35.4

[candid]

35.4 This line has never been entirely clear to me.

Bradford?s translation calls it a rodent. Gives me the impression of something sneaky.

Wilhelm?s calls it a hamster. Gives me the impression of storing things up for itself ? selfish or hoarding.

LiSe?s calls it 5-skills-squirrel. Doing many things a little but nothing completely.

Any further input?

[martin]

It's a stealth plane.

[martin]

And this is the pilot, boarding the plane:

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/48/2867.jpg

[candid]

Martin, interesting. Covert, concealed, stealthy progress.

Thanks

[candid]

?Perseverance brings danger.?

It doesn?t say misfortune. Just, danger.

[candid]

Now I'll forever have that pilot image in my head when I get that line. I like it.

[bradford_h]

Hi-
Just a point of language here.
The critter is a Shi2 Shu3
First word is an adjective giving it a long tail
The second is the rodent/rat
Two character words were not unheard of back then, but were much rarer than today.
There's a good chance LiSe is correct that this is the beastie called 5 Skills Rodent
I elected to translate Squirrelly Rodent because of the context and the more obvious meaning this imparts to the line text.

[candid]

Thanks, Brad. I'm afraid this still leaves me scratching my head. What is the nature of a "squirrelly rodent"? And how does a squirrelly rodent progress?

[martin]

When the sun rises (35) everything becomes visible. Everything will be brought to light.
This is the tendency of the hexagram.
But the subject of line 4 - in the center of the "dark" water trigram - is not acting in accordance with this tendency. He tries to hide something. And he doesn't need to. There is no need for secrecy or stealthy means. He can be open, direct and sincere.

[bradford_h]

Candid-
I can't put it any more clearly than Martin.
Yi ethics are usually situational. The stealth, the sneakiness, the admirable five skills are all perfectly appropriate in this Gua's Inverse, #36, Darkening of the Light or Brightness Obscured. But this behavior is either wholly inappropriate or else self destructive in 35. It's time for daylight or sunshine now. Now he's only one step ahead of the gardener's shovel.

[candid]

Martin and Brad, thanks very much. Given the nature of 35, I'm seeing your points more clearly. The sun is not stealthy but is visible to all. A rodent lives in holes and walls.

Why, do you suppose, is there no misfortune associated with this line, only danger?

Also, line 6 speaks of danger, but no misfortune.

[candid]

Considering my "no misfortune" question may be too obscure to receive a clear answer here, I asked Yi: Why is there no misfortune associated with 35.4 or 6? Answer is 7.

7 - Water (danger) is hidden within the earth. This is interesting since both lines 4 and 6 contain the word "danger", and line 4 refers to hiding.

This leads me to consider that what is unseen may also be unseen by the one making progress. What is unseen or unknown leads to danger. Again, not necessarily to misfortune. Good fortune often entails danger. Could not this be, rather, a hidden light? Not as in 36, where there is intentional guarding of ones own light, but as in a light that can not be seen during a time of progress. An inner unknowable working? The dark ulterior motive may not be part of this at all. Mice do quite well in holes and walls.

Brad, you mentioned the word "ethics". But in this case, might it be that the unseen applies not to a motive to hide, but rather to that which is unseen or unknown by the one making progress? I realize how much anthropomorphic morality has been associated with this line, as well as so many others, and I?m not yet convinced that is the real message here.

Ah, I just noticed that 35.4 relates to 23.4: losing the resting place. I have to say, I?m losing a little rest over trying to grasp this line, fully. Perhaps because it?s unseen light? Possibly clear light. Unknowable. Un-seeable. Stealth-light.

Am I be being too idealistic? Over the years, moralist values have become less relevant in Yi, for me. It speaks more to the way things unfold.

[martin]

That is interesting, Candid. Personally, I believe that the writers of the Yi and other wise texts - and the founders of religions - in most cases did not _intend_ to be judgmental.
The moralistic/ethical stuff seems to be mostly an invention of later generations.
For example, the founder of a religion may say that it is a good idea to abstain from worldly pleasures for a while if one wants to make a certain kind of inner progress. This is a factual and practical observation, but a few centuries later it has become a moral issue: "worldly pleasures are bad & you are bad when you have fun & and you should feel very guilty about it!"

In 35.4 the subject is apparently not in tune with the situation or the spirit of the time. That doesn't make him or his actions "bad". It's like the text is saying "Hey, the movie is on channel 4, not on 2!".
It's a pity that Jesus had no TV. Imagine that you could read such things in the bible. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif

As to the unknowable in 35.4, yes, the water trigram (lines 3,4 and 5) is part of the (upward) flow or process of 35. So it is there for everyone who goes through that process, it is unavoidable. But it may not be a problem for everyone. It probably is, though, at least potentially, if the Yi gives 35 with the fourth line changing.
I guess that the real danger of this "pit", this dark phase in the process, is that one might get stuck there. One might become paranoid, for instance, see enemies in friends and hurt others, oneself or ones course with that stealth plane.
So the Yi says: move on, don't take this too seriously. It is just a phase, the light is nearby.

[pagan]

Candid,
Did you have a specific question that you received 35.4 as an answer to?

I usually take this line to be a simple warning that anything unwholesome I do in the situation I am asking about will come to light eventually--I should act now like I am already exposed so there is no embarassment later on.

And beyond that, if there is danger hidden in the Unknown, then by keeping your motives and intentions and actions out in the open, you have the opportunity to be seen and so warned by others if you are heading into danger and don't know it.
P.

[jte]

On the danger vs. misfortune question, what is danger except the possibility of misfortune? But danger can be avoided, misfortune seems to be something that strikes more "without warning". So that may be a difference. On the other hand, since I only use translations I may just be trying (wrongly) to apply the semantics of the English words to the line.

*If* this is right, how would the subject of line 4 avoid the danger? I think, by changing the approach taken to make it more in harmony with 35's core meaning.

To those who see "change progressing upward through the lines" perhaps once the change in approach is taken, line 4 moves up to line 5's fullfilment of the meaning of the time.

And yes, I think 4 is a "hidden light" - that's exactly right - but from the line text, I think it's hidden because the approach taken doesn't match the requirements of the situation.

My 2 cents, hope it helps...

- Jeff

[candid]

Pagan, the question turned out to be about this very question. I came home from visiting friends, and was still wide awake and full of energy. Being a bit bored but mentally stimulated, I asked Yi: what is a good subject to ponder? My answer was 35.4,6-2. Line 6 may seem to be the obstinacy with which I am persuing this question. But no misfortune is indicated. Only danger. I like danger. One thing I can say for certain, I wasn?t trying to hide anything by bringing it here.

Explanations I've read for 35.4 have never sat right with me, nor have they played out according to the ?human-intent value system? therein.

Question: If every human was wiped off the planet, would Yi's principles still be as true?

Answer: Of course they would be as true. Nature didn't observe man to write it. Man observed nature.

Another one I've been chewing on a lot lately is, 36. And for all the same reasons.

[candid]

Jeff, is danger always to be avoided? That would mean never crossing the great water.

[bradford_h]

Hi again
More language lessons:
The word used for Danger here is Li4, a whetstone or grindstone.
It indicates stress, friction, severity, harshness, danger, brutal, dfficult, etc.
You can usually see this coming, or feel it coming on.
The word used throughout the Yi for Misfortune is Xiong1.
This depicts a pit in the ground used to trap animals.
I'll often translate it literally as "... (has) pitfalls", and also
as Unfortunate. You may not see this one coming if you
haven't been here before or paid attention to second hand wisdom.

[kevin]

Nice lesson Brad - That is a peach http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

[candid]

Martin, I enjoyed your last post. In fact, all your recent posts seem to exude something of earth-wisdom; as though moving from abstract ideas to grass roots intelligence. Like the intelligence of a spider or a coyote: the blueprint is inherent rather than contrived.

Thanks.

[candid]

Brad, the issue is that I have been here before. Many times. Or I?d just go with the flow. "Friction, severity, harshness, danger, brutal, difficult, etc." A whetstone sharpens the axe.

As for second hand wisdom, it's a good beginning, but not something I?d stake my life on, or my understanding. The world is replete with second hand wisdom, each claiming their way is the ultimate truism.

[candid]

My thanks to those who have helped sort through this question of 35.4. There?s not yet inner resolution on the matter, but you?ve provided me with excellent ideas to think about, and that was what I was asking Yi for, to begin with.

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/zen2.gif

[martin]

Thank you for the mirror, Candid. I can recognize myself in it. I guess I'm moving away from abstract ideas already for a long time but the habit of using abstract language, especially in writing, is still there.
So I'm probably more "grass roots" than I may seem sometimes.
And spiders, coyotes - the intelligence of animals is something that fascinates me. They have a direct and clear understanding of what is going on that humans often lack.

[candid]

I asked again about the meaning of 35.4, and received 26.2,3,6 to 24.

A contrast is that a bull (26) is large while a mouse/hamster is small. Perhaps a mouse's progress happens in only small, barely noticeable or inconceivable ways. Or something at work behind the scene. I simply can not find a moral issue here, or a compromise of character, motive, intent, secret design, blah, bah, blah.

Giving actuality to the past is advise that seems clear, however. So it's not as though I wish to "make up" a new meaning to the line. The answer is written somewhere in the past. This leads me to reconsider LiSe's 5-skilled squirrel, and also Brad's rodent. But I can not buy the moral value attached to Brad's assigned (read: written in stone) negative association. 24 Return: tells me to back up a bit, and also to find the answer in myself, in my own experiences.

So, back to the hamster.

I thought of the small ground squirrels that live under the propane tank out back. To me, their busy activities may seem insignificant, at least as it applies to my life. They provide me only with small amusement. But to their lives, everything they do is essential to their existence. Might this mean that making great progress also entails an involvement with what may seem insignificant to me, but which to them is essential to their lives, and not only theirs but to the entire ecology of this world?

Reviewing my state of mind and immediate influences at the time I drew the reading: First, the friends who had me over for dinner are not high-minded people. Their lives exist in a secluded, unseen world. To the intellectual, they would seem primitive and insignificant, as far as great progress of humanity is concerned. But everything they do is essential to their lives. In addition, their lives were an important part of my life. They played a key role in helping me to regain a foothold on my progress during a critical period. Perhaps this is the re-tracing spoken of in 26: Remembering that what appears small and insignificant is essential to the bigger picture. All people are essential to making progress. Also, the "small" problems of others may seem insignificant to me, but they can be huge problems to them. This is an important thing to remember.

Rather than progressing "like" a hampster, progressing a hamster, and progressing through a hamster, might be more appropriate.

[candid]

From LiSe's 26:

"Gather the signs, store them, and save them in your soul. And tame the big bulls for plowing your fields and for riding on them in everyday life."

[heylise]

Every time I want to post, there are so many new mails that I spend all my time reading, and I have no time left for posting anything. So this time I decided to post ever though I am way behind with reading. So maybe I missed things?

It is often very clarifying to look at the opposite hexagram, and there the same line. That is here 5.4. ?Waiting in the blood. Get out of the cave.?
(Don?t wait and stay in a place not fit for you. It is often difficult to take the plunge, but if you don?t, you spoil your time, your mind, maybe even your life.)
It is about the decision of getting out of something you cannot change. Often a very hard one, because when is something not good anymore? And at what point? Usually things get worse in a very slow way, once you notice, you are deep in it already.

So 35.4 will have to do something with an opposite situation. ?Advancing like a five-skills-squirrel. Determination danger.?
Doing many things but not finishing one. In 5.4 it was about finally doing something about it, and here it is about doing too much, but not finishing anything. I know all about that, it is one of my bad habits. Running around, doing many things, and at the end of the day hardly anything has been done.

And then there is the fanyao: 23.4: ?Stripping the rest(ingplace) by superficiality.?
The character fu, skin, can also mean superficial (and a kind of bronze, inconsiderate, chopped meat, beautiful, and a measure of 4 fingers).
Chuang, bed, is also a river-bed, support, a table for merchandise, mattress, bier, machine. Extending it to ?rest? from resting-place, is my own doing.

So 35.4 and 23.4 both have to do with a lack of thoroughness, a warning not to run from one thing to the other, and a warning not to be superficial.

LiSe

[heylise]

And 26 to 24: get the big image, so you return to your own essential road.

LiSe

[martin]

Summary:
- I don't want to be seen (stealth)
- There is something that I can't see (the unknown)
- I don't look deep enough (superficiality, lack of focus)

Yes?

[martin]

I always try to find new names for hexagrams.
35 = "Eyeopener" ?

[candid]

Oh well. At least I know now what the line means to me.

[candid]

35.4

This really isn't a big thing.
It is an important small thing.

Like a mouse, going about his business in secret: Not exposing, not debating. Working quietly to live in essentials.

Great ideas live securely in rhetoric.
Life grows out of compost.
Danger!

[bradford_h]

Candid- RE:

"But I can not buy the moral value attached to Brad's assigned (read: written in stone) negative association."

Shame on you.
I didn't say a thing about morals. I think you freaked out when you saw the word ethics, read it as morals and then misunderstood my point completely.

For future reference, ethics is the branch of philosophy which examines the meaning of right and wrong in their various hues. Something the Yi does a lot of.
Morals is a set of social behavioral rules, more often than not unexamined. Something the Yi doesn't do.

[candid]

Brad,

It's all good. I got a lot from your translation. I apologize if I was offensive or defensive. We are of different natures, and by confronting you and your ideas I hopefully get to the essence of not just your art, but the artist. That's how I learn. Not from books but from exchange.

No, I like ethics, very much. What gets my gander though is how definitions are perceived as life, and how teachers of Yi can lie dormant within these definitions. Granted, they are important, and often Great! But they are not always life or life-giving. And perchance the Masters learn something from the mouse ? all the better.

[hilary]

Martin:<BLOCKQUOTE><HR SIZE=0><!-Quote-!><FONT SIZE=1>Quote:</FONT>

Summary:
- I don't want to be seen (stealth)
- There is something that I can't see (the unknown)
- I don't look deep enough (superficiality, lack of focus)

Yes?<!-/Quote-!><HR SIZE=0></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes!
I think I've come to the same ideas by a different route. In Rutt I found the idea that this was a harvest-stealing and -spoiling rodent. I imagine there is a huge store of grain for all, but the squirrelly rodent isn't big enough to see the great heap. It 'prospers' from its own perspective (where else?), but it always feels threatened.

I think persistence in this way is dangerous - for humans - because the fearful motivation and/or limited perspective undermine you and warp your tactics. But after reading through this thread my reading of this line will get a lot more neutral, less polarised.

I've found the 5-skills beastie applies in practice sometimes, too. "Running around, doing many things, and at the end of the day hardly anything has been done." Oh good grief, yes. A consequence of prospering - seeing opportunities everywhere, running after them all at once. Lots of squirrelly energy and not a fat lot happens.

[bradford_h]

Maybe we're pronouncing it wrong.
Try this way, in a raspy, slightly raised voice:

Scwam, you wascawwy sqwiwwewwy wodent!

And-
Wrong does not just mean morally wrong. It is wrong and inappropriate for a square peg to fit in a round hole. But it doesn't need to go to confession for trying.
You can go the wrong way on a one way street. This might build character anfd hone your driving skills.
You can have the wrong technique with a bow and arrow. But it's only morally wrong when you lie about what happened to your neighbor's dog.

[candid]

Maybe I just watched "Mouse Hunt" one too many times. A light comedy with Nathan Lane and Lee Evans. Very funny movie. The mouse thwarts the brothers' plans of an easy life through their father's inheritance. In the end the mouse shows them a legitimate way of making it on their own.

Anyone else see it?

[heylise]

Candid: ?Anyone else see it?...?

This thread left me with question marks. Obviously I did not get the idea, and neither anybody else. So I gathered several remarks which seemed important.
First: ?a spider or a coyote: the blueprint is inherent rather than contrived.?
Because thinking (contriving) obviously had not given any result, I tried to look at it with not-thinking eyes. So I locked LiSe in the closet and tried the spider, but I cannot recommend that. I had to put soothing drops in my eyes, and they still feel like square pegs trying to fit in round holes. And did anyone ever try to look at a mouse with spiders? eyes? HUGE!
So I tried the coyote, and that did the trick! Not right away, a coyote seeing a mouse ... yummy yummy. But slowly something dawned.

Quoting:
?a good subject to ponder ...?, so it is not a question about any activity
?This really isn't a big thing.
It is an important small thing.
Like a mouse, going about his business in secret: Not exposing, not debating. Working quietly to live in essentials.?
?everything they do is essential to their existence ... and to the entire ecology of this world ...?
?Covert, concealed, stealthy progress?
?a light that can not be seen during a time of progress? ... 36 ...

Many things in life seem small when you look at them with the mind you have built up with all your experiences in the world of society. All things get a value there, according to what most people agree with. That has nothing really to do with their real value or meaning. Everything is part of creation, a human mind cannot judge what is important or not. If you have an open mind, everything is just there, as it is.
Small things are just as important, because they are part of life. Like animals, an elephant is not more than a mouse. It is even something like being without faith, not seeing ?life? if you compare them that way, not accepting creation the way it is.

?Perseverance brings danger.? It doesn?t say misfortune. Just, danger.
Even when you look without making any difference between all things, determination is dangerous. Even in this, you should not be rigid, and not judging, but all the same it is not right to give everything always the same importance. Because everything changes every moment, and every time you see anything, it is new again. And you have to be new too yourself.
The way to look at creation and be part of it, is to be totally new and open every time.

The squirrel, or the mouse, does small things, which make his life. Especially because they are small, his own size. Big ideas are not essentials, they cannot shape a life.

So when I look at this line, and I see only the good or bad it got, the advice or the warning, then I overlook the most important part. I forget to see life, the way it is present in every hexagram, and in every line.
This line tells about living, doing things small when life is about being small. Telling me those (or my) concealed, quiet, small things are important. They are an essential part of life, and thus also of progress.
Not teaching me anything about good or bad, but telling a story about life.

My first reaction on any line or hexagram is always ?what did I wrong, or what should I do right?. What the hell am I afraid of?? Afraid of being wrong ... wanting Yi to correct me, or tell me what a clever girl I am.

From now on I am going to look every time first of all with coyote?s eyes. I can always get a second look to see what I can do.

progress like a mouse ... this hex has to do with multiplying ... only a mouse who knows how to hide will become a lot of mice.

coyote

[candid]

coyote,

Grateful to you. Not because you agree with anything I?ve said (you?ve known it all along) but because you understand what I was trying to say, and I think what Yi is saying in 35.4 too.

Being a mouse can be risky business. Especially when he runs into a room filled with giant feet, and minds to match.

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/zen2.gif

[heylise]

All things are complete in Dao, Zhuangzi (13:6)

Dao is not exhausted in the great
Nor is it lacking in the small
Thus all things are complete in it.
So vast, so expansive
There is nothing it does not contain.
So deep, so profound
How could it be fathomed?
Good will and morality
Are mere trifles to the spirit
Yet who but the perfected man could know this?

(not sure about the number of the verse. I found it as a quote, but could not find it back in Zhuang Zi)

[martin]

Coincidence (?) - after reading through the recent posts in this thread I asked the Yi about a situation that upsets me and got, well, not 35.4 but the corresponding line 35.1.
It seems to address my state of mind very accurately but I'm not sure if it advises action or not. What do you think?
(maybe I should explain the situation but it's quite a story and I don't want to hijack this thread)

[martin]

If there is a mouse perspective in 35.4, there is perhaps an elephant perspective in 35.1 (large and generous mind).
Not that it matters, ultimately. The One lives as the elephant and as the mouse. Who is the biggest?

[candid]

Martin, my head is still hurting from sorting through line 4. Evidence I haven?t arrived anywhere near perfection or saginess bliss. (thanks bobby for the new vocabulary)

What comes to mind though is a preparatory stage. Before setting out across a body of water, it?s well to check to make sure you have enough fuel or wind, life jacket, food and water, a compass, etc. to complete the crossing safely. So, determination works in your favor, but preparation first assures the undertaking's success.

[martin]

Thank you, Candid, that makes sense. I'd better buy a good sleeping bag before I start climbing this Himalaya. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

Don't know if my head hurts (it feels kind of numb) but this thread begins to look http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/spin.gif to me. Perspectives keep changing. Perhaps this _is_ sqwuiwwewwwike pwogwess?

[candid]

chuckles

I dunno, Martin. I certainly got what I asked Yi for. And then some. But I've found a bit more strength and resolve too. If the Yi does not edify, we aren't reading it correctly. If we need tearing down, it's only to be built back up, with better reliability. To do that requires risk. It's easier to take a watch apart than to put it back together. But if it runs more accurately, it was all worth it. Time will tell. Always does.

[bradford_h]

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/48/2872.jpg

[anon]

llp here.

blofeld says: "squirrel like progress - persistance would have serious consequences...this implies trying to rise too high and advance too quickly"

seems you can't force understanding of the yi. it reveals itself in a timely manner. might have to put the reese's down and wait until you can fully savor it.

llp

[martin]

That is exactly what I had in mind! Geeze, is it not enough that Brad took my picture in broad daylight? Do you also have to read my thoughts? Don't you guys have any respect for my privacy?
What's next, an X-ray?
Talking about serious consequences, if you go on like this I will bite you! http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/angry.gif

Squirrel

[bradford_h]

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/48/2873.jpg

[sparhawk]

Yes, that's a New York squirrel on a trip to Cancun... http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

L

[candid]

or fire island

[heylise]

Martin, you are not hijacking, this thread is not about a particular line, but about a way of looking at any line, or hexagram.
If I try to look at this one the way Candid talks about, then it should be something like:

35.1: Then advancing, then arrested. Determination auspicious. Be a net, be true. To be rich: no fault.
Reality does not always permit you to advance. Time and again you will hit against some obstacle. So in this situation your perseverance will help you. Here no danger, like in 35.4.
The way to go on and on, in spite of all those drawbacks, is to be true to yourself, and to everyone, everything, you encounter. Like growing plants, they can overcome most obstacles by relentlessly going on being themselves, sending a tiny root through a tiny crack, growing around a stone, simply going on and not letting anything stop them.
And being like a net means to be open to anything coming your way. A net has to be put at a strategically right place, or it will not catch anything, but once it is there, you can calmly wait and see what swims into it.
I have no idea what ?being rich, no fault? could mean. If anybody has any ideas?

LiSe

[candid]

"be true to yourself, and to everyone, everything you encounter" "be true to yourself, and to everyone, everything you encounter" "be true to yourself, and to everyone, everything you encounter" "be true to yourself, and to everyone, everything you encounter"

Sorry. I thought it worth repeating.
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/hex61.gif
(fu consists of a claw grasping a child or small person)

[martin]

Thank you, LiSe and Candid.
It's amazing that you came up with FU, Candid. The question was about a child, my son, nearly 11 years old now. I can't see him because the mother doesn't allow it. She ended the relationship when she was pregnant and has since then behaved as if I don't exist.
The "claw" in the character FU could be hers and/or mine.
So FU applies literally here. (and is there not also another character called FU - it looks like X - that means 'father'?)
The night before I asked the Yi I found a picture of my son on the web. It didn't really register, I tend to react slowly emotionally (moon in Taurus?!), but the next day I suddenly started to feel very upset.
Phantasy's about writing her an angry letter. "How can you do this to me?". No no, that would certainly not help. Then what? Earlier (friendly) efforts to contact her, directly and through her friends, had all failed and I had more or less given up. No use talking to a wall that doesn't want to talk back. And life goes on. But this picture did it, damned, why should I accept this any longer?
I went shopping with a head full of noise http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/rant.gif. There was probably smoke coming out of my ears, because the cat of the neighbors jumped under a parked car as soon as she saw me. Which is unusual. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/biggrin.gif
Back home, after reading this thread, I asked the Yi something like "what will come of this?", but the question was not really in words, I just kept the situation in mind. And the Yi said 35.1

"Be a net", "calmly wait and see what swims into it". Yes, LiSe, I think I understand that. I'm watching my radar screen. In fact I'm doing that already for some time. I feel that something is coming. I don't know yet what it is, said the spider, but my web moved. Hopefully it is a fly and not an elephant ..
The web also started to move a few months before I actually met the mother of my son, before I knew who she was or what she looked like. She somehow made her presence felt. I don't think that she was an elephant. When she left the web needed quite a lot of repairing, though. Big fly?

"To be rich: no fault." My first impression when I read that was that it means that I have something to give to my son. And that begging for contact with him (as if I'm poor) is not the way to go. Fits with "being true to myself", I think. That implies having confidence in myself and in what I can give.

Thanks again, LiSe and Candid, I appreciate this very much. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

[candid]

Sounds like great application, Martin. A strong, stable but yet cautiously reserved approach. 35.1 changes to 21. Contrary to popular opinion, I don?t see 21 play out as filing a lawsuit or taking punitive action ?against? someone. Rather, I see it as 1) restraint of disturbing emotions 2) gathering information and keeping inner strength and composure 3) preparing to take action or make an important decision. So, unlike 55, where action is required by the time, 21 builds a good case, with inner resolve.

For what it?s worth, I didn?t get to meet my birth-son, who was given up for adoption when I was a teen, until he was 23 years old. Back then, a parent was not allowed to initiate contact with the child. But when the time came, he sought me out. Actually he sought his birth mother out, and we were married when we met him. He?s turned out very well and we?ve become close friends.

I wish you perfect success with this. I can certainly understand your emotions.

Candid

[martin]

Thank you, Candid. My son lives in the same city, not far from where I live, so it's not impossible that he will visit me soon. Well, if he knows of my existence and if he knows where I live. And even if he knows that, he still has to do it, it's probably a rather big step for him. Oh, maybe he'll find a sneaky way .. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

[candid]

LOL! Very clever!

[candid]

I'm resurrecting this because I believe I've gained insight into 35.4 since leaving this thread.

The mouse, hamster, rodent is a tenacious little critter. It persists in its task without relent and with undivided focus; whether it's gnawing at a rope or a topic. Progressing this way certainly leads to danger.

[incognito]

Just because you're naked
doesn't mean you're sexy.
Just because you're cynical
doesn't mean you're cool.
You may tell the greatest lies
and wear a brilliant disguise
but you can't escape the eyes
of the one who sees right through you.

In the end what will prevail
is your passion, not your tale,
for love is the Holy Grail,
even in Cognito.

So better listen to me sister,
and pay close attention, mister:
It's very good to play the game,
amuse the gods, avoid the pain.
But don't trust fortune; don't trust fame.
Your real self doesn't know your name,
and in that we're all the same.
We're all incognito