Other titles: Nourishment, Calculated Inaction, Attending, Biding One's Time, Nourishment Through Inaction, Waiting for Nourishment, Moistened, "Waiting with the assurance that a blessing will come." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Waitingintimates that with sincerity and firmness there will be brilliant success and good fortune. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Waiting. If you are sincere, you have light and success. Perseverance brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Blofeld: Calculated inaction (or exhibiting the power to wait) and the confidence of others win brilliant success. Righteous persistence brings good fortune. It will be advantageous to cross the great river (or sea). [The significance of this hexagram is that inaction while awaiting the outcome of events will enable us to avoid a danger now threatening. Firmness, clarity of mind and success in winning the confidence of others are now demanded of us; with them, our undertakings will prosper. Moreover, this period of inaction is a good time in which to go on a journey or else for relaxation and enjoyment.]
Liu: Waiting.If you are sincere you will have glory (light) and success. Continuing leads to good fortune. It is of benefit to cross the great water (to travel to remote places).
Ritsema/Karcher: Attending, possessing conformity . Shining Growing, Trial: significant. Harvesting: wading the Great River. (Editor: "Possessing conformity" is translated as: ... "Inner and outer are in accord; confidence of the spirits has been captured...") [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of being compelled to wait for and serve something. It emphasizes that fixing your attention on what is required while waiting carefully for the right moment to act is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: attend!]
Shaughnessy: Moistened: There is a return, radiant receipt; determination is auspicious; beneficial to ford the great river.
Cleary (1): In Waiting there is sincerity and great development. It is good to be correct. It is beneficial to cross a great river.
Cleary (2):Waiting with truthfulness lights up success in correct orientation toward good. It is beneficial to cross a great river.
Wu: Waiting indicates having confidence. It is brilliant and pervasive and auspicious to be persevering. It will be advantageous to cross the big river.
The Image
Legge: The image of clouds ascending over the sky forms Waiting. The superior man, in accordance with this, eats and drinks, feasts and enjoys himself as if there were nothing else to employ him.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Clouds rise up to heaven: the image of Waiting. Thus the superior man eats and drinks, is joyous and of good cheer.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes clouds rising to the zenith -- inactivity! The Superior Man will pass this time in feasting and enjoyment.
Liu: Clouds rise up in the sky; this symbolizes Waiting. The superior man enjoys his food and drink. He remains relaxed and happy.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above clouds with-respect-to heaven. Attending. A chun tzu uses drinking [and] taking-in to repose delighting.
Cleary (1): Clouds rise to heaven, waiting. The superior person makes merry with food and drink.
Wu: The clouds ascend to the sky; this is Waiting. Thus the jun zi enjoys food and peace.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Waiting shows peril in front, but its subject does not allow himself to be involved in the dangerous defile. The success in sincerity and good fortune in firmness are shown by the position of the fifth line which is correctly situated in the central place assigned by Heaven. Crossing the great stream will be followed by meritorious achievement.
Legge: Waiting is composed of the lower trigram of strength and the upper trigram of peril. Strength confronted by peril might be expected to advance boldly and deal with it at once, but the lesson of the hexagram is that it is wiser to wait until success is sure. In the situation at hand, firm correctness is all that is required for eventual victory.
"Crossing the great stream" is a frequent expression in the I Ching which symbolizes the undertaking of hazardous enterprises, or encountering great difficulties. Historically it refers to the Yellow River which the lords of Chou had to cross in their revolution against the Yin Dynasty tyrants. The crossing made by King Wu in 1122 B.C. was one of the greatest deeds in the history of China, and was preceded by a long period of waiting until success could be assured.
Regarding the Image, it is said that the cloud that has risen to the top of the sky has nothing to do but wait until the harmony of heaven and earth require it to discharge its store of rain. The superior man is likewise counseled to enjoy his idle time while waiting for the correct moment to deal with the approaching danger.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Strength in the face of danger here consists of the will to sit tight and do nothing.
The Superior Man carries on as if nothing was the matter, and nourishes himself through inaction.
There are many kinds of courage -- perhaps the greatest of all is the courage to remain unflinchingly in place when all the circumstances seem to cry out for action. It takes far more courage to wait for the dragon to slowly come to you than to rush forth and attack him in his lair. As a strategy, to out-wait your opponent through pure willpower and inner strength can be more effective than a direct attack -- but it can only succeed when you are truly strong. It is as if the real battle takes place on the inner planes, and the first one to act in the world thereby concedes defeat.
A very large part of the Work consists in disciplining oneself to wait -- to take no action until some indefinite time in the future. This is exceedingly difficult to do, and creates incredible stresses within the psyche -- which is exactly why it is necessary. Psychologically, to "cross the great stream" is to subdue all of the autonomous instincts, drives and emotions that are accustomed to responding whenever they are stimulated. As long as waiting creates feelings of stress, you can be sure that the battle has not been won. When you can wait like the superior man -- as if there were nothing else to do, then you can allow yourself to hope that you may be getting somewhere.
To nourish oneself through inaction is to digest and absorb the energy of one's instinctive responses. As in any nourishing assimilation, their strength then becomes your strength. The true adept is one who has digested all of his passion and is thereby empowered to use it for his own purposes. Instead of engaging in civil war, he has united his forces to act in the world.
Tradition says that Moses did not set the Tabernacle up straight away, but delayed for three months, despite the fact that the people wanted to dedicate it at once. In this is repeated a lesson of patience concerning matters of the spirit. For instead of accepting their Teacher's word, which conveyed the will of God, the Israelites sought to impose their own will over what they had made ... This phenomenon is not unknown among those who cannot wait, which is a vital part of esoteric training. Unfortunately, it has to be demonstrated over and over again that the timing of a spiritual event is contingent upon a cosmic schedule, and not the will of the individual. Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah and Exodus
Line 1
Legge: The first line, dynamic, shows its subject waiting on the distant border. It will be well for him to constantly maintain the purpose thus shown, in which case there will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Waiting in the meadow. It furthers one to abide in what endures. No blame.
Blofeld: Stay on the outskirts avoiding action. Constancy preserves from harm.
Liu: Waiting in the countryside. It is of benefit to continue. No regret.
Ritsema/Karcher: Attending tending-towards the suburbs. Harvesting: availing-of persevering. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: Moistened in the pasture; beneficial to use constancy; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Waiting on the outskirts, it is beneficial to employ constancy; then there is no fault.
Wu: He is waiting in the countryside. It will be advantageous for him to be persistent and thus free from blame.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He makes no movement to encounter rashly the difficulties of the situation. There will be no error if he constantly maintains his purpose -- he will not fail to pursue that regular course. Wilhelm/Baynes: One does not seek out difficulties overhastily. One has not abandoned the general ground. Blofeld: Not rushing forward to undertake what is difficult to perform. Doing nothing out of the ordinary. Ritsema/Karcher: Not opposing heavy moving indeed. Not-yet letting-go rules indeed. Cleary (2): One has not entered into difficult actions. One has not yet lost normalcy. Wu: Not to proceed toward danger. Not to deviate from normal course.
Legge: The border means the frontier of the state. Line one appears at work in his distant fields, not thinking of anything but his daily work, and he is advised to abide in that state of mind. The "regular course" is the determination to maintain a distance from danger and wait for the proper time to act.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, there is a suggestion of danger. The man remains calm, concerns himself only with the immediate task at hand, and does not move to counteract remote threats.
Wing: Do not become agitated by your sense of an impending problem. Live your life as normally as possible and do nothing out of the ordinary. If there is a problem, it exists in the future. Acknowledging it now could diminish your strength.
Editor: A border is any threshold or boundary, such as the threshold between the conscious and unconscious minds. As yet the danger has not crossed this line, and we are advised not to go forth to meet it. Neither should we abandon our position, but just quietly allow the situation to unfold and define itself.
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things. Marcus Aurelius
A. Sit tight and allow the situation to unfold.
B. "Let sleeping dogs lie."
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject waiting on the sand of the mountain stream. He will suffer the small injury of being spoken against, but in the end there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Waiting on the sand. There is some gossip. The end brings good fortune.
Blofeld: Inactivity upon the river beach -- some slight gossip may arise, but the final result will be good fortune. [Sitting on a river beach watching the water flow past symbolizes watching what is going forward without taking part.]
Liu: Waiting in the sand (seashore, bank of the river) arouses gossip. Good fortune in the end.
Ritsema/Karcher: Attending tending-towards sands. The small possesses words. Completing significant.
Shaughnessy: Moistened in the sand; there are a few words; in the end auspicious.
Cleary (1): Waiting on the sand, there is some criticism, but it turns out well.
Wu: He is waiting on the sand. He may hear little complaints. Eventually, there will be good fortune.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He occupies his place in the center with a generous forbearance. He will bring things to a good issue. Wilhelm/Baynes: One is calm, for the line is central. Although this leads to some gossip, the end brings good fortune. Blofeld: The first sentence indicates a place with water flowing through the middle. Though there be gossip, all will be well in the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Overflowing located in the center indeed. Although the small possesses words, using completing significant indeed. Cleary (2): There is useless excess within. Though there is some criticism, it is to make the end auspicious. Wu: Indicates having forbearance. It will end with good fortune.
Legge: The sand of line two suggests a nearer approach to the defile, but he is still self-restrained and waiting. That he is a dynamic line in a magnetic and central place shows him to be possessed of a large and generous forbearance.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The danger approaches with disagreements and unrest. The man remains self-controlled and does not respond to slander.
Wing: What you propose to do will bring difficulties into your life. Furthermore, you could become a victim of gossip. If this occurs, don't try to defend yourself, as it will only lend weight to what is otherwise insubstantial. Success will eventually come.
Editor:"Sand” often symbolizes time -- the innumerable petty details of life, or the inexorable wearing away of hours, minutes, seconds. When combined with the image of a river bank (Legge, Blofeld, Liu), the notion of waiting for time and events to fulfill themselves is further emphasized. Psychologically, to be "spoken against" refers to the impatient urging of the instinctual-emotional part of the psyche which demands immediate gratification of every current desire. Wilhelm renders "being spoken against" as "gossip," which is rumor, speculation or imagination. (Cleary’s Buddhist text calls it “criticism.”) To exercise a “generous forbearance” means to endure and ignore these illusion-obsessed inner voices. Blofeld's note about "watching what is going forward without taking part” is especially insightful: the line often portrays a situation in which one is required by circumstances to be an inactive observer. If this is the only changing line, the new hexagram created is number 63, Completion, suggesting that passive contemplation is linked with fulfillment of the Work.
When Siddhartha listened attentively to this river, to this song of a thousand voices; when he did not listen to the sorrow or laughter, when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in his Self, but heard them all, the whole, the unity; then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om -- perfection. Hermann Hesse -- Siddhartha
A. Contemplate the unfolding situation: restrain your impulse to meddle, even if action seems necessary.
B. For the moment, maintain the status quo.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject in the mud close by the stream. He thereby invites the approach of injury.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Waiting in the mud brings about the arrival of the enemy.
Blofeld: Inactivity amidst the mud -- this permits the approach of evil. [This suggests a danger of our being so bogged down that we can neither fight nor flee.]
Shaughnessy: Moistened in the mud; it causes robbers to arrive.
Cleary (1): Waiting in the mud brings on enemies.
Wu: He is waiting in the mud. This invites harm.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He is waiting in the mud -- the calamity in the upper trigram is close at hand. He invites the approach of injury, but if he is reverent and careful, he will not be worsted. Wilhelm/Baynes: The misfortune is outside. Seriousness and caution prevent defeat. Blofeld: Remaining inactive in the midst of mud subjects us to external dangers, but the approaching evil will not harm us if we exercise care. [We must not allow the mud to bog us down.]Ritsema/Karcher: Calamity located outside indeed. Originating-from my involving outlawry. Respectful consideration, not destroying indeed. Cleary (2): Once I have brought on enemies, I am careful not to be defeated. Wu: Inviting harm is a self-inflicted act. With respect and caution, however, he will be free from defeat.
Legge: Here the subject is on the brink of the stream. His advance to this position has provoked resistance which may result in his injury.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man attempts a complex undertaking without sufficient capacity for success in one try. He finds himself mired in the intricacies, thereby inviting enemies onto the scene. Caution is required.
Wing: Because of premature action on your part, inspired perhaps by anxiety, you will leave yourself open to attack. This situation is truly difficult because you are vulnerable. Only extreme caution will protect you.
Editor: In its most neutral interpretation, this line is an image of serious vulnerability: an unstable position invites attack. Mud is earth mixed with water. Psychologically, sensation (earth) and emotion (water) unite in a gooey morass of fear or anxiety which leaves one vulnerable to harm. Since the Work proceeds dialectically upward or downward, this position points out the danger of emotional responses: you could lose what you have gained unless you hold firm. Don't surrender to the complexes urging differentiation: heed the gnosis which counsels integration.
Instinctive reactions and emotional expressions thus shade imperceptibly into each other. Every object that excites an instinct excites an emotion as well. William James
A. Emotional vulnerability threatens the ego's ability to act effectively.
Other titles: The Symbol of Subaltern Assistance, Union, Unity, Grouping, Alliance, Co-ordination, Leadership, Merging (as with tributaries of a river), Seeking Union, Unification, Accord, Subservience, Individuation, Integration
Judgment
Legge:Holding Together indicates good fortune, but let the querent re-examine himself by divination whether his virtue is great, un-intermitting and firm. If so, there will be no error. Those who are ready will then join him, but those who delay will meet with misfortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Holding Together brings good fortune. Inquire of the oracle once again whether you possess sublimity, constancy, and perseverance; then there is no blame. Those who are uncertain gradually join. Whoever comes too late meets with misfortune.
Blofeld:Unity (or co-ordination). Good fortune! Further consultation of the oracle will provide an omen of great and lasting value. No error! Those whose hearts are troubled assemble. The laggards suffer disaster. [Just as the last hexagram deals ostensibly with military affairs, so does this one largely concern administration. For divination purposes, it should be regarded figuratively -- unless a problem of administration is actually involved in the enquiry.]
Liu: Union. Good fortune. The prediction for one attempting union should be greatness, continuation, and constancy; no blame. If one hesitates, then joins late: misfortune.
Ritsema/Karcher:Grouping, significant. Retracing the oracle-consulting: Spring, perpetual Trial. Without fault. Not soothing, on-all-sides coming. Afterwards, husbanding: pitfall. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of how you categorize people and things and how you relate to these categories. It emphasizes that joining people and things through recognizing their essential qualities is the adequate way to handle it.]
Shaughnessy:Alliance: auspicious. The original milfoil divination: prime; permanent determination is no trouble. The un-tranquil land comes; for the latter fellow inauspicious.
Cleary (1):Accord is auspicious. Investigating and ascertaining, if the basis is always right, there is no error: Then the uneasy will come; but the dilatory are unfortunate.
Cleary (2): Accord bodes well. Make sure the basis is always right, so that there will be no fault. Then the uneasy will come. Latecomers are unfortunate.
Wu: Subservience indicates auspiciousness. Seeking to confirm the intent and motivation of allegiance by divination is without fault. Those who seek peace can all come, but those who hesitate and come late will have ill fortune.
The Image
Legge: The image of the earth, and over it water, form Holding Together. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, established the various states and maintained an affectionate relation to their princes.
Wilhelm/Baynes: On the earth is water: the image of Holding Together. Thus the kings of antiquity bestowed the different states as fiefs and cultivated friendly relations with the feudal lords.
Blofeld: The hexagram symbolizes water lying upon the land -- co-ordination. [This is indicated by the nature of the component trigrams. It is by co-operation between the fertile earth and the water which irrigates it that growth is achieved.] The ancient rulers strengthened the realm by being on affectionate terms with the feudal lords. [This may suggest dealing kindly with immediate subordinates.]
Liu: Water over the earth symbolizes Union. The ancient kings established many states and were friendly with the feudal lords.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above earth possessing stream. Grouping. The Earlier Kings used installing myriad cities to connect the connoted feudatories.
Cleary (1): There is water on the earth, in accord. Thus did the kings of yore establish myriad realms and associate with their representatives.
Wu: There is water on the ground; this is Subservience. Thus the late kings founded the states and kept a personal relationship with all the princes.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Holding Together denotes help, and we see in the figure inferiors docilely following their superior. All that is said in the Judgment follows from the position of the dynamic line in the center of the upper trigram. Those who do not respond to him have exhausted their good fortune.
Legge: The idea of union between the different members and classes of a state and how it can be secured, is the subject of Holding Together. The dynamic line in the fifth place of authority represents the ruler to whom the subjects of all the other lines offer a ready submission. Generally, the second line is the proper correlate of the fifth, but here all of the other lines are also his subjects. Harmonious union is secured by the sovereign authority of the ruler, but he is warned to see that his virtue is worthy of his position, and his subjects are warned not to delay in submitting to him. Those who do not seek to promote and enjoy union until it is too late are left out in the cold. The sentiment is the same as that in the lines of Shakespeare about the tide in the affairs of men. In the Image, "water upon the face of the earth" suggests an emblem of close union.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: The success of the Work is determined by the proper integration of intrapsychic forces. Separated and disparate forces are an index of its failure. Unremitting willpower is the catalyst for unity. Do you have the requisite will to facilitate this goal? Ask the oracle.
The Image: Archetypal intelligences (the gods) created many dimensions of awareness (Jung's collective unconscious or objective psyche), maintaining benevolent contact with them all. ("Benevolent" refers to original intent -- Plato's realm of ideal forms -- "The Good." This is the image of an evolving multiverse of awareness – a human psyche.)
Psychologically interpreted,Holding Together depicts the Self as the fifth-line ruler surrounded by its satellite complexes. Astrologically rendered, we see the same image in the solar system with its Sun surrounded by planets -- each symbolizing a faculty within the psyche (e.g., Mercury is intellect, Mars is aggression, etc). Viewed this way, the eighth hexagram portrays the functioning of a divine process. (Whenever the "ancient kings" are mentioned in the I Ching,we can take them as the symbolic architects of a primordial ideal of perfection.)
The Image in Holding Together is an allegory of the Self establishing the various complexes within the psyche (the Sun establishing its planets) so that they can evolve into a reflection of the ideal intent of the Work. (In the timeless realms of hyperspace, the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem exist simultaneously, although here in spacetime, as key facilitators in a “work in progress,” we labor somewhere between cause and effect.)
Although the psyche of a functional human being is held together relatively coherently, its inner relationships are continuously orbiting each other in cycles of change. (Astrological transits symbolize such changes.) The Tao of psychic evolution (the Work) is to respond to the changes consciously and coherently so that all forces eventually become synchronized with the will of their source. The ego’s sole responsibility is to do this in the spacetime dimension for the benefit of the Self.
In whatever way one may conceive the relationship between the individual self and the universal Self, be they regarded as identical or similar, distinct or united, it is most important to recognize clearly, and to retain ever present in theory and practice, the difference that exists between the Self in its essential nature -- that which has been called the ‘fount', the ‘center', the ‘deeper being', the ‘apex' of ourselves -- and the small ordinary personality, the little ‘self' or ego, of which we are normally conscious. The disregard of this vital distinction leads to absurd and dangerous consequences. Roberto Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The message for the superior man in this hexagram is the only injunction in the Book of Changesto re-consult the oracle. Implicit in this curious challenge is a need to evaluate your competence to further the Work. The answer should tell you the condition of your will.
The will is, curiously, not recognized as the central and fundamental function of the ego. It has often been depreciated as being ineffective against the various drives and the power of the imagination, or it has been considered with suspicion as leading to self-assertion (will-to-power). But the latter is only a perverted use of the will, while the apparent futility of the will is due only to a faulty and unintelligent use. The will is ineffective only when it attempts to act in oppositionto the imagination and to the other psychological functions, while its skillful and consequently successful use consists in regulating and directing all other functions toward a deliberately chosen and affirmed aim. Roberto Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The differences between hexagrams number seven and number eight are the differences between a geocentric and a heliocentric frame of reference – emphasizing the fact that the ego and the Self each perceive the psyche from an entirely different point of view.