Hexagram 10 – Heaven over Lake – 12/20-12/24

Lu – Conduct (Treading on the Tiger’s Tail)

Self-Obsession – Naturalness – Being .:. Codon Ring of Humanity

This hexagram speaks of the proper way to conduct one’s self around situations and people with power. The upper trigram of Heaven is very powerful, pure yang. Whereas the lower trigram is the softer, still Lake. Heaven could easily overpower Lake, which indicates the importance of proper conduct necessary to keep a harmonious relationship between the two forces. There is one yin line in the third position surrounded by many yang lines. This could indicate a dangerous imbalance, but in this position the yin line is able to bring harmony to the yang lines with delicate, gentle tact. The bottom two lines are separated from the stronger force and come as a reminder to be Natural in the core of your Being. Proper conduct can be maintained for an indefinite time by allowing your gentle inner essence to be expressed naturally.

When encountering a strong force in life, it is important to be humble and tread lightly. This hexagram is known as “treading on the tail of a tiger”. The tiger could represent a dangerous personality or situation in your life, or a lurking darkness in your own psyche. In order to avoid the tiger’s bite, an innocent and gentle countenance is required. Any rushed movements or aggressive behavior will have grave consequences. Humility, patience and caution allow for one to navigate around the tail of the tiger without incurring its ire. It takes a long, gradual perseverance to adhere one’s inner nature to the principles of goodness, but if one is sincere and delicate, they can tread anywhere, even on the tiger’s tail.

Heaven over Lake begins the Lake season, where the following 8 hexagrams all have Lake in the lower trigram. Whereas heaven is made from three yang lines, Lake exchanges the top line to yin. This creates an opening in the top of the trigram which is where the water fills the lake. It is also known as marsh, where all matter of animals gather to spawn and feed, the cycle of life can almost no where be seen better than in the marshlands. This is where the energies of yang light meet the earthly energies of yin. The result is the outpouring of life. This is the theme of the next 8 weeks. This change of season occurs right around the Solstice. This is a time to pause and pivot, like the Earth and Sun are doing. A change in conduct now will gain fruit in the year to come.

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Awareness of our inner nature is essential to evolution and the path of self realization. But awareness and ego build their own traps. At the shadow frequency our awareness becomes trapped inside our own being and becomes Self-Obsession. We can’t see beyond our own awareness, our own problems, our own issues. This makes it hard for others to relate to us, because we give them no room to find common ground. Everything is seen only through our own lens. There is an upside of Self-Obsession, which is that we focus on Know Thyself, but at the shadow level we are only chasing our reflection in the mirror, rather than living our true nature.

Repressive – Self Denying – Many people lose touch with their heart, collapsing inwardly, and become Self-Denying. They collapse under the weight of their own self worth, and look outside themselves for their direction and purpose. Others project their Self-Obsession out into the world, exhibiting all types of Narcissistic behavior. There is no room for anyone or anything outside of their own desires and fears. Many get caught in the endless processes of spiritual work, always looking deeper for the answer, but the answer never comes. It is so simple that we rush by it, not recognizing our true self.

The journey of letting go into the heart allows Self-Obsession to open into Naturalness in the moment, free from thought. The gift emerges as we let go of the obsession with the pursuit of self, and allow our self to express itself naturally. This is the state of Naturalness that exists in all states of being from shadow to siddhi. It exists only in the present when we let go into life. Everything has a natural rise and fall and even in chaos there is natural order. It becomes about trusting this natural order of life and the flow of energy in the present moment. But it is not a mental awareness that we are called to see, but a lived experience of really surrendering to the moment. The animal kingdom has much to teach about Naturalness. Animals trust their instincts fully and don’t second guess them, whether it is killing, traveling great distances, nurturing their young, or even playing dead. There is no questioning why they are doing something, just a simple present experience. This leads to many really beautiful movements of nature, beyond the individual, such as a pod of dolphins moving as one, or a murmuration of birds. Our self awareness, which seeks to understand who we are & what we are doing, is what separates us from this Naturalness. Self awareness moves in cycles, Who am I, leads to self reflective consciousness

When this presence of Being emerges in the Human form, there is no self to be obsessed with, there is only the rarified essence of consciousness itself, pure Being. This is the path of the Arhat, whereas the PP of the 15th is the path of the Boddhisatva.

The great mystery of being and becoming are one in this siddhi. There is nothing to DO, only to BE. This is a great conundrum of consciousness, how to balance the forces of Doing and Being. Those who embody this siddhi are often misunderstood. How do we stay present with the eternal vibrating explosion of love that is the universe, while also being present with the ever changing nature of the evolving world. As Naturalness arrives into the siddhic frequency of being it is an eternal arriving. It is never finished, and always flowing state where the infinite and finite meet, the timeless essence of eternity meet in the moment of Now.

Keys of the iChing .:. Jesse Chesnutt