Hexagram 58 – Lake over Lake – 12/25-12/30
Tui – The Joyous Lake
Dissatisfaction – Vitality – Bliss .:. Codon Ring of Seeking
Lake is known as ‘The Joyous’. It is formed by a foundation of two yang lines, and one yin line on top. The yin line creates an opening. It is in this opening that the interaction of the light of yang and the matter of yin create life.
The Lake is also known as the marsh where so much life is born in the warm shallow waters. These lakes are essential for all phases of life, breeding grounds for some, feeding grounds for all. From embryonic tadpoles, young fish, frogs & birds, to animals in search of food and water, all rely on Lakes as reservoirs of life sustaining water.
This hexagram is Lake over Lake, and a key point of the Lake season. Here the energy of Lake is doubled. The image is of two lakes that are connected so neither lake dries up. This hexagram encourages us to stay connected to others in our community, so that we may replenish our reservoirs and offer support for others. We nourish each other by discussing and contemplating higher truths. By communing together consistently over time, we attune collectively to truth, and that truth becomes the water that supports and nourishes everyone together. Communion around truth keeps doubt, worry and fear at bay. These are the warm waters of the Lake, which spark life and joy for all.
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There is a deep longing in all beings, from low to high, to return to their source, to find purpose, and to create an abundant, vital life. This ache is so deeply seeded in human consciousness that even the most successful humans have deep experiences of Dissatisfaction. In fact, material success is not an indicator of joy. We all feel a deep longing for home, a unity that exists beyond the separation that is part of this dimension we live in. Life has a way of exerting pressure on us to survive creating Stress (52). Even spiritual masters who have transcended attachment to their physical desires still experience this shadow of Dissatisfaction. It is a shadow that unites us all, and there is a purpose to this shared longing. It leads us to Interfere with life. It pushes us to create in the world, whether it is technology, or technique. Dissatisfaction forces us to move the energy, to seek answers, to dig deeper, but in the end there is nothing we can do to bring about peace, even through all our Seeking. At the end of our exhaustive seeking, we may finally give up the search. It is here where we may finally meet the joy that exists in the eternal present.
Repressive – None – Only time in the transmission where there is no repressive trait. Vitality is the evolutionary life force.
Reactive – Interfering – We are dissatisfied as so we interfere, and at a low frequency we only fight the flow of life and our true nature, creating more dissatisfaction.
A shift happens when we cease seeking in the outer world for our fulfillment and turn all this dissatisfied energy inward. This takes great Restraint (52) to hone the senses inward, but once this inward focus is sustained, we are able to finally tap the deep well of our inner Vitality. Instead of Interfering with life, meddling with forces that we are unable to control, we are able to close the circuit with inner awareness. Instead of wasting energy constantly seeking for external solutions, we tap into the source of creativity and Vital energy within.
As we allow this Vitality to express itself naturally into the world, there is a great joy released from deep in our being. Instead of our mind reaching out into the world, now it is our Vital energy which reaches out in service to the whole. This journey of service releases even more joy and over time our Vitality unlocks the energy stored deep within our DNA. All that is dissatisfying in the world fuels us to serve others, by assisting the release of stagnated and misdirected Vital life energy. Great torrents of blissful energy can be released in this awakening and it can sometimes be painful or frightening. Life is melancholic in nature, there is no escaping the ups and downs of life, but inner awareness has the power to transform Dissatisfaction into creativity. As we begin to nourish the Vitality in our being and use our creativity in service to the whole it can create massive changes through out the whole community. Lake is the place where the community gathers to be nourished. This act of service brings us fully into this moment, and we are no longer in the traps of the shadow, which always lives in the future.
At the highest level, our Vitality becomes refined into benevolence, and it causes the endocrine system to release a flood of hormones inducing a universal state of Bliss. In this state of Bliss we return to the pure Lake of consciousness bringing unbound joy into every mundane act in the world. Our awareness is not centered into an I, but instead is infused into the whole. Our body becomes a container filled not with individual consciousness, desires and thoughts, but with the pure waves of universal awareness lapping at our shores. Time stretches into infinity and bodily processes stimulate euphoric lapses of time where the sensuous ecstasy of breath fills our whole experience. The wonder and pleasure of being in a body scintillate the senses and fuse them into a synesthesia symphony. Bliss radiates from every cell and shimmers like sun dancing on the surface of a still lake. This siddhi can be disruptive at first, for it can be manic, stealing someones awareness away from the mundane world into the blissful currents of eternity. Eventually the Bliss will become muted, allowing the mundane consciousness of the senses to reemerge for worldly tasks to be managed. But the bliss never leaves, it lingers in the background awareness, subtly vibrating its eternal connection to the present moment. Eventually it will come to the fore again sweeping us into the pure Bliss of Being once again. To ground and manage this siddhi, it must be balanced with the Stillness (52) of the Mountain, and in this way heaven can come to earth.
Keys of the iChing .:. Jesse Chesnutt