30 離 The Clinging
Judgement
A flame has no light of its own: it burns because it clings to something, the wood or the wick. That is what clinging means. Stay firm and upright, and the way tends to open. There is a curious piece of advice: cultivate the docility of a cow, a patient gentleness. Shine by leaning on what holds you up, without letting go of the root. Ask yourself what you are clinging to in order to give light, and whether it is firm.
Image
Two flames, one above the other: the brightness repeats and grows stronger. A great person cultivates their luminous virtue more and more and spreads it to the four corners of the land. Shining is not showing off: it is letting your clarity reach the people around you. Look after what lights you from inside. Ask yourself what part of your light you are not sharing with those who need it.
Lines
Line 1
You set out with confused steps, but you do it with respect, and you are unlikely to go wrong. At the start of a day it is normal to be disordered. What matters is the care with which you tread. If you start clumsily, put yourself in order as you go. Ask yourself whether hurry makes you forget respect.
Line 2
You are in your place, dressed in yellow, the color of the center. That is a real advantage. You shine without forcing it, from balance and moderation. Do not drift toward excess or toward lack. Ask yourself what pulls you out of your measure and how to return to it.
Line 3
You are like the setting sun: instead of playing your clay instrument and singing, you moan like an eighty-year-old. That is a bad sign. The day is ending and you cry over what is leaving instead of enjoying what remains. Ask yourself whether you mourn the passing of time when you could celebrate what you have lived with simple music.
Line 4
You arrive all at once, like fire, and people reject you. This is the image of someone who enters with too much urgency: it scorches, and what scorches is turned away. Ask yourself whether you enter a situation with an intensity others feel as a threat, and how you could arrive more gently.
Line 5
You weep floods and moan with sorrow. That is a good sign: honest grief, truly lived, is a way of responding to danger. Do not keep it in. Crying is a way of processing what weighs on you. Ask yourself what you carry inside that you have not let yourself feel, and whether it is time to let it out.
Line 6
The king employs you on a punitive expedition. You do something admirable: you bring down the leaders, not everyone, and spare the prisoners who were not their accomplices. You are unlikely to go wrong. It is well-measured firmness: it goes to the essential and forgives the rest. Ask yourself where it helps to correct the core of the problem.
Reflection
- What are you clinging to in order to give light, and is it firm enough?
- What do you feel that you have not let yourself feel?
- Where would it help to correct what is essential and leave the rest in peace?