Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
Asked: "If I answer call to long fast, probable outcome?"
Answer:
Vessel changing to Traveling
The answer: 50.2>56.Asked: "If I answer call to long fast, probable outcome?"
Answer:
Vessel changing to Traveling
For health, spiritual, transformative reasons, I have long thought I might be called to a long fast (up to 40 days). Once, 33 years ago (now I'm 81, going on 100), my body "chose" to fast about 19 days during an autoimmune flair. My hands were so swollen, I couldn't write or hold a pen and I was finishing my bachelor's degree at University. I continued going to class (riding my little motor cycle during a terrific heat wave), managed to transcribe tape recordings of classes on the new Apple PCs at the library and had perfect notes and organized study groups for each class which helped everybody. Professors said we were the best classes they ever had (upper division and graduate students mixed together). This was intense and the only time I ever attended college when I wasn't working a job at least part time. At 48, this was the best time I ever spent academically. The worst of the autoimmune "crisis" and fast resolved in about 3 weeks. Transformative experience. Am going thru another major transition physically and am trying to develope a small homestead permaculture garden and nursery on a mountain spot and feeling the same frustration with desire for production being stalled by physiology and spiritual muddiness. Fast seems to be starting itself. Seem to want to shut down on feeding for a span of time. Feels gentle, peaceful, and promising. Can you help me with interpretation? I wasn't logged in so couldn't just record the thread automatically. Old Beth (treehaven). Note: this is my first thread posting. Help?
Asked: "If I answer call to long fast, probable outcome?" And the Answer: 50.2 > 56.
Trojina, I just read your later-than-this post, and was answering it, when I saw how to click on this response. My little dog was having strokes or something and his veteranarians assured me he was 2-3 years past his due date. He was blind, deaf, and could barely walk from arthritis. I adopted him from a friend who thought Jethro (the dog) would die very soon. I wanted to give Jethrow as much freedom to enjoy sun and fresh air and a constant companion for as long as possible. We shared a wonderful year in isolation together on our mountain. He was happy as a clam most of that whole year. He "graduated" about two weeks ago. The fast sustained me during some hard grieving, and now continues.You need to write in the change lines and it helps to give the number of the hexagrams
You say you received
So you'd write this as 50.2>56.
(BTW here is a link, click on the blue, to help with posting in a way that may maximise responses)
So what does the line say ? From Hilary in wikiwing the words of Yi for this line are
'The vessel contains something real.
My companions are anxious,
Cannot come near me.
Good fortune.'
I think generally this line advises one not to be unduly affected by others negative emotions whether that be fear or anxiety or anger or jealousy or just their unspecified redervations that might impede a course of action. Well Yi is saying these disturbing or worrying emotions you sense from others can't impact on this. I wonder here if it isn't negative emotions from others as such but even things you read or watch online for example.
Also it's telling you that you have something of real value here regardless of what others say. Perhaps it's the fasting idea/effects of fasting.
Disclaimer: I actually would be one of those people cautioning you not to do this. Long fasting doesn't seem a good idea to me unless supervised or in special circumstances in a monastery or something like that. That's my own opinion. However it seems to me Yi is saying don't heed people such as myself with this viewpoint so....it's over to you.
Dear my_key,The answer: 50.2>56.
Hex 50: The Vessel meaning 'grasping renewal'
Hex 56: Sojourning at the Borders / Quest meaning 'connecting the scattered few'
Nuclear 43 Deciding and Parting meaning 'breaking up the obstacle'
The deeper connection with your enquiry is to break up an obstacle and this of itself challenges you to stay centred (remaining strongly in your power and virtue) in order to best help yourself. The context of your situation likens to a Quest where disparate things can be brought together (56) to manifest a renewal (50) within you. Be wary, though, of any negative 'grasping' aspects of yourself that you see in any part of this situation.
Line 2, in general, talks to an inner reorganisation that can create greater harmony within your world.
50.2 - speaks specifically about the 'realness' of what you feel and how trusting your true self in this matter, rather than the negative influences around you is the way to keep your transformation open.
It is important though that you take proper care of all of you along the way and finding appropriate 'places of rest' on your journey is key. In fact, these places may be more insightful, or transformational, for you than any 'probable outcome' you might envisage.
This might well be a case of 'The journey is more important than the destination'. Maybe the power of the transformation is vested in your decision-making to answer the call to fast rather than the fast itself..... only you will know!
...or it may mean nothing like this at all for you.
Good Luck
Dear BaronAsh, You've got me laughing so hard, I've got to take a break. Sorry, I didn't see this til now. After studying what you've written some more, will feedback. I have a delightful little Carolina Wren visiting me right now. Has a beautiful little chirp. It's about as delightful and refreshing as you are.50 Vessel might refer to the body itself, or our entire body/mind complex. We can cook poison or medicine therein. A fast is of course a chance to clean out, reset.
The second line is the threshold between internal/self and the world outside, so perhaps you should take care of the boundaries. There is a hint in the 56 lower trigram which results from 50's #2 Changing line, which is Mountain, Keeping Still. Also Mountain has to do with beginnings and endings, not to mention connection with ancestral wisdom and dignity.
A great 19th century meditation master in Tibet (Jamgon Kongtrul the Great) gave the following simple advice about spiritual retreats, which a fast can certainly be (and ideally is), namely (and I paraphrase from memory):
'Make your retreat like a grain of rice; narrow at each end and thick in the middle.' In other words, take your time to enter it and also take your time to exit it with the strictest/deepest/most intense part being in the middle. As you know, it takes a few days to settle into a fast, though if your body is already starting one spontaneously that makes it much easier. Then you have the main period of the fast. Then you have to exit it.
I have done a few fasts from 20-40 days in the past twenty years, some of them very good, some not so good. In all cases, though, I have yet to master the exiting part and have always ended up making too quick a change from only ingesting water to having meals, and also from having very few (or no) social engagements to being fully engaged and active. In some cases have had bad edema (swelling) in the lower legs, breathing issues etc. from moving too fast at the end.
I read a French book on fasting the first time and the author said that if you find yourself thinking about food all the time once you are well into the fast, it's a sign that you should be thinking of ending it, and then I think he recommended about 1 day of exit time for every 2 days of full fast time. I usually end the whole thing in 2-4 days, which clearly is wrong. I just can't help myself. Food is so delicious and appealing! (So the initial exit time fare is like a couple of oranges a day or some such, or liquid-only broths and taking a while before moving onto solids with grains being the last thing to add in.)
In any case, your reading seems quite favorable. You need to be patient (Wind/Wood below) by Keeping Still (Mountain) and connecting with inner dignity and wisdom, which at your age is a natural thing I suspect (I'm half a generation behind you but, sadly, not there yet!), and let the Fire above, like the Sun in the Sky, shine bright. To me this indicates a very favorable, sunny, bright Heaven in your whole quest or endeavor.
56 implies there will be a journey, which is nice - i.e. a shift, a change, a passage - but also in the commentaries it mentions how travelers have uncertain situations so must tread lightly. Similarly with a fast one is going through things, maybe new things, maybe letting go of old things, both on physical and mental levels of course, so it's best to tread lightly there as well. Don't avoid them but also don't make a big fuss about them either. Let them all come, dwell for a while, and then go. one phase at a time.
50 is a vessel, a crucible, it's where magic is cooked up, transformation - like our entire life journey in this particular body-mind container. It also suggests concentration, bringing things together into one point, aka 'cooking.' It's ironic that a cast about doing a fast yields the image of a cooking pot, isn't it!?
Good luck. Fasting is one of the very best things we can do even though it is largely overlooked these days. If the whole world had gone on a 30-day fast last year, there would have been no pandemic!!
Trojina, I just read your later-than-this post, and was answering it, when I saw how to click on this response. My little dog was having strokes or something and his veteranarians assured me he was 2-3 years past his due date. He was blind, deaf, and could barely walk from arthritis. I adopted him from a friend who thought Jethro (the dog) would die very soon. I wanted to give Jethrow as much freedom to enjoy sun and fresh air and a constant companion for as long as possible. We shared a wonderful year in isolation together on our mountain. He was happy as a clam most of that whole year. He "graduated" about two weeks ago. The fast sustained me during some hard grieving, and now continues.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).