Journey complete, harmony arises; shift focus to nurture the heart of community.
From
63
After Completion
To
37
The Family
Worrying about a return to difficulties
The others avoid helping, so one continues to improve to repair without them. taoscopy.com
After Completion63
Completion; things fall into place, but remain cautious. Stability achieved, yet vigilance needed to sustain harmony.
↓ Line 6
Overreaching leads to peril. Recognize limits and avoid unnecessary risks.
↓ The Family37
Focus on nurturing harmony in your community or family. Cultivate stability and mutual support by fostering open communication and shared values.
Other titles: After Completion, The Symbol of What is Already Past, Already Fording, Already Completed, Settled, Mission Accomplished, Tasks Completed, After the End, A state of Climax
Judgment
Legge:Completion intimates progress and success in small matters. There is advantage in firm correctness. There had been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end.
Wilhelm/Baynes: After Completion. Success in small matters. Perseverance furthers. At the beginning good fortune, at the end disorder.
Blofeld:After Completion -- success in small matters! Persistence in a righteous course brings reward. Good fortune at the start; disorder in the end. [Perhaps persistence may help to lessen the disorder that threatens to come upon us after some initial success.]
Liu: Completion. Success in the small. It benefits to continue. Good fortune at first; disorder in the end.
Ritsema/Karcher:Already Fording. Growing: the small. Harvesting Trial. Initially significant. Completing: disarraying. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of an important move from one position to another. It emphasizes that actively proceeding with the crossing is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy:Already Completed: Receipt; slightly beneficial to determine; initially auspicious, in the end disordered.
Cleary (1):Settlement is developmental, but it is minimized. It is beneficial to be correct. The beginning is auspicious, the end confused.
Cleary (2): Settlement is successful, even in small matters … etc.
Wu: Mission Accomplished indicates a small degree of pervasiveness and the advantage of being persevering. It is characterized by goodness in the beginning, but tumult in the end.
The Image
Legge: The image of water above fire formsCompletion. The superior man, in accordance with this, thinks of the evil that may come, and guards against it in advance.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Water over fire: the image of the condition in After Completion. Thus the superior man takes thought of misfortune and arms himself against it in advance.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes water above fire. The Superior Man deals with trouble by careful thought and by taking advance precautions.
Liu: Water above fire symbolizes Completion. The superior man ponders danger and takes precautions against it.
Ritsema/Karcher: Stream located above fire. Already Fording. A chun tzu uses pondering distress and-also providing-for defending-against it.
Cleary (1): Water is above fire,Settled.Thus superior peopleconsider problems and prevent them.
Wu: There is water above fire; this is Mission Accomplished. Thus the jun zi conceives ways to prevent disaster.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Progress and success in small matters, with advantage in firm correctness. The dynamic and magnetic lines are correctly arranged, each in its proper place. There has been good fortune in the beginning because the magnetic second line is in the center. In the end there is a cessation of effort, and disorder arises. The course that led to rule and order is now exhausted.
Legge: The two written Chinese characters translated here as Completion represent two ideas -- the symbol of being past or completed, and the symbol of crossing a stream -- with a secondary meaning of helping and completing. When combined, the two characters express the idea of successful accomplishment. The hexagram denotes the kingdom finally at rest -- the vessel of state has been brought safely across the great and dangerous stream, the distresses of the realm have been relieved and its disorders rectified. Small things need to be completed: the new government must be consolidated and its ruler must, without noise or clamor, go on to perfect what has been wrought with firm correctness and without forgetting the inherent instability of all human affairs. That every line of the hexagram is in its correct place, and has its proper correlate emphasizes the intimation of progress and success.
The K'ang-hsi editors compare this hexagram and the next with number eleven, Harmony, and number twelve, Divorcement, observing that the goodness of Harmony is concentrated, as here, in the second line. Disorder after completion is inevitable. All things move on with a constant process of change. Disorder succeeds to order, and again order to disorder.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: All's well that ends well, but the new cycle demands as much willpower as the last. Make no drastic choices during a transition.
The Superior Man anticipates conflict and is prepared for it in advance.
The sixty-third hexagram is the reference hexagram which depicts the correlation of properly matched dynamic and magnetic lines. On the basis of this figure, all of the other hexagrams (except the first and second, which are their "parents"), are compared. Yet, despite the fact that every line is in its proper place, not one of them has an easy auspice, and both the Judgment and Image are subdued and cautionary. The general idea is that as long as we draw breath in this spacetime dimension, our lives and Work are incomplete. Cycles complete themselves, certainly, but Completion in that sense is the "completion" of the full moon, which as soon as it reaches maximum brilliance immediately begins to wane.
Among those engaged in psycho-spiritual work, there is a great deal of energy focused on "enlightenment," and the natural desire of each aspirant to attain that state of consciousness as soon as possible. Many there are who wander from one conception of the Work to another in the hope that this particular discipline, or that particular Guru will provide the transcendent answer that the last one didn't.
This is a very deceptive illusion, because the chances that any given individual will attain perfect enlightenment in any given lifetime are probably miniscule to the point of insignificance. (How many truly enlightened beings have you ever met in your life?)
But the first signs of this symbolism are far from indicating that unity has been attained. Just as alchemy has a great many procedures, ranging from the "work of one day" to the "the errant quest" lasting for decades, so the tensions between the psychic pair of opposites ease off only gradually; and, like the alchemical end- product, which always betrays its essential duality, the united personality will never quite lose the painful sense of innate discord. Complete redemption from the sufferings of this world is and must remain an illusion ... The goal is important only as an idea; the essential thing is the opus which leads to the goal: that is the goal of a lifetime. In its attainment "left and right" are united, and conscious and unconscious work in harmony. Jung-- Psychology of the Transference
The Work is a slow, organic process of transforming unconscious forces, which demands almost superhuman levels of discipline to accomplish. One can make a great deal of progress in one lifetime, but the Work can not be said to be complete until physical death “completes” it -- at that point, assuming the ego has acquired enough strength of will, perhaps one can facilitate a "permanent" synthesis of the forces one has spent a lifetime in training. Death is the doorway back to our Source, and if we enter that doorway consciously and correctly we can consolidate a great deal of power which will serve us well in the next cycle, in whatever dimension that cycle may take place.
It is even doubtful whether a man can arrive at the summit of all perfection as long as he lives in an imperfect physical form, because the imperfections of the form hamper the spirit, and only a spirit that has outgrown the necessity to live in a physical form may be said to have arrived at that high degree of perfection at which a perfect knowledge of self, and consequently a perfect knowledge of the universe is obtained. F. Hartmann --Paracelsus: Life and Prophecies
Line 6
Legge: The sixth line, magnetic, shows its subject with even her head immersed. The position is perilous.
Wilhelm/Baynes: He gets his head in the water. Danger.
Blofeld: His head gets wet -- trouble!
Liu: His head gets wet. Danger. [Avoid evil persons lest you yourself become tainted.]
Ritsema/Karcher: Soaking one's head. Adversity.
Shaughnessy: Wetting his head; danger.
Cleary (1): When the head gets wet, one is in danger.
Cleary (2): Getting the head wet is dangerous.
Wu: The fox immerses his head in water. Perilous.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: How could such a state continue long? Wilhelm/Baynes: How can one endure this for long? Blofeld: But this sort of trouble can scarcely last long. [We must expect some trouble but perhaps not very serious and not likely to endure.] Ritsema/Karcher: Wherefore permitting lasting indeed? Cleary (2): How can one last long? Wu: How long can it last?
Legge: The topmost line is magnetic and on the outermost edge of the trigram of Peril. Her action is violent and dangerous, like that of one attempting to cross a ford and being plunged over her head in the water.
Anthony: We “look back” when we presume that the struggle is over, that we can relax and enjoy the situation. We must be firm and go forward, or the work will be undone.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: Needless violence and self-glorification upon completion of a difficult undertaking cause the man to fall back into misfortune.
Wing: You have initiated significant action. Do not assume that things will follow their course while you simply watch and wait. This type of attitude is both vain and perilous. You have created responsibilities for yourself. Shirking them will invite grave danger.
Editor: Wilhelm's commentary suggests the idea of not turning back after making a dangerous transition. The situation has not yet been consolidated and can easily deteriorate: what might be Completion can instead become an aborted synthesis and a regression to a lower level. Alternately, Legge’s image of the line with “even her head immersed” suggests wooly-headedness – you aren’t seeing things clearly. This prevents a transition to a clear state of consciousness. Symbolically to have one’s head immersed in water portrays thought overwhelmed by emotion.
Another said, "I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good-bye to my people at home." Jesus said to him, "Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9: 61-62
A. You have passed the point of no return in the current cycle of growth -- regression now portends disaster.
B. You've gone too far to turn back now.
C. Your incomprehension prevents illumination in the matter at hand.
Other titles: Family Life, Clan, Home, Linkage, Dwelling People, The Psyche, "May indicate a situation where the family can and should help." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: For the regulation of The Family, what is most advantageous is that the wife be firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The Family . The perseverance of the woman furthers.
Ritsema/Karcher: Dwelling People. Harvesting: woman Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of living and working with others in a common space. It emphasizes that caring for your relation with those who share this space and for the space itself is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: dwell with people!]
Shaughnessy: Family members: Beneficial for the maiden to determine.
Cleary (1): For people in the home it is beneficial that the woman be chaste. [In the human body, the vitality, spirit, soul, psyche, and intent all belong to yin and all take orders from the human mentality … When you refine away the human mind, the mind of tao spontaneously becomes manifest.]
Wu:The Family indicates that it is advantageous for a woman to be persevering. [This is a hexagram with its emphasis on women. Both constituent trigrams are feminine … Hence those who endeavor to be firm and correct will have advantages.]
The Image
Legge: Wind rising out of fire -- the image of The Family. The superior man speaks the truth and is consistent in his behavior.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Wind comes forth from fire: The image of The Family. Thus the superior man has substance in his words and duration in his way of life.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes wind rising from fire. The Superior Man's speech is full of substance and he behaves with constancy.
Liu: The wind coming out of the fire symbolizes The Family. The speech of the superior man should have substance, and his conduct be enduring.
Ritsema/Karcher: Wind originating-from fire issuing-forth. Dwelling People. A chun tzu uses words to possess beings and-also movement to possess perseverance.
Cleary (1): Wind emerges from fire, members of a family. Thus is there factuality in the speech of superior people, consistency in their deeds.
Cleary (2): … Developed people are factual in speech, consistent in action.
Wu: Wind comes forth from fire; this is The Family. Thus the jun zi speaks with facts and acts with perseverance.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Family the wife is in her correct place in the lower trigram, and the husband in his correct place in the upper. That spouses occupy their correct positions shows the correct relationship between heaven and earth. The parents rule the family: let the father indeed be father, and the son son; let the elder brother be indeed elder brother, and the younger brother younger; let the husband indeed be husband, and the wife wife -- then the family will be in its correct state. Bring the family to that state, and all under heaven will be established.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Family simply means "a household," or "the members of a family." The lesson of the hexagram is the regulation of the family, effected by the cooperation of the husband and wife in their several spheres, and only needing it to become universal to secure the good order of the kingdom. The important place accorded to the wife is seen in the short sentence in the Judgment -- that she be firm and correct, and do her part well is essential for the family's proper regulation.
The wife is represented by line two and the husband is her proper correlate in line five. The relationship between heaven and earth is analogous to the relationship between husband and wife.
The second sentence of the Confucian commentary, more closely rendered, would be: "That in the family there is an authoritative ruler is a way of naming father and mother." This means that the assertion of authority in a family should be a correct balance of force and gentleness.
Anthony: The Family symbolizes correct relationships between people – the family unit, the spiritual family (the Sage and the student), and human groups generally. When these most basic relationships are correct, the world is made correct through the force of inner truth, through cultivation of the feminine component of our nature, and through persevering in a virtually menial position (from our ego’s viewpoint) so that our work can come to fruition. All this means to forgo striving and self-assertion, and to allow ourself to be led, while persevering in gentleness and devotion to our path.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: For the correct regulation of the psyche, what is most important is that the ego must be firm and correct.
The Superior Man lives his allegiance to the ideals of the Work.
Applying the Hermetic Axiom: "as above, so below," the relationships within a family are analogous to the relationships within a city-state, or a kingdom, and vice- versa:
Society centuries before the time of Confucius had been organized on the basis of family. In the early days of the Chou dynasty fiefs had been allotted to the feudal lords in a system of planned colonization. These feudal lords, linked to one another and to the royal house by marriage ties, took their families, retainers, peasants, artisans and soldiers to form self-sufficient colonies based on an agricultural economy and governed from well-fortified walled cities. These large family groupings of the nobility were preserved only so long as the relationships of parents to children, brothers to brothers, and masters to servants were effectively controlled. D.H. Smith -- Confucius
If the ideal city is like a family, then the analogy also holds for an individual -- here the comparison goes directly from city to psyche:
Have we any greater evil for a city than what splits it and makes it many instead of one? Or a greater good than what binds it together and makes it one? ... Then is that city best governed which is most like a single human being? Plato -- The Republic
Psychologically interpreted, the hexagram of The Family symbolizes the psyche, and the Confucian commentary tells us that when its inner components all assume their proper roles and functions, then the Work will come into fruition. ("All under heaven will be established.") The identical idea has been stated in Gnostic thought:
Jesus said to them: "When you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter the Kingdom. The Gnostic Gospel According to Thomas
The husband is the analogue of heaven or the Self, and the wife is the analogue of earth or the ego. When the ego assumes its correct role as the magnetic servant of the Work, then inner transformations can take place. I have paraphrased the Judgment in terms of the necessity of the ego to follow the dictates of the Work, but one could alternately phrase it in terms of keeping emotional responses under control. For the wife to be "firm and correct" is to ensure that emotions, drives and appetites are not allowed to make decisions -- they are servants, not masters. This is the essence of the Work, and arguably the most reiterated idea in theI Ching.
The patient should be encouraged to use his mind, through observation and discrimination, to bring clearly into his awareness the irrational aspect of his drives and emotions, and also the possible drawbacks and harmfulness to himself and others of their uncontrolled manifestation … To act on the spur of an impulse, a drive or an intense emotion can very often produce undesirable effects which one afterwards regrets … Therefore, he should learn – by repeated experiment and effort – to “insert” between impulse and action a stage of reflection, of mental consideration of a situation, and of critical analysis of his impulse, trying to realize its origin, its source. R. Assagioli – Psychosynthesis
The thirty-seventh hexagram teaches us that the way to manage the emotions is no different than the proper management of aFamily. No wise parent can teach a child self-discipline by adopting the child's point of view: permissiveness, either with our children or our own primitive drives and passions, is a sure formula for disintegration. The Work demands that the ego hold the line on this issue -- indeed, it is the ego's only legitimate function.
We are dominated by everything with which our [ego] becomes identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves. R. Assagioli -- Psychosynthesis