On the threshold of Progress

Here’s a wonderful reading I heard about and wanted to share.

A client who’s working on my I Ching course had received Hexagram 35, line 1. In Stephen Karcher’s comments on the line, she found reference to ‘using a net’ and wondered what this meant. So – not unreasonably – she asked Yi what to make of the ‘net’. She received Hexagram 64 with the second line moving, changing to Hexagram 35.

I think this is lovely. Not only does hexagram 35 reappear, but specifically Yi elucidates its first line as being Not Yet Across into Progress. Tradition says that the first and last lines of a hexagram are ‘outside’ it: the last line is leaving, the first line has yet to enter in. ‘Not Yet Across’ puts it perfectly.

As for the net – well, 35.1 reads something like this:

‘Now progressing, now stopped.
Constancy, good fortune.
Empty, true. Enriched, no mistake.’

The word ’empty’, wang, also means ‘no’ or ‘without’, hence Wilhelm’s translation: ‘If one meets with no confidence.’ I do think this lack of trust is part of the line’s meaning, but so too is its etymological root, ‘net’.

What is ‘net truth’? I think it’s a truth of empty spaces and minimal resistance. You could try fishing with a solid pot, but that wouldn’t enrich you by many fish. Likewise, you could meet the obstruction that checks your progress with equal and opposite force, but this would only set up greater resistance and you wouldn’t gain much.

This line rescued me from an argument once. I was full of enthusiasm for a great new opportunity, all ready to go out and breed those horses like Prince Kang. Someone who knew nothing about it poured volumes of cold water over the idea. Grrr. I noticed that I was ‘now progressing, now stopped’, remembered receiving the line, and tried to become more net-like. I let the flood of cold water flow past and found it contained a few useful ‘fish’ of information.

And Yi’s comment on the net’s significance?

‘A drag on its wheels.
Constancy, good fortune.’

The drag on the wheels is controlling a carriage’s forward motion as it begins to cross the river, ensuring it can keep on moving forward and complete the crossing. There might be a temptation – probably born of lack of confidence – to take it at a gallop, but that would see you losing control and swept away downstream.

In the first place, you can hear how this echoes 35.1. Something checks your momentum, and constancy means good fortune. There’s a compromise between resistance and free movement, neither a complete standstill nor complete freedom. The net as ‘lack of confidence’ slows down your rush to commit to the new-found opportunity, offers just enough resistance to give you time to think. As ’empty-net truth’ it lets you find a balance between retaining control, and taking advantage of the natural flow of things.