Hexagram 05 – Nourishment for the Tao Babe

Hsu – Waiting (Nourishment)

According to the translation of the I Ching by Richard Wilhelm:

hexagram 5

The Judgment:
Waiting. If you are sincere,
You have light and success.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
It furthers one to cross the great water.

The Image
Clouds rise up to heaven:
The image of WAITING.
This the superior man east and drinks,
Is joyous and of good cheer.

The Sequence:
When things are still small, one must not leave them without nourishment. Hence there follows the Hexagram Hsu. Hsu means the way to eating and drinking.

The connection between the two meanings of the Hexagram — nourishment and waiting — lies in the fact that we must wait to be nourished. Nourishment depends on heaven and the rain. It does not lie within the power of man.

All of (the lines of Hsu) are relationships of the ruler of the Hexagram that point to success. Waiting does not mean giving up an undertaking, however. To defer is not to abandon. Therefore the work is accomplished.

In the heavens, water takes the form of clouds.  Once the clouds rise, it will not be long before rain falls.  While frequently the second portion of the Image separates the attributes of the two trigrams, in order to show how a given situation can be overcome, we have in this instance an explanation of how to accept and adapt to the situation.  Even as rain rises to the heavens, it is preparing to fall—whereby all life is nourished and refreshed.

The superior man acts in accordance with this, and so masters the second meaning of the hexagram, for HSu signifies nourishment as well as waiting. Further, the two nuclear trigrams–Li, clarity, and Tui, pleasure, joyousness—also play a part.

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