From forty to thirty four

But what happens when instead of hexagram thirty four changing to hexagram forty, we have hexagram forty changing to thirty four. In both cases the first and third line are changing. We would think we have the opposite, and maybe in some way we do, but let's look at it. In hexagram thirty four we have a situation where the tendency is to charge ahead regardless of circumstances. In forty we are trying to wrap things up and get back to normal circumstances. Hexagram thirty four is in one sense, starting something, hexagram forty is completing something.

The commentary on line one of hexagram forty says, "In keeping with the situation, few words are needed." When we complete something, (however, line one is the beginning of the situation of completion) the same principles of giving the praise to a "higher power" applies. It is not necessary to boast about our progress. It is not necessary to talk incessantly about our accomplishments. If we do, we can evoke the "anger of the gods" and destroy the progress we have made. The commentary in hexagram two line three says, "He does not seek to have credited to himself things that stand accomplished. but hopes to release active forces..." His focus is on the accomplishment, it is not on his/her prowess in accomplishments, but on the forces that are released, not by his lower level conscious mind, but by the higher powers that operate through him or her that are the true accomplishers of the task. In the same way that the superior person does not revel in the power that he has, the superior person does not revel in his own accomplishments. He gives the glory, the credit, the honor to the higher powers that exist within him.

Line three of hexagram forty carries the same thing. The line says, "If a man carries a burden on his back and nevertheless rides in a carriage..." In other words, we think more highly of ourselves than we should. That does not mean we should not have a good self image, that we should not honor ourselves and recognize the value that we have. But our sense of worth must be based on the reality of ourselves, and our willingness to recognize that our self worth is tied up with our acceptance of higher powers that work in our favor. But when we try to put on airs we are usually more transparent than we think we are. Acting as if we are above our station is usually not a sign of a GOOD self image, but an attempt to cover up for the real emptiness we feel inside. We need to be who we are, and we need to recognize the value of that, giving the credit to the higher power that works within us. When we take these attitudes, the proper attitudes, we find that that is when we accumulate the "Great Power" of hexagram thirty four, and that we can accomplish great things. Like hexagram fifteen we can work together with the higher powers within us with a sense of humility, while at the same time recognizing the value that we have and worth we are giving. Then, as in hexagram fifty, in the image, we "consolidate our fate, and make our position correct."