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'Thunder and rain do their work: Release.
A noble one pardons transgressions and forgives crimes.'
Imagine the air after a thunderstorm: clean, clear, all the tension released. Humans do the work of thunder and rain through forgiveness. Just as, in the trigrams, thunder comes forth from an inner trigram representing rain and flowing water, so action can spring from fluidity rather than a rigid stance. (Think of a master of Tai Ji in motion or a springing cat.).........
K'AN, difficulty, in the lower trigram stimulates into activity CHEN, arousing movement, in the upper realm. Such a reaction brings good fortune. When none of the lines are moving, it signals an internal process of LIBERATION. It may be the passing of an unhealthy habit or pattern of behaviour. Perhaps you will discard a short sighted opinion that has stifled your growth or an unrealistic obsession that consumes your energies. Whatever the nature of this internal LIBERATION, it is a permanent improvement in your character.
Despite seeming simple it isn't always clear in practise which to do.
Do you think hex 40 could be seen as "do what will bring you 'relief'?"
In your short story example, it seems like you feel a sense of relief at not forcing yourself to write more stories. You said it doesn't come especially naturally to you, and you didn't feel much sense of connection to it. Had you tried, and kept getting rejection letters, it may have become more and more a bad experience.
Maybe that was implied in the answer. "What will bring you a sense of relief, Trojan? Letting it go. And btw don't worry; the dumb magazine won't take your stories anyway. So don't torment yourself with something you don't enjoy doing when it won't help you."
I mean, Yi could have told you to persevere regardless, because the end result would be good. There are lines for that (not that I can think of them at the moment), but you didn't get those.
In the sewing example - let's pretend you actually cast a reading and got hex 40, there in sewing class - what brought you relief? Going to the teacher, who fixed things. Hex 40 would have described several aspects of that situation: (1) what would bring you relief, (2) the fact that the teacher solved the problem, (3) her lovely reaction to you ("Look, little one: Poof! Gone!"), (4) the fact that you did not get in trouble, despite fearing you might. Every aspect of the incident was 40-ish.
So it brought you relief to go to the teacher. You may have never fixed the knot yourself, sitting there stewing over it, because it likely would never have occurred to you to yank on the fabric like that. Even if you had thought of it, you might have been afraid of ripping it. You had no experience to tell you what to do, but the teacher did.
So if, in this semi-fictional example, you'd asked yourself, "What will bring me relief here?" you probably would have come to the conclusion that the best chance of that would be in going to the teacher, despite your trepidation.
Do you think hex 40 could be seen as "do what will bring you 'relief'?"
DELIVERANCE. The southwest furthers.
If there is no longer anything where one has to go,
Return brings good fortune.
If there is still somewhere one has to go,
Hastening brings good fortune.
He then says in the commentary
"This refers to a time in which tensions and complications begin to be eased. At such times we ought to make our way back to ordinary conditions as soon as possible; this is the meaning of "the southwest".
This does seem to tally with doing what brings you back to your normal state, IOW as you said, whatever brings you relief. If there is something real to be done, a direction go, you will know it.
I think often people get this when in a state of tension through being unsure whether to act or not. We all know that great sense of relief when we make a choice. I reckon 40uc shows that relief is imminent or at least we are in a position to make the choice easily.
Oh, I see. So one possibility when getting 40uc might be to be on the lookout for tiny little voices inside saying it might be best to let something go, even if you're unsure or actively do not want to.
Or, maybe you could try the options on mentally, sort of role-play them in your head, to see which feels better, which brings you more of a sense of relief.
Or, if "having a direction to go" would involve a lot of struggle (e.g. trying to save a situation or relationship, hanging onto something, trying to make something work), then hex 40 would be advice not to do that. In order for hex 40 to mean "do this thing, keep on with it," it would have to be something you could "hasten" to do - do quickly and get it done, get it over with, etc. It wouldn't have to be an onerous thing necessarily, but it does bring to mind parents saying, "Do your homework now, and then you can forget about it."
Writing and submitting short stories would not be that kind of "do it" situation for you, although of course it might be for a professional writer.
Does that make any sense? I'm trying to poke apart the following reaction to the text you quoted: "But I don't know whether there's anything there or not!" Are there ways of using a hex 40 essence to help figure that part out?
The "southwest" in the text. Wilhelm says it means "ordinary conditions." But again, sometimes you don't know what "ordinary conditions" are supposed to be. Is it "ordinary conditions" to stay with my boyfriend, because I've been dating him for a while now? Or is it more "ordinary" to break up with him and get on with my own life?
The southwest (if I have this right) can also mean "where there are helpers." Hilary says in a blog post that the southwest means partners and allies, and does NOT mean to "‘go it alone’ in heroic fashion."
And I'm guessing that helpers, partners, and allies don't only mean other people. It could mean anything that would make the matter asked about easier, or make the decision easier. So if you get hex 40, and you are able to think of something that would help you, something that might fix it, or a resource you could make use of, then go right ahead in that direction. If you can't (quickly) find any aids, then release the matter?
I'm trying to poke apart the following reaction to the text you quoted: "But I don't know whether there's anything there or not!" Are there ways of using a hex 40 essence to help figure that part out?
I'm not sure what reaction you mean. Who said 'I don't know.....' ?
well I don't think it would necessarily have to mean something you could do quickly...it may be a long term project, but it would mean not procrastinating. So if it were something difficult you'd need a good solid sense of purpose to get started. A motivation, a reason, a purpose. Then if you have that there's no point hanging around is there, better get to work.
"If there is no longer anything where one has to go,
Return brings good fortune.
If there is still somewhere one has to go,
Hastening brings good fortune."
But, any second now you will point out that this thread is for experiences, not theory. And you've cleared up my underlying question from your earlier post, in which you said you thought hex 40 was a very neutral reading about your story writing. I thought to myself that I didn't really think of hex 40 as saying, "Meh, whatever" (my interpretation of "neutral"), and so I was trying to get into that a little more. You've done that, so thanks.
Ah yes it was discussed how 40 and 37 may be complements from post 88 on this thread http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/showthread.php?17790-Hexagram-Opposites/page5
Sooo, am not sure if you're responding to something I said, or following up your earlier post?
Could 25 be the shadow of 40 like this?
40 calls for either doing something, or making the decision to NOT do it, but either way resolving the situation and returning to normal, tension-free conditions.
25 is disentangling or detachment, just keeping out of a situation. Sometimes disentangling actually does resolve a matter, but could 25 also be seen as ignoring something? 40 doesn't really mean ignoring things, it's more letting things go on purpose, so that you can then stop worrying about them. (Ignored projects are often NOT projects you can stop worrying about.)
In your sewing example, Trojina, 25 may have been leaving class with your fabric still knotted, hoping that somehow when you returned to it the knot would have magically disappeared and you wouldn't have to interact with your mean teacher. That would have prolonged your tension. Instead you bravely showed it to your teacher, who was nice for once and made it go away.
In a relationship issue, could 25 mean letting issues drift, unresolved, until the relationship sort of dwindles out on its own? Or like when people say of friends, "Well, we sort of just lost touch." (Which happens, of course, and a lot of times isn't even blameworthy.) Whereas would 40 mean purposely ending things with the other person, saying, "I'm breaking up with you; I consider myself free to see other people, and so should you"? Closure, not drifting?
u know how 39uc might feel ? Well 40uc is the other side of that presumably. In 39 it seems we need to find allies. To me 40uc often feels very much like giving up something that was an uphill struggle
Some experiences:first fall back and regroup because you can’t see the destination.
The relaxation of ‘southwest’ is the first step. [this one is CRUCIAL, to me]
Action comes from inner fluidity
letting go of your own guilt
At the end of a series of questions about some money I have been (sort of--complicated situation) owed for over a year, and really need: is there ONE thing I can hear? 40uc [Ten minutes later, I got word that the person had agreed to set a date to send the money, which was a big step forward, but it would be three months in the future, ARGH. What I now think 40uc meant was: you have no control anyway, just let it go.]
Maybe an implication in the 40uc was that Yi was telling you it was okay to be relieved, because the person actually would pay you. (I can imagine that given the history, you may have thought something like, "Sure, right, I'll believe it when I see it.")
Theperson on this card brings a new twist to the old idea of ″gettingstuck between a rock and a hard place″! But we are in preciselythis sort of situation when we get stuck in the indecisive anddualistic aspect of the mind. Should I let my arms go and fallhead-first, or let my legs go and fall feet-first? Should I go hereor there? Should I say yes or no? And whatever decision we make, wewill always wonder if we should have decided the other way. The onlyway out of this dilemma is, unfortunately, to let go of both at once.You can′t work your way out of this one by solving it, making listsof pros and cons, or in any way working it out with your mind. Betterto follow your heart, if you can find it. If you can′t find it,just jump--your heart will start beating so fast there will be nomistake about where it is!
i think what's behind it is that whatever tension you feeling while asking the question -
that tension should be released.
And we are speaking of 40 uc in particular, what that says...I think 40uc has an inevitability about it. It's going to be released. It's not so much an instruction as a prediction perhaps.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).