Let me give you an example. Twenty years ago I asked the Yi about a major goal and got “hidden dragon” (hexagram 1/1). My natural inclination was to believe such a situation would last 6 months at most. It didn’t. It lasted 10 years. And then the dragon emerged into the field and began the ascent of the dragon lines. But despite it taking so long, I saw in retrospect that of course that was how long it had to take, simply because of the difficulty of the task I was asking about. But the “promise” inherent in “hidden dragon” fulfilled itself. As you may have guessed, my goal was intimately connected with the Yijing itself, essentially about my own destiny in relation to it, which later took form as “The Mandate of Heaven”, among other things. A lot had to happen, and much learning and understanding had to come, before I could possibly have been in a position to be anything other than a “hidden dragon” in relation to such a goal. But in your 20s you have unrealistic expectations, and little grasp of timescale and what is really meant by the time “being ripe”.

Habitual questioning is a real problem. For many, an Yijing reading lasts as long as you are receptive to it, which for some is about 5 seconds. And a lot will “cancel” out what the Yi has just said by immediately asking another question, forgetting what was said the first time if this time it seems “better” or easier to understand. It has been my experience that very few questions I have personally asked the Yijing have been relevant to what the oracle is, mainly because I made them irrelevant myself through consulting the Yijing too much. Later I came to regard such questioning as “practice” to gain familiarity with the oracle, but stopped believing that the oracle always speaks. In fact, I think it hardly ever *really speaks*. And the more habitually a person consults the Yi, the harder it becomes to distinguish real interactions with the oracle from a one-sided conversation. But, in time, it can become possible. The best sign of that is putting the Yijing away and hardly ever consulting it any more.

One of the most useful learnings one can derive from the Yi is to get rid of impetuousness and impatience, and learn to wait for the time to fulfill itself. Even if it takes ten or twenty years.