艮
GUA 52 · GEN
STILLNESS
Overall Image (大象)
Adjacent mountains
Stillness
The noble young one, accordingly,
contemplates nothing outside of its place▼
Overall Image (大象)
Adjacent mountains
Stillness
The noble young one, accordingly,
contemplates nothing outside of its place
The real is contained within the obvious and apparent. Appearance is but an overlay to the real. Quietly awaiting the hand and skill of a master to strip away the ordinary, the lump of clay, the virgin block and the stone already contain the masterpiece. The sage, like the potter and sculptor, attends only the matter at hand, appreciating what it is and letting it stand forth. The mountain range is like a spine. The pivotal points do not move. The mountains at rest host their forests, valleys and streams. The axles, axes and hubs do not move, but are central to the functioning of the things revolving around them. The young noble seeks his center. and what is implicit in having one.
Main Judgment (Stilling one’s spine) (卦辞)
Not grasping one’s own being
Moving through one’s courtyard
But not seeing other people
No blame▼
Main Judgment (Stilling one’s spine) (卦辞)
Not grasping one’s own being
Moving through one’s courtyard
But not seeing other people
No blame
When the time has come to recapture the center of being, the peripheral life must wait, the family and the society too. He straightens himself in his calm, stacking the bones of his spine in a balance, training his gaze on the backs of his eyelids, staking his thoughts to his place in the moment. He puts himself into his proper place and position. The lump, the block, the stone he appears to be already contains the best he can be, if he can strip away the extraneous and unlearn those things which do not belong and find the best shape for the rest. He seems to be lost in his thoughts, but a loss of one’s center is the real meaning of lost. From the middle of his implicitness, and all of its implications, he delivers the one he can be from illusion and what he cannot from thought. He cannot define himself in this way. The boundaries which define him will be found in his interactions. The self-absorbed space is a place to be outgrown. He cannot figure out where he is without referring to his context. Finding the center is merely the optimum place to begin, or to begin all over again. Progress is not the point yet. This is taking a moment to learn if he’s even on the right path.
Key Words (关键词)
Check, restrain, resist, confine, delimit, define, discipline; to hold against change▼
Key Words (关键词)
Check, restrain, resist, confine, delimit, define, discipline; to hold against change
Straightforward, forthright, honest, present, steadfast, anchored, rooted, grounded Concentration, introspection, reflection, meditation, quietude, self-containment Prepossession, reserve, balance, stability, equilibrium, poise; the matter at hand Touchstone, paragon, terminus; silence, resting, inertness; presence, self mastery Pressures building to not be still; self-examination; backbone, integrity, principle
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Gen-Dui Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Caput Draconis in Earth
planet:North Node
element:Earth
Tarot
card:Princess of Pentacles
suit:Pentacles
Qabalah
note:Assiah of Assiah
sphere:Assiah
The Lines
11st • YangStilling those toes
Making no mistakes
Warranting prolonged persistence▼
1
1st • YangStilling those toes
Making no mistakes
Warranting prolonged persistence
52.1x Stilling those toes:
Before losing the principle
He plants his toes like pudgy, little pink roots, and tries to hold some ground here, deciding upon inaction as a cure for wrong action, not-doing a cure for wrongdoing. He gets a good start at stopping by slowing himself to a crawl. Although he seems to be going too far in going nowhere at all, at least now he might pay more attention. Nothing ever really stops moving and changing, not even ancient and sacred stones. Stillness and equilibrium are states that we find in our minds, when we cease to be out of phase or at war with our thoughts and the world. But this sort of stillness can still move quite quickly, balance can swing back and forth and still be balance, and equilibrium is more often than not a dynamic. What he now has is more like a rest, the point of which is finding the proper beginning. But the end is still far from here.
22nd • YangStilling those legs
Not helpful in one’s pursuits
One’s heart is not gratified▼
2
2nd • YangStilling those legs
Not helpful in one’s pursuits
One’s heart is not gratified
52.2x Not helpful in one’s pursuits:
Not ready to back off (and) listen
Bringing his legs to a halt, stopping to look around, he’s learned, to his amazement, that he treads an inferior path. His heart does not want him to make this discovery. Now there is turning around to be done, explaining himself, excusing himself, and figuring out where to go and what to do next. Indeed, this does not help him at all to maintain his old pursuits, though he still has some old inertia to spend. The paths or people he had chosen to follow are too set or full of their own directions to turn back and question themselves. He could remain swept along, as if by peer suction, feigning some sort of innocence, and leaving that nagging, old conscience behind. But innocence would soon become ignorance and the conscience an unsettled mind. It is only his lack of stillness now that makes his right and true path more distant.
33rd • YangSetting those restrictions
Divided at one’s waist
Rigors choke the heart▼
3
3rd • YangSetting those restrictions
Divided at one’s waist
Rigors choke the heart
52.3x Setting those restrictions:
Crises choke the heart
He divides his being between high and low and will not touch the inferior parts. As a matter of having a course to our lives, we need to find and set limits, curtail and train our natures to keep ourselves out of trouble. But to violate these natures, to be stiff and rigid instead of just still, to pile on foreign and alien virtues and deny ourselves a more natural course is merely another form of perversion. We have turned against ourselves. This is as unwholesome as sin. A celibate gets himself bent out of shape in the loins, pinches a nerve, cavorts with the succubus in the early hours of dawn, and awakens to find his own clawmarks and blood on his breast. His own hands try to set his heart free. Denial of life is bad management, deeply unkind to oneself, not a path to wisdom. Resistance generates heat, resentment smolders in thwarted desire.
44th • YangStilling one’s being
Not a mistake▼
4
4th • YangStilling one’s being
Not a mistake
52.4x Stilling one’s being:
Stilling all of the personal
He comes to terms with his limits and tries to stay calm about finitude. In stillness he watches his impulses rising and falling, his thoughts as they come and go, his feelings waxing and waning. At rest in the breath, in heart and mind, there is neither self nor an other, except as little junctions where powers knot up for a while, where original being pretends to be us. There are landmarks to locate, and touchstones to touch here. It’s not like there’s nothing to do. Life forms form attitudes here at the center, and these can turn the whole world upside down. Even scientists see what they want to see: the still ones can watch what they want, and make better theories. Our part in the process of living starts here at the place we begin. Of course, this is not the end, meditation isn’t a goal. What we learn in stillness is where to go next.
55th • YangStilling those jawbones
Words will have order
Regrets pass▼
5
5th • YangStilling those jawbones
Words will have order
Regrets pass
52.5x Stilling those jawbones:
Applying the central principle
He practices ruling his speech now, and pays some overdue homage to listening and silence. There are no limits to things which might be spoken about and thought of, but this does not seem to discourage those who would fill up all silence. All of the branches a tree could grow would certainly be its demise, so the tree needs to limit itself to what makes fruit and seed. So too with proper speech: there is room around one’s few, but meaningful words here for the verbal equivalent of breezes and light. There is also some room to ponder one’s thoughts, and remove the unwanted sharp edges. Once words get out they circulate many times over: the right words will keep working their magic and the wrong ones will keep causing damage. Outspoken, but not unthinking, is good, but the world around us wants idle gossip and small talk.
6Top • YangAuthentic stillness
Promising▼
6
Top • YangAuthentic stillness
Promising
52.6x Authentic stillness holds promise:
The way to a genuine outcome
He takes his humble silence and stillness to the highest place he can find. Up on top of the mountain, he can order the clouds to go where they will, command the stars to follow their courses. We have great authority up on the summit, as lords of our own states of mind. The view is so great up here that less modest folks get embarrassed approaching the foothills. The closer we can position ourselves to an axis, the less unchosen motion we’ll need to endure. This need not mean being detached or aloof. When we want our fullest command, this is where to begin, at the helm of our own attitudes. We do not need to spend all our lives in self-examination, or introspect our friends away, but when we would live in the actual world and know just what we are capable of, we revisit this axis and learn. Wanting this world, as it is, makes it ours.
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 52 begins on Page 372-380.
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