More about acting on I Ching readings

When I asked about getting the confidence to act on one’s understanding of a reading, Yi pointed out to me in its own inimitable way that this wasn’t a very valuable question to ask. One can get into trouble by having confidence as easily as by lacking it. So why don’t I ask about understanding instead of confidence?

So I got somewhat closer to the question people have been asking me. How do you know when the understanding you have of a reading is true? How do you recognise that? In other words –

When is it right to act on a reading?

(What’s the quality of that moment that we could recognise?)

Yi answers this with Hexagram 35, Prospering, changing at lines 4 and 6 to Hexagram 2, Earth, the Receptive. Prospering and still Receptive.

Hexagram 35, Prospering, describes receiving and using a gift:

‘Prospering, Prince Kang used a gift of horses to breed a multitude.
He mated them three times in one day.’

Prince Kang is favoured by his brother the king; he’s rewarded for his good service; he’s blessed by heaven. The sun is shining out over the earth: it’s a moment of connection and blessing, and an invitation to make the most of it. The moment to act on a reading is when you experience it as a gift; then it’s time to show your gratitude by giving it your own dedication and energy, working with the gift to multiply it.

Hexagram 2, the Receptive, describes (amongst other things) a willingness to follow and accept guidance:

‘Earth.
Creating success from the source, harvest in the constancy of a mare.
A noble one has a direction to go.
At first: confusion. Later: gains a lord and harvest.
In the southwest, gains partners.
In the northeast, loses partners.
Peaceful constancy brings good fortune.’

The constancy of a mare combines strength and spirit with a great responsiveness to guidance, even the subtlest of nudges. The time to act on a reading is when you can embody the mare’s qualities: be both strong and ‘soft-mouthed’.

Freeman Crouch characterises this hexagram as the noble in search of a job, ‘hoping to be worked by a spirited leader’. It’s good to respond to a reading when you are looking for a way to be of service – and, if you have your own ‘direction to go’, looking for guidance on how to pursue it and do justice to the inspiration.

Also, Hexagram 2 ties the reading down to practical considerations. Act on a reading when you can go southwest to find support, as well as following your unique calling northeastwards; do it when such action is possible, and you can settle into it steadily with ‘peaceful constancy’.

These two hexagrams create a remarkable partnership: wholeheartedly using the gift received; wholeheartedly being used yourself. Receive the gift of horses; have the mare’s constancy.

This is very beautiful. And yet… the moving lines don’t capture anything like the same sense of balance and ‘rightness’:

‘Prospering like a bushy-tailed rodent,
Constancy means danger.’

‘Prospering, your horns.
Hold fast, use it to subjugate the capital.
Danger, good fortune, not a mistake.
Constancy, shame.’

Line 4 has failed to set things in the larger context of hexagram 2. The bushy-tailed rodent gathers its own small heap of grains, never noticing that it’s spoiling the whole grain store. Maybe you can prosper rodent-fashion, but what are your chances of achieving anything of substance?

This looks to me like a small-minded, safe kind of reading. What if I buy this book, go to this party, install this program? On the one hand you can ‘prosper’ from such readings in a small way. On the other hand, if you persist in this, you run into danger. Maybe if you keep feeding your natural ‘smallness’ in this way, it becomes a monster.

Line 6 is different – a much bigger, more powerful creature, armed with horns and motivated by the ‘big pictures’ of Hexagram 16. You receive the answer, know what to do, lower your horns and ‘hold fast, use it to subjugate the capital.’ You charge into action, assert your control, make it happen.

In my experience, this line often seems to indicate making a big move to overcome a fear. You take your courage in both hands and enter into danger, confront the ghosts. And this is good fortune, not a mistake – but nonetheless, not a way to persist.

Here are two moments of acting on readings that I can, in fact, recognise very well. There’s the reading that’s easy to act on, because only bushy-tailed-rodent-scale things are involved. And there’s the one where you don’t actually feel confident to start with, but must needs move forward anyway and create the confidence by acting. I’ve had several readings in the past few months where the action I needed to take was easy to identify: it was whatever I was shrinking away from inwardly and trying not to look at.

The first message I get from this reading is that Yi is saying: this is how the right moment feels, or this is as right as it’s going to feel. Somewhere between the desire to act in response to gifts, and the bigger context of accepting guidance and serving something greater, you have to set yourself in motion. This isn’t an easy moment; it’s one where you face ghosts.

However, though this is a good way to get yourself moving, it’s a shameful way to orientate yourself in the long term. Why? At a guess, because girding your loins and exerting your will is not the best way to be, and in an ideal state you wouldn’t need to go through all that to align yourself with the oracle; you’d already be aligned, naturally. It brings to mind the story of the Daoist sage who could swim in the rapids – but not by the exertion of strength. At 35.6, according to the commentary on the line, ‘the dao is not yet shining.’

So I made one more attempt at asking a good question – getting closer yet to the basics. I’ll write that one up shortly in a new post.