Waiting - Hexagram 5

Waiting.

Adhering to the spiritual path.

Shining.  Spiritual influence nourishing all.

What benefits all, significant.

               Benefit from entering the stream of life with a great purpose.

Ideogram:  Rain and stopped, compelled to wait, rain and origin, provide what is needed.

Structure: 

·          Strength within 1. Danger above 3.  Strength in the face of danger.

·          Pitfall above heaven. 

·          Firm strength comes to a dangerous pass and waits before going ahead.

Situation:  The hexagram presents two aspects of a situation:  the need to wait to discern the path through danger and how to wait for conditions to ripen.     

Waiting in the face of danger

When faced with a dangerous challenge, the wise take a step back and restrain themselves from advancing and calmly wait for the proper time to act.  The danger must be overcome, but impatience and rashness can do nothing.  Only sages can stand up to what faces them for they have the inner security that can endure to the end.

A dangerous situation cannot be corrected by force or by ambitiously imposing our will upon it.  In a challenging situation, the weak grow agitated and do not have the patience to wait. We meet with defeat when we do not weigh the time’s conditions sufficiently and chase after what we want, desperately pressing forward.

Whenever the wise see that they have reached their limits to respond well, they resolutely and confidently take a step back from what challenges them and refrain from acting impetuously. If we can hold to the spiritual path to understand the forces in play, both within ourselves and in the world[1], then we will discern a way out of the danger.  

The wise penetrate the situation with understanding to discern the way forward and prepare.  They strengthen themselves to act when the time ripens to do so.  In this way, the wise do not ignorantly indulge their self-cherishing and hostility for others, which would further endanger them.

Waiting

All beings have need of spiritual nourishment.  Yet, this blessing comes in its own time, and for this we must wait. The clouds give rain to refresh all that grows and provide all beings food and drink.  We cannot make it rain.  We have to wait for it.

While waiting means not advancing, it does not mean giving up an undertaking nor submitting to a hostile fate:  to defer is not to abandon.  The wise accomplish their work in time.  We must wait for conditions to naturally evolve.

The sage remains engaged even when not advancing.  They deepen and extend their relationships, understanding, and spiritual development to nourish the conditions and increase the potential for the ways of the spirit to manifest in the world. 

Waiting does not rely upon mere empty hoping but emerges out of the inner certainty of reaching the goal.  Such certainty supports the perseverance and develops the strengths needed for patience. Only when we have the courage to face things as they are without self-deception or illusion does a light develop out of events by which we can recognize the path forward through the dangers in ways that benefit all. 

Most people, especially the talented, do not like to wait.  When circumstances force the weak to wait, they become resentful and meet everything critically and spitefully.  A burdened, resentful patience is not the waiting of the wise.  Those who rashly use force against a challenge will miss the goal.

Because the wise know their great purpose will succeed, they do not lose the serenity born of a glad mind.  Such joy does not reflect a shallow optimism nor depend upon external hopes and fears. This joy naturally comes from within, an enduring joy that will get us through dangerous times.

Once we know the path through the danger and the time has come to act, resolute and persevering action must follow.  Only those who go to meet their fate resolutely and fully prepared have the capacity to adequately deal with dangers of self-cherishing and hostility in the world. When the time comes, the sage unfolds its preparations and moves resolutely against selfishness and ill-will for others by manifesting the spirit within the world. 

Line 1:  The danger is not yet close.  Even though the line waits in an uncomplicated situation, it understands that the situation will change.  However, it leads a regular life as long as possible to avoid a premature waste of strength and keeps free of blame, which would weaken it later.  The line avoids danger by holding to what endures.

Line 2:  As the danger comes closer, general unrest and the blaming of others increase.  The wise stay calm and safe by holding to what endures and succeed in making things go well in the end.

Line 3:  The strong but unbalanced line faces danger and plunges into it, eager for achievement.  Thus, it invites enemies and brings on its own defeat. By not waiting for the proper time, the line falls behind, like being enmired in mud.

When we get bogged down from making a false start, we find it hard to move forward.  We can ease the situation by admitting our shortcomings and accepting the consequences of our arrogance.  Only caution and knowing the seriousness of a dangerous situation keeps us from creating dangers for ourselves by blindly advancing into danger.  The wise prepare themselves for making the crossing in one try.

Line 4:  Great danger overtakes the line.  The wise in the midst of danger do not make things worse by pressing forward.  The line accepts the situation and survives by yielding to it.  Eventually the storm passes over.

Line 5:  The line has done all it has needed to do.  Now it confidently waits, knowing that it will surely attain what it has prepared.  Within the waiting, it remains firmly aligned with the Way of humanity.

Danger may fill the world but not the sage.  Through adherence to the Way of humanity, the sage can move through dangers with a glad mind and in ways that benefit all.  All turns out well.

Line 6:  The waiting ends and danger arrives.  The line falls into the pit and submits to the inevitable.  All seems to have been in vain.    But just in this extremity, things take an unforeseen turn.  Without a move on one’s part, an outside intervention arrives.  The line keeps alert and does not withdraw into a sulky gesture of refusal but greets the new turn with respect and escapes the danger.  Even a beneficial turn of fortune often comes in a form that seems strange to us.

At the end of danger comes a change.  After waiting, positive creativity arrives.  Creativity, never meant to have a low position, has waited to proceed.  Once the waiting ends, creativity comes with its blessings.

The top line has perfected waiting.  When creativity arrives, the line welcomes it with sincere respect.  All turns out well.

---

[1] World does not refer to nature but to how people live within nature.  The world –  civilization, culture, economics, history, society, beliefs, worldly influences – is embedded as a subsystem within the natural system.