Follow your heart's genuine rhythm, letting authenticity harmonize your journey to inner truth.
From
17
Following
To
61
Inner Truth
One wants to be among those in charge of enforcing the law. taoscopy.com
Following17
Flow with changes, adapt to circumstances, and align with others for mutual support.
↓ Line 2
Choosing to follow what is immature or insignificant leads to the loss of strength and support.
↓ Line 4
Success comes from following, but blind persistence can lead to trouble. Sincerity and clarity prevent blame.
↓ Line 6
Strong alliances and loyalty lead to recognition and honor.
↓ Inner Truth61
Inner truth and sincerity lead to harmony and trust. Genuine communication fosters unity. Be truthful with yourself and others to create meaningful connections.
Other titles: According With, Acquiring Followers, Adapting, Adjusting, To Accord With, To Accompany, Concordance, Conformance to The Work, "Learn to serve in order to rule. Quit the old ways." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: Following indicates successful progress and no error through firm correctness.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Following has supreme success. Perseverance furthers. No blame.
Blofeld:Following. Sublime success! Righteous persistence brings reward -- no error! [This sublime success comes, of course, only to those who follow what is right, namely the will of heaven or of those whose own will embodies it.]
Liu:Following. Great success. It is of benefit to continue. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher: Following. Spring Growing Harvesting Trial.
Without fault. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of being impelled or drawn into moving forward. It emphasizes that yielding to the impulse by accepting guidance is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: follow!]
Shaughnessy:Following: Prime receipt; beneficial to determine; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1):Following is greatly developmental: it is beneficial if correct; then there is no fault.
Cleary (2): Following is very successful, etc.
Wu: Following is primordial, pervasive, prosperous, and persevering. There will be no blame.
The Image
Legge: Thunder in the marsh: the image of Following. The superior man, in accordance with this, at nightfall enters his house and rests.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder in the middle of the lake: the image of Following. Thus the superior man at nightfall goes indoors for rest and recuperation.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder rumbling within a swamp! When darkness falls, the Superior Man goes within and rests peacefully. [The component trigrams can be read as thunder and marsh, but also as movement and joy. In the Book of Change, joy is frequently associated with willing obedience to and glad acceptance of what is right.]
Liu: Thunder in the lake symbolizesFollowing. In the evening, the superior man rests and relaxes in his home.
Ritsema/Karcher: Marsh center possessing thunder. Following. A chun tzu uses turning-to darkening to enter a reposing pause.
Cleary (1): There is thunder in the lake, Following. Thus do superior people go inside and rest when the sun goes down.
Cleary (2): … Leaders go in and rest at sundown.
Wu: Thunder in the marsh is the symbol of Following. Thus the jun zi retires toward the twilight of the day.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Followingthe dynamic trigram places itself under the magnetic. We see in them the attributes of Movement and Pleasure. Through firm correctness all under heaven will be found following at such a time.
Legge: Following comes after Enthusiasm, the symbol of harmony and satisfaction. When these conditions prevail men are sure to follow. The hexagram includes the ideas of both following others and being followed by others.(Emphasis mine, Ed.) The good auspice is due to this flexibility, but in either instance the following must be guided by a reference to what is correct. The lower trigram of Movement represents the eldest son, and the upper trigram of Pleasure represents the youngest daughter. The strong places itself under the weak -- esteeming others higher than himself, and giving the idea of following. The union of Movement with Pleasure suggests the same idea.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Following means advancement through willpower.
The Superior Man rests on his inner virtue.
In Following, the trigram of Movement "follows" the trigram of Cheerfulness: independent action subordinates itself and allows itself to be led by cheerful obedience. In terms of the Work, this symbolizes our willingness to "follow" or adhere to its principles. Psychologically interpreted, Followingmeans the compliant subordination of ego-autonomy to the Great Work of psychic integration.
Blofeld points out that the trigram of Joy, or Cheerfulness is often associated with "willing obedience to and glad acceptance of what is right." Hence the cheerful following of the intent of the Self. He explains the role of the superior man in the Image as: "It is not hard to see the connection between following and resting peacefully; for, once we have given our allegiance to others [the Self], we no longer have to worry about what should be done."
At seventy ... Confucius allowed his mind to follow whatever it desired, yet everything he did was naturally right of itself. His actions no longer needed a conscious guide. He was acting without effort. This represents the last stage in the development of the sage. Fung Yu-Lan -- A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
When received without changing lines this hexagram often takes the meaning of: "To accord with" -- in such instances the answer is an affirmation to your query.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows us one who cleaves to the little boy, and lets go the man of age and experience.
Wilhelm/Baynes: If one clings to the little boy, one loses the strong man.
Blofeld: He belongs to (i.e. puts himself at the service of) the boy and thereby loses the adult. [The implied meaning is that he rejects what is superior and follows what is inferior.]
Liu: By staying with the boy, you lose the strong man.
Ritsema/Karcher: Tied-to the small son. Letting-go the respectable husband.
Shaughnessy: Tying the little son, losing the senior fellow.
Cleary (1): Involved with the child, one loses the adult.
Wu: She clings to her child, but loses her husband.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He cannot be with the two at the same time. Wilhelm/ Baynes: One cannot be with both at once. Blofeld: He cannot be of service to both of them. Ritsema/Karcher: Nowhere joining associating indeed. Cleary (2): One is not with both at once. Wu: Because she cannot have both.
Legge: Line two is magnetic. His proper correlate is the dynamic fifth line, but he prefers to cling to the line below him, instead of waiting to follow line five.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man surrounds himself with the incompetent and dismisses the experienced.
Wing: Examine your goals and the standards you have set for yourself. If they are unworthy, inferior, weak, or nonexistent, you will remain low, and you will lose contact with productive, competent, worthwhile influences. You are forced to make a choice.
Editor: The content of this line prevents using the usual gender symbolism. Nevertheless, the message is unambiguous.
Most people learn how to think as very young children, and throughout their adult lives, they do not think any differently than they did as children. That is to say, most people use their minds in a manner not essentially different from the way they did when they were six years old ... It is significant that in Kabbalah, one's normal mode of thinking is referred to as the "mentality of childhood." ... More advanced modes of thought and states of consciousness, on the other hand, are referred to as the "mentality of adulthood." Aryeh Kaplan -- Jewish Meditation
A. Immature attitudes preclude growth.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, dynamic, shows us one followed and obtaining adherents. Though he is firm and correct, there will be evil. If he is sincere however in his course, and make that evident, into what error will he fall?
Wilhelm/Baynes: Following creates success. Perseverance brings misfortune. To go one's way with sincerity brings clarity. How could there be blame in this?
Blofeld: Following someone with an ulterior motive -- persisting in this course would bring misfortune. But, if as he goes his way he makes sincerity his beacon, what harm can come to him?
Liu: Success is gained by following. But to continue brings misfortune. Going the correct way leads to glory (brightness). How can there be blame?
Ritsema/Karcher: Following possessing catching. Trial: pitfall. Possessing conformity, locating-in tao uses brightening. Wherefore faulty? [Possessing conformity: "Inner and outer are in accord; confidence of the spirits has been captured..."]
Shaughnessy: In following there is a catch; determination is inauspicious. There is a return on the way; at the end of brightness, what trouble is there?
Cleary (1): Following has gain. Even if right, it is inauspicious. Truthfully remaining on the path, using understanding, what blame is there?
Cleary (2): Following gains, but it bodes ill even if right. Having faith in the way, thereby understanding, what fault is there?
Wu: To have a following may be advantageous. Despite perseverance, it will be foreboding. With confidence in his course, he can explain his intention. What blame can there be?
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: "He is followed and obtains adherents" -- according to the idea of the hexagram, this is evil. "He is sincere in his course" -- showing his intelligence, and leading to achievement. Wilhelm/Baynes: This bodes misfortune...This brings clear-sighted deeds. Blofeld: Following others with ulterior motives is surely evil; whereas sincerity along the way produces brilliant results. Ritsema/Karcher: One's righteousness: pitfall indeed... Brightening achieving indeed. Cleary (2): When following gains, the meaning is inauspicious. Having faith in the way, the understanding is successful. Wu: With confidence in his course, he can be successful.
Legge: Line four is dynamic, and in the place of a minister next to the ruler in line five. His having adherents will be injurious to the authority of the supreme ruler, and only sincere loyalty will save him from error and misfortune.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man acquires followers who flatter, scheme, and act subservient to seek personal gains. There is a chance that he will become dependent on them because of gratifying associations, which will detract from his authority in his position of influence. He must see through such adherents and free himself from egotistical encumbrances.
Wing: Those whom you appear to influence actually have ulterior motives in their allegiance to you. Look beyond the current flattering situation into your original principled aim. Strive to act independently.
Editor: The line is a clear warning about being corrupted by the projections of others. Viewed objectively, the ego is only a temporary personality created for the purpose of transforming psychic energy – a transitional tool or vessel emanated into matter by the Self for one brief lifetime. It is only a servant--never a master. Long dedication to the Work can concentrate power which the ego may be tempted to use for its own benefit--a dangerous seduction which can only harm the Work.
By permitting credulous and vulgar admirers to congregate about thee, there is liability of falling into the error of becoming puffed up with worldly pride. Guru Gampopa --Precepts of the Gurus
A. Don't let power go to your head. Sincerity prevents ego-trips.
B. Beware of elements which would distract you from the Work. That which seems "reasonable" is often just the voice of a demon: a temptation for the misuse of power.
C. What worked previously is now obsolete. A new strategy is now appropriate.
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows us that sincerity held and clung to, yea, and bound fast. We see the king with it presenting his offerings on the Western Mountain.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He meets with firm allegiance and is still further bound. The king introduces him to the Western Mountain.
Blofeld: He obtained people's allegiance and his followers clung to him. During the time he spent on the Western Mountain, the King made sacrifice.
Liu: Deeply involved with one's fellows, one tries to continue. The King offers the Western Mountain.
Ritsema/Karcher: Grappling, tying-to it. Thereupon adhering holding-fast-to it. The king availing-of Growing tending- towards the Western mountain.
Shaughnessy: Grabbing and tying him, and thereafter binding him; the king uses aromatic grass on the western mountain.
Cleary (1): Binding and tying up; the king sacrifices on west mountain.
Cleary (2): In a binding involvement, the king sacrifices on the western mountain.
Wu: He is constrained and bound in order to follow. May a king make offerings to the gods of the western mountain.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The idea of the hexagram has reached its extreme development. Wilhelm/Baynes: At the top it ends. Blofeld: Those above us have exhausted their merit. Ritsema/Karcher: Exhausting the above indeed.
Cleary (2): This is the upper impasse of involvement. Wu: Because he has reached the upper limit.
Legge: The concept of Followingreaches its highest representation in the topmost line. The action, directed by the most sincere devotion to what is right, influences both men and spiritual beings. The Western Mountain is Mt. Khi, at the foot of which was the original settlement of the house of Kau in 1325 B.C.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The sage, who is retired, is recalled by the king because of his unique qualifications. The faithful and effective subject is rewarded.
Wing: You are called upon, by virtue of your wisdom and expertise, to lead another. You will unquestionably become involved, but you will be rewarded for your unselfish commitment.
Editor: Psychologically, Legge's commentary suggests the idea of devotion and sacrifice uniting forces in both conscious and unconscious realms of the psyche. The Confucian commentary suggests that the principle of Followingcomes to an end when ego and Self merge. To offer a sacrifice on the peak of the Western mountain: a high spiritual place where the sun sets (an image of the completed Work), implies this. Getting this line doesn't mean the Work is literally completed (it never is in this space-time dimension), but that you have probably integrated some significant inner complexes. Compare this line with 46:4.
The surrender of the limited purposes of the ego to the much larger goals of the Self -- goals within which the lesser egoic purposes are in fact meaningfully encompassed -- does not do away with the sense of freedom. On the contrary, only by subordinating the limitations of the ego to the Self do we truly justify our freedom and do we meaningfully validate our responsibility for our actions and decisions. S.A. Hoeller -- The Gnostic Jung
A. Devotion to the Work brings unity to the psyche.
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