Thanks to Patrick for this community.
As you may well know, the I Ching does not predict the future. But, just as all of Life, events and beings around us reflect the light of The Divine passing through us from within, so does the I Ching reflect our current state.
This hexagram from today describes those that have not *yet* found the quiet beyond emotions and mentality. Consider this or reject it; I have no need to have anyone change. It is only a gift for those to whom it makes sense. anami
I Ching, Hexagram 64 - Unsettled
Once the nature of fire erupts, the discriminatory consciousness takes charge of affairs and the original spirit withdraws. Once the nature of water acts, the polluted vitality causes trouble and the original vitality is depleted.
At this point, people begin to vie for honor, plunder for profit, contest for victory and seek power, depriving others to benefit themselves, using intellectual brightness outwardly; indulging in emotions giving free rein to their desires, deluded by objects of sense, they ravage and abandon themselves, the danger of mundanity being stored within.
Bright on the outside but dark on the inside, they bury the real and accept the false; the human mentality looms dangerously, the mind of Tao is now faint - essence is disturbed, life is shaken, yin and yang are out of harmony the five elements injure one another. All sorts of emotions and cravings are in full force all sorts of schemes and wiles are there. This is why being unsettled is unsettling.
However, being unsettled means not yet having reached settlement; it does not mean settlement is not possible, only that the person has not yet sought that settlement. If one seeks settlement, ultimately it will be possible to be settled. This is why there is a development aspect to being unsettled. But though there is a way of development in an unsettled state, nevertheless since the negative energy of acquired conditioning has been operative for so long, and the primordial true positivity has sunken so deeply, settlement cannot be effected immediately; the work of self refinement is necessary before you can see an effect.
Self-refinement means refining the human mind. The human mind is the progenitor of all mundanities; once the human mind is gone, accumulated mundanities evaporate, "light arises in the empty room," and true celestial energy gradually approaches restoration.
Therefore practitioners of the Tao, in refining the self, must reach utter emptiness and tranquility, the yin trapping yang withdrawing completely, before the primordial yang energy comes from within nothingness, and truly yin and true yang unite, able to settle what is unsettled. A classic says, "If refinement of the self is imperfect, the restored elixir does not crystallize." So, we know refinement of the self is the first step....
(Translation by Thomas Cleary, Shambhala Classics; ISBN 1-59030-260-5)