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Hexagram 36 - Ming Yi - brillance injured

totoro

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Dear Community ? I?m new to the group. I found you today as I was searching the internet to find more meaning in a hexagram I threw.

I?m using the Complete I Ching by Alfred Huang and sometimes find it difficult to relate his translations to my situation. After spending the morning trying to gain more insight, I thought I?d ask you all if you have any additional translations.

Background: I am an artist exploring the possibilities of going back to school for a graduate degree (Masters of Fine Arts) at a alternative school which focuses it?s coursework on Art and Consciousness. Instead of teaching you how to paint, they teach how to look inside yourself to find the landscape you want to paint. Something most schools don?t address.

I?ve been making art all my life, but only in the past 5 years have I been putting it out there for the world to enjoy. I?ve had some wonderful successes, and feel that I?ve received a level of recognition for my contributions to a specific movement (digital fine art). I am, for the most part, self taught and have lead myself through self-motivation towards these achievements. I plan to continue a life of artmaking, and wonder if an advanced degree will be the right move for me.

Question I asked I Ching: What are the consequences of studying art and consciousness by obtaining a MFA degree from John F. Kennedy University?

I Ching answered: Hexagram 36: Ming Yi ? Brillance injured. ? there were no moving lines involved.

This seems to be a pretty heavy hexagram!

My interpretation cobbled together from many sources: By embarking on this coursework, be prepared to hide your light, especially when there are people who don?t see things the same way. Adapt to a more modest way of life when the period of glory is over ? i.e. future successes won?t be as brilliant as those of the past. You may serve more as an assistant than as an artist ? ouch.

I?ve also read that the path to hex 36 is that of hex 22. Sark7 wrote on this list: ?Hexagram 22
Art., beauty - The main meaning of the hexagram: ?Those who create beauty, should be supported?

I found this to be quite relevant.

I?m interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

Warmest Wishes,
Lyn B.
 

pocossin

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Hello Lyn,

This isn't from a different translation, but an understanding of hexagram 36 based on comparing many translations.

It is true that the text attached to the hexagram does refer to suppression of ability. For example, Prince Chi in line 5 feigned insanity to avoid serving a tyrant. However, if the hexagrams are considered in sequence, the likely meaning that King Wen intended for this hexagram is 'weaning'. After weaning a child becomes a regular member of the family (hexagram 37).

Weaning is a somewhat stressful growth period as a person transitions to another way of life.

If you are mostly self-taught, you will likely have to make changes to accommodate the philosophies of your instructors. Also as a member of a class the level of recognition and attention will now be less. As a self-taught person, you will have your own habits, approaches, and methods, some of which will need changing.

One can be very flexible in accommodating the expectations of others, and if you have talent it should not be hidden, especially when you will be able to benefit from the criticism of experienced persons. "Instead of teaching you how to paint, they teach how to look inside yourself to find the landscape you want to paint." Isn't this like finding the light within the earth?

Good luck,
Tom
 

totoro

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Tom,

Thanks for your thoughts on Hexagram 36. My husband made the same connection, that change and accommodation are involved, especially in an enviornment that places emphasis on critique.

I'm gaining more understanding about this hexagram as I've sat with it for several days. I now see how it can be applied to many situations associated with this question.

Thanks again,
Lyn
 

hilary

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Hello Lyn (and Tom
happy.gif
),

Hope I?m not too late here?

I like Tom?s analogy between finding the light in the earth and finding the inner landscape to paint. The only problem I have with this is that by your own account, your sun is already definitely out and illuminating the world ? and the I Ching is saying that taking this course would mean hiding your light away. (I imagine it would include some opportunities to exhibit? but it still seems like a pause in your career.)

Obviously only you will know whether or not this is what you want or need. I?ll just wander through some negative and positive ways of looking at it?

One of the most basic meanings of this hexagram, as I said, is that your talent and abilities are not seen in the outer world. Sometimes this is simply a sign of not being recognised and appreciated; sometimes it?s a choice you make yourself, hiding your abilities in an unsympathetic or dangerous environment, in order to escape injury. (Would anyone else on this course have enjoyed the success that you have?)

The word for ?hiding? also means ?injuring?. Could it be that by taking the course you?d be injuring your own light? The I Ching?s own internal sequence shows where you?re coming from: Prospering, radiant success, seizing opportunities and making the most of your gifts. The ?Sequence? text says that making progress in this way naturally also creates vulnerability - the possibility of being injured ? and hiding away is a sign of injury. Brightness Hiding represents the forbidden and denounced, as if some power hadn?t given you permission to be a successful artist.

That was the negative (you guessed?)
The other possibility is that this is something you need. The I Ching does say ?harvest from hard work and constancy? ? in other words, you could reap something useful from the experience.
?Brightness enters the earth?s centre. The wise disciple oversees the crowds, making use of both dark and light.?
Dark and light are sides of one coin, and the alternation of shining out and hiding light is part of nature. The wise disciple will be aware of both ways of being, in other people and in herself.

In a way, this could be restful: Brightness Hiding is the exact opposite of Arguing (Hexagram 6). Arguing means sensing that you?re not getting what you need and deserve, shedding your fear and fighting for it. Such an approach has its limits! and Hiding Brightness actually seems to be a more viable way of dealing with the same sort of problem: not arguing your case, but preserving your inner light and retreating from the fray. (Could this be about a pause in promoting your work? I don?t know how hard you?ve had to work at marketing yourself, but this seems like a possible application.)

The nuclear hexagram ? representing inner possibilities, the situation?s core potential ? is Hexagram 40, Release. This is (most probably) literally about untying knots: it suggests that the course could offer an opportunity to let go, see the natural course of things, get a more relaxed clarity of vision about where you are going.

Over to you? I?d be extremely interested to hear something of your own thoughts about this one.

All best wishes,
Hilary

P.S. Regarding translations - see the recommended books page. The combination of Huang and Karcher is a stimulating one!
 

totoro

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Hillary and Tom,

I've been thinking about this hexagram for over a week now and have done some journaling about it. I appreciate both of your insights.

I would say that Hillary's interpretation of where I've been in the past few years is correct "Prospering, radiant success, seizing opportunities and making the most of your gifts" I've put a ton of effort into marketing and promoting my work. Perhaps Brillance Injured is a time of rest and regrouping.

When I think about Brillance Injured - I think about how I might feel to have my work critiqued by others. How thier words might hurt me.

When I think about Brillance Injured - I think about steping out of the light I've created and becoming a part of a group or community. I'm used to marching to my own drum. If I proceed, I see the need to change to be more like a willow branch, bending and swaying to accomadate that around me.

When I think about Brillance Injured - I think about the potential frustration I may have in the formalities of graduate school. Will the money invested be worth the experience. Will I have a hard time with the structure, with the "rightness" of the teachers view.

When I think about Brillance Injured - I think about letting go of my strength of opinion and determination by learning a more critical dialog with my own work and the work of others.

When I think about Brillance Injured - I think about the value inherent in group processes.

So, I must determine if this course of study will strengthen or weaken my artmaking, in terms of physical manifestation and a deepening of the process used to get there. Does Brillance Injured represent a time of inward reflection and a building of internal energy? Is it ment as a time of learning some of the more difficult life lessons. As you can see, I'm still reflecting on it all. Throwing this hexagram has brought some really good issues to the surface, perhaps issues that I might not have thought so deeply about, but should have...

Thanks for allowing me to continue sharing the process.

Lyn
 

richard

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This hexagram also means "censorship". Your decision could lead to a censoring of your creative energy.
But advantage can be had from this kind of situation simply from the knowledge that can be gained.

Richard
 

marcos

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Hi!
I'm interested in the energy of the lines. Within the hexagram itself how would you see the situation developing as it progresses through the six lines of Brilliance Hiding? Say Lyn had indeed received a moving line, for example Line 2, what does it mean that Line 2 is the moving line and what significance would the other five lines contain?
Thanks in anticipation.
Marcos
 

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