I ching

I Ching Hexagram 27
Yi (Nourishing Vision)

Action: Nurture

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 2: Receptive: Yield

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 28: Critical Mass: Adjust

"Ignorance is the night of the mind,
but a night without moon and star."

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of the heart,
and that depends upon how much one has polished it. Whoever has polished it more, sees more – more unseen forms become manifest. – Rumi

Reading at a Glance: Thunderous change now moves within the Mountain of Keeping Still. The hidden influence is the Receptive or a need to reflect on the type of inner Vision we are Nourishing. This is a time to consider what type of thoughts you nourish in order to understand why events unfold as they do. Your motivations can be understood by looking at what you attract to yourself. The cause is Critical Mass, or the idea that after a breaking point you must look for the real essence of what might fulfill you. Perhaps dissatisfaction or defeat is merely a way for you to understand the hunger pain for change. Before proceeding take time to understand how your thoughts shape and nurture experience. It is as if we have two minds. One that exists in the carbon based organic body that is focused wholly on survival. It is trained to detect anything that is wrong in the environment. The other is energetic and guides our dreams with a boundless optimism focused on growth. Both are natural in all of us although their focus can be at odds. The omniscient, dreaming mind has the purpose of unleashing the patterns of thought that lead to stagnation or a lack of fulfillment. In Nourishing Vision, we see what is important to people because of where they focus their energy. Are you cultivating a picture of success or failure? How you nourish your body is no different from how you are organizing your experiences. Are you in a hurry or do you enjoy eating? Is your philosophy manifesting the feeling that all is well in the world or that life is working against you? If you have hit a wall, is this wall just the fear of making necessary changes? What we think about all day colors the environment we meet. This is a time to examine your motivations, thoughts and actions so that you can move in sync with what you are creating for yourself. Smile and watch how the world responds. Reboot your mind into an open and non judgmental perspective and watch how the world opens to you. There are no lines separating what is happening ‘in here’ from what transpires ‘out there.’ The highest expression of Yi is not just personal sustenance but an ability to create nourishment that fulfills those around you too. Critical Mass is also a message that you cannot fill yourself up and hold on to the great energy or it will overwhelm. If you seek abundance in life you can only remain open by allowing this abundance to flow out into the world. Because you are open to life’s benevolence it fills you daily.

Defensiveness

ensures

that the outcome

is

relentless.

“The Arousing Thunder moves within the Mountain.” It suggests how thought is excited into action. The master said: “what the people determine as great, they nourish.” The energy of thought becomes manifestation simply in how you interpret events. Many people can witness the same event, but each will project a different experience.

“To know what is important to the person, one must only observe what they actively cultivate.” Although you come to give life labels, "the Way passes through the mouth without flavor.” If you are participating in your growth, you will see the Way as being good; if you are not, you will call it bad, and yet, it remains without distinction.

Observe the person by what they nourish. “A person who understands the Way will conform to the Way. A person who lives by the rules of others will conform to the rules of others. A person who knows only loss will conform to loss.” In the image of a mouth, nourishment goes in and expression comes out. What you nourish in your heart and mind becomes the image reflected upon experience. If you want to experience life differently, begin to approach life differently.

“There was a student who watched a bee, spinning upside down in a shallow pond. When it began to drown, he pulled it out, and was stung. The master watched as another bee crawled into the pond. When it started to drown, the student pulled it out and was stung again.

This is an example of how what you repeatedly do comes to define your character. If you are not happy with the course of events then do things differently. Both nuclear trigrams emerge as the Receptive Earth, suggesting a time to reflect upon habitual behavior. You receive nourishment or reward in many ways, but this sustenance merely reflects how you sustain your way of living. If the outcome or response to what you do is always the same, then you must derive some benefit from it, or you would change your actions.

You have the power to shape your experience simply in the way you approach them. Your destiny unfolds from a seed within, although life will always meet you half way, with the events that will cultivate it. Sincere in your Te and remaining open in your response, nothing ever comes to block your way.

“The Way is easy, yet people prefer by-paths.” You can know what your path will look like by what you nourish. As Thunder is aroused within, you have the opportunity to observe what motivates you, and what you nourish at the root of each experience. At the threshold of perception, “pay heed to what you provide with nourishment, and to what you seek” because you will find it. In knowing that a defensive attitude will always bring about events that will set you free from it, relax into the fulfillment that comes from witnessing life’s power to nourish you.