Low - 5 to 49 and the great Yu

[heylise]

This morning I was low-low-low. Or down-down-down? Both.
So were three of the five people here. Maybe the moon in Cancer, makes you either too up or too down.

I asked the Yi how to get out, and I got 5, lines 2 and 4, changing to 49. The simple sight of the hexagrams made me cheer up: so it was possible to make a complete change.

Marshall says, 5 is not waiting for rain, but waiting for the rain to stop. When you are depressed, that image makes a lot of sense. Especially when I imagine a little village alongside a river, at the foot of a mountain slope. I have seen one like that on TV, the earth in the village itself was yellowish-brown loam. When it rains, and the water also comes down from the mountain, it must be awful there. And on top of that, people sometimes lived in caves or pits, when it rains one has to get out quickly?

I changed the meanings of the lines (not the translation, only the explanation) in accord with the waiting-for-rain.
Line 2, waiting on the sand, is not so bad. Water quickly runs away in sand, so it is not a really bad place. Some talk, yes, I did some talk, not bearing repetition, so the talk was there too. And since there is no real problem, the end is auspicious. This line changes to 63, and there line 2 says, not to chase after something when the chasing is worse than the loss. In short: my whole depression didn?t amount to much.

Line 4, waiting in the blood. The serious part of the question. Line 4 is about your own decisions, what you choose to do, be, think. If you let a depression be your master, then you waste an important part of your life. Maybe just hours, but even an hour is life.
Do not stay where the rain can harm you. It changes to 43.4, which is a very interesting one.
After Yu had conquered the flood (also too much rain ..), he was in a very bad shape. He could hardly walk, I think he had a sheep (rather a goat) to lean on. Goats can be very tame and social, and the horns are an excellent hold. Even today in China there is an expression: ?walking haltingly leading a sheep?: to be in dire straights. People had pity, but Yu was happy, no matter how hard his life was now. They could not believe it, but when one accomplishes such a huge task, the mind is filled with joy, even if the body is a mess.

So I got out of the cave, and thought of the things I had accomplished, and life was shining again. I shed the old skin and grew a new one.

LiSe

 

[lenardthefast]

Dear LiSe,

Thank you for your post, I have been feeling depressed myself as of late and your interpretation was very inspirational to me. Lately, when feeling overcome I have been visiting humorous sites on the web. Laughter is such a wonderful medicine. Not to mention the great endorphen rush!

Namaste,
Leonard

 

[candid]

Hi LiSe,

Since you had already determined to overcome the depressive state, it required a revolution. Hence, ?on your own day you are believed.?

This differs from becoming too familiar with the depressive state, whereby it becomes more and more difficult to shed. Rather, you greatly shortened the waiting period, as child birth is shortened by welcoming the child (change).

I also fell into a dark place for the same period of time, maybe a bit longer. While there were a few external circumstances to induce this depressive state, my question was the same as yours: how do I overcome it? My answer was 19 (twice) and 16. It seemed like a crazy answer to me because it was so contrary to how I felt at the time, but I kept the images clearly in my mind, pondering and trusting that the time was actually like that of expecting the child (approach of change). The expectation created receptivity of positive things, which then soon manifested in external circumstances.

But ? knowing that the time of 19 doesn?t last and that everything is transitory, it would do well for me not to lean too heavily upon outer circumstances to determine my state of mind. This is a work in progress.

Thanks for being the frog this time.

Candid

 

[heylise]

I guess my depression was so tiny, that hex.5, just waiting for the rain to stop, was enough of an answer. It was only a passing moment of feeling low. It always is very surprising that one can feel so good and think it will never end, and then suddenly feel so bad, and again think it will never end.

You got 19 and 16: yours was a real one. Hex.19 gave you a rich image, of waiting for a child. But there is also another meaning. In Buddhism there is a way to deal with pain: looking at it, accepting it, even love it. I think that is one of the aspects of 19. Overseeing ? your life, pain, sorrow, a situation, yourself, whatever. Not becoming one with it, but coming closer and closer, until any distance disappears. Seeing all its aspects, accepting them all.

Hexagram 16 is clear: finding motivation. The top cure for any depression. But the hardest thing to do when everything looks gray.

Today was a sunny day around here, spring. The little azalea had its first flower open. When I saw the Chinese characters of the hexagram names for the first time, the one for 22 reminded me of these flowers. As if they had drawn it very carefully. The white transparent flower petals, like skirts dancing around, coming out of the stiff plates (my dictionary says ?scute, scutum, squama ???). It made more sense than ?cowri?, money, in regard to hex.22.
Years later I saw for the first time the old character, and it was a drawing of a flower: with leaves and in a pot, instead of money.

LiSe

 

[pedro]

Hey LiSe, Hex. 49 always make me cheer up as well. I think its the uranus in me