I need your insight!

[hilary]

Hello all,

I could seriously do with some objective input on a reading of my own. Unfortunately - just to make your lives easier

- I can't tell you exactly what the question was about. Actually, for once that may not matter much. Basically, the 'thing' in question has got worse of late, and it can either continue to get worse or it can get better. There's no very clear or obvious way I can influence the outcome.

So I decided that just for once, I'd ask for a straightforward prediction. (Then, I thought, if the answer is bad, I'll start asking about what if anything I can do.) So I asked:

If I carry on as before, ie not trying to influence this, what will happen?

Well, I've been brought up short by the answer:

Hexagram 18, Corruption, with yang lines changing at the second, third and sixth places, moving to Hexagram 2.

Can this be construed as a prediction of what will happen if I do nothing? Or should I conclude that I'm just not going to get a prediction, and need to tackle this quite differently? I'm not finding it easy to think straight about this...

 

[candid]

Hi Hilary, I've read the reading and will contemplate it today. There are some definate thoughts and impressions I'd like to share with you, but work is calling. I'll share it when I get home later today.

 

[candid]

Hi Hilary,

While your translation calls it, Corruption, the Wilhelm refers to it as, working on what?s been spoiled. Since this emphasizes making something right, I suggest that its speaking to your pro-activity rather than non-activity, concerning the matter.

?The superior personality must first remove stagnation by stirring up public opinion, as the wind stirs up everything, and must strengthen and tranquillise the character of the people, as the mountain gives tranquility and nourishment to all that grows in its vicinity.? This suggests that you stir up the opinions of those concerned, which can have a tranquilizing effect on them. There?s some relief of tension once people feel as though their concerns have been expressed and rightly heard out.

Second place: In setting things right in such a case, a certain gentle consideration is called for. In order not to wound, one shouldn't attempt to proceed too drastically.

Third place: This describes a man who proceeds a little too energetically in righting the mistakes of the past. Now and then, as a result, minor discourse and annoyances will surely develop. But too much energy is better than too little. Therefore, although he may at times have slight cause for regret, he remains free of any serious blame.

Sixth place: Not every person has an obligation to mingle in the affairs of the world. There are some who are developed to such a degree that they are justified in letting the world go its own way and refusing to enter public life with a view to reforming it. But this doesn't imply a right to remain idle or to sit back and merely criticise. Such withdrawal is justified only when we strive to realise in ourselves the higher aims of mankind. For although the sage remains distant from the turmoil of daily life, he creates incomparable human values for the future.

It appears that you have three degrees of aggressiveness by which your situation can be approached. It also appears that a certain forwardness, moderated by a certain gentle consideration is called for, though its better to be a little too forward than too complacent.

#2 The Receptive, as you know, speaks of the mistakes of trying to lead or control certain matters which are already established within the consecrated leadership of the spirit. It also speaks to being the embodiment of the creative power of heaven, giving actuality, expression and form to the creative impulse, which leads.

In casual terms, I read that action is indeed called for, that more assertiveness is better than not enough and that it is safe to follow what your gut instincts (creative impulses) are leading you to do.

Wuff,
Candid

 

[louise]

Hi Hilary, I think I agree with Candid. My immediate response is that yes hexagram 18 here is telling you not to let things slip by without taking remedial action. Although as you've said there is no obvious way you can influence the outcome it would seem difficult to apply that. I think it is saying don't completely tolerate the problem, but deal with it quite gently, really extreme measures aren't called for. However line 6 suggests to me that you don't have to take this problem on board as yours. You have no absolute obligation to solve it - but you probably can solve it, or help the situation by relying on discretion, gentleness and clarity of thought. But ultimately it is up to you - it is not wrong if you choose to leave well alone, because it isn't your duty to help - you can help if you choose to, but if you choose not to that is an equally valid course of action. I think maybe its saying this situation will deteriorate without your intervention, but that doesn't mean the responsibility rests with you in any way. You can benefit the situation, but you are certainly not obligated to.

 

[hilary]

Thank you Candid and Louise! Yes, this fits with my feeling that I'm being told I've asked the wrong question, or that the assumption behind it - that I have no influence - is wrong-headed. I have to find the source of corruption and sort it out. Hum - this seems to be yet another of those answers that make intense demands and ask searching questions. I can see some soul-searching coming up.

Thanks for your input!

 

[alisa]

I have about a half-cent to contribute to this dialog.

I looked at the first hexagram and noted which lines you said were changing. A picture then flashed in my mind. The the changing lines were flying off like sparks and then falling neatly and orderly into a satisfied all yin hexagram.

Crazy huh?? Overactive imagination I suppose!

 

[nks]

Hi all,

I've checked in here briefly a bit since the fall, and read just enough that I feel a little familiar, so Hi! I just signed up, as I'll have a question of my own coming up soon.

I wonder Hilary if it would help you to go all the way back to the assumption that the answer is *bad* (and thus, that you have to continue on by interpreting your answer as the prelude to asking another, "what *can* I do" question.

Maybe this is just straight-up telling you what will happen if you do nothing, and the outcome is good. But to see it that way, maybe you have to change the idea from "do nothing" to "nonattachment."

If you are not attached to the outcome you'll be able to see that the whatever-situation is, on it's own, working on itself. It knows it's spoiled, and that's being addressed within it's own development...and the outcome is going to be, well, a great floating off into accord with the universe. "so loved, so loved..." is a phrase I associated with #2.

I'll tell you what leads me to see it that way. The image of the wind stirring things up reminded me that last week someone I turn to for advice was trying to explain to me a new way of dealing with anger. "Let it be like the wind blowing through your hair. It's there, but you're neither overreacting to it or denying it. It just blows through," she said.

That's the kind of "nonattachment" I'm thinking applies.

And I see the mountain, strong and broadshouldered and tranquil, as suggesting that another bit of the missing piece of your best approach to this situation is not only letting go of the outcome, but letting go of feeling like you have the whole weight of responsibility on your shoulders.

One might say, "take it to the lord in prayer," or "let the goddess carry your burden with you." That kind of release. And that is the essence of receptivity, of #2.

Now, bringing in Jesus there, I just got the image of those changing lines suggesting the shift from release to joy -- "Go tell it on the mountain!"

And that's a very active image. So I think that maybe there's room for plenty of activity in the situation, but the i ching is first pointing to transforming your attitude toward what "doing nothing" means. From the so-easy-to-fall-into sense that since the situation is out of your control it can't possibly turn out well (or if it does, it might not next time) to the sense of dancing with the universe that can come out of going at it all with the wind in your hair and the weight of your worries on the shoulders of a mountain.

I also like the sparks flying off image. For some reason that I never quite caught, when I went to a memorial for Ken Kesey last fall, there was repeated mention of the phrase "sparks fly up." It's true, your #18 shuffles off its mortal coil, sparks fly up, and it becomes the fecund receptivity and birth to the new that follows the release of the spirit.

It's a bit of the image of the phoenix rising from it's ashes. Now there's the ultimate work on what has been spoiled. The phoenix dies after all (bad outcome, huh?), but it sings a hauntingly beautiful song for all the world to hear, and rises anew from the ashes...

Now how's that for some free association? May some of it help.

Back in a day or two.

 

[hilary]

Thank you Alisa and Nks. I'm slowly beginning to see ways I can engage with this. Probably I'll always think of #18 as saying 'something going wrong here, find it' (though line 6 gives me a higher perspective on what it is really about). But you have given me something very valuable in what you say about non-attachment. There's control and directing the situation, making things happen, which I definitely don't have. (All those yang lines sparking into activity before opening out into yin.) Then there's allowing things to happen, creating space and making growth possible - the Receptive complementing the Creative - and that might just be something I can do. There's a large difference between 'no influence' and 'letting go' that I wasn't quite aware of before.

Could be that absorbing some of the way of the Receptive also means letting her carry some of the burden

I was in a bit of a cleft stick - feeling heavy responsibility for engaging with the problem and at the same time basically unable to do anything to change it.

Thank you for the free associations!