无妄
GUA 25 · WU2 WANG
WITHOUT PRETENSE
Overall Image (大象)
Beneath the sky moves thunder
The creatures interact without pretensions
The early sovereigns, accordingly, flourished according to season
And nurtured the myriad beings▼
Overall Image (大象)
Beneath the sky moves thunder
The creatures interact without pretensions
The early sovereigns, accordingly, flourished according to season
And nurtured the myriad beings
Heaven has given all of its orders: they come with each being. This being, in turn, is what life has learned so far: to live and learn more, to add new perspectives and tricks. Ancient heaven and eons of seasons are at work in the natural mind. Life true to nature is the seed of heaven, its blessing to go forward, wild and noble, informed by its inner wisdom and what it can learn on the way. Most of the wisdom heaven might teach is built right into young sprouts, the rest being clockworks and natural law. We begin with heaven’s best guesses at how things might average out, a head start with promise, but not guarantees, not good and innocent, not sinful or fallen.
Main Judgment (Without Pretense) (卦辞)
Most fulfilling
Worthwhile to persist
For one without integrity there will be suffering*
And not much reward in having somewhere to go▼
Main Judgment (Without Pretense) (卦辞)
Most fulfilling
Worthwhile to persist
For one without integrity there will be suffering*
And not much reward in having somewhere to go
By right of birth comes the will and the sense to reach out for a good life. Youth errs and stumbles, but as with young bones, first roots and green branches, the shock of having to learn will be absorbed in the bending. The importance of living is its own affirmation, with heaven’s permissive assent; senseless living is also permitted, for those who may choose denial. Being true to the gifts one is born with, living a life of sincerity and integrity, is not any guarantee against bad luck and ugly surprises. Even truth is not always success. But life has learned that these traits will improve the odds, that working with a natural merit and practicing a natural good can be two of the best rules of thumb one can live by. And so one’s inner being might already know what it means to be true. And life has also learned that living an insincere life, full of contrivance and guile, with parts of yourself at odds with your nature, will tend to diminish a life, or cost too much precious time in defending illusions and errors. Innocence might not have all things thought through, but thought is not all. The pilgrim who still seeks his heaven has looked everywhere but at his own feet.
Key Words (关键词)
Lacking, avoiding, no + presumption, pretension, recklessness, falseness, delusion▼
Key Words (关键词)
Lacking, avoiding, no + presumption, pretension, recklessness, falseness, delusion
Artlessness, guilelessness; naturalness, simplicity, sincerity, a natural intelligence Natural gifts, instinctive goodness, spontaneity, integrity, innocence, inner voices Pure motives, openness, surprise, wonder, original mind, faith in innate goodness Credulity, vulnerability, susceptibility, accessibility; good faith; the noble savage Presumption of innocence, benefit of doubt; issues of confidence, trust & honesty
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Xun-Zhen Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Mars in Air
planet:Mars
element:Air
Tarot
card:Five of Swords
suit:Swords
Qabalah
note:Geburah in Yetzirah
sphere:Geburah
The Lines
11st • YangWith no pretense, to go forward is promising▼
1
1st • YangWith no pretense, to go forward is promising
25.1x Without pretense comes to advance:
Attaining the purpose
With no help from mind’s prior knowledge, an inner sense says to keep moving. A fetus does not know where it’s going when it first kicks the wall of the womb. It is doing this to learn about legs. Life’s first order of business is living to learn. Feedforward leads to feedback and this will feed the mind what it needs. Even the young of cattle and sheep can frolic and play and seem as if they had minds. Life pushes forward: the glorified mind is only one of its instruments, and has no more value or worth than the ways life can put it to work. Most confuse such innocence with ignorance, look upon wildness as a thing best outgrown, but life has had time to put its science together and knows that on average it’s better to explore than to stay put or hide. The promise here is of learning ahead, not guarantees of success.
22nd • YangWhen not plowing to harvest
And not breaking new ground for established fields
Then it is worthwhile to have somewhere to go▼
2
2nd • YangWhen not plowing to harvest
And not breaking new ground for established fields
Then it is worthwhile to have somewhere to go
25.2x Not plowing to harvest:
No riches yet
It is a folly of thinking to think that life in the present is confinement to life in the present. From its center here it reaches both forward and back. No garden would ever come to pass if no kind of forethought were thought, or if no kind of vision was seen and combined with tips from gardeners past. But the bulk of the work is done in the middle of these. We do not reap the harvest while plowing, nor do we dine on the third year’s crop while planting the first year’s seeds. We might trick ourselves into thinking that back pain or blisters are somehow their own reward. We trick our children in school, so that reading and math seem relevant many years ahead of time. These tricks may be better than expectations, which cost us our presence of mind, but best is to honor the need and just do it. Nothing passes the time like enjoyment.
33rd • YangOne without pretense still has misfortunes
Sometimes tying one’s ox
Means the drifter’s gain
And the townsfolk’s disaster▼
3
3rd • YangOne without pretense still has misfortunes
Sometimes tying one’s ox
Means the drifter’s gain
And the townsfolk’s disaster
25.3x The drifters’ gaining the ox
(Is) the townsfolk’s disaster
That bad things can happen to good people is the source of much wrong-headed, paranoid thinking. Accidents happen, and things not deserved. The ox which was tethered by some innocent farmer is the drifter’s gain, against a great loss of trust. Wisdom is built using tough knowledge too, and living to learn must also learn this. Undeserved ill fortune might squat on anyone’s head. To account for its presence, many of life’s extra meanings were conjured up out of thin air. Professionals will divine from its droppings, and pretend to know its next stop. But while this thing squats on the innocent bystander, things far from the truth will be thought, things not to the point will be said. Thus does the burden of proof fall upon the accuser, and the accused enjoys a presumption of innocence and the benefit of the doubts.
44th • YangMay there be loyalty
Not a mistake▼
4
4th • YangMay there be loyalty
Not a mistake
25.4x Prescribing loyalty is not a mistake:
Certainly presume this!
Some things must be presumed for the sake of our own mental health. Trust is one such presumption, and also an unending source of life’s lessons. Mostly we’ll learn in the end to lower our expectations too far. The fortunate ones expect others to be on the kind and ethical side of the average, or expect to turn losses to lessons, and set aside a dumping place for all those disappointments, somewhere out of the way. But what of being worthy of trust, and of learning and unlearning to trust ourselves? We seem born with most of an ethic, a hunger to find what remains to complete it, and maybe even a conscience. Our ethics are tied to self-interest, and opportunism by birth. So why not begin with things as they are? Life offers lessons in the order they need to be learned. To want guarantees is not innocent. Simply promise wisely.
55th • YangOne without pretense still has afflictions
Do not medicate to bring about well-being▼
5
5th • YangOne without pretense still has afflictions
Do not medicate to bring about well-being
25.5x Lack of pretense itself (is) medicine
(This) does not call for experiments
The body is trying to say something, the brain has no final words yet. A disease is the start of an adaptation to the stresses along life’s way, stresses often developed when the mind takes us far from our paths. Its favorite roots of guilt or fatigue or shame or self-indulgence are sunk into places that mind refuses to heed and keep clean, where ego refuses to know spirit’s sources, or abstract thoughts get lodged in the flesh to fester: foreign conditions to feed foreign forms. The illness which has no such roots will tend to run a shorter course. An innocent following feelings might wander into a dark place like this. A healer or an empath might take on the illness of others. Let these be. Roots that feed an illness require a will to have one and a lot of work to develop. The healer’s best cure will be a bath in water and light.
6Top • YangWithout pretensions, yet advance brings suffering
This is not a direction with merit▼
6
Top • YangWithout pretensions, yet advance brings suffering
This is not a direction with merit
25.6x Without pretense’s behavior:
Going too far leads to crisis
Flawless adventure was never a part of the promise: it was not that kind of promise. To be without pretensions might mean falling prey to crafty surprises, or falling in with the wrong crowd, or falling to the unseen forces. Sincerity is no guarantee that uprightness will lead to success, or that right action will lead to good fortune. That kind of promise smells more like bait. Success is not one’s reward for being sincere or true. In being true and sincere, one simply looks for good signs to act or not act. And with this being more like a process than a single moment in time, minds and directions can change. Innocence is a way to learn and unlearn, not an instrument to make things work or to set the world straight. Even when you are righteous, or even merely right, the guardians and protectors of justice just do not answer to you.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 25 begins on Page 210-218.
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