شش خطی 5
صبر کردن، انتظار کشیدن(شو Xū)

Waiting means there is awaiting. As to the qualities of the hexagram, above is water , a pitfall, below is heaven , which is sound and strong. Being sound and strong and able to manage in the midst of danger, it is therefore called waiting.

This hexagram represents nurturing strength, awaiting the proper time; it follows on the previous hexagram difficulty. Difficulty is movement and action in danger, restoring the primordial while in the midst of the temporal. Therefore one travels the path of strength and firmness and takes the true yang fallen in water out.1 However, when the yang has been trapped in water for a long time, it is not possible to get out of danger immediately; one must lead it on gradually, waiting for the proper time to gather it. One cannot presume upon one’s strength and set about the task impetuously—that would bring on danger.

People give rise to yin from the culmination of yang. The yang in the center of heaven runs into the palace of earth , so that earth is filled in and becomes water . The yin in the center of earth enters the palace of heaven, so that heaven is hollowed and becomes fire . At this point, working with false yin and false yang, the strong becomes weak and the submissive becomes stubborn; the intent is not sincere, and the mind is not right. Being aggressive, one is not aware of danger, and is not receptive enough to notice obstacles; one acts dangerously, hoping for the remote chance of luck, knowing no limits.

Now if you want to get out of danger, it is necessary to know danger. Being able to recognize danger is being able to believe it is dangerous. Once you believe in the danger, you have inner control; being careful and wary, you refine yourself and wait for the proper time. Every act is confined to its proper place, and one is not damaged by external influences. Therefore in the path of waiting “there is sincerity and great development,” gaining good fortune by being correct.

Having sincerity and great development means believing in danger and being able to cope with it; that correctness is good means that by maintaining correctness you can be free from danger. Once you believe in the danger, and keep to what is right, you fend off danger by strength and firmness, and use danger to nurture strength and firmness, awaiting the time to move forward, and “enter the lair looking for the tiger.” Not only are you able to avoid being injured by negative energy, you can also take the true yang fallen into water and return it to the palace of heaven. This is the reason that “it is beneficial to cross a great river.”

A great river is most dangerous; this is the image of water, which is something that fells and traps yang. That danger is most great: Believing in the danger, you cross it correctly; when the time is not yet ripe, you nurture strength, and when the time comes you advance strength. Advancing it and nourishing it at the proper times is how you can be in danger yet cope with it, and how you can get out of danger. That strength is beneficial wherever it goes.

Waiting means there is something awaited. Above is water , below is heaven ; water vapor rises from earth to sky, where it condenses into clouds. When clouds form in the sky, rain may be expected. This is the image of waiting.

What superior people see in this is that when people are unable to attain the universal Tao, it is because they are temperamental and unbalanced in action, because the earthly and the celestial are not in harmony. Therefore superior people eat and drink to nourish the earthly, causing the earthly to balance the celestial; they make merry to attune the celestial, causing the celestial to join the earthly. When the earthly and the celestial are in mutual harmony, living energy is stored within, producing being from within nonbeing, spontaneously, without forced effort.

This happens because the sweet rain of life falls naturally through the coalescing of the energies of heaven and earth; the sprouts of living potential grow when the energies of yin and yang commune. Here, food and drink refers to nurturing the body, so that the body is sound; making merry refers to nurturing the mind, so that the mind is unburdened. When body and mind are nurtured, the restorative elixir is easy to crystallize. Herein lies what is known as refining the self and awaiting the proper time.