常 Persistency
(老, always / constantly)
(子, small thing
- constant term (in a mathematical expression)
道可道，非常道。 Any intellectual approach fails the constant vibration
名可名，非常名。 Any expressible naming fails the constant resonance
- a little more patient,
- a little more tolerant,
- a little more humble.
- Not a patience that is not positive.
- Not a tolerance that becomes timid 一 this would make rebellion in self.
- Not a humbleness that becomes morbid or lacking in beauty.
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Apocalypse 14:12
"C'est ici la patience des saints, ce sont ici ceux qui gardent
Les Commandements d'Elohim, et La Foi de Yéhoshoua-Jésus."
Inwardly I am filled; outwardly, I am dwarfed.
Instead of floating like a hollow log (as the commentary on 61 describes it), I can only put one foot in front of the other. Things do not ‘just happen’ now without my attention and effort every step of the way.
So I am challenged to act on my inner awareness, go beyond the limits (expectations, standards, norms…) of the world, but expected to do so in a way that keeps me constantly connected with the world, always adapting and responding to it, because it is so much bigger than I am.
To cross over and (yet) stay small or, to cross over by staying small:
‘Small overstepping, creating success.Harvest in constancy.Allows small works, does not allow great works.Flying bird calls as it leaves:The above is not right, below is right.Great good fortune.’
I can do small things here, not great ones. I am offered the wisdom of a small bird: so I shouldn't try to soar like the eagle, or I shall only get blown away (or shot by the nearest hunter); I should stay low. In English, we would talk about ‘coming down to earth’ and ‘keeping our feet on the ground’. Mother Theresa summed it up best:
‘We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love.’
Most of us, most of the time, are unlikely to welcome the small bird’s message. But after insisting on our small crossing, small works and groundedness, the oracle suddenly offers ‘great good fortune.’ It is making a deliberate contrast. Great good fortune doesn’t depend on doing great things; it can happen when simply I fill my own place, doing exactly what’s mine to do.
The moving lines of ䷽ 62 小過"How to Go Beyond the Microcosmos" represent its double challenge as a balance between ‘crossing over’ and ‘meeting’. How else will I make the connections through which the message can be expressed in reality?
‘Flying bird means pitfall.’
This is about taking off prematurely – may be impelled by a great sense of personal mission (given that this line connects with Hexagram 55), but without taking the time (55.1) to understand the realities within which it has to happen. It is an attempt to carry the message without getting the message.
This line mirrors the sixth, which sounds similar:
‘Not meeting at all, passing it by.Flying bird leaves.Pitfall,Known as calamity and blunder.’
Now the message has passed by, altogether; the opportunity to connect, understand and make changes has been missed; this is the disaster of not seeing, not getting it: I can get more of a sense for this by looking across to 56.6.*
The next pair of mutually-reflecting lines are 2 and 5, the inner and outer centres. How to make connections – and how to ensure they’ll work, sustainably, in the long run?
‘Passing your grandfather, meeting your grandmother.Not reaching your chief, meeting your servant.No mistake.’‘Dark clouds, no rainfrom our western suburbs.Prince with a string arrow gets one dwelling in a cave.’
These two lines connect with Hexagrams 32 and 31 respectively: the enduring patterns of relationship and the initial connection that galvanises things into motion.
Line 5’s prince takes a direct approach to ‘connecting’: embedding an arrow in whatever (or whoever) he needs and hauling them out of the cave. He’ll do what it takes to ‘precipitate’ potential into reality.
Line 2 – the realm of connections rather than command – looks to make connections that can bring lasting change. It shifts attention away from originators and causes, and towards whoever or whatever brings the original conception into being; it plugs directly into the process of realisation.
The central lines of the hexagram, on either side of the ‘threshold’ between inner and outer trigrams, deal with the fraught moment of transition.
‘Not passing by, he defends himself.Someone is following behind and may kill him.Pitfall.’‘No mistake.Not passing by, meeting it.Going on is dangerous, must be on guard.Don’t use ever-flowing constancy.’
Line 3 stops short of making the transition, digs in and fortifies his position. ‘This is where I stand and I’m sticking to it!’ But do his resources match his enthusiasm? It’s certainly not safe to move onward – meeting the new world calls for an alert responsiveness born of realism 一 but it might be safer. And if I can’t change, what are the chances that anything else will?
| *56.6.56 ䷷旅: | 上九：鳥焚其巢，旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛於易，兇。 |
| Lu: | The sixth NINE, undivided, suggests the idea of a bird burning its nest. The stranger, (thus represented), first laughs and then cries out. He has lost his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily. There will be evil (di🕁vision). | |
| 象傳: | 以旅在上，其義焚也。喪牛于易，終莫之聞也。 | |
| Xiang Zhuan: | 'Considering that the stranger is here at the very height (of distinction),' with the spirit that possesses him, it is right he (should be emblemed by a bird) burning (its nest). 'He loses his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily:' - to the end, he would not listen to (the truth about the course to be pursued). ⇰ so to listen properly it supposes to still bear the weight of the yoke and humbly listen through the intelligence receptivity. |
| 62 | ䷽小過: | 小過：亨，利貞，可小事，不可大事。飛鳥遺之音，不宜上，宜下，大吉。 |
| Xiao Guo: | Xiao Guo indicates that (in the circumstances which it implies) there will be progress and attainment. But it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. (What the name denotes) maybe done in small affairs, but not in great affairs. (It is like) the notes that come down from a bird on the wing 一 to descend is better than to ascend. There will (in this way) be great good fortune. |
| 彖傳: | 小過，小者過而亨也。過以利貞，與時行也。柔得中，是以小事吉也。剛失位而不中，是以不可大事也。有飛鳥之象焉，有飛鳥遺之音，不宜上宜下，大吉；上逆而下順也。 | |
| Tuan Zhuan: | In Xiao Guo (we see) the small (lines) exceeding the others, and (giving the intimation of) progress and attainment. Such 'exceeding, in order to its being advantageous, must be associated with firmness and correctness:' 一 that is, it must take place (only) according to (the requirements of) the time. The weak (lines) are in the central places, and hence (it is said that what the name denotes) may be done in small affairs, and there will be good fortune. Of the strong (lines one) is not in its proper place, and (the other) is not central, hence it is said that (what the name denotes) 'should not be done in great affairs.' (In the hexagram) we have 'the symbol of a bird on the wing, and of the notes that come down from such a bird, for which it is better to descend than to ascend, thereby leading to great good fortune:' 一 to ascend is contrary to what is reasonable in the case, while to descend is natural and right. | |
| 象傳: | 山上有雷，小過；君子以行過乎恭，喪過乎哀，用過乎儉。 | |
| Xiang Zhuan: | (The trigram representing) a hill and that for thunder above it form Xiao Guo. The superior man, in accordance with this, in his conduct exceeds in humility, in mourning exceeds in sorrow, and in his expenditure exceeds in economy. |
² Hanged Man (Major Arcana) symbole d'une initiation passive, mystique. Le corps est inactif, impuissant, car l'âme libérée fuit dès lors la réalité de la matière. Sa tunique, où le rouge et le blanc alternent avec le rouge et le jaune, rappellent l'innocence et la pureté mais aussi la résistance face aux influences néfastes. Très grande est sa force, non plus exercée par les muscles mais par le pouvoir occulte de son âme qui a dépassé la phase initiatique.
Le pendu symbolise l'abnégation, le désintérêt pour les choses de ce monde, l'altruisme, le sacrifice, le renversement de la situation actuelle grâce à une décision personnelle, des idéaux atteints, la libération par le sacrifice.
Il peut aussi évoquer le mythe d'Odin, dieu initié par excellence dans la mythologie nordique, le flanc transpercé par sa lance, il obtient le pouvoir de la connaissance en restant suspendu par un pied, neuf jours à l'arbre Yggdrasill et en acceptant de sacrifier un œil pour acquérir la science.
Alchimiquement, triangle vers le bas et croix supérieure, le Pendu représente Le Grand Œuvre
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