Fuel your mind with thoughtful words, nourish your spirit with truth, and find harmony within authenticity.
From
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Nourishment
To
61
Inner Truth
Not wanting vain lessons
One hates learning things that are useless. taoscopy.com
Nourishment27
Focus on sustenance and nourishment, both physical and spiritual. Evaluate the sources from which you draw energy and wisdom. Guard against meaningless indulgence and seek genuine fulfillment.
↓ Line 2
Seeking nourishment from the wrong sources leads to trouble. Stay true to your path.
↓ Line 5
Staying true to your principles brings good fortune. Avoid taking unnecessary risks.
↓ 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: The Corners of the Mouth, Providing Nourishment, The Symbol of the Cheek and of Nourishment, Jaws, Lower Jaw, Nurturing, Swallowing, Sagacious Counsel, Nourishing, To Feed, "Can mean money, usually as the result of effort." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Nourishmentindicates good fortune through firm correctness. Make sure you know what you are feeding, and determine your proper diet.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Corners of the Mouth . Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a man seeks to fill his own mouth with.
Blofeld: Nourishing. (Nourishment -- literally Jaws) [The form of this hexagram readily brings to mind the concept of wide open jaws, but the word nourishment must not be taken only in a literal sense; for we are concerned here with all those things which men seek both for their own advantage and for giving succor or assistance to others.] Righteous persistence brings good fortune. Watch people nourishing others and observe with what manner of things they seek to nourish themselves. [For this will teach us a lot about their characters.]
Liu: Nourishment. Continuing leads to good fortune. Observe the providing of nourishment and the food someone seeks for himself.
Ritsema/Karcher: Jaws, Trial: significant. Viewing Jaws. Originating-from seeking mouth substance. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of nourishing and being nourished. It emphasizes that opening in order to take things in as well as providing to others is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Jaws: Determination is auspicious. View the jaw; oneself seeking the mouth's fullness.
Cleary (1): In nourishment, it is good to be correct. Observe nourishment, and seek fulfillment for the mouth by yourself.
Cleary (2): Nourishment is good if correct. Observe nourishment, and seek food by yourself.
Wu: Nurturing indicates that with perseverance there will be auspiciousness. People should observe the principle of nurturing and find proper foods for nourishment.
Hua-Ching Ni: In nourishment, one should seek the right nutrition and not be tempted by what others enjoy.
The Image
Legge: The image of thunder under a mountain forms Nourishment. The superior man, in accordance with this, controls his speech and regulates his eating and drinking.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the foot of the mountain, thunder: the image of The Corners of the Mouth. Thus the superior man is careful in his words and temperate in eating and drinking.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes thunder rumbling at the foot of a mountain. The Superior Man is thoughtful in speech and frugal in his eating and drinking. [The lower trigram, thunder, also represents the power of quickening growth; hence its place in a hexagram concerned with nourishment.]
Liu: Thunder rolling around the foot of the mountain is the symbol of Nourishment. The superior man is cautious in his speech; he restrains and regulates his eating and drinking.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below mountain possessing thunder. Jaws. A chun tzu uses considering words to inform. [A chun tzu uses] articulating to drink and take-in.
Cleary (1): There is thunder beneath the mountain. Superior people are careful about what they say, and moderate in eating and drinking.
Cleary (2): … Leaders are prudent in speech, moderate in consumption.
Wu: There is thunder below the mountain; this is Nurturing. Thus the jun zi speaks with caution and drinks and eats with moderation.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: When the nourishing is correct, there will be good fortune. We must examine those whom we wish to nourish, and we must also examine our own nourishing of ourselves. Heaven and earth nourish all things. The sages nourish men of talent and virtue in order to reach the masses. Great is the work intended in the time of nourishing.
Legge: The character ofNourishment is the symbol of the upper jaw, but the image of the hexagram suggests a whole mouth with undivided lines at top and bottom, and divided lines between them. The bottom line is in the trigram of Movement, and the top line is in the trigram of Keeping Still -- giving the image of a mobile lower jaw and a fixed upper jaw. The divided lines represent the mouth cavity. The hexagram denotes nourishing of body or mind, of one's self or others, and the proper nourishment in each case must necessarily vary according to circumstances. Thus, judgment must be exercised to determine which nourishment is in harmony with correctness and virtue.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment:Nourishment asks you to examine your motives in the allocation of your energy. Willpower creates a well- balanced apportionment.
The Superior Man controls his expression and monitors his appetites.
The lines in the lower trigram of Movement are all rendered unfavorably to one degree or another, while the lines of the upper trigram of Keeping Still are all generally correct. The implication is that non-action is almost always preferable to movement. This idea is fundamental to the philosophy of the I Ching, and in the hexagram of Nourishmentthe lesson is that non-action feeds and strengthens the psyche.
All actions are the expression of psychic energy through a physical body to create an effect in spacetime. Each effect creates consequences which usually demand further action. It is easy to see that action which is not initiated by the Self can only result in unexpected consequences, and that action which conforms to the will of the Self is motivated by and directed toward a transcendent goal. Although correct non-action generally creates no negative consequences in spacetime, it does have nourishing consequences in the psyche as autonomous forces are gathered, digested, assimilated and renewed in ascending configurations of growth.
As this Path represents the structure of the [ego], the attribution of the Mouth reminds us that the purpose of incarnation is the seeking of the food of experience in Form for the benefit of the [Self] and the Spirit. Gareth Knight -- Qabalistic Symbolism
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare the Image of Nourishment in this hexagram with those in hexagram number five, Waiting; number forty-eight, The Well; and number fifty, The Sacrificial Vessel.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, magnetic, shows one looking downwards for nourishment, which is contrary to what is proper; or seeking it from the height above, advance towards which will lead to evil.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Turning to the summit for nourishment, deviating from the path to seek nourishment from the hill. Continuing to do this brings misfortune.
Blofeld: Nourishment on the mountain peak; he abandons normal ways to seek nourishment in the hills -- misfortune! [From ancient times, there has been a large body of opinion in China that Taoists and other mystics leading the life of a recluse are odd people who have abandoned their duties to family, state and mankind. However, the Book of Change, revered by both Taoists and Confucians, is not likely to be guilty of bias; indeed, in the fourth place, “nourishment on the mountain” brings good fortune. Perhaps the implication is that those who withdraw from ordinary life more on account of their oddity than because of any genuine desire for spiritual guidance waste their talents and their time.]
Liu: Seeking nourishment from the top, one strays from the path to the hill. To set forth leads to misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher: Toppling jaws. Rejecting the canons, tending-toward the hill-top. Jaws chastising: pitfall.
Shaughnessy: Say upside-down jaw; threshing the warp at the northern jaw; to be upright is inauspicious.
Cleary (1): Perverting nourishment goes against the constant. Feeding on high ground – to go brings misfortune.
Cleary(2): Perverting nourishment brushes aside the constant. Feeding on high ground, an expedition bodes ill. [For those above to nourish those below is the rational constant. Here one in a higher position is recessive and weak, and relies on strength from below for nourishment; so this “brushes aside the constant.]
Wu: There is reversed nurturing. It violates the normal order of offering nurture to the one above. The action is foreboding. [The second (line) has the responsibility of offering nurture to its correlate, the fifth (line). On the contrary, it nurtures the one below, i.e., the first (line). Hence the judgment calls the action a misplaced reversed nurturing.]
Hua-Ching Ni: One neglects the constancy and stability which can benefit life and seeks nourishment from the wrong source. Misfortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The evil of her advance is because her movements abandon her proper associates. Wilhelm/Baynes: In going it loses its place among its kind. Blofeld: The misfortune is due to his having separated himself from his own kind. Ritsema/Karcher: Movement letting-go sorting indeed. Cleary(2): The action loses companionship. Wu: It is out of order.
Legge: The magnetic second line, insufficient for herself, seeks nourishment first from the dynamic first line below, which is improper, and then from the dynamic sixth line above, which is too far removed and also not her proper correlate. In either case the thing is evil because neither of the dynamic lines is her proper associate.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man does not provide for his own support. He improperly takes what he needs from below and also cravenly begs for it from above. Such unworthiness leads to misfortune.
Wing: Although you are able to properly nourish yourself in this situation, you rely upon inappropriate methods or persons to fulfill your needs. If this continues, it will rob you of your independence and create an unhealthy state of mind. Difficulties will follow.
Editor: Thereseems to be disagreement among the translators about which “order of nourishment” (above or below), is appropriate. Legge’s commentary and Siu’s paraphrase offer the most coherent interpretations. The line usually symbolizes one who doesn't know her proper place, who tries to exceed her authority or go beyond herself. Issues pertaining to self-righteousness, spiritual materialism and “wannabe gurus” are sometimes addressed here. The line can also refer to shirking one's responsibility. For example, begging the oracle for information one can easily decide for oneself.
If a man sleeps in a damp place, his back aches and he ends up half paralyzed, but is this true of a loach? If he lives in a tree, he is terrified and shakes with fright, but is this true of a monkey? Of these three creatures, then, which one knows the proper place to live? Chuang Tzu
A. You are seeking nourishment from inappropriate sources -- get back where you belong.
B. Seeking that which is beneath you is base; seeking that which is beyond your grasp is futile. Don’t strive above your proper station.
C. Take responsibility for yourself.
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows one acting contrary to what is regular and proper; but if she abides in firmness, there will be good fortune. She should not, however, try to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Turning away from the path. To remain persevering brings good fortune. One should not cross the great water.
Blofeld: Normal ways are abandoned. Righteous persistence will bring good fortune to those who stay where they are. The great river (or sea) must not be crossed. [In such abnormal times, it is best to stay at home.]
Liu: One strays from the path. Remaining in the correct way brings good fortune. Don't cross the great water. [With another's help, one will...achieve his goals.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Rejecting the canons. Residing-in Trial significant. Not permitting wading the Great River.
Shaughnessy: Threshing the warp; determination about dwelling is auspicious; one may not ford the great river.
Cleary (1): Going against the constant. It is good to abide in rectitude. It will not do to cross great rivers.
Cleary (2): Brushing aside the constant, it is good to remain upright, but it will not do to cross a great river.
Wu: It violates normal way of doing things. Should he stay firm, there will be good fortune. He may not cross the big river.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The good fortune from abiding in firmness is due to her docility in following the line above. Wilhelm/Baynes: The good fortune comes from following the one above devotedly. Blofeld: The good fortune attainable by such people consists in being able to obey their superiors most willingly. Ritsema/Karcher: Residing in Trial's significance. Yielding uses adhering-to the above indeed. Cleary (2): What is good about remaining upright is following those above docilely. Wu: The docility of following the one above.
Legge: Line five is not equal to the requirements of her position, but with a firm reliance on the dynamic sixth line there will be good fortune. However, she shouldn't engage in the most difficult undertakings.
Anthony: The Sage cannot make us strong. Although we are dependent on his guidance, we must do the work of disciplining our inferiors.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man realizes his personal deficiencies in strength and knowledge to discharge his assigned responsibilities. He seeks and follows the advice of a spiritual superior, who is unknown to the public. Persevering under such guidance will bring success. But he must recognize his dependency and not assume great undertakings alone.
Wing: Although you are aware of the need to nourish and affect others, you lack sufficient strength to do so unaided. You must take an indirect approach and depend upon a strong superior to accomplish the deed. Don't try it on your own.
Editor: This line can suggest that an unconventional ("improper”) action is justifiable under the prevailing conditions. Blofeld interprets the line in terms of correctly abandoning normal procedures; Wilhelm and Liu render images of getting off of a "proper” path, but still retaining appropriateness. Because this fifth line ruler seeks help from the sixth line above, the image suggests an ego obeying the higher laws of the Self. The implication is that some form of unconventional action may be valid under the prevailing circumstances as long as one doesn't attempt too much. In other words, the expected, conventional (or your usual) response may be inappropriate in the current situation. Meditate to obtain intuitive guidance.
The greatness of historical personalities has never lain in their abject submission to convention, but, on the contrary, in their deliverance from convention. They towered up like mountain peaks above the mass that still clung to its collective fears, its beliefs, laws, and systems, and boldly chose their own way. To the man in the street it has always seemed miraculous that anyone should turn aside from the beaten track with its known destinations, and strike out on the steep and narrow path leading into the unknown. Jung -- The Development of Personality
A. The ego looks to the Self for guidance and takes no action which is not so inspired, even if this means that one appears unconventional.
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