Two different directions

Yang is the Creative, Yin is the receptive. And we have talked a little bit about action that conforms to the situation. So we can see in line one of the first two hexagrams, a tendency in two different directions. Line one in hexagram one says, "Hidden dragon, do not act." In other words, it is not time yet for action. Therefore any action would not be in conformity to the situation. In hexagram two line one it says, "When there is hoarfrost underfoot, solid ice is not far off." In other words, here the action is in the opposite direction. In hexagram one we see that the action is just beginning, and while it is not time yet to act, the time will soon come. In hexagram two line one, we see that the time to act is very likely now as the situation is deteriorating.

And in such we have in the first two hexagrams, the principle of involution and evolution. The second law of thermodynamics says that any system left to itself will tend to deteriorate. But there is a second principle not normally quoted in science, and that principle is that once the system has deteriorated completely, it reorganizes itself into a new system on a higher level than the previous system. The new system is better able to cope with the forces that created the involution of the old system. Nevertheless, it too will eventually be subject to the second law of thermodynamics and begin to deteriorate. This is a continuous, never ending process that constantly repeats. It is described in the first two hexagrams of the book of changes, and redescribed, in different words, in the last two hexagrams of the book of changes. The nuclear hexagrams of the last two hexagrams are the opposite hexagram. Sixty three becomes sixty four and sixty four becomes sixty three, showing the never ending processes involved. This was written down thousands of years before our scientists knew anything about these forces. The Book of Changes really is a book of wisdom.

So we can see that yang and hexagram one denote the forces of evolution, of rising, of creating, and of development, and as such represent an outward movement. Yin and hexagram two denote the forces of involution, the forces drawing downward, of receptivity, and of unraveling, and as such represent an inward movement toward the center. The upward movement on a sine wave is yang, the downward movement is yin. The I Ching tells us whether we are on the rise, of the downside, at the top, or at the bottom, and our actions correspond to that position. In hexagram one line one we are at the bottom of the sine wave ready to move upward. In hexagram two line one we are at the top ready to move down.