above Gen, Keeping Still, mountain · below Gen, Keeping Still, mountain
This is about keeping still, a deliberate pause. ‘True rest means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the time has come to go forward.’ The heart is always thinking, yet its thoughts should stay within your present situation. ‘All thinking beyond it only makes the heart sore.’ Pause before you take the next step, and think only about what lies in front of you now. Don’t race far ahead in your mind; to pause like this is no mistake.
What lies in front of you now, once you stop thinking so far ahead?
The image of the sign is the mountain, the youngest son of heaven and earth. The male is above, where by its nature it strives to go; the female is below, where its direction of movement leads. So there is rest, because movement has reached its normal end.
Applied to man, the sign shows the problem of attaining rest of the heart. The heart is very hard to bring to rest. Whereas Buddhism seeks rest through the dying away of all movement in nirvana, the standpoint of the Book of Changes is that rest is only a polar state, which always has movement as its complement.
Perhaps the words of the text contain instructions for the practice of yoga.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Keeping his back still,so that he no longer feels his body.He goes into his courtyard and does not see his people.No blame.
True rest means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the time has come to go forward. In this way rest and movement are in accord with the demands of the time, and so there is the light of life.
The sign is the end and the beginning of all movement. The back is named because it is in the back that all the nerve cords lie which convey movement. If the movement of these spinal nerves is brought to a standstill, the self, so to speak, disappears together with its unrest. When a man has become inwardly calm in this way, he may turn to the outside world. He no longer sees in it the struggle and throng of individual beings, and so he has the true rest that is needed to understand the great laws of world events and to act accordingly. Whoever acts from this depth makes no mistake.
Mountains standing together: the image of keeping still.So the noble one does not let his thoughts go beyond his situation.
The heart is always thinking. That cannot be changed. But the movements of the heart, that is, the thoughts, should keep within one’s present situation in life. All thinking beyond it only makes the heart sore.
Compare Goethe:
‘To soothe your longing for the far and the yet to come,busy yourself here and today with work well done.’
Wilhelm placed the signs ○ and □ after certain lines (p. 334 f.). They mark the rulers of the hexagram. □ stands by the constituting ruler: the line that gives the hexagram its meaning, however high it stands and whatever its character. ○ stands by the governing ruler. It is always of good character and becomes ruler through the meaning of the time and its position, usually in the fifth place. Where a line is both, it carries ○.
Keeping his toes still.No blame.Lasting perseverance is favourable.
Keeping the toes still means halting before you have even begun to move. At the start you still see things clearly, unclouded by interests and desires. Stop while you are still on the right path, which is no mistake, and stay firm about it, so that pausing doesn’t turn into drifting along without a will of your own.
Keeping the toes at rest means halting before one has even begun to move. The beginning is the time when one makes few mistakes. One is still in accord with original innocence. One sees things intuitively as they are, not yet influenced by the clouding that comes from interests and desires. Whoever stands still at the beginning, while he has not yet left the truth, finds what is right. Only, lasting firmness is needed so that one does not drift into letting oneself be carried along without a will of one’s own.
Keeping his calves still.He cannot rescue the one he follows.His heart is not glad.
Whoever follows in the train of someone stronger is swept along. Even if they halt on the wrong path themselves, they can no longer hold the other back. Accept soberly that you cannot save someone who is pressing forward, however well you mean; a heavy heart is part of this situation.
The leg cannot move on its own; its movement depends on the movement of the body. If the body is in vigorous motion and the leg is suddenly stopped, the continuing movement of the body makes the man fall.
So it is too with a man who is in the train of a stronger personality. He is swept along. Even if he himself halts on the path of wrong, he can no longer hold back the other in his powerful movement. Where the master presses forward, the servant cannot save him, however well he means.
Keeping his hips still.Making his sacrum stiff.Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Here rest is being forced: a restless heart is to be subdued by force. It is like fire that is held down and turns into acrid smoke. Don’t force yourself into calm; it has to grow naturally out of inner composure, or it becomes dangerous.
Here it is a matter of enforced rest. The heart, which is in unrest, is to be subdued by force. But fire that is forcibly held down turns into acrid smoke, which spreads and suffocates.
In exercises of meditation and concentration, therefore, one must not use force. Rather, rest must develop quite naturally out of a state of inner collectedness. If rest is to be forced by holding oneself artificially rigid, meditation will lead to serious ill effects.
Keeping his trunk still.No blame.
Keeping the trunk still, you can already bring your thoughts and impulses to rest, though you are not yet wholly free of them. Doubt and unrest still arise. Carry on all the same; this frame of mind lies on the way to a deeper rest and is no mistake.
Keeping the back at rest, as mentioned in the words on the sign as a whole, means forgetting the self. That is the highest stage of rest. Here this stage has not yet been reached. One is already able to keep the self still, with its thoughts and impulses. But one is not yet wholly free of it. Even so, keeping the heart still is an important function, which in time leads to the complete elimination of the selfish drives. Even if one does not yet remain free of all the dangers of doubt and unrest, this frame of mind is no mistake, since it lies on the way to that other, higher one.
Keeping his jaws still.The words have order.Remorse disappears.
In a difficult situation it is easy to be quick with talk and flippant jokes, and later there is much to regret. Be sparing with your words. Then what you say takes on a firm shape, and what you regret will pass.
In a dangerous situation, especially as long as one is not equal to it, one is very quick with talk and pert jokes. But careless talk easily leads one into situations in which one afterwards has much to regret. If, however, one holds back in speaking, one’s words take on an ever firmer shape, and then every occasion for remorse disappears.
Large-hearted keeping still.Good fortune!
At the end of the effort stands a generous calm, with no petty fussing over each detail. If you accept the situation as a whole, you find peace for every detail too. Stop trying to hold on to every little thing; stay composed about the whole, and it turns out well.
Here the effort towards rest reaches its completion. One is at rest not in a petty, narrowly measured way in particular things; rather, a resignation that embraces the whole brings rest and good fortune to every single thing.
Would you like to put your own question to the I Ching? Six throws of three coins, and the answer appears straight away.
Consult the I ChingTexts by Richard Wilhelm: I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen (first edition Jena 1924), translated into English by NUMEN COMPASS from the Diederichs edition, Munich 1996. Wilhelm’s German text is in the public domain. The section ‘What the hexagram says today’, the question for you and the short notes under the lines are our own reading. The I Ching is no substitute for medical, legal or psychological advice.