One requests the others not to carry out their threats. taoscopy.com
Penetration57
Adapt influence like the wind; subtle shifts bring progress. Consistency and endurance will penetrate barriers.
↓ Line 4
Success is achieved through careful and strategic action. Opportunities will present themselves, leading to favorable outcomes.
↓ Line 5
Steadfastness and commitment to your path will lead to success. Any doubts or regrets will dissipate.
↓ Line 6
Going too deep into matters can lead to loss and misfortune. Know when to stop and avoid excessive probing.
↓ Duration32
Consistency brings endurance. Stay true to your path, create lasting habits, and cultivate patience for sustainable success.
Original Readings
57 Penetration
Other titles: The Gentle, The Penetrating, Wind, The Symbol of Bending to Enter, Willing Submission, Gentle Penetration, Ground, Calculations, Complaisance, Penetrating Influence, The Penetration of the Wind, Humility, Devoted Service, Submission
Judgment
Legge:Penetration indicates modest success. See the great man and move in the direction that implies.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Gentle. Success through what is small. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers one to see the great man.
Blofeld:Willing Submission -- success in small matters. It is advantageous to have in view a goal (or destination) and to visit a great man. [This is a reasonably auspicious hexagram; it augurs a certain amount of success for those who submit to circumstances -- unless a moving line indicating the contrary is received. This is not a time for resistance but for submission.]
Liu:Penetration. Small success. It is beneficial to go somewhere. It is beneficial to see a great man.
Ritsema/Karcher: Ground, the small: Growing. Harvesting: possessing directed going. Harvesting: visualizing Great People. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of providing an underlying support. It emphasizes that subtly penetrating and nourishing things from below, the action of Ground, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to enter the situation from below!]
Shaughnessy: Calculations: Little receipt; beneficial to have someplace to go; beneficial to see the great man.
Cleary (1):Wind is small but developmental. It is beneficial to have somewhere to go. It is beneficial to see a great man.
Cleary (2):The small comes through successfully. It is beneficial to have a place to go. It is beneficial to see great people.
Wu: Complaisance indicates that the small are pervasive. It is advantageous to have undertakings. It is also advantageous to see the great man.
The Image
Legge: Two wind trigrams following each other form Penetration. The superior man proclaims his commands and undertakes his work.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Winds following one upon the other: the image of the gently penetrating. Thus the superior man spreads his commands abroad and carries out his undertakings.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes a favorable wind. The Superior Man performs his allotted tasks in consonance with heaven's (or the sovereign's) will. [The component trigrams combine the concepts of wind and blandness -- hence a favorable wind.]
Liu: Wind following wind symbolizes Penetration. The superior man proclaims his directives and executes his affairs.
Ritsema/Karcher: Following winds. Ground. A chun tzu uses distributing fate to move affairs.
Cleary (1): Wind following wind.Thus do superior people articulate directions and carry out tasks.
Wu: One breeze follows the other; this is Complaisance. Thus the jun zi gives further injunctions in order to administer public affairs.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Repeated wind trigrams show the repetition of governmental orders. The dynamic fifth line has penetrated to his correct central place and carries his will into action. The magnetic first and fourth lines obey the dynamic lines above them. Hence it is said that there will be success in small matters.
Legge: Penetration symbolizes both wind and wood, and has the attributes of Docility, Flexibility and Penetration. We are to think of it as wind with its penetrating power which finds its way into every nook and cranny.
Confucius said: "The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind blows upon it." In accordance with this, the hexagram must be understood as the influence and orders of the government designed to remedy what is wrong in the people. The upper trigram denotes the orders issuing from the ruler, and the lower the obedience rendered to them by the people.
Ch'eng-tzu says:"Superiors, in harmony with the duty of inferiors, issue their commands; inferiors, in harmony with the wishes of their superiors, follow them. Above and below there are that harmony and deference; and this is the significance of the redoubled Wind trigram. When governmental commands and business are in accordance with what is right, they agree with the tendencies of the minds of the people who follow them."
Anthony: Getting this hexagram often refers to the presence of inferior elements that obstruct our having a good influence ... Because this hexagram is concerned with self-correction, we often get it together with Work on What has been Spoiled. [Hex. 18: Repair.]
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Get to the heart of the matter and act on the information obtained.
The Superior Man acts on his understanding by implementing it in the world.
The hexagram ofPenetration, made up of two trigrams symbolizing Wind (which is air in motion), suggests the activity of thought (the realm of air) trying to comprehend or "penetrate" something. Thus, each line of the figure may be seen as some aspect of an act of mental endeavor.
Therefore the student must exert his own mind to the utmost. If he does so, he will know his own nature. And if he knows his own nature, examines his own self and makes it sincere, he becomes a sage. Therefore the "Great Norm" says, "The virtue of thinking is penetration and profundity ... Penetration and profundity lead to sageness.” -- Ch'eng I
The first line depicts vacillation and indecisiveness; the second shows one trying to "get to the bottom" of a matter. Line three is an image of futile hypothesizing; four and five show two aspects of successful comprehension, and the sixth line symbolizes an inability to understand.
Man's intellect -- the greatest but most dangerous gift he has received from God -- builds a bridge across the seemingly unconquerable chasm between that which is personal and mortal and that which is impersonal and eternal. Through man's intellect he succumbed to the temptation to fall out of divine unity with his consciousness. But by the same token, his intellect gives him the possibility of bringing back his consciousness into full union with divinity. By means of his intellect, man is able to understand truth, and when he has understood, he will seek and keep on seeking and trying until he some day succeeds in finding the only path to the realization of his self. Elisabeth Haich -- Initiation
The hexagram can also symbolize humble submission and devoted service, thus suggesting the role of the ego in the Work. To truly comprehend the nature of the Work is to serve it with devotion. There are some interesting associations between the act of penetration and that of submission – when dynamic and magnetic are in full harmony they lose their individual identities and become one force which is both and neither.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows all occasion for repentance in its subject passed away. She takes game for its threefold use in her hunting.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Remorse vanishes. During the hunt three kinds of game are caught.
Blofeld: Regret vanishes! Three kinds of game are caught in the field.
Liu: Remorse disappears. One catches three kinds of game while hunting.
Ritsema/Karcher: Repenting extinguished. The fields, catching three kinds.
Shaughnessy: Regret is gone. In the fields bagging three types.
Cleary(1) Regret vanishes. The yield of the field is of three grades.
Cleary(2) Regret vanishes. The hunt yields three catches.
Wu: Regret no more. He hunts and bags three kinds of game.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She achieves merit. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is meritorious. Blofeld: The second sentence augurs concrete results. Ritsema/Karcher: Possessing achievement indeed. Cleary (2) There is success. Wu: He has succeeded.
Legge: Line four is magnetic, as is her correlate in line one, but four is a proper place for a magnetic line, and it rests under the shadow of the dynamic and central fifth line. Hence the omens of evil are counteracted, and a good auspice is obtained. The game caught in hunting was divided into three portions -- the first for use in sacrifices, the second for the entertainment of visitors, and the third for the kitchen generally. A hunt which yielded enough for all these purposes was deemed very successful.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man gains praise by counteracting evil. He can now meet his needs for offerings to the gods, for everyday use, and for guests.
Wing: Energetic action will yield successful results. You will be able to satisfy all your needs if you modestly yet confidently confront your adversaries.
Anthony: In finding and being resolute against evil in ourself, we have solved all the problems facing us at the moment, which seemed to be totally unrelated. This is the meaning of "three kinds of game."
Editor: Three is a number symbolizing the reconciliation of opposites in a new entity: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. It also suggests the unconscious, conscious and super-conscious realms of the psyche. A hunt is a quest, and game is nourishment: psychologically, the insights gained from the quest. In combination, the symbols describe a nourishing synthesis and the implication is that you are "sitting pretty." Perhaps your penetration into the matter at hand has produced some fresh understanding.
Will is the grand agent in the mystic progress; its rule is all potent over the nervous system ... Yet there is not One Will, but three Wills -- the Wills, namely, of the Divine, the Rational and Irrational Souls -- to harmonize these is the difficulty. W.W. Westcott --The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster
A. An image of integration, reconciliation, consolidation.
B. Congratulations -- you've just comprehended a complex issue.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, dynamic, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune to its subject. All occasion for repentance will disappear, and all his movements will be advantageous. There may have been no good beginning, but there will be a good end. Three days before making any changes, let him give notice of them; and three days after, let him reconsider them. There will thus be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days. After the change, three days. Good fortune.
Blofeld: Persistence in a righteous course brings reward; regret vanishes, and everything is favorable! A poor beginning, but a good end! The three days before and the three days after a change (now due to occur) are especially propitious.
Liu: Firmness -- good fortune. Remorse disappears. Everything is of benefit. Loss in the beginning, gain in the end. Three days before change. Three days after change. Good fortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Trial: significant, repenting extinguished. Without not Harvesting. Without initially possessing completion. Before husking, three days. After husking, three days. Significant.
Shaughnessy: Determination is auspicious; regret is gone; there is nothing not beneficial; there is no beginning, there is an end. Preceding the geng day by three days, following the geng day by three days; auspicious.
Cleary (1): It is good to be correct; regret vanishes. There is all-around benefit. There is no beginning, but there is an end. The last three days of the lunar cycle and the first three days of the lunar cycle are auspicious.
Cleary (2): Correctness leads to good fortune; regret vanishes, none do not benefit.
There is no beginning, but there is an end. The three days before a change and the three days after a change are auspicious.
Wu: Perseverance brings good fortune. Regret has gone. Every undertaking will be advantageous. The beginning may be rough, but the end will be great. It will be auspicious between three days before the change and three days thereafter.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune is owing to his correct position in the center. Wilhelm/Baynes: The place is correct and central. Blofeld: That we shall enjoy good fortune is indicated by the correct position of this line in the center of the upper trigram. Ritsema/Karcher: Situation correctly centered indeed. Cleary (2): Its position is correctly balanced. Correctly balanced. Wu: The position is correct and central.
Legge: Ch'eng-tzu says that line five is the seat of honor for the lord of the hexagram, from whom issue all charges and commands. It is central and correct and exemplifies the qualities of the figure in the highest mode. These qualities are docility and conformance to what is right, and the advantage of firm correctness is insisted upon. With this, all will be right. Compare the concluding image with the Judgment of hexagram number eighteen, Repair.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Continued integrity on the part of the man compensates for his poor beginning. However, prior to the change the man needs to ponder carefully. After the change, he needs to check his results.
Wing: If you wish to accomplish your aims and change the situation, you must continue your vigilance and influence. Although the beginning has problems, the end will bring good fortune. Yet even after the change is made, you should periodically evaluate the results.
Editor: If this is the only changing line, the hexagram becomes number eighteen, Repair, or Work on What Has Been Spoiled, the Judgment of which is nearly identical to this line. This suggests that the penetration involved in the matter at hand is concerned with the rectification of a past error. The key ideas in the line are: Firm correctness brings good fortune: Willpower is the cornerstone of the Work. Poor beginning vs. good end: Describes a sequence of events in which a situation is improved over time -- a process of repair. Three days before/after: A turning point, a moment of choice or decision which is consciously monitored. (This one-week sequence is a useful timetable for natural birth control: i.e., celibacy three days before, during, and after the calculated day of fertility. Obviously, willpower is essential for success.)
But as when an authentic watch is shown,
Each man winds up and rectifies his own,
So in our very judgments.
Sir John Suckling
A. Well-considered action, carried out with firm intent, will correct an earlier error and create the conditions for beneficial change.
B. You have perceived the problem -- now rectify it.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows penetration beneath a bed, and its subject having lost the axe with which he executed his decisions. However firm and correct he may try to be, there will be evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Blofeld: Crawling below the bed. [This symbolizes exaggerated submission, servile humility, etc. Apparently, we have been guilty of this fault.] He loses what is required for his traveling expenses -- persistence brings misfortune!
Liu: Wind under the bed. He loses his wealth. Continuing leads to misfortune. [This line indicates possible loss or sickness.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Ground located below the bed. Losing one's own emblem-ax. Trial: pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Calculations are under the bed; losing his goods and ax; determination is inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Obedient under the floor, one loses one’s resources; even if faithful, there is misfortune.
Cleary (2): The obedient are below the platform. Losing resources and tools, it is proper that there be misfortune.
Wu: He acts so agreeably as if he were under the bed. He loses his means of supporting and protecting himself. Even with perseverance it is foreboding.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Though occupying the topmost place, his powers are exhausted. Though he tries to be correct, there will be evil. Wilhelm/Baynes: At the top, the end has come. Is this right? It brings misfortune. Blofeld: This top line indicates exhaustion of all possibilities. Losing his traveling expenses presages certain misfortune! Ritsema/ Karcher: Above exhaustion indeed. Correcting reaching a pitfall indeed. Cleary (2): Above there is an impasse. It is proper that there be misfortune. Wu: He has reached his limit. It is definitely foreboding.
Legge: The evil that line six concludes with arises from the quality of gentle penetration being carried to excess.
Anthony: Sometimes a diligent search for the hidden enemy reveals nothing specific. In getting this line, we should let go of the search. In sincerely seeking, our attitude has been corrected of careless overconfidence; that is enough.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man appreciates the underlying problem and traces the injurious influence to its ultimate origin. However, he lacks the power to overcome it and is hurt in the process.
Wing: By attempting to penetrate all the myriad possibilities of the situation, you have dissipated the energy to influence. Great understanding means little without decisive action. Negativity can no longer be prevented.
Editor: As in line two, "penetration" is comprehension, and "beneath a bed" suggests the unconscious realms of the psyche. "Penetration under the bed" is an attempt to understand the unknown. An axe is a metal cutting instrument with associations in common with the sword and arrow: that is, the discriminating mental faculty; intellect, scientific method, etc. To lose one's axe is to be without the ability to differentiate the components of an unknown situation. The line implies that you are asking questions beyond your capacity to understand; or you are asking the wrong questions; or the oracle is tired of your importunate questioning entirely: the "gentle penetration is being carried to excess." In the latter case, we are reminded of the Judgment in hexagram number 4, Inexperience:"I do not seek the inexperienced youth, but he seeks me. When he shows the sincerity proper for divination, I instruct him. If he asks two or three times, that is troublesome, and I do not instruct the troublesome."
Some (schools) claim that the way to enlightenment consists in holding dialogues with the archetypes, fantasy figures of the objective psyche, surrounding yourself with the personified projections of your mind in the form of "higher selves" and "inner guides." ... The "new age" optimism and superficiality of those who reduce the dark mysteries of Jung's Gnosis to the shallow level of their own limitations are apt to make people into the victims of the very unconscious they tend to treat so lightly. Those who naively wish to use the archetypes for their personalistic ends will be made subject to their cruel tyranny. S.A. Hoeller -- The Gnostic Jung
A. You are fumbling in the dark.
B. Confused thinking or compulsive speculation cripples intuition.
32 Duration
Other titles: Duration, The Symbol of Constancy, The Long Enduring, Constant, Persevering, Standing Fast, Continuity, Constancy in the Midst of Change, Holding Firm, "Get yourself into a fixed routine like the orbiting planets." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Consistency means successful progress without error through firm correctness. Movement in any direction is advantageous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Duration. Success. No blame. Perseverance furthers. It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Blofeld: The Long Enduring. Success and freedom from error! Righteous persistence brings reward. It is favorable to have in view some goal or destination.
Liu:Duration. Success. No blame. It benefits to continue. Going anywhere is advantageous.
Ritsema/Karcher:Persevering, Growing. Without fault. Harvesting Trial. Harvesting: possessing directed going. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of continuity and endurance. It emphasizes that continuing on and renewing the way you are following is the adequate way to handle the situation. To be in accord with the time, you are told to persevere!]
Shaughnessy: Constancy: Receipt; there is no trouble; beneficial to determine; beneficial to have someplace to go.
Cleary (1):Constancy is developmental. Impeccable. It is beneficial to be correct. It is beneficial to have a place to go.
Cleary (2):Constancy comes through without fault, beneficial insofar as it is correct. It is beneficial to have a place to go.
Wu: Constancy indicates pervasion. There will be no blame. It also indicates advantage of being persevering and having undertakings.
The Image
Legge: Thunder over wind -- the image of Consistency. The superior man stands firm and does not change his method of operation.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder and wind: the image of Duration. Thus the superior man stands firm and does not change his direction.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder accompanied by wind. The Superior Man stands so firmly that he cannot be uprooted.
Liu: Thunder and wind symbolize Duration. The superior man stands firm without changing direction.
Ritsema/Karcher: Thunder, wind, Persevering. A Chun tzu uses establishing, not versatility on-all-sides.
Cleary (1): Thunder and wind are perpetual. Thus does the superior person stand without changing places.
Cleary (2): Thunder and wind are constant; so do developed people stand without changing place.
Wu: A combination of thunder and wind forms Constancy. Thus the jun zi establishes himself by not changing his post.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Consistency means long continuance. The dynamic trigram of Thunder is above, and the magnetic trigram of Wind is below. Docility and Motive Force are in sympathetic communication because their dynamic and magnetic lines all correspond. When the motive power is spent it will begin again -- hence movement in any direction is advantageous. The sun and moon are consistent in their illumination, and the four sequential seasons are consistent in their cycles of growth. The sages are consistent in their work and all under heaven are transformed. When we examine this consistent perseverance the natural tendencies of heaven and earth are revealed.
Legge: The subject of the hexagram is perseverance in what is right, or in continuously acting out the law of one's being. It is seen as a sequel to the previous hexagram,Initiative. As that figure deals with the correct relations
between husband and wife, so this figure treats of the continuous observance of their respective duties. Initiativeconsists of the trigrams symbolizing the youngest son and youngest daughter and shows how the attraction and influence between the sexes is strongest in youth. Consistency on the other hand, consists of the trigrams symbolizing the oldest son and oldest daughter. This couple is more staid. The wife occupies the lower place, and their relationship is characterized by her submission. Given two parties, a magnetic and a dynamic in correlation, if both consistently observe what is correct and natural (i.e., the magnetic submissive and the dynamic firm), then good fortune and progress may be predicted for their course.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The will to maintain the consistency of the Work assures progress in whatever direction it may take.
The Superior Man holds fast to the principles of the Work.
Wilhelm's title for this hexagram is Duration. I feel that the word Consistency best evokes the meaning of the figure. In an existence consisting of continuous change the only things that have duration are the principles upon which change is based. To adhere to these principles is to maintain consistency. Implicit here is a consistent balance of forces. Consistency in the Work means neither consistent action nor inaction, but an appropriate combination of the two principles as required by changing circumstances. The Confucian commentary alludes to this characteristic of the Work when it mentions the sun, moon and changing seasons as examples of forces which maintain their consistency within a context of continuous change.
Just as the moon at night reflects the light of the hidden sun, so in the Work the ego is always magnetic in relation to the dynamic Self. A moon that thought that it was the source of its light would be egregiously deluded, despite superficial appearances to the contrary; so too the ego that thinks that its powers come from anywhere but the Self.
Motives and standards of choice are not invented by the ego but are structured by the actualization of archetypal predispositions through personally acquired value standards. E. C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Note that all of the lines in the hexagram are generally unfavorable except two and five, and that when they both change places the hexagram becomes number thirty-one, Initiative. There is a profound lesson here which is best appreciated by meditating on the associations implied. The fact that each hexagram is the inverse of the other should not be forgotten.