Hexagram 60 changing to 61: Limitation to Inner Truth

Where it starts: 60 Limitation

Water in a lake with a bank: limits that give form and save strength, provided they are not galling. Lake below, water above: a lake that holds only so much, and overflows past its limit. Limitation describes measure: the boundaries, rules and economies that give a life or an undertaking its shape. The Chinese character is the joint of a bamboo stalk, the division that makes the whole strong. The tradition's judgement is that limitation brings success, and that galling limitation must not be persisted in. Limits are good when they fit and harmful when they crush. The image is of the wise person creating number and measure and examining the nature of virtue and conduct. The reading says the situation asks for limits, chosen deliberately, and asks you to set them where they strengthen rather than where they strangle.

Where it goes: 61 Inner Truth

Wind over the lake, an empty centre: sincerity so complete that it moves pigs and fishes, and crosses the great water. Lake below, wind above: wind moving the surface of the water, the influence of the invisible on the visible. The hexagram's shape has two yielding lines at its centre, an emptiness in the middle, which the tradition reads as a heart free of prejudice and open to truth. Inner Truth describes sincerity that reaches even the least receptive, pigs and fishes, and that makes large undertakings possible. The judgement promises good fortune and the crossing of the great water. The image is of the wise person discussing criminal cases in order to delay executions: truth that leans toward understanding. The reading says the situation is decided by inner sincerity, and that the empty centre is not weakness but the space through which truth passes.

The lines that move

1. Line 6

   Galling limitation. Persistence brings misfortune. Remorse disappears.

   Limits so harsh they wound, and the tradition's plain verdict that persisting in them is wrong. The remorse disappears once they are loosened. Severity beyond measure is the fault at the top of the hexagram of measure. The limits have become cruel; loosen them and the regret goes.

What is changing. The situation of Limitation is moving toward Inner Truth. Set limits deliberately, where they give form and save strength, and keep them; loosen any that gall. As the change completes: Keep the centre open and sincere; truth held that way reaches everyone and carries the large undertaking.

love and relationships

Now: Boundaries, agreed and kept: what each of you needs, what each of you will not do, how much is enough. The reading favours limits that both of you accept and warns against ones that gall. The right measure makes the relationship strong at the joints. Then: The reading is about trust: complete sincerity, an open centre, and the influence that has on the other person. Say what is true, without agenda. The lines warn against sincerity that depends on the other's response, and against confidence in the wrong person.

career

Now: Discipline and economy: the scope defined, the hours set, the standard fixed. The reading favours clear limits that people can work within, and warns against constraints so tight that they break the people they were meant to shape. Then: Influence through honesty and openness rather than position. People are moved by someone whose centre they can see into. The reading supports large undertakings founded on trust and warns against the confidence that is only ambition.

money

Now: Budget. The reading is for thrift and measure, limits set deliberately and kept. It warns against both extravagance and a stinginess so severe it becomes its own harm. Find the proportion. Then: Dealings founded on trust, transparently. The reading is favourable to ventures built on sincere agreement and warns against trusting the wrong party, which the fifth and sixth lines describe.

decisions

Now: Choose the option with clear, bearable limits. Decide how much is enough before you decide anything else. The reading is against open-ended commitments and against ones so restrictive they cannot be kept. Then: Decide from your own inner truth, with an open mind and no prejudice. The reading supports the large decision when it rests on sincerity, and it asks you to examine whether your confidence is real or merely wishful.