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Hex 26 - Holding Back OR Being Held Back

kumarsahab

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How do you interpret Hexagram 26?

As "holding back" (Controlled Power, Taming of Great Power, Great Accumulation et al) - this is the view of the majority of interpretations. Almost all I have ever come across.

Or as "held back" (Major Restraint - as per Ewald Berkers). He is the lone voice with this interpretation.

As restraining oneself (this would have a more positive connotation) or being restrained.


My practical experience with this Hexagram always points to the latter minority view. Or am I projecting my own preconceptions onto this....

Your experiences with this would be most appreciated.
 

fallada

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I definitely can see what you mean. This is an interesting question.

My 2cents:

26 = cannot act out my impulses. Usually the 'refinement' or 'accumulation' aspect is far too ethereal for me to be understood and it simply feels like being held back by circumstances. Only on rare occasions I'm afraid that going on will destroy my chances to gain st I desire - and these chances are pretty vague in the first place. I'm sure the big beasts are being raised for sacrificial purposes, not mundane ones. Recieving this hexagram I feel like beeing the ox and not the farmer. I'd prefer some scares and to use my horns. I do not care for my flawlessness to please the farmer's ancestor spirits! The gratifications from being held back (or holding myself back?) are usually meager and very abstract, like "honour" or not having lost my face, f.e. What's wrong with living and making mistakes?!

60 = active self restraint, esp. when unmoving, a rational decision to avoid an unpleasent development or situations out of control. Here are the "it's not worth the trouble" and "I won't get into this too deep" -decisions.
 

bradford

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The great can tame themselves.
Mostly the others just submit.
 

fallada

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Hi Bradford,
I'm not with you on this here. As opposed to such educational narratives, people are not either mob or sage. And taming oneself perfectly, esp. for 'vague' reasons, can be highly neurotic.


The general mood of the lines is imo a passive one: rather adapting to circumstances and being fenced in than actively creating them. The understanding why this is s.t. good, how accumulation happens, mainly rises with the historical perspective. ("using the many annals")
 

bradford

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Hi Bradford,
The general mood of the lines is imo a passive one:

I often find it helpful to remember the original intended readership of the Zhouyi - the king and the nobility, not the ordinary person. This sheds a little more light on the original meaning. If a reader of the lines wants to assume that the pig and the bull images are referring to him, that is his choice. The general advice in the Da Xiang and the Tuan is to be proactive, to embrace one's legacy and responsibility.
 
S

sooo

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The great can tame themselves.
Mostly the others just submit.

A good point.

In addition, some other observations on 26:
There are corollaries between taming, training and submitting, which may include asserting: after all, power isn't always something to be extinguished but rather it is intended to be put to good use. This is true whether training a boxer, a good dog or a good horse. Sometimes to be trained requires submission, but not for simply taking power out of equation but for learning to execute power effectively when it's called upon.

The other day while starting out on our horseback ride, which I am but an elementary student, I asked one of the experienced riders for constructive training and correction. I was told, you need to relax. I was riding an un-complacent mare and not feeling very much in control; she seemed to be fighting me rather than just riding along and going my way. It was pointed out that the reason was because the mare could feel my tension and it was that which she was reacting to. I was told to take a few deep breaths and let go of my tension. I had to chuckle a bit as I heard those words coming from Obie-Wan Kanobi: "Let go, Luke. Use the Force." I took three deep breaths and let go of my tension. As though by magic, the mare calmed down beneath me, and we rode together as one. I had to remind myself several times that morning, as there were other things on my mind as well which cause me to tense up, and when I did, the one again became two; two nervous creatures, neither which was enjoying the ride. I was getting my teeth bounced around, and she seemed to resist my 'commands'. Once I'd breathe and release my tensions, the mare instantly responded in accord. I was the one in training, not the thousand pounds of force I sat upon. To tame her, I had to tame myself first. Lesson learned but far from perfected. Rather than working to get the horse to submit, I had to tame my own energy, then use the techniques I was being taught to direct the beast without protest, which there was some from the beginning, as she was used to the woman who owned and rode her for years.

Then it was pointed out that I had a tendency to sit in the saddle a bit to my left. I asked, could she tell something so slight as that? to which my trainer said, she could feel a fly on her back, she certainly can feel you. Again, lesson learned, but not perfected. So I had to repeatedly correct myself.

There were many other details I was being trained, some just through my own riding experience, but a lot from the experienced riders.

The only one who submitted was I. The others, including the horse, already knew how to ride properly. But it would have been most incorrect if I'd submitted to the horse, to the brute power. Yet the only way to tame that power was to discipline myself, and listen to my mentors.

I see this reaching far beyond equestrian skills, into The Force in all things, especially that which is in me.

obi-wan-kenobi_61443.jpg
 

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