In times of division, find the strength to release what no longer serves growth, retreat to inner peace, and prepare for new beginnings.
From
59
Dispersion
To
33
Retreat
One continues to make many attempts even though the other no longer responds. taoscopy.com
Dispersion59
Adapt to situations by letting go of rigidity; dissolve obstacles through openness and flexibility.
↓ Line 2
Seeking support and guidance during times of uncertainty brings relief and clarity.
↓ Line 3
Letting go of ego and personal desires leads to harmony and peace.
↓ Line 4
Breaking away from limiting associations can lead to greater opportunities and success.
↓ Retreat33
Step back and reassess. Retreat to gain strength and clarity. Focus on inner resources, conserve energy, and observe quietly. Let go gracefully, avoid confrontation, and prepare for future action.
Other titles: Dispersion, Dissolution, Disintegration, Dispersal, Overcoming Dissension, Scattering,Dispersing, Unintegrated, Reuniting, Evaporation, Reorganization, New Deal, Re-Shuffle, Course Correction, Catharsis
Judgment
Legge: Expansion intimates that there will be progress and success. The king goes to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Dispersion. Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to cross the great water. Perseverance furthers.
Blofeld:Scattering -- success! The King has approached his temple. [An omen of safety.] It is advantageous to cross the great river (or sea). [I.e., to go on a long journey.] Persistence in a righteous course brings reward.
Liu: Dispersion. Success. The king approaches the temple. It is of benefit to cross the great water. It benefits to continue.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing , Growing. The king imagines possessing a temple. Harvesting: wading the Great River. Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of confronting obstacles, illusions and misunderstandings. It emphasizes that clearing away what is blocking the light is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: disperse what obstructs awareness!]
Shaughnessy: Dispersal: Receipt; the king approaches into the temple; beneficial to ford the great river; beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): In Dispersal there is development. The king comes to have a shrine. It is beneficial to cross great rivers . It is beneficial to be correct.
Cleary (2):Dispersal is successful. The king goes to his ancestral temple. The benefit crosses great rivers. It is beneficial if correct.
Wu: Dispersion indicates pervasiveness. The king does homage to his ancestral temple. It will be advantageous to cross the big river, but only with perseverance.
The Image
Legge: The image of wind moving over water forms Expansion. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, presented offerings to God and established the ancestral temple.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The wind drives over the water: the image of Dispersion. Thus the kings of old sacrificed to the Lord and built temples.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind blowing across the face of the waters. The kings of old built temples in which to sacrifice to the Supreme Lord of Heaven. [A temple is a place of safety from the ills of the world. The symbolism here is that the upper trigram forms a temple in which people are safe from the pit (the lower trigram); its middle line (five) signifies the King. The implication is that we should employ spiritual or moral means to preserve ourselves from the danger threatened by the lower trigram.]
Liu: Wind blowing over water symbolizes Dispersion. The ancient kings offered sacrifices to the Deity, then built temples.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind moves above stream. Dispersing. The Earlier Kings used presenting tending-towards the supreme to establish the temples.
Cleary (1): Wind blows above water, Unintegrated. Thus ancient kings honored god and set up shrines.
Cleary (2): Wind travels over the water, dispersing. Ancient kings honored God and set up shrines.
Wu: The wind moves above water; this is Dispersion. Thus, the ancient kings made offerings to the Supreme Being and consecrated their ancestral temple.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The dynamic line is central in the lower trigram, and the magnetic fourth line is correct in the upper trigram, uniting with the dynamic ruler above her. The king's mind is without any deflection as he goes to his ancestral temple. He rides over water in a vessel of wood, and will cross the great stream with success.
Legge: The hexagram of Expansion denotes a state of dissipation or dispersion. It shows men's minds alienated from correctness and sure to go on to disorder. Here an attempt is made to show how the situation should be remedied.
The lower trigram represents Water, and the upper, Wind. Wind moving over water evaporates it, and suggests the idea of dispersion. Success is intimated because there are dynamic lines occupying the central places in the trigrams. The king's piety moves the spirits by its sincerity -- when the religious spirit rules men's minds, there will be no alienation from what is right and good. Under such conditions even hazardous enterprises may be undertaken.
The second sentence of the Confucian commentary literally begins: "The king is indeed in the middle..." This means that his heart and mind are set on the central truth of what is right and good. The ancestral temple signifies the recognition that sincere religious practices counteracted the tendency to mutual alienation and selfishness among men. The wooden vessel refers to one of the attributes of the upper trigram, which is Wood. It suggests a boat riding on water (the lower trigram), hence: crossing the great water.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Focus on the ideals of the Work and maintain your will. A major synthesis is possible.
The Superior Man subdues his ego to attain his latent potential.
Because of the intimate relationship between this figure and hexagram number 45, Contraction, I have chosen the title of Expansionto best emphasize their polarity.
The "ancient kings and sages" are more mythical than historical, so we can assume that they symbolize archetypal forces ("gods") within the psyche -- of whom the ego is only the current spacetime representative (i.e., servant- facilitator). The Self is the focal point, the center of this multidimensional awareness complex.
In both timeless and spaceless experiences, the mundane world is virtually excluded. Of course, the converse is true of the mundane state of daily routine, in which the oceanic unity with the universe, in ecstasy and Samadhi, is virtually absent. Thus, the mutual exclusiveness of the "normal" and the exalted states, both ecstasy and Samadhi, allows us to postulate that man, the self- referential system, exists on two levels: as "Self" in the mental dimension of exalted states; and as "I" in the objective world, where he is able and willing to change the physical dimension "out there.” R. Fischer -- "A Cartography of the Ecstatic and Meditative States," Science:174, 1971
The symbol of a temple, where one worships one's ancestors may be taken as the perfect gestalt of the Work as it exists outside of spacetime, as well as the karmic repository of all previous incarnations. It represents both the completed Work and the Work in progress. That the family temple was regarded in China as symbolic of an ideal standard of perfection such as this, is implied in the following passage:
Diplomatic negotiations were carried on in the ancestral temple, in the veritable presence, it was believed, of the ancestors; diplomatic banquets were given there, also. Even a proposal of marriage was received by the father of the prospective bride in his ancestral temple, in the presence of the spirits ... (The world of Confucius), we must remember, was one in which there was a nearly complete breakdown of moral standards ... Only in the performance of religious ceremonies could there still be found, consistently, a type of conduct regulated by a socially accepted norm of behavior, in which men's actions were motivated by a pattern of cooperative action, rather than swayed by the greed and passions of the moment. H.G. Creel -- Confucius and the Chinese Way
Psychologically, Expansion depicts a state of inner pressure capable of fruitful resolution if it can be properly guided. The king in the Image (in this case, the ego) sacrifices for a high ideal: the good of the Work. Legge's commentary tells us that the "second sentence of the Confucian commentary literally begins: `The king is indeed in the middle...'" This suggests a combination of his second and third sentences into the paraphrase: "The king steers a middle course when crossing the water to the ancestral temple." This gives the image of a vessel and the proper way to guide it toward a destination. Anyone who has ever steered a boat with a rudder knows that to over-correct on either side is a mark of poor seamanship: the goal is to maintain a dynamic balance in our guidance of the Work. Lines two and five represent proper course-correction because they are both in the middle of their respective trigrams.
Expansionis the inverse of the following hexagram of Restrictive Regulations. What is there confined and hoarded is here dispensed -- but this dispensation must conform with the ultimate good of the Work. Not just any release of tension will do -- it must recombine itself into a new and better organization, as imaged in the fourth line. If this new order is a proper one, the released tension precipitates a catharsis, as imaged in line five.
The form, then, in which our complexes confront us is the form in which the fundamental materials of our human structure come into our here-and-now existence. Like crystals they are always imperfect to some extent and often unrecognizable or grossly disfigured in comparison with the “ideal” shape, the shape that would represent the “pure” incorporation of the crystal scheme. But we have to meet them in this more or less imperfect or distorted form and out of this form we have to transform them into something that may be more akin to the aboriginal “intent” inherent in their archetypal cores. This undertaking, this process, is what Jung calls individuation. E.C. Whitmont -- The Symbolic Quest
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
The Judgment of hexagram number forty-five, Contraction, also mentions the king going to his ancestral temple. A close comparison of this figure with Expansion will reveal much about the dynamics of the Work.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows its subject, amid the dispersion, hurrying to his contrivance for security. All occasion for repentance will disappear.
Wilhelm/Baynes: At the dissolution he hurries to that which supports him. Remorse disappears.
Blofeld: When disintegration is in process, hasten to the altar and regret will vanish.
Liu: At the dispersion he hastens to the opportunity. Remorse vanishes.
Shaughnessy: Dispersal rushes its stairs; regret is gone.
Cleary (1): Running to support upon dispersal, regret vanishes.
Wu: At the time of Dispersion, he rushes to where the couch is. The regret will disappear.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: He gets what he desires. Wilhelm/Baynes: And thus attains what he wishes. Blofeld: We shall obtain what we desire. Ritsema/Karcher: Acquiring desire indeed. Cleary (2): Running to support on dispersal is attaining what is wished. Cleary (2): Attaining what is wished. Wu: He gets what he wishes.
Legge: Line two is dynamic, but in a magnetic place, and although that place is central, it is in the trigram of Peril. These conditions indicate evil, and action will be dangerous. But line two looks to line one below him, and takes shelter in union with it. Line two desires success in counteracting the prevailing tendency to disunion, and the Confucian commentary suggests that he attains his desire.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man finds himself alienated from others because of the prevailing ill humor and misanthropy. However, he revises his judgment of humanity and takes shelter in his strong position. His moderate and just view of mankind removes the causes for repentance later.
Wing: Your problems originate from within. You must modify your attitudes and overcome any feelings of alienation. If you can improve your opinions and feelings toward your fellow man you will find peace of mind and avoid unnecessary suffering.
Editor: Legge renders the object of security here as a "contrivance.” Other translations of this are: "Altar,” "Opportunity,” "Bench,” "Stairs” "Shelter,” “Couch,” and “That which supports him.” Wilhelm and Blofeld say that this object is not line one, but line five. Blofeld's commentary on the Image is appropriate to this second line as well: "The symbolism here is that the upper trigram forms a temple in which people are safe from the pit (the lower trigram); its middle line (five) signifies the king. The implication is that we should employ spiritual or moral means to preserve ourselves from the danger threatened by the lower trigram.” In other words: when confusion prevails rely on the principles of the Work to guide your choices.
In the market place of every Chinese town there were a few I Ching priests who would throw coins for you or take the yarrow stalks, and get answers to your questions, but then it was forbidden. In 1960 Mao thought of slightly releasing the rationalistic political pressures on the masses and found out that there were two possibilities: either to give more rice, or to allow the use of the I Ching, and all those whom he consulted told him that the people were more eager to use the I Ching again than to get more food. Spiritual food, and the I Ching was their spiritual food, was more important to them, so it was allowed for I think one or two years and then he strangled it again. M.L. Von Franz -- On Divination and Synchronicity
A. When things fall apart, maintain your center. (“The [Self] is indeed in the middle...”)
B. Have faith in the principles of the Work.
Line 3
Legge: The third line, magnetic, shows its subject discarding any regard to her own person. There will be no occasion for repentance.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He dissolves his self. No remorse.
Blofeld: Self-centered thoughts are dispersed -- no regret!
Liu: He dissolves his egotism. No remorse. [A person should be wary of disaster: if it occurs, he may not be able to escape its results.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing one's body. Without repenting.
Shaughnessy: Dispersing his torso; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): Dispersing the self, there is no regret.
Wu: He distributes his personal belongings to others. There will be no regret.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: She has no regard for her own person. Her aim is directed to what is external to herself. Wilhelm/Baynes: His will is directed outward. Blofeld: The will is fixed upon something external to our own well-being. Ritsema/Karcher: Purpose located outside indeed. Cleary (2): The aim is outside. Wu: His goal is to reach out.
Legge: Line three is magnetic in a dynamic place. Although we might fear an excessive self-regard which would render her useless in the work of the hexagram, she discards selfishness and will do nothing shameful. There is a change of style in the Chinese text at this point. As Wang Sheng-tzu (Yuan dynasty) says -- "Here and henceforth the scattering is of what should be scattered, that which should not be scattered may be collected."
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man disregards his own personal interests in order to work for the benefit of others.
Wing: The proposed task is so great and difficult that you will need to put all personal concerns aside. Working toward common goals will greatly benefit your inner strength; there is no regret in such selflessness.
Editor: This line changes the hexagram to number fifty-seven, translated by Blofeld as Willing Submission. The idea of selfless devotion to the Work is clearly implied. Liu's version is the most concise, depicting "the sacrifice of egotism (in favor of the higher possibilities within the situation)." Note that Wang Sheng-tzu’s commentary (see Legge above) suggests the alchemical principle of solve et coagula – a profound concept from the Perennial Philosophy.
The actual realization or living incarnation of the Self, however, requires the presence of a disciplined ego to function as a responsible and conscious executor, in the limited world of the here and now, of the Self's intentions and visions. E.C. Whitmont --Return of the Goddess
A. Subdue your ego -- the Work takes precedence over your limited, divisive fixations.
Line 4
Legge: The fourth line, magnetic, shows its subject scattering the different parties in the state, which leads to great good fortune. From the dispersion she collects again good men standing out, a crowd like a mound, which is what ordinary men would not have thought of.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He dissolves his bond with his group. Supreme good fortune.
Dispersion leads in turn to accumulation. This is something that ordinary men do not think of.
Blofeld: He disperses his group of companions [Namely a group of people who have proved themselves inimical to the public good] -- sublime good fortune! Dispersion leads to accumulation, but this is not something that ordinary people understand. [This is an auspicious time to "cast our bread upon the waters." Acts of great generosity are now essential to our success.]
Liu: He disperses his group. Great and fortune. (Sic.) He disperses his hills (property). Ordinary people do not think of this.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dispersing one's flock, Spring significant. Dispersing possessing the hill-top. In-no-way hiding, a place to plunder.
Shaughnessy: Dispersing his flock; prime auspiciousness. Dispersal has a hillock; it is not that about which the younger sister thinks.
Cleary (1): Dispersing the crowd is very auspicious. On dispersal there is gathering, inconceivable to the ordinary.
Wu: He disbands cliques. Great fortune. A few mounds remain. This is not what ordinary people can anticipate.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Brilliant and great are her virtue and service. Wilhelm/Baynes: His light is great.Blofeld: In this context, sublime good fortune connotes glory. Ritsema/Karcher: Shining great indeed. Cleary (2): The illumination is great. Wu: What he does is right and brilliant.
Legge: Line four, though magnetic, is in its correct place, and adjoins the dynamic fifth-line ruler. The subject of four therefore fitly represents the minister, whose task is to assume a great part in remedying the evil of dispersion. She brings divisive partisanship to an end, and re-assembles those who had been divided into a great body so that they stand out conspicuously like a hill.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man brings dissent and partisanship to an end by his transcendent view of life's interrelationships. He rises above personal friendships to assemble good men from near and far.
Wing: Here you can bring dissent and discord to an end. The perspective that comes with far-reaching ideals and concerns for the general welfare will allow you to transcend partisan interests. In this way you will find extraordinary success.
Editor: Psychologically interpreted, "parties in the state" can symbolize obsolete attitudes and limiting beliefs held by complexes within the psyche. The image suggests a process of psychic re-organization. One is reminded of the alchemical aphorism: Solve et coagula, et habebis magisterium. (“Separate and recombine, and you will have the masterpiece.”) This refers to the differentiation of all the aspects of a situation for the purpose of recombining them into a totally new entity.
Ultimately all conflicts of man are not only created by his, let us say, wrong conscious attitude, but by the unconscious itself in order to reunite the opposites on a higher level. Therefore this situation, where some religious doctrine or teaching or tradition is poisonous and destructive to the physical instinctuality of man, is not only to be viewed as a catastrophe or as a deviation from the original pattern, but just as much a device of the unconscious psyche to bring forth higher consciousness. M.L. Von Franz -- Alchemical Active Imagination
A. Breaking up old patterns of perception makes room for new ideas.
Other titles: The Symbol of Retirement, Yielding, Withdrawal, Retiring, Wielding, Strategic Withdrawal, Inaccessibility, Disassociation from Inferior Forces, “When an opportunity for something better comes along, do not quarrel with an impossible situation.” -- D. F. Hook
Judgment
Legge:Retreatmeans successful progress. Advantage comes from firm correctness and attention to details.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Retreat . Success. In what is small, perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: Yielding. Success! Persistence in small things wins advantage. [Much of the teaching of the Book of Change is concerned with the wisdom of restraint or withdrawal as the best way of achieving our goal under certain circumstances; so this hexagram is not necessarily unfavorable to the wise. This is not a time when we can hope to achieve much; but attention to small matters will stand us in good stead later.]
Liu: Retreat. Success. To persist in small matters is of benefit.
Ritsema/Karcher:Retiring, Growing. The small: Harvesting Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of conflict and consequent seclusion. It emphasizes that withdrawing from the affairs at hand to conceal yourself in obscurity is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: retire!]
Shaughnessy: Wielding: Receipt; little beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): Withdrawal is developmental. The small is beneficial and correct.
Cleary (2): Withdrawal is successful. Small benefit is correct.
Wu: Retreat indicates pervasion. It will be advantageous for the little men to be persevering.
The Image
Legge: A mountain beneath the sky -- the image of Retreat. The superior man keeps inferior men at a distance by his dignified bearing rather than hostility.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Mountain under heaven: the image of Retreat. Thus the superior man keeps the inferior man at a distance, not angrily but with reserve. [He does not hate him, for hatred is a form of subjective involvement by which we are bound to the hated object.]
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes mountains beneath the sky. The Superior Man, by keeping his distance from men of inferior character, avoids having to display wrath and preserves his dignity. [The component trigrams, symbolizing mountain and sky, indicate withdrawal to a solitary place when circumstances are unfavorable.]
Liu: The mountain beneath the sky symbolizes Retreat. The superior man keeps his distance from the inferior, not with anger, but with dignity.
Ritsema/Karcher: Below heaven possessing mountain. Retiring. A chun tzu uses distancing Small People. A chun tzu uses not hating and-also intimidating.
Cleary (1): There are mountains under heaven, which is inaccessible. Thus do superior people keep petty people at a distance, being stern without ill will.
Cleary (2): … Being strict without ill will.[Petty people can be useful, so there is no ill-will, but their pettiness cannot wield authority, so be strict. In terms of learning to be a sage, the celestial ruler is the master, and the physical body takes orders from it, so that the desires of the various parts of the body cannot cause disturbance.]
Wu: There is a mountain under heaven; this is Retreat. Thus the jun zi distances himself from the little men, not because of despising them, but because of maintaining his own esteem. [The difference between the jun zi and the little men is one of education and not of birth. Confucius was a teacher first and a philosopher second, for he said: “Education is classless.” Every one of us has the potential of becoming a sage.]
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: There is progress in Retreat. The dynamic ruler in the fifth place receives a proper response from his correlate in line two. The action is in accordance with the requirements of the time because what is inferior is gradually increasing and advancing. The actions required during a Retreat are of great significance.
Legge: Retreat is the hexagram of the sixth month when the yin influence, represented by the two magnetic lines, has established a foothold. This suggests the growth of inferior and unprincipled men in the state, before whose advance superior men are obliged to retire. Yet the auspice of Retreat is not all bad. By firm correctness the threatened evil may be arrested to some extent. Ch'eng-tzu says: “Below the sky is the mountain. The mountain rises up below the sky, and its height is arrested, while the sky goes up higher and higher, till they come to be apart from each other. In this we have an emblem of retiring and avoiding.”
Anthony: The correct time for retreat comes when others are not receptive to us, when delicacy of feeling is lost, when we begin to be attacked by doubt, or when our actions no longer yield progress. The person who can hold his ego in check has many creative moments open to him.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: When carried out with shrewd discernment, Retreat is a strategy for success.
The Superior Man removes himself from disintegrating forces without calling attention to himself. He controls his weaknesses by maintaining his serious purpose.
With the possible exception of line two, there is very little ambiguity in the hexagram of Retreat. Without changing lines it is a clear injunction to remove yourself from an inferior situation, influence, emotion or way of thinking. The figure has certain affinities with hexagram number forty- four: Temptation which also depicts an inferior element encroaching from below.
To yield is to be preserved whole. Lao-tse
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
Compare hexagrams number forty-four, Temptation; number thirty-three, Retreat; and number twelve, Divorcement; in that order. What are the next three logical hexagrams in the sequence, and what are the implications of the series as a whole?