52. Kên / Keeping Still

Top: Mountain | Bottom: Mountain

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THE SUMMARY

The image of this hexagram is the mountain, the youngest son of heaven and earth. The male

principle is at the top because it strives upward by nature; the female principle is below, since the

direction of its movement has come to its normal end. In its application to man, the hexagram

turns upon the problem of achieving a quiet heart. It is very difficult to bring quiet to the heart.

While Buddhism strives for rest through an ebbing away of all movement in nirvana, the Book of

Changes holds that rest is merely a state of polarity that always posits movement as its

complement. Possibly the words of the text embody directions for the practice of yoga.

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THE WISDOM

True quiet means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the

time has come to go forward. In this way rest and movement are in agreement with the demands

of the time, and thus there is light in life. The hexagram signifies the end and the beginning of all

movement. The back is named because in the back are located all the nerve fibers that mediate

movement. If the movement of these spinal nerves is brought to a standstill, the ego, with its

restlessness, disappears as it were. When a man has thus become calm, he may turn to the outside

world. He no longer sees in it the struggle and tumult of individual beings, and therefore he has

that true peace of mind which is needed for understanding the great laws of the universe and for

acting in harmony with them. Whoever acts from these deep levels makes no mistakes.

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THE JUDGMENT

Keeping his back still so that he no longer feels his body. He goes into his courtyard and does not

see his people. No blame.

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THE IMAGE

Mountains standing close together: Thus the superior man does not permit his thoughts to go

beyond his situation.

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The heart thinks constantly. This cannot be changed, but the movements of the heart-that is, a

man's thoughts-should restrict themselves to the immediate situation. All thinking that goes

beyond this only makes the heart sore.

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THE LINES

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Six at the beginning means:

Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.

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Keeping the toes still means halting before one has even begun to move. The beginning is the

time of few mistakes. At that time one is still in harmony with primal innocence. Not yet

influenced by obscuring interests and desires, one sees things intuitively as they really are. A

man who halts at the beginning, so long as he has not yet abandoned the truth, finds the right

way. But persisting firmness is needed to keep one from drifting irresolutely.

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Six in the second place means:

Keeping his calves still. He cannot rescue him whom he follows. His heart is not glad.

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The leg cannot move independently; it depends on the movement of the body. If a leg is suddenly

stopped while the whole body is in vigorous motion, the continuing body movement will make

one fall. The same is true of a man who serves a master stronger than himself. He is swept along,

and even though he may himself halt on the path of wrongdoing, he can no longer check the

other in his powerful movement. Where the master presses forward, the servant, no matter how

good his intentions, cannot save him.

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Nine in the third place means:

Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.

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This refers to enforced quiet. The restless heart is to be subdued by forcible means. But fire when

it is smothered changes into acrid smoke that suffocates as it spreads. Therefore, in exercises in

meditation and concentration, one ought not to try to force results. Rather, calmness must

develop naturally out of a state of inner composure. If one tries to induce calmness by means of

artificial rigidity, meditation will lead to very unwholesome results.

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Six in the fourth place means:

Keeping his trunk still. No blame.

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As has been pointed out above in the comment on the Judgment, keeping the back at rest means

forgetting the ego. This is the highest stage of rest. Here this stage has not yet been reached: the

individual in this instance, though able to keep the ego, with its thoughts and impulses, in a state

of rest, is not yet quite liberated from its dominance. Nonetheless, keeping the heart at rest is an

important function, leading in the end to the complete elimination of egotistic drives. Even

though at this point one does not yet remain free from all the dangers of doubt and unrest, this

frame of mind is not a mistake, as it leads ultimately to that other, higher level.

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Six in the fifth place means:

Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.

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A man in a dangerous situation, especially when he is not adequate to it, is inclined to be very

free with talk and presumptuous jokes. But injudicious speech easily leads to situations that

subsequently give much cause for regret. However, if a man is reserved in speech, his words take

ever more definite form, and every occasion for regret vanishes.

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Nine at the top means:

Noblehearted keeping still. Good fortune.

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This marks the consummation of the effort to attain tranquillity. One is at rest, not merely in a

small, circumscribed way in regard to matters of detail, but one has also a general resignation in

regard to life as a whole, and this confers peace and good fortune in relation to every individual

matter.