I ching

on I Ching Hexagram 28
Ta Kuo (Critical Mass)

Action: Adjust

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 1: Creative: Initiate

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 27: Nourishing Vision: Nurture

To follow the energy of life, you will discover that it is always seeking the best of what you might become.

The study of Nature is intercourse with the Highest Mind.
You should never trifle with Nature. –Louis Agassiz

Reading at a Glance: Ta Kuo can have the message that something is too much, or a situation has come to a condition of Critical Mass ~ an adjustment is needed. The roof has become too heavy for the support of the ridgepoles or foundation. Exuberance of thought or ideas are weighing down on an old foundation that was built to support the past. Being out of touch with the reality of the situation or excess of some kind can be at play. Ta Kuo suggests the hidden influence of the Creative at the root of the situation, where this tension is actually the driving force of great creativity and accomplishment. Nature uses tension to push all things beyond the known ~ opposites collide and all are lifted to a higher, more sustainable level. Even while Critical Mass feels uncomfortable, it will lead to a readjustment. In this case, you may have to push beyond what you feel is limiting you by adapting and adjusting. You may need to stand alone with no support during this time of crisis and simply give form to your vision. Too much of a good thing is not always good so Ta Kuo can also suggest moderation. Nourishing Vision without putting it to proper use reveals an underlying cause of perhaps needing to ‘come out’ and show the world what you have been working on. This can be a perfectionist who spends a lot of time practicing, but is fearful of competition or feedback. Look to your work to stand on its own merit. Believe in what you are doing and don’t worry about support and acceptance because that is the message of this hexagram: be undaunted. However, this can be a situation where ideas have taken over what is actually witnessed as experience. You may be heaping an old way of thinking on a foundation of the past. Either way, a quantum leap into a new way of interacting is in the air. The old way of interacting is not sustainable and the old paradigm will crumble. Critical Mass holds the essence of the Sage’s greatest lesson: tranquility in disturbance. It is not expectation that you hold to; it is the certainty that everything is unfolding perfectly to create change. You succeed because you find that the tension can actually generate excitement and the joy of doing the work.

Like erosion, you are no match

for life’s perpetual

gusts and storms

that come to soften

and renew

a hardened landscape.

“Nourishing something without putting it to proper use, will finally evoke movement in the image of the great becoming overwhelming.” Like a heavy roof that rests upon a weak foundation, the structure sags in the middle and will come down. Ta Kuo is a message about putting accumulating energy to work.

Unbalanced energy always generates a chain reaction. A series of events ensue, in which each event is both the result of the one preceding, but also, the cause of what follows. Ta Kuo demonstrates how protecting a weak foundation or outworn idea is no match for the power of nature to bring it down.

The master said: “if you must stand alone, be unconcerned. If you must renounce the world, be undaunted.” Natural action can only manifest when you eliminate your sense of right and wrong, or good and bad. Following how nature is unbiased will return you to a pathway of wellness and balance.

Nature, in its Creative form, explores diversity by bringing opposites together. At the same time, a constant movement of the Yielding takes form in life’s pursuit of balance. When you defend yourself against Creative change, you are forced to become open or Yielding. Floating along Yielding to past beliefs, events will force you to embrace Creative change. When either is overly demonstrated, the other emerges to strike a balance.

Hunted to near extinction near Yellowstone National Park, wolves were reintroduced to control the exploding bison and elk populations which grew in their absence. A chain reaction ensued. Biologists recorded numerous scavengers, including animals, birds and insects that fed on the new carcasses. They discovered a food chain impact not previously appreciated. Once the park reverted to a more natural environment, the elk were again prey. They moved more, and grazed less on the willows, which also began to thrive. The flourishing willows allowed beavers to build dams and transform small meadows into lakes, where fish, waterfowl and other insects began to thrive. Protecting the elk and bison from being the top of the food chain is like “nourishing something without putting it to proper use.” This unnatural intervention caused a chain reaction of stagnation. It denied sustenance to a myriad of creatures. This is how beliefs can interfere with life’s natural drive to explore the best of what it might become.

When the excessive overwhelms the weak, the weak will rise in a chain reaction, whether in politics, the natural world, or within the paradigm of the individual. The Wind, with the Creative at its center, is seeking a transition, but the Lake can be viewed as joyous oblivion. From within you, the Creative seeks expression and being naturally yourself is your only option.

While the ridgepole sags, “it furthers one to have somewhere to go.” The transition will lead you somewhere. Ta Kuo suggests an unnatural condition that contains within it the power for renewal. Critical mass is like the explosion of the Big Bang, where new life emerged from a point of nothingness. In actuality life was already there just in another form. Authenticity and naturalness is life's main thrust. Meeting the challenge becomes your point of re-entry into a more sustainable way of interacting, even if the atmosphere has grown heavy.