Mud in the well

[gene]

I've gotten hexagram 48 a few times in my personal readings lately, not line one every time, but I did come to some new conclusions about this line. The well can refer to a source of life, and if there is mud in the well, that source is not useful. Water can sometimes be a synonym for intuition, and when there is mud in the water it can mean that our intuition is clouded. That it is not clear. This often happens because the mind is not settled. Lao Tzu said something to the effect (I don't remember the wording too well) "Can you calm your mind til it is still as the water in a lake?" Ocean water is usually at least a little bit choppy, at the very least there are ripples in the water, although on ocassion, while in the navy, I saw ocean water that was as still as if it were glass, but that is rare. Lake water, however, normally becomes very still unless there is a disturbance. When water is still, the mud and the dross, impurities, drop to the bottom. The lake becomes like a mirror and reflects everything around it just about perfectly. It is the same with our minds. It is only when we become so still, as in hexagram 52, that we do not feel our bodies, that true and pure intuition comes to us without being clouded over by judgments. Judgments can be like the mud in the well, they cause a disturbance. Another thing that can cause a disturbance is emotions that have been buried, emotions of hatred and anger that are pushed down into the unconscious, but they still spew out their poisons in the form of diseases that slowly ravage our body. Confusion, mistrust, upset, can also antagonize our mind. These things all cause there to be mud in the well, or poisons, polution, that damages the giver of life. When we are at peace, calm, like the lake, then the intuition can work its magic, and give us the "inner truth" of hexagram 61. When this line changes we have hexagram 5 which means waiting, and nourishment. In a sense we are waiting on our nourishment until the well is repaired, as in line four. With mud in the well it can be that the resources that we need are not available to us. Or we don't know how to find them. No animals come to an old well. The well has been neglected, and is in a state of disrepair. The information we need to act on is not up to date. The college class we paid tuition for is not up to the latest standards. We haven't kept up with the times. If there is mud in the well, it is possible that we haven't dug deep enough. We are relying on surface and superficial data. Or have not developed our ideas fully. We have not thought of all the ramifications. In this line we have left off from using wisdom, and that source of wisdom now is not functioning as we would like it to function. Line one has a correlation with line four. Line four tells us to line the well, the well needs to be repaired. There is an old saying, use it or lose it. The same can be true of our intuition. By use we make it stronger, ignore it and it atrophies.

Gene

 

[anita]

Hi Gene,

I got line 1 as well as 6 in 48 yesterday and remembered Marshall's advice on looking at the top line. So I did. But your interpretation on line 1 really makes terrific sense and i'm able to look at it afresh. Thanks
Anita

 

[gene]

Hi Anita

I got line one and six a few days ago too, then I got line 5 later. I hope to do more research on this hexagram soon. One and six alternates to 9 so with these two lines there is a relationship to slowly accumulating things. With each line in 48 we go a little deeper into the well, with line one, we have not delved deeply enough, with line six we are making use of the water. The two lines in some cases can refer to two ways we can go. Looking at things superficially and shallowly, or looking deeper and attaining the truth. In order to do this we have to slowly accumulate the truth until we really understand what we need to understand.

I don't remember quite what Marshall said about the sixth line.

Gene