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#60 limitation

gene

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Number sixty often seems to be a hard hexagram to understand. And here I am not going to talk about it much in terms of actual divination, but in terms of what the I Ching is saying about itself.

One aspect of the discussion here, obviously, is about setting limits. Often, we must set limits in our life, for being a jack of all trades leads to mastery of none. It is our duty and our necessity, life indeed requires it of us, that we find that which our own heart adheres to, and stick to it, at the exclusion of many other things. This is true in spiritual life as well, for it is well nigh impossible to master all the spiritual arts, but we must find that which we are most comfortable with.

Here again, we must look at this hexagram from the perspective of the Sage. The Sage "creates number and measure, and examines the nature of virtue and correct conduct." When we approach the Sage, and we must approach, it would be a breach of propriety for it to be the other way around, we must do so with the greatest deal of circumspect. It must be remembered that the Sage is "limited" at any given time on what it can teach us. The lessons must be made personal and understandable from the nature of our own character, or the impact would be lost on us. Not only does the nature of the answer limit the Sage, it is the nature of our own personality, of our own character, that we can only perceive in the lessons that which is meant for us. The Sage is limited in the response that it can give us by the nature of that which we are ready to receive. One image here is the image of a bamboo shoot, that is limited, so to speak, by its joints. And as it grows, it develops eventually a new joint. Just as with the growth of the bamboo shoot, we too, as we grow are able to assimilate a greater lesson as we develop new "joints," a joint being a point at which the lesson takes one step higher up.

There is a spiritual principle. In the world of metaphysics we can only see that which we are ready to see, and hear only that which we are ready to hear. It is by adding line onto line, precept onto precept, speech unto speech, that we begin to understand the deeper levels of the spiritual world, and as such, the deeper levels of the fourth and fifth dimensions. As Jesus said, "To those who are without I speak to them only in parables, for in hearing they do not hear, and seeing they do not see. But your eyes can see and your ears can hear."

The third line gives us a clue as to what direction our spiritual growth must take before we can understand on a deeper level. The commentary says, "He must not seek to lay the blame on others. Only when we realize that our mistakes are of our own making..." We must first realize that the responsibility rests on our own shoulders for the conditions and the life we find ourselves in, and then, further, we must realize that these conditions, having been unconsciously created, no matter how frightening they may be, are ultimately there to speed us on the path of spiritual growth, no matter even how frightening that may be. And though there be perils and frightening things in our life, we learn in hexagram 52 line 3, that it is imperative to gather within an internal composure that is greater than any form of Karma. This inner composure, it is said, "is not a mistake, as it leads ultimately to that other, higher level.

Gene
 

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