I’ve just added a full-length article on hexagram 62 to the ‘hexagrams’ page. I’ve tried to take guo in its simplest sense, of ‘stepping across a line’, and explore what it means to do this in a small way. It seems to me to be very difficult: it’s one thing to embark on a transition when you can envision yourself as powerful, like the one who can ‘set up alone without fear’ in the Image of 26. It’s quite another to do so when you’re small.
It reminds me of the particular kind of courage I see every Tuesday, helping out at a day centre for the elderly. People are going through huge transitions, at a time when their ‘smallness’ relative to their environment is at its greatest. There’s very little they can do without giving it their complete, present attention: getting out of a chair, picking something up from the floor, all things I can do with my mind on something else. Odd how much more they notice than I do, too…
I took my Power in my Hand —
And went against the World —
‘Twas not so much as David — had —
But I — was twice as bold —
I aimed my Pebble — but Myself
Was all the one that fell —
Was it Goliath — was too large —
Or was myself — too small?
~ Emily Dickinson