Memorizing the I Ching Hexagram 20. Kaun / contemplation (View)

[bruce_g]

Hey Matt, nice to hear from you again.

That’s an interesting way to view line 4. Does this sound right you? - Hosting the energies of others, but remaining the king of your own domain.

I went food shopping yesterday, and was very aware of energy fields surrounding each individual as we passed by, including my own. I can really relate to what you’ve said here, using this shopping scenario.

However, as I understand line 4, it is the receiver of this line who is the honored guest of the king. This goes back to the earlier discussion on line 5, as it pertains to “others”. I think Trojan’s “consultant” fits perfectly. So, then, line 4 includes (as you’ve said) intermingling of personal energies, but with emphasis on responsibility to contribute benevolent energy.

 

[rosada]

20.6
0 Nine at the top means:
Contemplation of his life.
The superior man is without blame.

While the preceding line represents a man who contemplates himself, here in the highest place everything that is personal, related to the ego, is excluded. The picture is that of a sage who stands outside the affairs of the world. Liberated from his ego, he contemplates the laws of life and so realizes that knowing how to become free of blame is the highest good.

"Contemplates his life." The will is not yet pacified.
Here one ruler of the hexagram looks from the vantage of the greatest height upon the nine in the fifth place. He has not yet forgotten the world and is therefore still concerned with its affairs.
-Wilhelm

 

[bruce_g]

What I get from line 6: over-viewing life, without attachment, the cessation of all striving. It reminds me of “Fool on a Hill, by the Beatles.

 

[bruce_g]

Hey Matt, I got a chuckle out MSN's Gemini horoscope just now. Thought immediately of your post on line 4.

Gemini
May 20 - June 20
Uneasy feelings may be plaguing you throughout the day, dear Gemini. There may appear to be no valid reason for this. Everything seems to be going well for you, and no one close to you has anything heavy going on. It's probably nothing earthshaking; you may just be picking up intuitively on the troubles and anxieties of people you pass on the street. Your intuition is high today, so you could psychically sense just about anything. Hang in there!

 

[lightofreason]

IC+ 20.6

Line 6
"Contemplating one's work, we notice that which is not yet complete within our heart."

line position 6 is 'controlled' by hex 23 and its focus on pruning, the 'true' faith free of 'colourings' etc etc etc This aspect of 6 is brought out in detecting something 'not yet complete' within the heart.

In the XOR focus, 23-ness of 20 is described by analogy to 08. The attracting nature of 08 is unconditional, an attraction to the heart of it all. (in a social interpretation 08 reflects the court/king position, a passive position that attracts by being a 'ruler' etc - in 20.6 we are at the top, sage, position and so a more 'spiritual' focus overall. Due to the duality in perceptions of 20 (admiring another/contemplating self) this is also interpretable as by admiring one so one turns to see inside oneself and detects an issue with one's heart and so sets to work on that.

 

[rosada]

Really like your interpretation of this line, Chris. It goes along with what I was intuiting. Yesterday my sister told me she is uncertain whether she will continue to be active in a church where she has been a member for many years. The minister is retiring. My sister has decided to participate on the committee that is chosing the new minister, as she feels with her many years of experience and personal knowledge of the church history this is a place where she can make a meaningful contribution. Then after giving it her best shot, fulfilling her responcibilities, she may move on. This seems to me to be an example of 20.6, feeling it's time to move on, but having a heart connection with those one is leaving. Perhaps this explains 21, Biting Through, coming next? 20, seeing the big picture and spottimg the one last incomplete detail, then 21, taking care of it?

 

[matt]

Hey Bruce, good to see you again too

Thanks for the horoscope, it certainly gave me a chuckle too! lol

I think Trojans idea on line 4 was excellent too, and I would agree that line 4 does indeed play out this way also. Though there are many layers to everything, and my interpretation was just another layer.

When you mention that line 4 pertains to 'others', just like lines 5 and 6, is this in reference to the belief that the outer trigram pertains to the outer world/others, whilst the inner trigram pertains to our inner world/us?
For example, many say the first line of inner trigram springs from deep in the subconscious, early in its birth, just taking form. By the time that energy reaches the 2nd line, it has matured and become centred within our consciousness. The third line shows that energy then permeating the outer world with our interactions with others.
Then between the 3rd line and the 4th line, a balancing of outer and inner is achieved. The 4th line, and the start of the outer trigram, then show how energy approaches us, the effect of others interactions upon us. Thats true to some extent, but it only covers one side of the tale.

When the energy reaches the 4th line, the journey is still ongoing. Our inner journey is complete, and now begins the flight into the outer as it mingles with all other matured outer energies of others. Its in the outer interction - specifically the 4th line, that we must remember our own place more than any other time. The thought or feeling we have grown in the inner trigram has a form within our consciousness by this stage, but its form in the outer world is still immature by the time it reaches the 4th line. So this is where confusing our own thought with others can become very easy to do. As the energy mingles with others and returns back to us, its form will never be as pure as it was when it left us. It will be carrying with it the substances of other thoughts it has had contact with. This is where differentiation comes in - the ability to remember the original thought, and therefore we come to know what 'extra stuff' is attached to our thought when it returns.

As Trojan quite rightly pointed out, empathic people are extremely good at doing this. What defining characteristic do most empathic people have? Would you say they are logical people? No probably not. Intuitive people? Most probably yes. Intuitive people possess very visual minds. A visual mind is what is required to see what has become entangled with the original thought/feeling. Then by assessing the additional substance, there we have a new method of communication called telepathy, which requires no words at all, just the differentiation of energy.
This is why line 4, which does pertain to others, is also essential for guesting our own energies, because much of what we send out returns to us by this stage.

 

[Sparhawk]

A better view of that card I posted before...

L

 

[frank_r]

Nice card Luis.

A few days ago I had 20 line 6.
I´m working with the Yi when I treat patients and I changed the way I use the Yi. So I asked if this was the apropiated way tho use the Yi when I´m working as a acupuncturist.

I saw it as sign that I can treat the people looking from some distance but still connected.
And Bruce hopefully not as a fool on a hill.

 

[rosada]

Just wanted to acknowledge Matt for his most interesting and useful thoughts on the meanings of the line placements. Thanks!

 

[equinox]

20.5>23 'The Tower Is Splitting Apart'

Recently I received 'The Tower' repeatedly in my tarot card readings, which I started to find unsettling.
(Those of you unfamiliar with tarot may have a look at the attached picture.)

I worried if something bad was going to happen soon, because 'The Tower' can predict a violent event, a sudden and/or painful end of something.

So I asked the Yi to help me understanding the specific meaning of this tarot card in my situation right now and it gave me the result 20.5>23, 'the tower is splitting apart'.
As you know, hex 20 doesn't only mean 'seeing' or 'contemplation' but also 'tower'.

I interpreted it in a way that I was caught in a little room with no space to move and no windows in this tower, without the possibility to look over the wide landscapes and therefore to see what is happening outside and how I can connect to it. I was confronted only with myself.

The question 'who am I' seems to be unsatisfying in general if I try to observe myself in a manner that doesn't include the 'world outside' as well. There is no real answer and it is likely to be caught up in self-referentiality, maybe self doubts and isolation, like in a dark and heavily bricked tower -- which is falling apart now fortunately.
I can only escape from this collapsing building, if I am ready to connect to what I regard the 'outer world' again.

So 20.5 to me means, at least in this context, an ego shattering, which is a painful but inevitable process, in order to see clear and to be profoundly open minded, for the sake of everybody involved.