Would you interpret Hexagram #28 as foreboding?

[Ell]

I'm currently entering a time of great change....new job, possibly a new location, a risky health decision (not life threatening)....These were all things that I chose and I am excited for them. That being said, I'm cognizant that my critics (including myself) might say the time is not right for these things. My thought process - gained via experience - is that there is no such thing as the perfect time. That's why I pulled the trigger on them. 

 

When inquiring about these areas with the I-Ching, I've been often getting the reading 28. Great Exceeding. Either as my main hexagram or where my changing line is headed. I'm having trouble interpreting this.

 

The line from my copy that throws me off is the very first: "This indicates a situation that is out of balance." All I seem to be able to take away is a negative connotation - that perhaps my doubts were right, that the time is not favorable for change.

 

It's also maybe a case of my stubbornness vs. the I-Ching. Because, deep down, I know I'm making these changes, I-Ching be damned. But before I twist myself into knots over it, I wanted to see if anybody had any alternate interpretations of Hexagram #28?

 

If you'd be so kind, help me see the good in it....

 

 

[Daeluin]

Off the top of my head, 28 represents a situation where it is difficult to avoid excess. Following the sequence, the previous yin hexagram is 26, where great energy is cultivated through restraint. Retaining great energy is difficult if that restraint is not maintained. So in hexagram 28, below we have wind, with the bottom yin line stirring things up internally, making that energy want to change, to unravel somehow. And above we have lake, with its yin line up top tempting us to act rather than be settled in relation to our external environment. Lake is a dynamic of instant gratification vs delayed gratification. When we get paid we can spend, or save, yet often we are eventually tempted to spend, and it brings us joy, at the expense of our resources.

 

So with wind below, lake above, things are stirred up and it is difficult to avoid using up our resources. Stability comes from inviting these yin lines to be still and settled, which requires equanimous perseverance, and is similar to the concept of non-doing. There is a lot driving us to do, but we can weather the storm with patience, and thereby make it through to the other side without having depleted our resources.

[Daeluin]

This hexagram is interesting as it is not among the 28 pairs that when flipped up-side-down result in a new dynamic of change, but rather when flipped up-side-down it results in the same dynamic.

 

䷛

 

It is rather like burning a candle from both ends - you can flip the candle over and, well, it's still burning from both ends.

 

We can look at the opposite hexagram, which has thunder below, mountain above:

 

䷚

 

This one is called "Providing Nourishment", as it forms type of sealed container that prevents the leakage of energies. Instead of allowing the upper energies to waft away, the mountain seals them in, rather like having a roof over one's head. And below the energies aren't allowed to sink out of the body into the earth, using the force of thunder to arouse them back into circulation within the container. Flipped upside down it is the same. Thunder resists the pull of gravity by upward motion, while mountain seals the excess of mental activity with stillness.

 

So with "Great Excess" it is as though something had been contained, but then the container vanished. Above and below the energy is exposed to the "elements." Aware of this, we can take great care in our answer to these erosive elements, both above and below, internally and externally. We need to rebuild the foundation that can contain these energies before their weight causes a collapse. And we need to be aware that our efforts to rebuild could be causing the collapse, as that shaping of energy is part of us. Hence sometimes the best way to rebuild that foundation is through cultivating stillness - when too much is in motion a storm arouses. To calm the storm stop feeding it.

[Brian]

Very interesting. Thank you, Daeluin!