“Peace in our times?”
Moving broken line | stable broken line | stable broken line
Moving solid line | stable solid line | stable solid line
Trigrams: Heaven over Earth moving to Wind over Thunder
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12. Obstruction |
42. Benefiting |
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One cannot continue, one is being obstructed. This is frustrating. There is more loss than gain. This isn’t the other going against one’s interests, actually. Blaming someone may make one feel better, but isn’t helpful at solving the problem. |
Benefiting from the situation. It’s a good idea to have a plan for undertaking something, to make good use of the opportunity. |
Moving line 1:
Pulling out grass and entangled roots because of its accumulation.
Persistence brings good fortune.
Progressing.
Removing something that has accumulated and is now in the way, weeding it out by the root. Under the surface, things may be more entangled than one thought. Things go well by persevering with this. There is progress being made.
Moving line 4:
Having a higher purpose.
Without fault,
but it is a category separate from happiness.
Working on something that’s important to you, perhaps regarding your personal or spiritual development. There is nothing wrong with that. It is no pleasure to go through this development, but it really needs to be worked with.
Well, goodness, what a lovely reading. How much of that is in the original classic Chinese and how much in Ewald Berkers’ translation … I would not, of course, know.
There is an obstruction, as already discussed at length … the “National Security” (sic.) State, aka the Military-Industrial Complex. They are not all … not even most … pursuing war, in opposition to those pursuing that cornerstone of the Beauty Platform, Peace … they are pursuing their own collections of interests, and War is the malignant side-effect of their activity.
The evolution toward peace requires a lot of pulling tangled, choking undergrowth out by its roots.
It also requires … (of me? of us? … I have no idea how personal the reading is) … that we pursue development of our personal capabilities beyond what we would pursue for the simple pleasure of it. We must equip ourselves for the task ahead.
And the direction of that evolution, given that pulling out the choking undergrowth by its roots and the equipping ourselves by pursuing our personal/spiritual growth … is the ability to take advantage of the opportunity to pursue peace, when those opportunities arise.
… and now, to pick up the conversation where it left off …
| “There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief, “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief. Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, none of them along the line know what any of it is worth.” |
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| “No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke, “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate, so let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” |
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| All along the watchtower, princes kept the view, while all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl, two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. |
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Long Live the Beauty Platform! |
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… at the very least I may wish to become an auxiliary member of the Beauty Platform.
I like this:
I would call this “transformational change.” So the “pulling up roots” can be an individual task as well as a group task and a national/worldwide task.
I very much like this series, and your interpretation of the hexagrams.
and much to savor over time. much gratitude for this, Bruce. my new favorite series.
My old standby for the I Ching was via the Richard Wilhelm translation from Chinese into German and then into English. I presume yours is direct from Chinese to English. But Wilhelm was quite the poet. It is his translation of Li Po that Mahler used for “Das Leid von der Erde,” one of my all time favorites. I think my son grabbed my copy of the I Ching, hopefully with the three coins along with it.
Great diary.