Apr 22 25
Strength
62. Preponderance of the Small
31. Influence/Attraction/Wooing
These first few lines are the general aphoristic returns for the week. They are raw and uninterpreted; there to use how you’d like. (The specific readings follow.)
From “Y.Z.”: Recently, a friend shared a quote that struck us quite distinctly: (we are paraphrasing) tragedy is the battle between good and good. It struck us because of how it touches upon (what seems like) the true nature of differing perspectives — that is, perspectives are generated by specific circumstances, not by proximity to “truth.” It also brought to mind Manuel DeLanda’s A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History: “History is not overcoded by metaphysical necessities but is the product of interacting flows: lava, genes, memes.”
But, of course this type of understanding is itself a “good side” against other “good sides” — how not to be paralyzed by the forces of these cold-comfort, isometric realizations?
One cannot sit in the seat of God. We don’t say this religiously, it is just useful metaphorically — regarding the absence of omnipotence in all human thought. None of us know why things collide such as they do, or whether there is any meaning in their collisions.
Think how sweet the rabbit is. Think how stunning the coyote — and then, think of their relation — it is quite horrible. The significance of the interrelation of things, the often violent abutting of perspectives, is not for us to know.
Humble but endlessly passionate self-education, sincere contemplation and meditation, the teamwork of mutually respectful peers and the strength to keep it going, is what is necessary.
Dogma is death.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Strength card. Life is a mystery because we are imbedded in what might be called the human dimension (a context determined by a highly specific and exclusive scenario). Strength is necessary to bear the weight of a burden of such not in fighting but surviving the relinquishment to the abyss (♾️). Also, fortitude, the perseverance/endurance through difficulty/pain, generally. Contemplation is also an aspect here.
Our first hexagram this week is #62, Preponderance of the Small. “We must understand the demands of the time in order to find the necessary offset for its deficiencies and damages. In any event we must not count on great success, since the requisite strength is lacking. In this lies the importance of the message that one should not strive after lofty things but hold to lowly things... The superior person must always fix their eyes more closely and more directly on duty than the ordinary person, even though this might make their behavior seem petty to the outside world. They are exceptionally conscientious in their actions... In all their personal expenditures they are extremely simple and unpretentious.” With commitment to small steps one should affix to a larger, dignified goal; to be steady in an unsteady world. On this path you will likely look silly (or worse to the outside world). But this is the only path of a superlative person.
There was one change this week of which the specific note is: a leader needs a team, the leader and team should be marked by deep modesty — if so, incredible achievements can come to fruition.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #31, Influence, Attraction, and Wooing. Receptivity is key — if you want something, you must be open. “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.” “Attraction between affinities is a general law of nature.” From these attractions “we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.” “Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being.” If you are guarded, you can’t expect to inspire healthy attractions; as well, if you think about the nature of these relations, by intuition only, and not by careful/open study, you will miss their complications and subtleties.
- “The superior person must always fix their eyes more closely and more directly on duty than the ordinary person.”
- To look into the abyss (♾️) and retain the ability to function well, requires strength (often in the form of meditation and contemplation).
- To be steady in an unsteady world, you must have a goal.
- For a team to carry out incredible achievements there must be equal parts modesty and equal parts aptitude.
- “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.”
- “Attraction between affinities is a general law of nature.”
From “Y.Z.”: Recently, a friend shared a quote that struck us quite distinctly: (we are paraphrasing) tragedy is the battle between good and good. It struck us because of how it touches upon (what seems like) the true nature of differing perspectives — that is, perspectives are generated by specific circumstances, not by proximity to “truth.” It also brought to mind Manuel DeLanda’s A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History: “History is not overcoded by metaphysical necessities but is the product of interacting flows: lava, genes, memes.”
But, of course this type of understanding is itself a “good side” against other “good sides” — how not to be paralyzed by the forces of these cold-comfort, isometric realizations?
One cannot sit in the seat of God. We don’t say this religiously, it is just useful metaphorically — regarding the absence of omnipotence in all human thought. None of us know why things collide such as they do, or whether there is any meaning in their collisions.
Think how sweet the rabbit is. Think how stunning the coyote — and then, think of their relation — it is quite horrible. The significance of the interrelation of things, the often violent abutting of perspectives, is not for us to know.
Humble but endlessly passionate self-education, sincere contemplation and meditation, the teamwork of mutually respectful peers and the strength to keep it going, is what is necessary.
Dogma is death.
Complete Reading
This week we pulled the Strength card. Life is a mystery because we are imbedded in what might be called the human dimension (a context determined by a highly specific and exclusive scenario). Strength is necessary to bear the weight of a burden of such not in fighting but surviving the relinquishment to the abyss (♾️). Also, fortitude, the perseverance/endurance through difficulty/pain, generally. Contemplation is also an aspect here.
Our first hexagram this week is #62, Preponderance of the Small. “We must understand the demands of the time in order to find the necessary offset for its deficiencies and damages. In any event we must not count on great success, since the requisite strength is lacking. In this lies the importance of the message that one should not strive after lofty things but hold to lowly things... The superior person must always fix their eyes more closely and more directly on duty than the ordinary person, even though this might make their behavior seem petty to the outside world. They are exceptionally conscientious in their actions... In all their personal expenditures they are extremely simple and unpretentious.” With commitment to small steps one should affix to a larger, dignified goal; to be steady in an unsteady world. On this path you will likely look silly (or worse to the outside world). But this is the only path of a superlative person.
There was one change this week of which the specific note is: a leader needs a team, the leader and team should be marked by deep modesty — if so, incredible achievements can come to fruition.
Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #31, Influence, Attraction, and Wooing. Receptivity is key — if you want something, you must be open. “All success depends on the effect of mutual attraction.” “Attraction between affinities is a general law of nature.” From these attractions “we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.” “Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being.” If you are guarded, you can’t expect to inspire healthy attractions; as well, if you think about the nature of these relations, by intuition only, and not by careful/open study, you will miss their complications and subtleties.