The Judgement of Hexagram 15 says that,
‘Integrity creates success,
The noble one completes things.’
What’s the significance of ‘completing things’ (literally, ‘having completion’), as against just ‘succeeding’?
Wilhelm translates this as ‘carries things through’ and describes it as completing one’s work; he mentions how much simpler and more effective it is not to be concerned with acknowledgement. The noble one is capable of this because of his ability to see a bigger picture; he isn’t dependent on recognition, and doesn’t complicate matters by looking for it.
The fan yao of 15’s ruling line is 2.3, which speaks of working for a king and bringing things to completion without ‘accomplishment’ – without getting kudos or having something to show for it. The implication is that the noble one ‘toils with authenticity’ and without attachment to how he’ll look. He knows that what he’s working for is more important in the long term.
This longer-term perspective is also part of the noble one’s capacity for greater vision. Stephen Karcher says that this is about opening new possibilities, not bringing things to an end. In practice I think it means doing both: completing one thing in order to have the energy and attention for the next. The old character for ‘completing’ shows threads tied off: time to wind and store this thread and start spinning a new one, just as one year ends so that the next can begin.
Where the noble one can complete things, a small person (judging from how the small ones are usually contrasted to the junzi) might be more inclined to cling to what they know and identify with wherever they’ve invested their labour. And the arrogant people spoken of in the commentary would be too full of their own story, too intent on playing their own starring role, to imagine that their scene might need to end to keep the plot moving forward. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve received Hexagram 15 as advice that it wasn’t All About Me after all.
The Image shows the same perspective. Brad Hatcher sums it up brilliantly in his I Ching:
“The mountain stands in its past and future tense: beyond its youth and its old age, in both directions, is earth. The level horizon hides the distant peak, while another peak stands just under the surface.â€
We invest everything in building something up, an inner mountain of solid self-awareness and self-respect. But the mountain’s eventual purpose is to enrich a new field.
Hi
Just in case the comment could be useful
One question: what is the “issue” that is needed to be complete?
In practical (microcosmical) questions, it could be the issue that concerns the consultant (an enterprise; a relationship; a job, etc)
But in macrocosmical questions, this is a deeper answer. The noble fulfill his/her task in the world.
This means: fulfill his/her rol in the society (microcosmo) according with his/her own’s Nature (macrocosmo). Another way to say it: the Noble fulfill his/her individual Tao (returning to the Great Tao)
This is a life-time task: to know first, and then to follow and fulfill my own Nature, accepting (with humble disposition) the rol that this Nature is meant to play in the world.
In Jung’s terminollogy: is fullfiling the individuality process to let emerge the Self.
It is seen in line 15.3: the noble faces the tension between the needed action in the world and the risk for the fame that this action brings to one’s life. It means: the action in the world IS NEEDED (just as we need the personality to act in the society, in jung’s terminollogy), but it implies the RISK of the fame (personality can repress another aspects of the being like the shadow and the anima/animus, in Jung’s work, and misguide the Subject’s life). The Humble disposition can cure this tension, so one can play the role of his/her own Nature -completes things- without being misguided for fame (one don’t be attached to Ego, and let the Self emerge)
Now, this is reinforced if we see the cause of line 15.3 (1.3) and the effect of it (2.3)
Stephen Karcher recieved this answer in a macrocosmical question. You could find interesting to see the reading; his interpretation and some later ideas in http://www.greatvessel.com
The skeletal form of 15 is described by analogy to the dampened qualities of 22. The focus there is on facading, to cover up, gloss over. In its more undampened form it develops into beautification but to draw attention away from looking ‘inside’. The reverse is where a dampened 15 describes the skeletal form of 22 and so a focus on levelling-out, evening-out, no highs, no lows.
The 15/22 pair form a quartet with 52/36. In the latter pair so the particular form of expression of 15 is manifest in 52 with its focus on converting issues of blockage/stopping etc into refined form as discernment and quality control. This is particular, conditional, when compared to 15 being unconditional. The discernment acts to ‘block’, to ‘stop’ rubbish through the use of discernment. This focus on blockage/discernment is dampened to describe the skeletal form of 36 where the ‘darkening of the light’ shows the covering of ‘quality’ unconditionally. 36 pairs with 22 to show the conditional ‘covering’ thorough the use of facading.
36 then serves as the source of description for the skeletal form of 52 where the light is kept ‘inside’. It is from suffering that we learn discernment, the loss of love, the mourning of of lost ones as well as the fantasies of future ones ( and so the past/future dynamic in mountain) is were we develop quality control all hidden, all ‘in here’.
Facading, covering up, filling in the lows, bringing down the highs reflect efforts to ‘complete’ – to present a ‘finished’ work that is in fact ‘hiding’ things.
I received the hexagram 15, without changing line to the following question:
What will be the way I would see (resume or understand) this present love relation when I will be in my very old age. I am 50 – female. It is a new relation with a lot of obstacles…..
Hm – maybe as a moment of truth? As a mirror in which you came to know yourself?
Wow
This rings a bell. The guy and me share a kind of instantaneous telepathic communication, even before I met him in person. These very strong feelings lead me to believe in the concept of twin souls, as our lives too, seem to show a lot of similarities, altough there is still some complete opposition on few domains….( I am messy, he is rather obsessive in putting order…).
As for all fixed hexagram I am always puzzled if the signification should be understand as the reverse of the regular signification, or the sign that the situation is in a deadlock, spinning upon itself, dwelling nowhere….