Wiki I Ching

Keeping Still 52.1.3.4.6 51 Shock

Stillness reveals your inner strength, and from the quiet comes a spark of awakening and dynamic movement.

From
52
Keeping Still
To
51
Shock

One abuses one's subordinates to make them move faster.
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Keeping Still 52
Stay still and composed.
Focus inward, find tranquility amidst chaos.
Embrace calmness to understand your inner self.


Line 1
The beginning of stillness.
It is important to remain calm and not act impulsively.


Line 3
Excessive stillness can lead to stagnation and emotional distress.
Balance is needed.


Line 4
Achieving a state of inner stillness and peace.
This is a positive and stable position.


Line 6
Achieving a noble and virtuous state of stillness brings good fortune and success.


Shock 51
Sudden change or shock, like thunder, that can jolt you awake.
Embrace the disruption as an opportunity for growth, respond calmly, and align your actions with the new reality.



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Original Readings

52
Keeping Still


Other titles: Mountain, Keeping Still, The Symbol of Checking and Stopping, Desisting, Stilling, Stillness, Stoppage, Bound, Reposing, Resting, Meditation, Non-action, Stopping, Arresting Movement, "Refers to meditation and yoga." -- D.F. Hook

 

Judgment

Legge: When his repose is like the back, and he loses all consciousness of self; when he walks in his courtyard and does not see the people, there will be no error.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping Still. Keeping his back still so that he no longer feels his body. He goes into his courtyard and does not see his people. No blame.

Blofeld: Keeping the back so still as to seem virtually bodiless, or walking in the courtyard without noticing the people there involves no error!

Liu: Stillness. Keeping the back still -- one feels that the body no longer exists. Even when one walks in the courtyard, one sees no people. No blame.

Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's back. Not catching one's individuality. Moving one's chambers. Not visualizing one's people. Without fault. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting a boundary or obstacle. It emphasizes that stopping and acknowledging the limit, the action of Bound, is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to stop!]

Shaughnessy: Stilling his back , but not stilling his body: Walking into his courtyard, but not seeing his person; there is no trouble.

Cleary (1):Stopping at the back, one does not have a body; walking in the garden, one does not see a person. No fault.

Cleary (2):Stilling the back, one does not find the body, etc.

Wu:Stoppage indicates that, resting on his back, he does not find his body and walking in his courtyard, he does not see any person. Faultless.


The Image

Legge: The image of one mountain atop another formsKeeping Still. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not allow his thoughts to go beyond the duties of his immediate circumstances.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Mountains standing close together: the image of Keeping Still.. Thus the superior man does not permit his thoughts to go beyond his situation.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes two mountains conjoined. The Superior Man takes thought in order to avoid having to move from his position.

Liu: Mountain next to mountain symbolizes stillness. The superior man's thoughts do not go beyond his position.

Ritsema/Karcher: Joined mountains. Bound. A chun tzu uses pondering not to issue-forth-from one's situation.

Cleary (1):Joining mountains. Thus do superior people think without leaving their place.

Cleary (2):The mountains are still. Thus the thoughts of developed people are not out of place.

Wu: One mountain overlapping another makes Stoppage. Thus the jun zi does not contemplate things beyond his position. [Confucius said: “If you do not hold an office, do not give counsels on its administration.” What he meant is: not to volunteer counsels freely. On the other hand, if you are requested, then give the best you can.]

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge:Keeping Stillmeans stopping: One rests when it is time to rest, and acts when it is time to act. When action and rest occur at the proper times, one's behavior is enlightened. Keeping his back still, he rests in his proper place. The upper and lower lines of the hexagram all mirror each other, but are without any interaction: Hence it is said that he has no consciousness of [ego]. He does not see the persons in his courtyard, and there will be no error.

Legge: Two trigrams symbolizing Mountain make up the hexagram ofKeeping Still. Mountains rise up grandly from the surface of the earth, their huge masses resting on it in quiet and solemn majesty. They are barriers to the onward progress of the traveler. The attributes of this hexagram are both resting and arresting. It denotes the characteristic of resting in what is right in principle, right on the widest possible scale -- in the absolute conception of the mind and in every possible position in which a man can be placed. As in hexagram number thirty-one, Initiative, the symbolism is taken from the different parts of the human body.

According to the K'ang-hsi editors, the second sentence in the Image should be translated: "The superior man, in consequence with this, thinks anxiously how he shall not go beyond the duties of his position."

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Judgment:"Wipe out imagination: check desire: extinguish appetite: keep the ruling faculty in its own power.” -- Marcus Aurelius

The Superior Man eliminates all distraction and concentrates on the matter at hand.

A large portion of the Work consists of nothing more than the will to keep still. Anyone who has ever tried it can attest that Keeping Still, or doing “nothing,” is probably the most difficult thing that a human can be asked to do. We are an ever-flowing fountain of restless desire -- the senses are mindlessly programmed to encounter their objects, and when we prevent them from doing this, a great commotion occurs in the psyche. We are so accustomed to feeling our desires, drives, instincts and appetites as integral to our awareness, that we are seldom conscious of the fact that they are actually autonomous forces -- as separate from the ego, or choice-making complex, as we are from other people, creatures or objects in the physical world. Try controlling an ingrained habit, such as smoking, and observe how difficult it is to impose your will upon it. Who controls whom?

The power of sight does not come from the eye, the power to hear does not come from the ear, nor the power to feel from the nerves; but it is the spirit of man that sees through the eye, and hears with the ear, and feels by means of the nerves. Wisdom and reason and thought are not contained in the brain, but they belong to the invisible and universal spirit which feels through the heart and thinks by means of the brain. All these powers are contained in the invisible universe, and become manifest through material organs, and the material organs are their representatives, and modify their mode of manifestation according to their material construction, because a perfect manifestation of power can only take place in a perfectly constructed organ, and if the organ is faulty, the manifestation will be imperfect, but not the original power defective.
Paracelsus -- De Viribus Membrorum

The ego has only one legitimate function -- to make choices: it is the switchboard in the psyche which directs where the energy of the instinctual powers shall go. If these autonomous forces are stronger than the will of the ego, they soon learn to get their way as often as possible. The main difference between an inferior and a superior man is that the latter has learned to control and direct his energies for a higher purpose. One of the best ways to acquire this ability is to learn the lessons inherent within Keeping Still.

Psychoanalysis has demonstrated that the power of these images and complexes lies chiefly in the fact that we are unconscious of them, that we do not recognize them as such. When they are unmasked, understood, and resolved into their elements, they often cease to obsess us; in any case we are then much better able to defend ourselves against them.
Roberto Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis

The lines of the upper and lower trigrams are mirror images of each other, yet not one of them has a proper correlate: they don't connect with each other. This suggests the separation of the senses from their objects. For example, eyeballs are sensory-receptors designed for the perception of light and form -- close your eyes, and they are prevented from contacting the phenomena they were created to perceive. That the psychic entities attached to this desire to perceive phenomena might resist restriction is a foregone conclusion, but the ego has control over the eyelids -- or should have. “Not seeing the people in one's own courtyard” means that one ignores one's autonomous impulses.

Regulation of the psyche’s autonomous manifestations in accordance with the will of the Self is for the purpose of gaining a controlling influence over one’s karma. As stated herein many times, you, as ego, are nothing more than a tool created by the Self for the direction of its own destiny.

Both karma theory and quantum mechanics refuse to accept that observers can exist independent of the systems they observe. Spiritual science goes so far as to take the observer’s own internal universe and its states as its experimental field. For it is within that field that karma is produced and stored …The “matter” from which we and our obstructions are created includes both the dense physical material from which our bodies are built and the thoughts, attitudes and emotions that make up our minds. Tantric practice is karmic engineering within this field of name and form, orchestration of substance and action into result. First you direct new causes against previous effects to nullify adverse influences on your awareness, then you unleash yet further actions to negate the influence of the nullifying actions.
Robert Svoboda –Aghora III, The Law of Karma

How any ego could tackle such responsibilities with any hope of progress is impossible to imagine without the direction of the Self. Keeping Still certainly has its own karmic consequences, but when the “not choosing” implied in this hexagram is done in accordance with the Self’s will and intent, the results slowly lead to ever higher levels of awareness – eventually into realms beyond the physical. That is what the Work is all about: any other choice is to lock ourselves into a continuous round of birth and death in physical manifestation.

The Kabbalists teach that everything we do stirs up a corresponding energy in other realms of reality. Actions, words, or thoughts set up reverberations in the universe. The universe unfolds from moment to moment as a function of all the variables leading up to that moment. When we remain cognizant of this mystical system, we are careful about what we do, say, or even think, for we know that everything is interdependent; we know that a seemingly insignificant gesture could have weighty consequences.
Rabbi David Cooper – God is a Verb

 

SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION

Notice that every line of this hexagram except the last deals with an inherent challenge involved in the discipline required to keep still. Compare the lines in Keeping Still with similar lines in hexagram 31, Initiative.


Line 1

Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows its subject keeping her toes at rest. There will be no error, but it will be advantageous for her to be persistently firm and correct.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.

Blofeld: Stilling the toes -- no error. Unwavering persistence in a righteous course brings advantage. [This suggests the simplest kind of stillness, namely staying where we are.]

Liu: Keeping the toes still. No error. Continued persistence is advantageous.

Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's feet. Without fault. Harvesting: perpetual Trial.

Shaughnessy: Stilling his foot: there is no trouble; beneficial for permanent determination.

Cleary (1): Stopping at the feet, there is no fault. It is beneficial to be always upright.

Wu: He rests his toes. No error. It is advantageous to be persevering.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: She does not fail in what is correct according to the idea of the figure. Wilhelm/Baynes: What is right is not yet lost. Blofeld: This passage is implied by the position of this line, which is not out of order. Ritsema/Karcher: Not-yet letting-go correcting indeed. Cleary (2): Stop the feet before losing correctness. Wu: He has not lost the correct way.

Legge: The symbolism of the hexagram rises from one part of the body to the other. The first line at the bottom of the figure fitly suggests the toes. Toes play a great part in walking, but there are here at rest, and so do not lose the correct idea of Keeping Still. The lesson is that from the first men should rest in and be anxious to do what is right in all their affairs. The dynamic line in a magnetic place accounts for the caution with which the phrase concludes.


NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: At the outset, the man pauses to study the situation as it actually exists -- without being led astray by wishful thinking or ulterior motives. He must remain persistently firm and correct to avoid irresolute drifting.

Wing: Because the situation is only at its beginning, you are able to see things as they are. Furthermore, your interests and motives have not yet become self-serving. Continuing in this objective attitude is necessary for advancement.

Editor: The I Chingconsistently uses the image of toes as symbolic of initial movement -- the beginning of some kind of action. Here the message is to refrain from action. There is a hint that egotistical compulsiveness or impatience might be involved. You are counseled to squelch this urge and remain quietly in place.

Our vitality constantly drives us to do something and if we stop that, something within us keeps going on. Try once to think of nothing even for half a second! You cannot! You think: "Gosh, I have to go to the butcher, etc." It is the constant autonomous restlessness of the life we lead and our will-power is insufficient to enable a simple inner life to overcome that autonomous liveliness. With the help of the Self, however, it comes forth.
M.L. Von Franz -- Alchemical Active Imagination

A. Do not initiate action.

Line 3

Legge: The third line, dynamic, shows its subject keeping his loins at rest, and separating the ribs from the body below. The situation is perilous, and the heart glows with suppressed excitement.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.

Blofeld: Stilling the loins and stiffening the spine – his heart is suffocated by trouble. [Elsewhere in the Book of Change, it is made clear that the loins sometimes symbolize sexual desire. To force oneself to continence when the mind is not ready for it is exceedingly dangerous and may lead to mental and emotional disarrangement. What is required is stilling the WHOLE self, a cessation of desire itself.]

Liu: Keeping the loins and the middle of the spine still. Danger. His heart is like an anxious flame.

Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's limit. Assigned-to one's loins: adversity smothers the heart.

Shaughnessy: Stilling his midsection: scratching his spine; danger; smoke the heart.

Cleary (1): Stopping at the waist breaks the backbone; danger inflames the heart.

Wu: He rests his waist and tightens it with a waistband. He is deeply worried.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: The danger of keeping the loins at rest produces a glowing heat in the heart. Wilhelm/Baynes: There is danger that the heart may suffocate. Blofeld: If the loins are stilled, there is a danger that the heart will suffocate. Ritsema/ Karcher: Exposure smothers the heart indeed. Cleary (2): Danger affects the heart. Wu: He is deeply worried.

Legge: When the calves are kept at rest, advance is stopped, but no other harm ensues. Not so when the loins are kept at rest, and unable to bend, for the connection between the upper and lower parts of the body is then broken. The dissatisfaction increases to an angry heat. Canon McClatchie suggests the idea of "stopping at a limit, and separating what is in continued succession (i.e., the backbone); thus the mind, etc."

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: Danger results from the smoldering resentment against forced inaction on the part of the man. The proper frame of mind for meditation and concentration can arise naturally only out of inner composure and not through artificial rigidity.

Wing: If you attempt to force stillness upon restless desires you will only create deep inner conflict and resentment. This can be dangerous. Attempt internal composure through relaxation and Meditation.

Editor: If the heart is the point of balance between the dry speculations of the brain and the robust libido of the genitals ("loins"), then the will to keep the loins at rest is certain to create a conflict within the psyche which will test our "heart" to serve the higher ideals of the Work. As the top line of the lower trigram, this is a place of transition between a lower and higher condition, and the imagery describes the conflict which ensues whenever one undertakes such a separation. Blofeld's note about sexuality is very apt here: the Self is capable of testing one's will to the very limits of endurance on this issue; indeed, control of sexual libido is one of the cornerstones of the Work and cannot be evaded. The concept of the "cessation of desire itself" is easily understood, yet all but impossible to achieve. If this is the only changing line, the new hexagram becomes number 23, Disintegration(Splitting Apart), the corresponding line of which offers a strong hint about how to handle the situation at hand.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Galatians 5: 17

A. Make a distinction between your will and your desire, and at least be conscious about which one you choose.

B. Enforced inaction is suffocating to a free spirit.

C. Calm down -- get back on center. Disassociate yourself from an inferior force.

Line 4

Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject keeping her trunk at rest. There will be no error.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Keeping his trunk still. No blame.

Blofeld: Stilling the body -- no error!

Liu: Keeping the body still. No error.

Ritsema/Karcher: Bound: one's individuality. Without fault.

Shaughnessy: Stilling his torso.

Cleary (1): Stopping at the body, there is no blame.

Cleary (2): Stopping at the torso, there is no fault.

Wu: He rests on his body. No error.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: She keeps herself free from agitation. Wilhelm/Baynes: He stops within his own body. Blofeld: Stilling the body means stilling the whole self. Ritsema/ Karcher: Stopping connoting the body indeed. Cleary (2): Stopping the torso stills the body. Wu: This means he puts a stop at his own person.

Legge: Each part of the body, such as the mouth, eyes and ears has its own particular appetite which draws it to that which is outside of itself. The back alone has nothing to do with anything beyond itself -- hardly with itself even. All that it has to do is stand straight and strong. So should it be with us, resting in principle, free from the intrusion of selfish thoughts and external objects.

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: The man forgets his ego. This leads to the highest state of rest.

Wing: Your frame of mind is conducive to self-mastery. You have only to transcend the impulses of your ego to achieve the ideal of Meditation.

Editor: Siu's paraphrase combined with Legge's commentary, implies that the situation requires total non-action in the physical, emotional and mental realms of the psyche. This of course is the ideal of almost all forms of meditation.

If, in experiencing an emotion -- any emotion -- a person consciously refrains from acting on it while at the same time keeping the event alive within himself, he will discover that the emotion leads him to another dimension of experience. He will discover that the energy of the emotion does not die because of his refusal to give it a space outside of himself. If he holds on to the tail of this tiger as it rebounds inward, he will discover its source. He will then learn why the mediaeval alchemists and Kabbalists insisted that man contains within him a sun, a center of pure energy. It should be stressed that the method I am talking about here is nothing new. The idea is implicit in all Oriental yogas.
C. Ponce -- Kabbalah

A. Non-action is correct action. Maintain repose.

B. Meditate.

Line 6

Legge: The sixth line, dynamic, shows its subject devotedly maintaining his restfulness. There will be good fortune.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Noble hearted keeping still. Good fortune.

Blofeld: The highest form of stillness -- good fortune!

Liu: Keeping still with benevolence. Good fortune.

Ritsema/Karcher: Magnanimous Bounding, significant.

Shaughnessy: Thick roots; auspicious.

Cleary (2): Careful stopping is auspicious.

Wu: He rests with honor. Auspicious.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: To the end he shows himself generous and good. Wilhelm/ Baynes: The good fortune of noble hearted keeping still comes from the fact that there is an ample end. Blofeld: He achieves this in order to win greater benefit in the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Using munificence to complete indeed. Cleary (2): A rich conclusion. Wu: It ends with honor.

Legge: The third line of the trigrams, and the sixth line of the hexagram, is what makes Keeping Still what it is -- the symbol of a mountain. The subject of it therefore will carry out the resting required by the whole figure in the highest style.

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Siu: The man attains tranquility in relation to life in its entirety.

Wing: When your inner composure can reach even beyond the situation into all aspects of your life, you can penetrate the true meaning of things. From this perspective comes great good fortune.

Editor: The sixth line suggests the very top of the mountain -- the peak which is nearest to heaven and hence most in conformance with the ideals of the hexagram of Keeping Still.

If meditation is controlled thinking, it implies that the individual has the entire thought process under control, including input from the subconscious. The experienced meditator learns how to think what he wants to think, when he wants to think it. He can always be in control of the situation, resisting psychological pressures that work on the subconscious. He is also in control of himself, never doing something that he knows he really does not want to do. In many schools, this self-mastery is one of the most important goals of meditation.
Aryeh Kaplan --Jewish Meditation

A. An image of tranquil non-action.

B. Present inaction creates future advantage.

51
Shock


Other titles: The Arousing, Thunder, The Symbol of Startling Movement, Shake, The Beginning of Movement, Shocking, The Thunderclap, Action, Motion, Sudden Change, Surprise! "The necessity to keep tranquil in the midst of upheaval." -- D.F. Hook

 

Judgment

Legge:Shock intimates ease and development. When the time of movement which it indicates comes, the subject of the hexagram will be found looking out with apprehension, and yet smiling and talking cheerfully. When the movement like a crash of thunder terrifies all within a hundred miles, he will be like the sincere worshipper who is not startled into dropping his ladle and cup of sacrificial spirits.

Wilhelm/Baynes:Shock brings success. Shock comes --oh, oh! Laughing words -- ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, and he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.

Blofeld: Thunder -- success! Thunder comes with a terrible noise, laughing and shouting in awesome glee and frightening people for a hundred miles around. The sacrificial wine is not spilt. [This suggests that the holder of the sacrificial vessel is not easily alarmed or else that he is very wise and able to distinguish between the apparently dangerous and the truly dangerous.]

Liu: Thunder. Success. Thunder comes -- ho ho! Speaking and laughing -- ha ha! It shocks and terrifies for a hundred miles. But one does not drop the spoon or chalice.

Ritsema/Karcher: Shake, Growing. Shake coming: frightening, frightening. Laughing words, shrieking, shrieking. Shake scaring a hundred miles. Not losing the ladle, the libation. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of a disturbing and inspiring shock. It emphasizes that rousing things to new activity, the action of Shake is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: stir things up!]

Shaughnessy:Thunder: Receipt; thunder comes so renewingly; laughter and talk yaya; thunder alarms one hundred miles; not losing the ladle or goblet.

Cleary (1): Thunder is developmental. When thunder comes, there is alarm, then laughter. Thunder startles for a hundred miles, but one does not lose the spoon and wine.

Cleary (2):Thunder comes through. Etc.

Wu:Motion indicates pervasiveness. When Motioncomes, it frightens people. Later, it makes people talk and laugh. Its majesty reaches one hundred li in all directions. There is no misplacement of the ladle or sacrificial wine.

 

The Image

Legge: The image of Thunder, being repeated, forms Shock. The superior man, in accordance with this, is fearful and apprehensive, cultivates his virtue, and examines his faults.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Thunder repeated: the image of Shock. Thus in fear and trembling the superior man sets his life in order and examines himself.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes continuous thunder. The Superior Man in fear and trembling seeks to improve himself.

Liu: Thunder doubled symbolizes shock. The superior man contemplates himself with fear and caution.

Ritsema/Karcher: Reiterated thunder. Shake. A chun tzu uses anxious fearing to adjust inspecting.

Cleary (1):Traveling thunder reverberates. Thus superior people cautiously practice introspection.

Cleary (2): Repeated thunder reverberates.Developed people practice introspection with caution.

Wu: One thunderclap after another constitutes hexagram Motion. Thus the jun zi reflects and rectifies for fear of being wrong.

 

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: His feeling of dread leads to happiness because he is thereby made to adopt proper laws for himself. The movement startles the distant and frightens the near, yet he makes the proper sacrifices the same as always.

Legge: Shock consists of the trigram for Thunder doubled. (This trigram also represents Movement and the Eldest Son.) The hexagram therefore symbolizes a crash or peal of thunder, and combined with the idea of movement shows a sudden change taking place in the kingdom. The lesson is the conduct to be pursued in a time of sudden change through an awareness of danger and the proper regulation of oneself.

A successful issue is predicted if the dynamic first line can be superior to the two magnetic lines above him. It is in the idea of the hexagram that he should be moving and advancing. Although sensible of the danger, he is confident and self-possessed -- so much so that he can calmly perform his religious duties during the prevailing chaos. This is proper behavior for the eldest son, who must eventually assume the duties of his father.

Anthony: In the I Chingshock means being subjected to unsettling events. It also means perceiving and reacting to these events … perceiving, in any of these changes, that a new set of limits, or deprivations, has been placed on our life which seems to restrict or even penalize us. This sense of being projected by events into a sort of emotional trap is what this hexagram calls “Fate.” Acknowledgement of this fate, or trap, and the imperative – to find the way out – is one of the purposes of shock. As far as the I Ching is concerned, there is only one way out – to undergo spiritual development.

 

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Judgment: During sudden changes, adjust your tempo and move ahead, remembering that while conditions may alter, the goal remains the same.

The Superior Man double-checks his premises, confronts his weak spots and adheres to the rules and ideals of the Work.

The image here is one of a sudden, dramatic release of energy, power and force. To receive this hexagram without changing lines can refer to almost any abrupt, startling or unexpected situation. Sometimes it is the oracle's way of saying: "Surprise!” It can also be a kind of reprimand for asking a dumb or inappropriate question -- the oracle is "shocked” by your temerity, ignorance, etc. In such instances there is often an element of wry humor in the situation -- usually at the ego's expense. On rare occasions, it is possible to receive this hexagram as a warning about an upcoming event which has no bearing on the question posed. Should you receive such an oracle, be extremely vigilant – as always, the advice to the superior man in the Image suggests the proper course.

A true test of devotion to the Work is to maintain one's will under all circumstances. The world may be falling apart around us, but the adept does not ruin the performance of his sacrifice: the ego continues the Work regardless of conditions, and keeps a cool head under all circumstances.

Have no fear of sudden terror

or of assault from wicked men,

since Yahweh will be your guarantor,

He will keep your steps from the snare.

Proverbs 3: 25-26

Both Yahweh and Christ are what Jung calls "god images” which exist in one form or another in every human psyche, whether it is consciously religious or not. The god image is synonymous with the Self, and the implication of the above quotation from Proverbsis that as long as the ego remains devoted to the Work -- in I Chingterms: "maintains the sacrifice” -- it is under the protection of the Self.

The Perfect Man is godlike. Though the great swamps blaze, they cannot burn him; though the great rivers freeze, they cannot chill him; though swift lightning splits the hills and howling gales shake the sea, they cannot frighten him. A man like this rides the clouds and mist, straddles the sun and moon, and wanders beyond the four seas. Even life and death have no effect on him, much less the rules of profit and loss!
Chuang Tzu