I Ching 52 Hexagram gèn (Bound)

I Ching 52 Hexagram gèn (Bound)

I Ching 52 Hexagram gèn (Bound)

Keywords
Immobility. Tranquility. Stability.
Short Interpretation of Hexagram 52 – The Arrest
Take it easy. There is no rush. Wait to make requests and stop and think.

I Ching – General Description

The image of the sign is the mountain, the youngest son of heaven and earth. The masculine is at the top following the tendency of his nature, the feminine at the bottom, where the direction of his motion leads him. So there is stillness, as the motion has reached its normal end. Applied to man, the problem of how to achieve tranquility of the heart is shown here. It is very difficult to acquire the heart. While Buddhism attempts to achieve tranquility with the dampening of all motion in Nirvana, the view of the Book of Changes is that stillness is only a polar state which has motion as its constant complement. The words of the text may contain instructions for the exercise of Yoga.

I Ching – Comment on sentence

Keep his back quiet, so that he no longer feels his body.
He goes into his courtyard and doesn’t see his people. No stains.

True tranquility consists in pausing when the time has come to pause, and in proceeding when the time has come to proceed, in this way stillness and motion are in accordance with the needs of the time, and then there is light of life. The sign is the end and the beginning of all motion. The back is named because all the nerve cords mediating movement are found in the back. By stilling the action of these nerves in the spinal cord, the ego with its restlessness vanishes, so to speak. Then when man has become so calm inside, he should also turn to the outside world.In it then he will no longer see the struggle and commotion of individual beings, and will therefore possess the authentic placidity necessary to understand the great laws of universal events, in order to then act in conformity with them.

I Ching – Image

Mountain locked to mountain: The image of stillness. Thus the noble with his thought does not go beyond his situation.

The heart continually thinks: this cannot be changed. But the movements of the heart, that is, the thoughts, must be limited to the present situation. Any thought that goes beyond this only hurts the heart.

I Ching – Series

Things can’t move all the time, you have to force them to stop. For this follows the sign: the Arrest. Stopping means standing still.

I Ching – Single Lines

Analytical description of each individual line

I Ching – First line:

Six at the beginning means:
Keeping your toes still. No stains. Auspicious is lasting perseverance.

Keeping your toes quiet means stopping even before you have started moving. The beginning is the time when few mistakes are made. It is still in accordance with the original innocence. Things are intuitively seen as they are, not yet influenced by their darkening of interests and cravings. Whoever stands still from the beginning, as long as he is not yet strayed from the truth, he finds the right way. Only lasting firmness is necessary, in order not to allow oneself to be implicated in abulic abandonment.

I Ching – Second line:

Six in the second place means:
Keeping your calves still. He cannot save what he follows. His heart is not happy.

The leg cannot move by itself, but in its motion it is dependent on the movements of the body. When the body is strongly in motion and the leg is suddenly stopped, the motion of the body. continuing, it causes the fall of man. This also happens to a man who is following a stronger personality. It is carried away. Even stopping on the path of injustice, he too cannot stop the other in his strong movement. Where the lord pushes forward, the servant, however good his intentions are, cannot save him.

I Ching – Third line:

Nine in the third place means:
Keep the hips still. Stiffen the sacrum. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.

It is a question of forced quiet here. You want to forcefully tame the heart in its restlessness. But when the fire is pushed back with violence, it turns into pungent smoke, which expands and suffocates. In meditation and concentration exercises, therefore, one must not proceed violently. On the contrary, the stillness must develop with all naturalness from a state of inner concentration. When it is necessary to achieve tranquility, by artificially stiffening, meditation will lead to serious imbalances.

I Ching – Fourth line:

Six in the fourth place means:
Hold the trunk still. No stains.

Keeping the back still, as it is said in the words that refer to the whole sign, means that the ego is forgotten. This is the highest degree of stillness. Here this degree of stillness has not yet been reached. For now, one is in a position to keep the ego still with its thoughts and motions. But one does not become completely free from it. But holding the heart still is an important function that over time leads to a complete elimination of selfish impulses. Even if one is not yet free from all the dangers of doubt and restlessness, this affective attitude is also not a mistake, since it is on the path that leads to that other, higher one.

I Ching – Fifth line:

Six in the fifth place means:
Keep your jaws still. The words are ordered. Repentance vanishes.

In a dangerous situation, especially as long as one is still inferior to the situation, prying words and jokes come out too easily from the mouth but with careless speeches one easily ends up in situations that sometimes have to repent. Instead, by being restrained in speaking, the words acquire an increasingly solid aspect, and then any reason for repentance disappears.

I Ching – Sixth line:

Nine above means:
Magnanima quiet. Health!

Here is presented the accomplishment of the effort aimed at obtaining placidity. One is quiet not in the details, not in pedantic petty things: but the universal renunciation gives tranquility and health in everything.