Hexagram 5, Waiting or Attending, ends at the 6th line with
‘Entering into the cave
There are uninvited guests,
Three people come.
Honouring them, in the end good fortune.’
So on the one hand the waiting is almost finished – instead of going out and crossing the river to show your readiness to welcome what you need, enter into your own space and prepare it for visitors. Those coming are not what you invited, expected or planned for after all, but honouring them will bring good fortune in the end. Waiting will become a matter of paying attention to what’s already with you, not of anticipating what may be on its way.
This has always struck me as a beautiful miniature vignette, maybe echoing those myths in which unknown visitors turn out to be gods.
Then – at Kate’s blog – I came across this poem by Rumi about welcoming groups of three uninvited visitors:
“This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.”
Hey! I followed the pingback. What a great blog! And a marvellous piece of synchronicity, because I was just thinking about writing a post on divination.
I’m a big I Ching fan myself, and for a while have been interested in learning more about it, so I’m happy to have found you!
Kate’s last blog post..Musical self-help no. 6, Valentine’s Day edition – Pink
Synchronicity, eh? Who’d’ve thought? 🙂 (Let me know when you publish that post on divination.)
>This has always struck me as a beautiful miniature vignette, maybe echoing those myths in which unknown visitors turn out to be gods.
Yes, my thoughts exactly.
Also, I speculate: “three guests” are like three hexagrams that intervene between this line and its target upon changing to Hexagram #9. The tensions that we see in Hexagram #5 are resolved in #9 (blood disappears, apprehension is over and rain comes).
This has something to do with rain-making rituals.
Well, yes. However, I have a big hunch that the post isn’t the product of a divination but purposely selected the way a Bible passage is selected to make a moral point. Just don’t forget though: The Yi also talks about bandits–and very pointedly at that. Like the unexpected guests, they are also uninvited…
Luis Andrade’s last blog post..48.1 > 5, A matter of working with what’s available…
I hopes this helps someone to find the meaning in line 05.6
It’s actually a bit of subtle comedy from the authors.
05.6, Top 6, Zhi Gua 09: Xiao Chu, Raising Small Beasts
(Fan Yao 09.6: rain at last, respect qualities already achieved)
Entering into a pit
With no invitations extended to visitors, three people arrive
To attend to them will end in good fortune
05.6x With no invitations extended, visitors arrive
To attend to them will end in good fortune:
Although not a proper situation
Still less than a major mishap
Waiting properly also waits for the things not expected, and is seldom disappointed. You had all that time on your hands to get ready, even when you knew not what for, but all that you did was long out the window for something that had not yet arrived. Now come what may has. You might think you could have kept house in less pitiful shape, but waiting does not work well in the past, and there is no could have been. What’s not done’s not done. The question now is how quickly to learn, since now is a meanwhile too, even during the knocks at the door. There is still time to salvage some dignity and get a good attitude ready. This is where the guests will most want their welcome. Of course every host in the sociable world will apologize for their pit. At least you will not have to lie now. Clear a quick trail and receive them as honored.
“Vradford”??? Hey, Brad, how about “Vladford”? 😀
Luis Andrade’s last blog post..48.1 > 5, A matter of working with what’s available…
Yeah, with the voiced labio-dental fricative. Waddaboudit?
Glad you can correct these posts now.
As to the comment, I think there are a bunch of gags like this in the Yi – that
are especially designed to trap the reader who tends to forget that the meaning of the line is always a subset of the meaning of the gua. You can’t possibly get it until you remember that the hexagram is all about making the best use of a time of waiting. It ruins your excuse for being caught off guard. Also, “this place is a pit” (hole, dump) as a metaphor works in both Chinese and English, as many of the Yijing’s native language puns do.
LOL! Hey, I can picture you as “Vladford, the Yarrow Impaling Diviner”… 😀
Certainly. That’s why I tried to point that it is one thing to drop line texts at random and let them fall into the proverbial subconscious mold and let them sparkle synchronicity thoughts and another to use them as morals. Not a yellow brick road, that one, IMO… 😀
Luis Andrade’s last blog post..48.1 > 5, A matter of working with what’s available…
Great bunch of posts.
On a deeper level, this hexagram, as they all do, teach us how the universe works. We wait in the sand, not a great place, we wait in the mud, a very bad place, and we wait in the pit, a very scary place. And yet the superior man in the fifth place waits in good cheer. This is why the three uninvited guests turn out to be helpful. Because in spite of the danger, the superior man did not fear. The superior man remained calm and cheerful in spite of the danger. This is the way the universe works. It works for good for those who are appreciative of life, regardless of circumstances, and bad circumstances, or what appears to be bad circumstances ultimately are found to be for our highest good. When we worry, when we have anxiety, when we rail against circumstances, and our lot in life, we block the flow, and the univited guests are harmful, (hexagram 6), not helpful. It is all in our attitude. “all things work together for good…”
Gene
Good site with some interesting, informative and well written articles.
Note to self – I should make posts last thing at night more often, in the hope of waking up to an outpouring of comments 🙂
The post was prompted by the Rumi quotation reminding me of the line. I do think the line plays with the idea of ‘waiting for something’ – since what comes after all this waiting is not what you invited.
I don’t think the nature of the ‘pit’ is so clear. Ordinary people’s houses were ‘pit dwellings’ in the sense that their floor was below ground level. So entering into it can be just going into your own space. So although a pit can become a trap, I don’t think it’s intrinsically scary, bad or shameful: it’s just a place to eat and sleep.
I like what LiSe makes of caves/pits:
http://www.yijing.nl/i_ching/hex_1-16/hex_e_05.htm
And “pit houses” is the sense i which it’s used here, as word play with Kan. Pit houses were homes for the lower classes, not really made for entertaining fancy guests. So this would have been an expression of self-deprecation or social modesty. Welcome to my poor hovel, my pitiful cave – you honor us with your presence as we are not worthy.
I don’t quite see, despite reading twice, why it is a gag. I expect we laugh at different shows.
Probably you should never explain a joke, but if you feel inclined…
As in –
What were you waiting for all this time?
You have no excuse for not being ready for anything.
Respecting or honoring the surprise guests allows you to salvage some dignity of your own. Getting flustered does not achieve this.
This can’t be understood without referring back to the Hexagram as a whole and its meaning of waiting, even though now the waiting is over. It makes no sense by itself – this is the jump in frame of reference that characterizes the humor.
A person is waiting, something comes, but they don’t recognise it as what they were waiting for. Like that, you mean? A certain irony maybe.
In that a top line is often too much, one is waiting too hard and can no longer see the wood for the trees. When one has become acclimatised to waiting, only an intervention of some sort can refocus the gaze. It is bound to appear a little unwelcome at first, since it does not resemble what one has been waiting for, which has probably become a little hazy as when the eyes stare too long at the same place. It’s a line for people who’ve forgotten how to listen, a bit like meeting the master in a narrow lane in that regard.
That’s more or less the joke I can see here – 5’s Waiting is very much about inviting and welcoming, and then what you didn’t invite shows up.
I like your take on this – the idea of it as a kind of ‘intervention’ – very much.
I have gotten this once before and it was hex 5.6_hex9.6
3 people arrived and I was ambushed and cornered. Exactly how it states.
My neighbor thought my house was on fire or smoking called cops and a fire fighter and two other uniform men showed up unexpectedly at my door and rushed in. No fire tho. Lol
And now I got this exact line up again.???? What could it be this time. Kinda scary. As no one else has had this. You guys say it’s other stuff but I see that most of you have no experience.with this two combos.
Hi Mindi,
5.6 doesn’t say anything about being ambushed or cornered, only that there are uninvited guests, and honouring them means good fortune in the end. You absolutely should not be scared by this.
My own experiences with 5.6 aren’t so literal, but a friend once told me how he cast this when he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and then three people showed up unexpectedly and offered him a lift.