Hexagram 64 – Not Yet Completed

Not yet completion.

Blessings.

Carelessness with the small and ordinary

endangers the crossing.

                             Benefit from yielding to wisdom.

Structure:  Fire 7 above water 3.  Fire rises, and water falls. 

The hexagram represents a transition from the old to the new era, like the change from the bleakness of winter to the new growth of spring.  Disorder becomes order.  This transition has not yet occurred, but preparations for it have been made. 

Fire flames upward, and water seeps downward.  Their forces move in different direction with opposite tendencies.  They remain unrelated, unsettled, in an unstable state of disorder. Strong lines are in weak places, and yielding lines are in strong positions.

Even though outwardly none of the lines appear in their proper places, the hexagram does have the pattern of alternating strong and yielding line, which suggests an order. The firm and weak lines have a relationship such that if they simply exchanged positions, the hexagram would achieve a high level of stability. The wise accomplish that task.  They separate things in order to unite them and put them into their proper places as carefully as if handling a raging fire and a torrent of water so that they do not destroy the other.

To handle external forces properly, we must have the correct standpoint to have the desired effect. When self-cherishing and hostility for others entangle us in their willingness to harm for self-benefit, we lack inner clarity.  These feelings and behaviors obstruct our awareness of the spirit.  We trust our self-serving ways rather than the spiritual path. 

In the midst of unsettlement, the wise choose overcome an unsettled state of mind and rest within the loving spirt, the sacred interbeing.  From this vantage point, the sage opens to spiritual wisdom and guidance to discern the path that benefits all and the Earth.  The state of the world[1] depends upon resting within love.

World conditions are difficult in unsettled times.  Worldly concerns[2] and the willingness to harm for self-benefit dominate.  Once the fires of aversion and wanting erupt, our conditioning takes charge and we withdraw from the spirit.  When the yielding nature of water acts, we lose our will to adhere to what benefits all.  At this point, worldly concerns eclipse the spirit’s guidance.  People vie for honor, plunder for profit, contest for victory, and seek power, depriving others to benefit themselves.  They use intellectual brightness outwardly, indulge their negative emotions, and give free rein to their desires.  Deluded by objects of sense, they let the artificial take over affairs and bury the real, accepting the false.  People give full force to all sorts of emotions and cravings and busy themselves with schemes and wiles.  The ways of the worldly concerns lead to grief.

Our task of leading the world out of confusion to the ways of the spirit is great and full of responsibility.  Yet the task promises success as we have a goal that can unite forces tending in different directions:  learning how to live on Earth with others in ways that benefit all.

The wise attend carefully to the important but overlooked details of ordinary life to successfully make the transformation.  Rather than benefit themselves from the opportunities of the moment, they respond to arising experience in ways that benefit all. The process leads to the goal. 

This work takes time and a hard penetrating effort, but it comes with the great joy of bringing to life the ways of the spirit.  The wise remain steadfast and upright, using their strength to banish harmful tendencies by persistently choosing to act in ways that benefit all.

Settlement proceeds naturally and does not depend on a forced effort.  The settling cannot be accomplished through human effort alone, yet sages prepare the conditions for it.  The new era suddenly appears on its own, sparked by the accumulated efforts of many.

Upon settlement, the light of sages shine forth anew and make their influence felt among those who have faith in the path and rally around virtuous actions that benefit all.  The new era appears all the more glorious by contrast with the misery of the old.  Such times resemble spring when the stagnation of winter blossoms into a fruitful time. 

Yet nothing comes to an end as all changes.  This last hexagram of the Book of Changes points to what we can observe in nature:  every end contains in it a new beginning. What settles becomes unsettled, making way for ongoing growth and creativity, and so the process begins again.  The spiritual path never ends.  The Book of Changes is a book of the future.

The victory has been won.  The power of steadfastness has not been routed.  Everything has gone well.  All misgivings have been overcome.  Success has justified the struggle.  The light of a sacred love shines forth anew and makes its influence felt among all who have faith in it and rally around it.  The new time has arrived, and with it good fortune.  And just as the sun shines forth in redoubled beauty after rain, or as a forest grows more freshly green from charred ruins after a fire, so the new era appears all the more glorious by contrast with the misery of the old.[3]

 

Line 1:  The anxious weak line, at the bottom of a dangerous situation, wants to act but does not clearly assess its abilities and powers nor perceive the consequences of its actions.  It rashly tries to advance and fails.  The wise hold back to avoid regret.

Line 2:  As the time to act has not yet come, the line waits to settle inwardly before it acts to settle the world.  While waiting, the line does not fall asleep nor lose sight of the goal.  It remains strong and steadfast without becoming impatient.

Line 3:  The time has not yet settled.  If the line used force to enforce its will, it would create much harm.  The line benefits from entering the stream of life with the great purpose to master its self-cherishing and to develop its capacities to bring to life the ways of the spirit.  

Line 4:  The line has mastered its self-cherishing and hostility for other, making itself strong in its resolve to manifest the spirit.  It has silenced all misgivings that might arise in such a grave struggle.  The sages rise up and subjugate on all sides the forces that would destroy life and the Earth while creating the condition for what benefits all.

Line 5:  The line has overcome its self-cherishing by its unshakeable steadfastness.  It manages itself correctly and can settle all things in the same manner.  The light of the sage shines forth anew and makes its influence felt among those who have faith in the Way and rally around it.  The transformation has brought about a new era, which appears all the more glorious when compared with the misery of the old.

Line 6:   At the end of unsettlement, settlement occurs.  However, if the line drops its vigilance and gets carried away with victory, it spoils the settlement.  Acting ignorantly in the time of settlement leads to unsettling as the foolish credit themselves for the settlement.  The devoted sage remains on guard for the inevitable reemergence of self-cherishing and preserves its mastery of it.

The wise who have inwardly settled do not neglect the world.  They have faith in the process of settlement and take advantage of the time to further the ways of the spirit within the world. Otherwise, inner settlement has no meaning. 

This hexagram and line, the last within the Book of Changes, open to new beginnings and new transformations.  The Book of Changes is a book of the future.

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[1] World does not refer to the Earth but to how people live on Earth.  The world – civilization, culture, history, society, science, economy, education, technology – is embedded as a subsystem within the natural system.  People create their world through the choices they make. 

[2] Worldly concerns are the ways in which the selfish willingly harm others for self-benefit and then ignore the suffering they cause.  Selfish individuals seek power and domination over others and willingly use violence to do so.  The selfish accumulate wealth through the unlimited exploitation and ultimate destruction of people, other life forms, and the Earth.  The selfish believe themselves superior to others and express their self-cherishing through patriarchy, discrimination, and subjugation, willing to use violence to protect their rung within the hierarchy and to support the powerful.  The selfish consume as much as they can and seek constant distractions for the pleasures they derive from their addictions.  

[3] Hexagram 64, line 5.  Book of Changes, Wilhelm