I ching

I Ching Hexagram 20
Kuan (Contemplation)

Action: View

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 23 Split Apart: Regenerate

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 34 Great Power: Invigorate

You can only lead others toward growth
if you are willing to grow yourself.

Life can only be understood backwards,
but it must be lived forwards. – Kierkegaard

Reading at a Glance: A period of Contemplation can come about for a variety of reasons. Perhaps your ego has been wounded and you are stepping back to understand the part you played in getting hurt. You may have completed a job and are now stepping back to examine future direction. After a time of Great Power and invigoration, the underlying cause suggests that an anti climactic period follows. The hidden influence calls for Splitting Apart the past from the future. It is a time for regeneration. This hexagram has the appearance of a tower and there is a need to gain a wider view – and take time out to consider your future direction. Others are drawn to those who exhibit an evolved understanding of life that can only come from showing their objectivity and willingness to listen and grow. This means even as a leader, you are called to keep growing. Nothing in nature is stagnant and careful Contemplation is necessary prior to making changes.

Remove

the red dust.

Arouse the child

to the

endless field.

“The wind blows over the earth: the image of contemplation.” You have the opportunity to climb the heights of what you have built to obtain a wider view. In the image of a tower that allows for a bird’s eye view, find the white space that will allow you to remain objective in finding your way forward. You establish a course for the future by reinvigorating your roots.

Wind suggests purity and the washing of the hands. The master said: “the ablution has been made, but not yet, the offering.” The ‘ablution’ or washing of the hands is how you “remove the residue of red dust,” or the hardened perspective that can accumulate on your journey and open with reverence. The ‘offering’ is your willingness to remain malleable in all you do. Whenever the Wind blows over the Earth, it ushers in a changing climate.

The most common celebrations of ancient times revolved around the harvest festivals of autumn. Perhaps it was out of fear and reverence as the days grew darker, and the natural world began to die away. It was an important time however, because what was done in earnest during this time, laid the seeds for a springtime to come. This is the meaning of contemplation: take inventory of the past to reinvigorate the seeds of the future.

When you look backward, you will see the cycles that remain constant, although you barely remember the vague situations that become meaningless over time. By recognizing all that is transient, you can observe the ‘carved block,’ but only hold fast to that which cultivates growth. In each situation, “retain the lesson but not the carved block.” Other than its transitory manifestations, “the great image has no shape.” It is time to let go and become the uncarved block in the hands of the 'woodcarver.'

The “thread running through the Way” becomes your footsteps through the path of change. Your destiny is revealed by that part of you that remains constant against the wheel of changing events. “Returning to one’s roots is known as stillness. This is what is meant by returning to one’s destiny.” You can move through the changes without being pulled from the center of your unfolding. Although you walk less, you discover more. The core of who you are only sharpens against the vicissitudes of experience. Allow yourself to open to whatever life is shaping you to be.

The master said: “When one is at ease with themselves, one is near Nature. This is to let Nature take its own course.” When you are 'just so,' you are not defending anything. “When ‘this’ and ‘that’ have no opposites, you discover life’s very axis.”

Contemplation allows you to see that all things are equal: the good and bad, the difficult and easy are merely the ebbing and flowing of energy. “When a leader is right with themselves, things will get done without giving orders. When they are not right with themselves, they may give orders, but they will not be obeyed.” You can only lead others toward growth if you are willing to grow yourself.

To others, your humility makes you the representation of “how great fullness seems empty. Full of trust, they look up to view the divine Way where the four seasons do not deviate.” In contemplating, “you partly give and partly take.” You take time for yourself, but also become “something for the world to view. The more one gives, the more one comes to possess.”

A student asked: “Sir, how is it that you are old, but have the appearance of a child?” The master replied: “It is because I have not been worn down by going against the Way.”