节
GUA 60 · JIE
BOUNDARIES
Overall Image (大象)
Over the pond there is water
Boundaries
The noble young one, accordingly,
regulates numbers and measures
and weighs the merits of action▼
Overall Image (大象)
Over the pond there is water
Boundaries
The noble young one, accordingly,
regulates numbers and measures
and weighs the merits of action
Water spills over the dam and the bridge, too much to contain or control. Without a way to pass what we can’t use along, or to store more than a little bit extra, a flood like this could wash us away. So too with the things we desire, or our abundance of options to choose from, the feelings available to us: this could use a good channel, or places to go chosen wisely. This means measure and budget, proper restraint and proportion, ratios and rationality. But the artificial constraint which does no honor to natural law will not work: the water will find ways around it. Good boundaries are positive tastes, not restrictions. If choices are limited, the wise choose the best ones.
Main Judgment (Boundaries) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
Bitter limitations do not invite commitment▼
Main Judgment (Boundaries) (卦辞)
Fulfillment
Bitter limitations do not invite commitment
The world is far too big for one life. The options open to us are too vast and breed far too fast to act them all out. One person cannot even walk all of the possible paths through one tiny field. We cannot catch all the water in our miniscule pools, but we can choose what to keep and what to let pass. There are forms of life which know no internal limits, but these parasites and cancers kill themselves by killing their hosts. One measured step at a time: so grows the bamboo, in simple, attainable intervals. We regulate our behaviors, and of course we also take this too far. We make wars between the aspiring spirit and the body’s sensitive balance. We lay restrictions on others, when afraid to be and do good alone and lead instead by example. There is indeed one great moral law: to respect the rights of others. But the moralist does not respect this. Tastes and choices are needed when our limits are reached, but to make them too hard or too soon will leave one empty in times of fulfillment and take all the joy out of living in danger on earth. Learning to follow natural law will ask what life is and needs first, to optimize limited resource. Guilt lives less than innocence.
Key Words (关键词)
Limitation, abridgment, articulation, definition, order, discipline, discrimination▼
Key Words (关键词)
Limitation, abridgment, articulation, definition, order, discipline, discrimination
Terms, terminus, stipulation, condition, restraint, constraint, regulation, stricture Economy, moderation, self-control, measuredness, budgeting, thrift, allocation Due proportion, proper balance, ethical measure; the golden mean or middle way Systems of moral regulation and division, measured steps, discretion, specificity Epicurean hedonism, good taste with rational choice, caution, intelligent selection
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Kan-Li Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Venus in Water
planet:Venus
element:Water
Tarot
card:Seven of Cups
suit:Cups
Qabalah
note:Netzach in Briah
sphere:Netzach
The Lines
11st • YangNot going past the door to the courtyard*
No blame▼
1
1st • YangNot going past the door to the courtyard*
No blame
60.1x Not going past the door (to) the courtyard:
Knowing free course (to be) hindered
A real abundance of water would be pressing at the dam with more urgency or force. He already seems to know that when new prospects are ready they will also be more compelling. This is not a lack of adventurous spirit, but practice of proper discretion. There is quite simply no driving reason to go now, and outside the weather is nasty. He is not even drawn halfway towards the street yet. There are plenty of things to do while he waits, a pleasant journey made from walking to and fro, thousands of steps without leaving his mind, thrills to be had in counting up heartbeats: this too can be grand adventure. Limits look best when outside them are only bad ideas. Naturally water likes to keep moving and it will offer resistance to anything blocking its flow. Pressure to go will build in its time. There will be signs to open the doors and gates.
22nd • YangNot going past the gate from the courtyard*
Disappointing▼
2
2nd • YangNot going past the gate from the courtyard*
Disappointing
60.2x Not going past the gate (from) the courtyard
(is) disappointing:
Losing the crucial timing
He is already outside the door, and sneaking a peek at the street from his courtyard. Still he is thinking and doubting too much. What are the ramifications? This street seems to go off in two directions at once. What if he goes the wrong way? Fearing no more than a possible error, he wraps himself up in anxious hesitation. The time is certainly more advanced than he is. His big chance will claw only once at this gate and depart with a snort of disgust. The private space of his courtyard might be seen any number of ways: as sanctuary and refuge, a place to get himself ready, a point of departure, or a place in which to be vulnerable, where his sheltered, timid life can be threatened and teased. Many choices exist in his mind, but there’s only one way he will go. Paradise is a walled-in garden as well: will he be climbing these walls soon?
33rd • YangSuch a lack of restraint
And therefore such lament
Not a mistake▼
3
3rd • YangSuch a lack of restraint
And therefore such lament
Not a mistake
60.3x Lack of restraint comes to lament:
Given this, who is to blame?
Lament is not a mistake here. His conscience is right: he has been a bit of a swine. Wanting to see no connection between freedoms and limitations, extending himself and expanding his options in every direction at once, he finds himself swamped in the consequences, his sacrament profaned, with no zest left for flexing those infinite freedoms. The most compelling argument for liberty’s free exercise is to be found in the way it instructs, in being able to blame nobody but yourself. Lament can be the beginning of a recovery, although sometimes a beginning can last several years. Priorities and values are subject to disease, but few investigate here. Crowds do not gather to stare at the wino; thieves know how much he is worth. Even the ones who love to cast blame pass by, trying not to look. This scene is rich in lessons on limits.
44th • YangContent with the boundaries
Fulfillment▼
4
4th • YangContent with the boundaries
Fulfillment
60.4x Contentment with boundaries comes to fulfillment:
Undertaking a higher path
His limits are easy and natural, and they help to define his freedoms. What fails to bring him happiness, maybe following one second chance, he simply leaves behind. What does, he enjoys and then leave this behind as well, until it comes around again. Heaven is easy to get to: it begins where the earth ends, right at our feet. The sage goes there just by filling his belly. His being needs no coaxing to digest his meals. Hell is the difficult way to go, to be always somewhere else, split into one part which gives commands and another which must disobey. Excellent first limitations to have are to be finite and to know just where we stand. To be fulfilled here is the first real freedom. If we cannot have it all anyway, then resenting not getting too much is only distraction from all that remains. Ask what is the life we are best adapted to living.
55th • YangSweet limitations
Promising
To continue has merit▼
5
5th • YangSweet limitations
Promising
To continue has merit
60.5x Sweet limitation holds promise:
Occupying a place in the center
The master’s rules are good natured and easy to live with. He applies them just to himself, then lets successes command and compel. The discouraging thoughts and prohibitive rules play no great part in his law. Encouragement and challenge will do the work instead. An excellent taste for the good life has him tasting the good things that life has to offer. Numberless ages of struggling life whisper their secrets to him. The organs of sense, including the mind, already come well equipped to learn how to make more optimum choices, and satisfaction says when to stop. The proselytizing and promoting we do only adds to confusion. The distasteful things are often most thoroughly learned just by tasting. We’ll also learn to sample things in small bites. Forbidden fruit is not really. When given free rein, life knows how to learn its limits.
6Top • YangBitter limitations
Persistence is unfortunate
Regrets pass▼
6
Top • YangBitter limitations
Persistence is unfortunate
Regrets pass
60.6x Bitter limitation (is) persistent misfortune:
This path dead ends
A broken quill and torn parchment. The moralist writes down some rules for others to follow. But the force of his resentment ruins the work. The bitter taste of his envy and fear is only a foretaste of life in his future, rotting remains of a life he will miss. He might be correctly afraid of his personal lack of resolve, and of the temptations he is told he must resist, but to structure his life by indirect method does damage to life and its spirit. It is better to let the child reach for the flame of the candle. Then he will know what hot means. Don’t tell him a thing will kill him, but point it out when somebody dies in this way. These are the ways we grow, and fewer will actually die. We will not grow because we are told to. Prohibition does little more than organize the crime. If we must draw battle lines, then why not do so twixt stupid and smart?
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 60 begins on Page 420-428.
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