth line, is about to disappear before the advance of summer. The single yin line at the top symbolizes an inferior man, a feudal prince or high minister who is corrupting the government. The five yang lines below are the representatives of good order. The lesson of the hexagram is how to remove corruption from the kingdom. He who would do this must do so by the force of his character more than the force of arms. Never forgetting the dangerous nature of his undertaking, he must openly denounce the criminal in the court and awaken general sympathy to his cause. Among his own adherents ("In his own city") he must prevent any tendency to resort to armed conflict. As a worthy statesman he is not motivated by private feelings.

Hu Ping-wen says: "If but a single inferior man is left, he is sufficient to make the superior man anxious; if but a single inordinate desire be left in the mind, that is sufficient to disturb the harmony of the heavenly principles. The eradication in both cases must be complete, before the labor is ended."

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Judgment:Resoluteness involves astute discernment of what is wrong and a discreet re-establishment of order without polarizing the situation. Be clear in your own strategy, but let common sense be your guide about how much you need to disclose to others. Avoid aggression at all costs.

The Superior Man maintains equilibrium by distributing his energy equitably -- he smoothes things out.

The forty-third hexagram is an image of the eradication of an inferior force from the situation at hand: five yang lines resolutely advance on the single yin line, which is about to be pushed out of the hexagram at the top. This is a negative image of the twenty-third hexagram, Disintegration, which shows the opposite situation of five lower yin lines undermining one upper yang line. It is instructive to compare the nearly identical message for the superior man in the Images of each of these figures. The idea is one of fostering an equitable distribution of energy within the situation -- Disintegration and the Resoluteness required to rectify it are extreme situations requiring extreme measures. Such extremes must always be neutralized through a justly distributed balance of forces.

It's not the concern of law that any one class in the city fare exceptionally well, but it contrives to bring this about for the whole city, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion, making them share with one another the benefit that each class is able to bring to the commonwealth. And it produces such men in the city not in order to let them turn whichever way each wants, but in order that it may use them in binding the city together.
Plato --The Republic

Compare the nuances of meaning in each translation of the Judgment. Wilhelm's is most radical, advising a direct (albeit dangerous), expose of what is wrong. Most of the others imply room for discretion about what needs to be revealed. Diplomacy is the art of knowing when full- disclosure only prevents resolution of the problem. Ritsema/Karcher allude to the proper mind-set required to manage such situations: "[A chun tzu uses] residing-in actualizing tao, by-consequence keeping-aloof." To "reside in actualizing tao," is to live directly from one's essence, and when this is associated with "keeping-aloof" we get an image of quietly rectifying a situation without revealing our purpose or strategy.

Psychologically interpreted,Resoluteness, like Disintegration, depicts an extreme situation which must first be rectified, then prevented from re-occurring through the maintenance of a just balance of power which is administered by the ego under the will of the Self.


Line 3

Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject about to advance with strong and determined looks. There will be evil. But the superior man, bent on cutting off the criminal, will walk alone and encounter the rain, till he be hated by his proper associates as if he were contaminated by the others. In the end there will be no blame against him.

Wilhelm/Baynes: To be powerful in the cheekbones brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, and people murmur against him. No blame.

Blofeld: Strength in the cheekbones -- misfortune! [Making a parade of our strength.] The Superior Man is firmly determined; but if, while walking alone in the rain, he is irked by the mud, he is not to be blamed for that. [Nothing must deflect us, but a little grumbling at unpleasantness is in order.]

Liu: To display too much strength in the face -- misfortune. The superior man is determined. He walks alone through the rain. He gets wet. He is unhappy. No blame.

Ritsema/Karcher: Invigorating tending-towards the cheek- bones: Possessing a pitfall. A chun tzu: Parting, Parting. Solitary going, meeting rain. Like soaking, possessing indignation. Without fault.

Shaughnessy: Mature in the cheekbones; there is inauspiciousness. The gentleman so broken-up moves alone, meeting rain that is like moistening; there are hot springs; there is no trouble.

Cleary (1): Vigor in the face has bad luck. A superior person leaves what is to be left; going alone, encountering rain and so getting wet, there is irritation, but no fault.

Cleary (2): Vigor in the face involves misfortune. Developed people part decisively and travel alone. Encountering rain, if they get wet there is irritation but no fault.

Wu: He has strong cheekbones. Foreboding. The jun zi is determined to eradicate the little man. Walking alone, he encounters rain and gets wet. He is angry, but not to be blamed.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: The superior man looks bent on cutting off the culprit – there will in the end be no error. Wilhelm/Baynes: Ultimately this is not a mistake. Blofeld: The resolutely determined Superior Man is blameless to the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Completing without fault indeed. Cleary (2): Developed people part decisively and are faultless in the end. Wu: (He) will not be blamed in the end.

Legge: Line three is dynamic, and displays his purpose too eagerly. Being beyond the central position gives an indication of evil. Lines three and six are also proper correlates, and as elsewhere in theI Ching, the meeting of yin and yang lines is associated with falling rain. Line three, therefore, communicates with line six in a way that annoys his associates. Nevertheless, he commits no error, and in the end incurs no blame.

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: The man displays his purposes too openly. The superior man does not show outward hostility when bent on cutting off the criminal, since the time is not ripe and the inferior man will endanger the situation through countermeasures. He resolves the difficulty by maintaining outward politeness, avoiding recriminations, and awaiting the propitious opportunity. Although he is misunderstood and maligned by the multitude, there will be no blame in the end.

Wing: Your struggle against an adversary is one you must approach alone. Although your entire milieu may be against this foe, the battle is still yours. In overcoming this difficulty, you may temporarily align yourself with it. This looks bad and you are misunderstood but you remain without error in the end.

Editor: Rain symbolizes the union of heaven and earth -- male with female, thought with feeling. It means encountering the truth -- making a "fertile connection." Psychologically, this line suggests the travail and turmoil involved in coming to grips with an unpleasant truth or duty. The superior man's "associates" are those complexes in the psyche which prefer not to cope with the situation. The misfortune of being "strong in the cheekbones" suggests that determined action accomplishes more than expressions of righteous indignation.

And he who takes his hand from the plough of his immediate Earthly duty, (which is a Cosmic and Spiritual duty also, however much familiarity may tend to breed contempt), will never by that act attain to his heavenly home in the stars. The furrow awaits his tilling – and until it be tilled, and the seed sown, and the harvest garnered and gathered in -- his place remains in Earth, with the added burden of rooting out the weeds and breaking up the clodded sods brought about by his own neglect and spiritual defection.
Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism

A. Bite the bullet and do what needs to be done without making a big deal out of it.

B. You are stuck with an unpopular but necessary duty.

Line 4

Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows one from whose buttocks the skin has been stripped, and who walks slowly and with difficulty. If he could act like a sheep led after its companions, occasion for repentance would disappear. But though he hear these words, he will not believe them.

Wilhelm/Baynes: There is no skin on his thighs, and walking comes hard. If a man were to let himself be led like a sheep, remorse would disappear. But if these words are heard they will not be believed.

Blofeld: His haunches have been flayed and he walks falteringly, though he could put an end to his shame by allowing himself to be dragged along like a sheep. Moreover, he puts no faith in the words of others. [Having recently suffered, we advance with hesitation and are unwilling to accept useful but rather humiliating assistance.]

Liu: He injures his thighs. He walks with difficulty. If he were to follow like a sheep, remorse would vanish. People will not believe his words when they hear them.

Ritsema/Karcher: The sacrum without flesh. One moves the resting-place moreover. Hauling-along the goat, repenting extinguished. Hearing words, not trustworthy.

Shaughnessy: The lips do not have skin; his movement is herky-jerky, pulling sheep; regret is gone; you will hear words that are not trustworthy.

Cleary (1): No flesh on the buttocks, not making progress. Leading a sheep, regret disappears. Hearing the words but not believing.

Cleary (2): With no flesh on the buttocks, one walks haltingly. Leading the sheep, regret disappears. The words heard are not believed.

Wu: His buttocks have no skin. He hobbles along. If he would lead away the sheep, there will be no regret; but he does not trust what he hears.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: He is not in the place appropriate to him. He hears, but does not understand. Wilhelm/Baynes: There is no clear comprehension. Blofeld: Having no faith in the words of others shows lack of intelligence. Ritsema/ Karcher: Understanding not brightened indeed. Cleary (2): Being out of place. Not hearing clearly. Wu: His position is improper.He does not understand it.

Legge: Line four is not in the center, nor in a place appropriate for a dynamic line. He therefore will not be at rest, nor do anything to accomplish the work of the hexagram. He is symbolized as a culprit who has been whipped. Alone he can do nothing. If he could follow others, like a sheep led along, he might accomplish something, but he will not listen to advice.

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: The man is restless and wishes to enforce his will by stubbornly pushing forward. But he meets with insuperable antagonisms. Advice to desist and to follow others is ignored.

Wing: As you continue to push forward, you meet with one obstacle after the next. Your resoluteness has reached a degree where you cannot stop yourself. If you would submit to the difficult times and allow others to lead, your problems would resolve themselves. Such advice is meaningless, however, since you cannot be led.

Editor: The image here is clearly one of willful stubbornness. The harsh indictment is mitigated somewhat by Legge's Confucian commentary -- "He hears, but does not understand.” With all of the goodwill in the world, it is still possible to receive this line, and the commentary takes some of the sting out of it by saying that you simply haven't gotten the message yet. The Self is a terrible archetype -- far more like the wrathful Yahweh than the forgiving Christ, and there are phases of the Work in which no matter what you do, it seems to be wrong. One must learn to live with this fact.

The Lord leads the willing; He drags the unwilling in his wake.
A. Rothberg -- The Sword of the Golem

A. You create hardship for yourself through your own stubbornness.

B. You haven't gotten the message yet. You don't understand, yet insist on pushing ahead anyway.

Line 6

Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject without any helpers on whom to call. Her end will be evil.

Wilhelm/Baynes: No cry. In the end misfortune comes.

Blofeld: In the end, misfortune will come without warning.

Liu: Without a cry. Misfortune in the end. [If you get this line you will have difficulty in a new undertaking.]

Ritsema/Karcher: Without crying-out. Completing: possessing a pitfall.

Shaughnessy: There is no crying out; in the winter there is inauspiciousness.

Cleary (1): No call; in the end there is misfortune.

Wu: He has no one to call for help. It will be foreboding in the end.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: There is the misery of having none on whom to call-- the end will be that she cannot continue any longer. Wilhelm/Baynes: The misfortune of not crying out should in the end not be allowed to persist. Blofeld: This unheralded misfortune will be due to our failure to persist to the end. Ritsema/ Karcher: Without crying-out's pitfall. Completing not permitting long-living indeed. [Cry- out/outcry: HAO: call out, proclaim; signal, order, command; mark, label, sign.] Cleary (2): There cannot be growth at the end. [The five lines below epitomize the exhortations and admonitions of sages to the strong who gather together. Here one who is weak is at the top and even though correct is unable to call forth caution for preparedness, so in the end cannot grow.] Wu: The foreboding of having no one to call for help will come before long.

Legge: The subject of the sixth line, standing above, may be easily disposed of.


NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: Just as victory is at hand, the man finds no helpers to eradicate the remaining evil. The evil conceals itself, only to spring up again at a later time.

Wing: Danger comes from a seed of evil in your own Self, perhaps a self-delusion or conceit that blinds you. Just when you feel you may relax your resolve and continue without helpers, it will cause you to err. Misfortune.

Anthony: We need not harbor anger or hold onto bad memories to remind ourself that the situation is unresolved… We must leave correction or punishment of the evil inferiors to the Sage as this is not our province of action…

Editor: Despite Legge's one-sentence dismissal of this line in his annotation, there is a great deal of ambiguity here. Notice the range of interpretations for the Confucian commentary: none of them say the same thing in English and Wilhelm's is so labored as to be virtually meaningless. These are strong clues that the text may be ambiguous in the original Chinese. Because Blofeld's translation of HAO (out-cry) as "warning" makes plausible sense, at its most neutral the line can depict an unexpected catastrophe. Also note that although blame is implied for line six via the symbolic structure of the hexagram, its actual text contains no value judgment, and as a magnetic line it remains correctly placed at the top. To complicate things even further, the message can be interpreted as either the elimination or the escape of an inferior force and, depending on the context of the question, one can meditate for hours to ascertain what exactly is meant. In a differentiated multiverse, there will always be forces requiring reconciliation and synthesis: nothing is ever "eradicated.” If this is the only changing line, the new hexagram becomes The Dynamic, with a corresponding line depicting the consequences of arrogance.

The shadow cannot be eliminated. It is the ever-present dark brother or sister. Whenever we fail to see where it stands, there is likely to be trouble afoot. For then it is certain to be standing behind us. The adequate question therefore never is: Have I a shadow problem? Have I a negative side? But rather: Where does it happen to be right now? When we cannot see it, it is time to beware!
E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest

A. The image suggests the disempowerment of an inferior force. [Quarantine without allies results in elimination of authority or influence. A negative, inferior force is terminated due to lack of support.]

B. The image suggests a sudden, unexpected misfortune of some sort.

C. The image suggests a demonically stubborn force which escapes rectification.

D. You are alone without allies in a vulnerable position or questionable endeavor.

61
Inner Truth


Other titles: The Symbol of Central Sincerity, Inward Confidence, Inner Truthfulness, Sincerity, Centering- Conforming, Central Return, Faithfulness in the Center, Sincerity in the Center, Insight, Understanding, The Psyche, "Take the middle road and avoid extremes." -- D.F. Hook

 

Judgment

Legge: Inner Truth moves even pigs and fish, and leads to good fortune. There will be advantage in crossing the great stream. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.

Wilhelm/Baynes:Inner Truth. Pigs and fishes. Good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water. Perseverance furthers.

Blofeld: Inward Confidence and Sincerity. Dolphins -- good fortune! It is advantageous to cross the great river (or sea). Persistence in a right course brings reward.

Liu:Inner Truthfulness. Sea Lions -- good fortune. It is of benefit to cross the great water.

Ritsema/Karcher:Centering Conforming, hog fish significant. Harvesting: wading the Great River. Harvesting trial. (Hog fish, T’UN YU: aquatic mammals; porpoise, dolphin; intelligent aquatic animals whose development parallels the human; sign of abundance and good luck.) [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the relation between your inner core and the circumstances of your life. It emphasizes that bringing your central concerns and your life situation into a sincere and reliable accord is the adequate way to handle it...]

Shaughnessy:Central Return: the piglet and fish are auspicious; harmonious: beneficial to ford the great river; beneficial to determine.

Cleary (1): Faithfulness in the center is auspicious when it reaches even pigs and fish . It is beneficial to cross great rivers. It is beneficial to be correct.

Cleary (2): Sincerity in the center is auspicious when simple-minded ... etc.

Wu:Sincerity moves piglets and fishes. Auspicious. It will be advantageous to cross the big river with perseverance.


The Image

Legge: Wood on a Marsh -- the image of Inner Truth. The superior man deliberates about cases of litigation and delays the infliction of death.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind over lake: the image of Inner Truth. Thus the superior man discusses criminal cases in order to delay executions.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing over a marshy lake. The Superior Man devotes careful thought to his judgments and is tardy in sentencing people to death.

Liu: The wind over the lake symbolizes Inner Truthfulness. The superior man judges criminals and postpones capital punishment.

Ritsema/Karcher: Above marsh possessing wind. Centering Conforming. A chun tzu uses deliberating litigating to delay dying.

Cleary (1): There is wind above a lake, with truthfulness between them. Thus superior people consider judgments and postpone execution.

Cleary (2): There is wind over a lake, with sincerity in the center. True leaders consider judgments and postpone execution.

Wu: There is wind above the marsh: this is Sincerity. Thus, the jun zi deliberates the verdicts and enjoins the death sentence.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge:Inner Truth shows two magnetic lines occupying the innermost part of the hexagram, with dynamic lines in the centers of the trigrams. We see the attributes of Cheerfulness and Flexible Penetration -- sincerity thus symbolized reaches even to pigs and fishes and will transform the country. We see one riding on the symbol of Wood, which forms an empty boat -- hence it is advantageous to cross the great stream. The virtue of Inner Truth requires firm correctness and shows the proper response of man to heaven.

Legge: Inner Truth denotes the highest quality of man, giving its possessor the power to prevail with spiritual beings, with other men and with lower creatures. There are two magnetic lines in the center and two dynamic lines above and below them. The magnetic lines represent the heart and mind free from all preoccupation, without any consciousness of self. The two dynamic lines immediately above and below them are each in the center of their respective trigram, and denote the solid virtue of one so free from selfishness.

The trigram of Wood above the trigram for a Lake or Marsh suggests a boat crossing the great stream. The pigs and fishes symbolize the rudest and most obstinate of men. Ch'eng-tzu observes: "We have in the sincerity shown in the upper trigram superiors condescending to those below them in accordance with their peculiarities, and we have in that of the lower those below delighted to follow their superiors. The combination of these two things leads to the transformation of the country and state."

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Judgment: It is a great accomplishment when Inner Truthalters archetypal forces within the psyche. The ego’s devotion to the Work is the means to this end.

The Superior Man carefully differentiates his options and avoids drastic measures. (Can sometimes mean: "Don't act until you are sure of all the facts.")

Anyone who monitors his dreams and other images knows that the unconscious is a continuous wellspring of psychic energy. Jung has observed that we are probably dreaming all of the time -- the only reason we don't usually notice this is because the conscious mind is so powerful that the more subtle manifestations of the psyche are eclipsed. Since consciousness consists of only the upper layers of a deep continuum of awareness it is obvious that we are being continuously "created from within." The ultimate source of our being is not easily accessible, but all of the empirical evidence points to a "Self" which transcends the space-time continuum -- i.e., lives in another "dimension."

The capacity to nullify space and time must somehow inhere in the psyche, or, to put it another way, the psyche does not exist wholly in time and space. It is very probable that only what we call consciousness is contained in space and time, and that the rest of the psyche, the unconscious, exists in a state of relative spacelessness and timelessness.
Jung --Letters

This seemingly exotic concept was written by Jung in 1939, yet today the theories of the quantum physicists are approaching the point where awareness itself will be recognized as space-time transcendent.

In the modern Kaluza-Klein theory all the forces of nature, not merely gravity, are treated as manifestations of spacetime structure. What we normally call gravity is a warp in the four spacetime dimensions of our perceptions, while the other forces are reduced to higher-dimensional spacewarps. All the forces of nature are revealed as nothing more than hidden geometry at work ... There is a deep compulsion to believe in the idea that the entire universe, including all the apparently concrete matter that assails our senses, is in reality only a frolic of convoluted nothingness, that in the end the world will turn out to be a sculpture of pure emptiness, a self-organized void.
Paul Davies -- Superforce

The physicists now hypothesize an eleven-dimensional universe, and state that the seven "extra" dimensions are somehow "rolled up to a very small size" so that they are not apparent to our senses. If we are going to hypothesize such fantastic realms it is more elegant to hypothesize consciousness itself as emanating from an extra-dimensional source. This is the Pleroma of the Gnostics and Alchemists, the upper and lower worlds of shamanism, or in Jungian parlance: the Objective Psyche or Collective Unconscious.

The familiar spacetime of our conscious experience consists of three linear dimensions, plus time. Time is considered a dimension, but not like the other three -- one can go up, down, forward and backward, to the left or right at will, but one cannot go back to this morning or forward to next Thursday afternoon. The time dimension is a continuous "now" and we experience it and the other three dimensions from the reference point of consciousness -- we are the center from which all dimensions radiate. Consciousness is like time in that it is always "now," and since consciousness emerges from within in a continuous and autonomous flow, we can legitimately hypothesize that we emanate from a power source in another dimension. We are a kind of continuous explosion from within -- a microcosmic version of the "Big Bang" which originated the universe, and which, incidentally, is still exploding-expanding outward into space.

If everything that is recognizable is so only because it has separated itself from the "all and nothingness," leaving its complementary half behind in the unmanifested state, then the earth too must have its complementary half in the unmanifested state, and the force of gravitation it exerts on all the creatures and objects living on it is the striving for reunification between the earth and its unmanifested complementary half which has been left behind in the void as its negative reflection. The earth's gravitational pull thus draws all the earth towards the void which stands beyond time and space, in order to bring about this reunion. If the earth were to yield, all the earth and everything on it would disappear into the center, into the void. But that would be a return to the paradisiacal unity -- to God -- to bliss!
Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation

The image of the hexagramInner Truth gives us the idea of an "empty" center -- as good an image as could be devised from the structural components of the trigrams to show the inner source of human consciousness. The pigs and fishes of the Judgment are the archetypal complexes which must be tamed through the process of the Work, and to "cross the great stream" with firm correctness is to accomplish this holy task.

Through all ages men have sought, and some have found; there is a door through which we can pass out on to the higher planes, but that door is within the soul, it is an enlargement of consciousness whereby we perceive these things to which we have hitherto been blind, and from such perception comes the sense of reality which is lacking while we perceive nothing but appearances. Whoso has this wider vision is freed from the limitations of the five physical senses; his memory extends back beyond birth, and his hopes go forward beyond death ... Having all aspects of his own nature harmoniously developed, he is at one with all aspects of the universe, nothing is alien to him, and no form of existence is hostile. The path of life is open before him and he treads it with joy.
D. Fortune -- The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage